od GreyWolf u Pet Dec 10, 2010 9:06 pm
Kao i svi heroji, pridružiću se šutiranju protivnika koji leži na zemlji. Oprostite što koristim copy-paste a ne link, ne znam da li bih sad našao ovaj tekst, sačuvao sam ovu stranu još 2002. godine i svako malo je postujem kao razlog zašto nikad neću pročitati taj Kotač. Briš'te ako smo predubili u OT:
U pitanju je bio neki sajtić sa pozamašnom kolekcijom review-a fantasy knjiga.
" REVIEW
I considered a number of approaches to this review, each approach had varying levels of use but in order to humour myself were all extremely short.
One review was inspired by a sequence in my favourite Blackadder episode in which Blackadder writes a telegram to Charlie Chaplin. The review is as follows - "Dear Mr Jordan Stop I am half way through Book 7 of The Wheel of Time Stop I have one request Stop Would you please Stop Stop.". This is of little use.
Another review was inspired by a comment I'd read about JMS's attitude to writing Kosh's speeches in Babylon 5 in which he wrote down everything he wanted Kosh to say. Then to get the right enigmatic approach he systematically deleted every useless word until he got to the shortest version that still hinted at what he wanted to say, this usually left him with "Yes". As this is the total opposite of Jordan's approach I was inspired to come up with - "Breathless wheeze, Short story, wheeze, Long Books, wheeze.". This also is of little use.
So what can I say of use? Well the same as above but, in deference to the author's style, I'll say it very slowly. But first I'll go back in time a few years, cue fuzzy screen.
I picked up Book 1 when it first came out, I picked it using my usual important criteria that it was the biggest book on the shelf that I hadn't read and it had a horse on the front. In all respects this was a thoroughly enjoyable start. All the important Fantasy elements where there, we had a soon to be hero who for now is just a simple stable boy. We had a good collection of goodies and baddies, a gradually collected troupe of supporting helpers, hints of various swords of power to come and over it all a big baddie lying in waiting who wishes domination of all. At this time I thought this was probably going to be a Trilogy or at most a Pentalogy, if that's a word. I therefore settled back to enjoy every couple of years reading the latest bit of the saga. I expected a few typical middle volumes as we wander round the map collecting all the necessary power tools before a final climatic volume where everything is sorted. This did not happen.
In retrospect the real problem book is the extremely slow and uneventful Book 4, although irritation didn't set in for me until I reached the even slower and even less eventful Book 6. The problem is padding. Yes, padding. I'll say it again so I get my point across - Padding. That's P followed by A two D'd an I, an N and finishing with a G. Padding. At the beginning this was an epic narrative, but then again aren't most Fantasy series, but a few volumes in the author decided to try to be more epic than all the rest. But how to accomplish this when the story he was telling wasn't that big and important? Yup you guessed it - Padding.
For huge long tracks in this series absolutely nothing happens. Characters just sit in tents and talk, then talk a bit more. At stages even the padding seems to have diversions and padding. Other characters disappear for whole volumes, whenever the author is sick of writing about them doing nothing, and when they return you've forgotten who they are. This is not the readers fault because the quality of writing and characterization is so low that apart from the main character everybody is pretty much identical. You know the book's in trouble when there is a huge glossary of characters and you really do have to refer to it every few chapters to remind yourself who is who. This is especially the case for all the female characters who all seem the same.
The ending for me came about half way through Book 7, I finally admited that this was going nowhere, but going there very slowly. So is it my fault for having a short attention span? No it is not, it's the authors fault for lacking imagination, the readers fault for accepting padding instead of story and still buying the books and the author's editors fault for not editing.
So why after all this criticism haven't I put this in my worst Fantasy novels list? Well the early books are actually very good with plenty of high adventure. Above all there is also still a chance to make this a great landmark Fantasy series, but only if the decision is made to end it, with plot, with action and with events. Let's face it Jordan, with this artificial length, has upped the ante so high that no ending is going to satisfy anyone left reading it. Just flash forward a few years - After reading 12,000 pages of this book you come to the words "...and they all lived happy ever after. Thus ends the Wheel Of Time". You're going to be disappointed."