Octopus Overlords

Odin wrote:

Kelric wrote:Started book one yesterday. This is going to take a while.

I started in August and finished in mid-January (including the New Spring prequel, which I read after finishing A Memory of Light (the final novel)). So figure about five months if you're a fairly average reader (which I consider myself to be, though around here I think I'm a bit on the slow side).

I am about 250ish pages into the 800+ pages of book one, almost all of which happened today. I don't expect this pace to continue; my life doesn't lend itself to much unhindered reading or gaming time these days. I'm hoping to do 100 pages a day, but that seems ambitious.

Zaxxon wrote:Update: starting book 3! Only another 6 months and I may be joining the series spoiler thread.

Book 3 complete! I finally feel like I have my head around the world of WoT again. Bring on #4.

I only have 1 chapter left to read on book 1. So far it's all new to me since I read the first couple of books when they first came out and then never went back to the series.

Zaxxon wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:Update: starting book 3! Only another 6 months and I may be joining the series spoiler thread.

Book 3 complete! I finally feel like I have my head around the world of WoT again. Bring on #4.

Book 4 has been put to pasture. Man, that one was long. Good, but long.

Zaxxon wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:Update: starting book 3! Only another 6 months and I may be joining the series spoiler thread.

Book 3 complete! I finally feel like I have my head around the world of WoT again. Bring on #4.

Book 4 has been put to pasture. Man, that one was long. Good, but long.

To my recollection, book 4 isn't anywhere close to the longest book in the series. Sorry.

Odin wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:Update: starting book 3! Only another 6 months and I may be joining the series spoiler thread.

Book 3 complete! I finally feel like I have my head around the world of WoT again. Bring on #4.

Book 4 has been put to pasture. Man, that one was long. Good, but long.

To my recollection, book 4 isn't anywhere close to the longest book in the series. Sorry.

Oh, I know. But it dwarfs any of the first three, and is > 100 pages more than book 5.

I just started book four today. Finished each of the first three books over the course of two weeks, each. This will take me longer, especially with my weekends being booked for the next few months...

I just finished book 2 and started 3 yesterday. So far I am finding that I remember almost nothing from my first read through way back when they first came out. Which is a good thing. For some reason I remember the Tar Valon scenes as being long and boring. But the first 2 books hardly have any of them.

I just got back to 11. I can't wait to get to Sanderson because Winter's Heart and Crossroads of Twilight are IMO where Jordan completely lost his way. I'm a few chapters into Knife of Dreams and I don't feel like it flows any better than those two so knowing that there is another author ahead of me -- is motivating.

A Memory of Light is now available in e-book.

Isgrimnur wrote:A Memory of Light is now available in e-book.

Has been for some time. Maybe this is just the new cover? I do see the publication date of today, but Amazon has had a Kindle version for awhile now.

Sanderson announced it on his Facebook page today as well. I went with the information presented to me.

No it was pirated early to e-book, but the official e-book was held off by Mrs. Jordan as a thank you to the booksellers that supported RJordan early on.

Ah, I was going off of having seen it in this article. I guess they were using pre-order pricing for their comparison. Whups.

Isgrimnur wrote:A Memory of Light is now available in e-book.

Yeah, I expect it to be on my Kindle once I connect.

I have been rereading the series at work (I stopped at book six some time back), with my 12hr shifts four on four off, I can get thru one each week. Partway thru Six now.

I think I have less issue with the skirtsmoothing and braidtugging than I do with people "knuckling" EVERYTHING.

Chaosraven wrote:I have been rereading the series at work (I stopped at book six some time back), with my 12hr shifts four on four off, I can get thru one each week. Partway thru Six now.

I think I have less issue with the skirtsmoothing and braidtugging than I do with people "knuckling" EVERYTHING.

I'm 80% through book 5 now (made it to 7 or 8 last time back in 2000-2001), and the skirtsmoothing/braidtugging hasn't gotten to me as much as I remembered. However, the constant MEN NEVER SEE SENSE / OMG [Perrin][Mat][Rand] WOULD TOTALLY KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THIS WOMAN RIGHT HERE EVEN THOUGH I DO NOT / WOMEN ARE DIFFICULT is really getting old.

We get it, Oliver. Men are from Mars and women are from Venus. And every single one of them believes that the other category of person fits exactly into the stereotypical mold you've created for that gender. Let it go.

Zaxxon wrote:

Chaosraven wrote:I have been rereading the series at work (I stopped at book six some time back), with my 12hr shifts four on four off, I can get thru one each week. Partway thru Six now.

I think I have less issue with the skirtsmoothing and braidtugging than I do with people "knuckling" EVERYTHING.

I'm 80% through book 5 now (made it to 7 or 8 last time back in 2000-2001), and the skirtsmoothing/braidtugging hasn't gotten to me as much as I remembered. However, the constant MEN NEVER SEE SENSE / OMG [Perrin][Mat][Rand] WOULD TOTALLY KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THIS WOMAN RIGHT HERE EVEN THOUGH I DO NOT / WOMEN ARE DIFFICULT is really getting old.

We get it, Oliver. Men are from Mars and women are from Venus. And every single one of them believes that the other category of person fits exactly into the stereotypical mold you've created for that gender. Let it go.

This becomes significantly less frequent/noticeable as the series goes on. It doesn't go away completely, but there's a lot less of it.

Odin wrote:This becomes significantly less frequent/noticeable as the series goes on. It doesn't go away completely, but there's a lot less of it.

Because Brandon Sanderson takes over.

J/k. I do hope it pares down quickly--for the last two books I think those comments have literally come up 90% of the time that they could possibly have been used. It's insane.

I'm about halfway through book five. I'll finish the series eventually!

Zaxxon wrote:

Odin wrote:This becomes significantly less frequent/noticeable as the series goes on. It doesn't go away completely, but there's a lot less of it.

Because Brandon Sanderson takes over.

J/k. I do hope it pares down quickly--for the last two books I think those comments have literally come up 90% of the time that they could possibly have been used. It's insane.

If I remember correctly...

(spoilers!)

Zaxxon wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:Update: starting book 3! Only another 6 months and I may be joining the series spoiler thread.

Book 3 complete! I finally feel like I have my head around the world of WoT again. Bring on #4.

Book 4 has been put to pasture. Man, that one was long. Good, but long.

Achievement unlocked: Fires of Heaven (5) extinguished!

I reread the whole series from mid January to mid march. I hadn't read the 3 Sanderson books or the fleshed out novel version of new spring. I thoroughly enjoyed the series as a whole and the ending was fantastic. Reading them all back to back I only really thought books 8 and 10 were bad. (Especially 10.) Kudos to Jordan for such a great, epic story and applause to Sanderson for finishing the last 3 books.

Zaxxon wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:Update: starting book 3! Only another 6 months and I may be joining the series spoiler thread.

Book 3 complete! I finally feel like I have my head around the world of WoT again. Bring on #4.

Book 4 has been put to pasture. Man, that one was long. Good, but long.

Achievement unlocked: Fires of Heaven (5) extinguished!

You're in for a treat - book 6 is terrific (though, interestingly, I liked it better back when I thought it was near the end of the series than on my recent re-read when I knew it was less than halfway through).

Now on seven, and yeah six was FULL of twisty bits

I started effort to complete the series on April 1st and just finished The Eye of the World today...roughly 16 years after reading it for the first time. I enjoyed it just as much this time around, and was really surprised by just how much of the story came back to me as I was reading. I didn't find myself remembering exactly how things would unfold, but many of the bigger events did flash back along the way. That didn't spoil any of my enjoyment of the book though. It still held my interest and I'm looking forward to starting the next soon, although I do think that I'm going to intersperse some other reading rather than focusing solely on The Wheel of Time for as long as it will take to read the whole series.

When I started the series for my first time 16 years ago, I made it as far as book 7 before I caught up to Jordan's writing. With the amount of time passing between new releases and college/medical school often keeping me too busy too read long books, I decided to give up on the series until all the books were complete. I actually have the hardcover of Path of Daggers (book 8) on my shelf, bought when it was first released, but I never read it. Now that the epic story is complete, I'm looking forward to seeing how it all ends

FINISHED! (and creating a new thread for the complete discussion)

I'm in the middle of book thirteen at the moment. I gave up in book nine back in the day, when I felt that nothing was really happening anymore. It's been much better this time around, perhaps because I am never without my Kindle and I read for a solid hour over lunch every day.

I did find the tonal change between authors a little disconcerting.

Fretmute wrote:I did find the tonal change between authors a little disconcerting.

That threw me off a bit, but Sanderson pulls it off by the end. I'm sure Jordan actually having written the ending helps.

I am re-reading myself and I couldn't wait to get to Sanderson personally. 9 - 11 were really a chore to read and should have been edited down quite a bit. I really think Jordan lost control of the narrative and just couldn't keep it together. I was only a few chapters into The Gathering Storm when I really felt that I was starting to enjoy the series again and feel it is the best book in the series since The Shadow Rising at least. It is a far more cohesive novel and I'm hoping the next one is just as good.

Kelric wrote:

Fretmute wrote:I did find the tonal change between authors a little disconcerting.

That threw me off a bit, but Sanderson pulls it off by the end. I'm sure Jordan actually having written the ending helps.

The first time he didn't describe Vanin as a sack of suet . . . it unhinged me a bit.

I started my re-read on Wednesday (June 26th for my future self trying to figure out how long this takes). The group just crossed the Taren and is bedding down for the night.

I made it to book 9 the first time before vowing to stop until all the books were written. I actually have them all in hardcover, but am reading them on the Kindle. It'll be tough to donate them when the time comes, but the Kindle is just so dang convenient.

Zaxxon wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:Update: starting book 3! Only another 6 months and I may be joining the series spoiler thread.

Book 3 complete! I finally feel like I have my head around the world of WoT again. Bring on #4.

Book 4 has been put to pasture. Man, that one was long. Good, but long.

Achievement unlocked: Fires of Heaven (5) extinguished!

I took a 6-week break after book 5. Am now 53% through book 6 and making progress again...

stessier wrote:I actually have them all in hardcover, but am reading them on the Kindle. It'll be tough to donate them when the time comes, but the Kindle is just so dang convenient.

Same here. Feels like a waste, but just so much more convenient.

I just started book 2 a couple days ago, about a month after finishing the first. My reread is going to take a while because I think I'm going to alternate WoT with other books rather than spend the next year (or more) on only one story. Throwing a shorter novel in between should help to avoid burning out when the story starts to drag in the middle.

Zaxxon wrote:

stessier wrote:I actually have them all in hardcover, but am reading them on the Kindle. It'll be tough to donate them when the time comes, but the Kindle is just so dang convenient.

Same here. Feels like a waste, but just so much more convenient.

And spending a day reading on a plane just reinforces that. I'm 63% through EotW. This will be the 6th time I've read it, but the first time in about 10 years. I seem to be picking up more about what is happening and I forgot how much I liked this book. On to Caemlyn!

stessier wrote:I started my re-read on Wednesday (June 26th for my future self trying to figure out how long this takes). The group just crossed the Taren and is bedding down for the night.

Book 1: Eye of the World - June 26-29 (yay air travel!)
Book 2: The Great Hunt - June 29 - July 2 Book 3: The Dragon Reborn - July 2-5
Book 4: The Shadow Rising - July 5-9
Book 5: The Fires of Heaven - July 10-17
Book 6: The Lord of Chaos - July 17 - Jul ?
Book 7: A Crown of Swords - ? - ?
Book 8: The Path of Daggers - ? - ?
Book 9: Winter's Heart - ? - ?
Book 10: Crossroads of Twilight - ? - ?
Book 11: Knife of Dreams - Aug ? - Aug 26
Book 12: The Gathering Storm - Aug 26 - Aug 29
Book 13: Towers of Midnight - Aug 29 - Sept 2
Book 14: A Memory of Light - Sept 2 - Sept 12

Drat - lost a bunch of dates in the ooutage.

Zaxxon wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:Update: starting book 3! Only another 6 months and I may be joining the series spoiler thread.

Book 3 complete! I finally feel like I have my head around the world of WoT again. Bring on #4.

Book 4 has been put to pasture. Man, that one was long. Good, but long.

Achievement unlocked: Fires of Heaven (5) extinguished!

Chaos has a new Lord - book 6 is complete!

And I meant to mention in my last post--the ending to book 6 lived up to my memory of it from 13 years ago...

The Dragon is Reborn! (Book 3 complete)

The Shadow has risen! (Book 4 complete)

I think I might read the next one slower as I've been putting off a lot of stuff that I really should be doing because I enjoy this story so much. Nice that I know I will finally be able to learn the end as long as I can keep reading (rather than hoping the books are published at some unspecified time in the future).

Blood and bloody ashes - I think I just figured out a plot point...on my seventh read through of Fires of Heaven.