Well, I think I figured it out...
Feb. 27th, 2004 09:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
litheraGoing to the gym is doing something. I have yet to figure out what it is really, other than making me want to sleep more and more. And the general soreness in my muscles. Those two I've got down. I just want to sleep all the time and I find I actually want to go to the gym. How strange. Now that I have this reading and elliptical at the same time thing down, the time goes a lot better, I've found.
Speaking of reading, I finished New Spring. Wow. That was really good. It reminded me of why I started reading Robert Jordan in the first place. At the end of the books I had an amazingly good feeling about everything and was certain that Lan and Moiraine were going to go off and do good things and win the day and so on and so forth.
So, I hypothisized something to Cody. I think Robert Jordan got caught up in what I have begun to call the Mercedes Lackey Syndrome. See, Mercedes Lackey's books were good reads. Lots of fun. Excellent characters. In fact, the characters were why I read the books. The plot was nice and all but I fell in love with the people. (This is unlike say Tad Williams where I read for plot, Stephen King because of the plot and Neil Gaiman which I read for the characters /and/ the plot.) Then things fell apart.
There were a few of her books (primarily after the Winds triology though you could see it starting there) where it's plot, plot, plot, plot.... Blah, blah, blah. It felt like someone commented to her that her books didn't have enough plot or something and she took it to heart. Sure, there is the huge war happening but the war istelf isn't that fascnating.
I think this is what happened to Robert Jordan. He wrote three books that were excellent and then started writing a fourth and as he was finishing that up realized that he'd only meant there to be three books and not nearly enough had happened. In the fifth book, he presses on harder and so on and so forth until you get books seven and eight where all you get is the armies marching.... and marching. Book 9 was great beacuse things with the characters happen. Yes, they advanced the plot but they were very character driven.
Book ten was plot advancement, catching up all of these other characters to where Rand had drug the plot, laughing the whole time.
Make any sense to anyone but me?
Speaking of reading, I finished New Spring. Wow. That was really good. It reminded me of why I started reading Robert Jordan in the first place. At the end of the books I had an amazingly good feeling about everything and was certain that Lan and Moiraine were going to go off and do good things and win the day and so on and so forth.
So, I hypothisized something to Cody. I think Robert Jordan got caught up in what I have begun to call the Mercedes Lackey Syndrome. See, Mercedes Lackey's books were good reads. Lots of fun. Excellent characters. In fact, the characters were why I read the books. The plot was nice and all but I fell in love with the people. (This is unlike say Tad Williams where I read for plot, Stephen King because of the plot and Neil Gaiman which I read for the characters /and/ the plot.) Then things fell apart.
There were a few of her books (primarily after the Winds triology though you could see it starting there) where it's plot, plot, plot, plot.... Blah, blah, blah. It felt like someone commented to her that her books didn't have enough plot or something and she took it to heart. Sure, there is the huge war happening but the war istelf isn't that fascnating.
I think this is what happened to Robert Jordan. He wrote three books that were excellent and then started writing a fourth and as he was finishing that up realized that he'd only meant there to be three books and not nearly enough had happened. In the fifth book, he presses on harder and so on and so forth until you get books seven and eight where all you get is the armies marching.... and marching. Book 9 was great beacuse things with the characters happen. Yes, they advanced the plot but they were very character driven.
Book ten was plot advancement, catching up all of these other characters to where Rand had drug the plot, laughing the whole time.
Make any sense to anyone but me?
