Anyone else likes Robert Jordan better than Tolkien?

[Melkor Lord Of ALL!]

So am I alone thinking that Wheel Of Time, or at least first five books, rock and are the best fantasy series even written? I prefere Jordan because:

-he has even more complex and detailed world than Tolkien, it seems to live its own life, besides the main story.
-there are so many interesting and diffrent characters, you can even get into the head of bad guys and their thoughts, Jordan`s evil is much more complex and less bland than Tolkien`s who doesn`t have such interesting villains as let`s say Lanfear.
-those series feature many shades of gray, while still showing epic struggle of good versus evil.
-the plot is so deep, with many layers, mysteries and misleadings.
-No scene in Lord Of The Rings or Silmariilon got me so excited as, let`s say, Rand`s battle versus Rahvin.
-Finally, the ratio of beautiful women is much in favor of Jordan

 

[Psychic Warrior]

Good stories have endings...

 

[Wombat]

Good stories have endings...

Hard to top this argument

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Hard to top this argument

Agreed

 

[barsoomcore]

Nope, you're probably not alone.

I don't agree with you or any of your points, but I'm quite sure there are people who do.

 

[mmu1]

Whether you like WoT better than LotR is a matter of taste...

Jordan's merit as a writer is another matter. Personally, I think he turned into an unforgivable hack and doesn't come close to being able to claim any "Best of" titles.

Even if you ignore everything but the first five books his writing is often repetitive and full of cliches, and he constantly fails when it comes one of the most important tenets of good writing - show, don't tell. He just goes on interminably, describing what everyone thinks and feels even when it's completely unnecessary, instead of letting the characters' words and actions stand for themselves.

There are very many awful fantasy series out there (since too many by far are just cash cows for hack authors) but it's still extremely easy to find several much better written than the WoT. Ursula LeGuin's "Earthsea", Steven Brust's "Jhereg", Glen Cook's "Black Company" books (in particular the first ones) George R.R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire", Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun"...

 

[barsoomcore]

Whether you like WoT better than LotR is a matter of taste...

Jordan's merit as a writer is another matter.

No, it's not. I mean, I agree with you, frankly I think you're too kind, but it's still a matter of taste. There's plenty of people who like Jordan just fine and they're not dummies. They just have different tastes than you.

Excellent list of recommendations, though, to which I must add Steven Erikson's Malazan Books of the Fallen, starting with The Gardens of the Moon -- out in the US this summer! Not to be missed.

 

[Taelorn76]

I liked the first few books from WoT, I thougt they were good and I could not put them down. The first five or six books were out already when I started reading them and I just went from one to the next. I do have to agree though, that they have become repetitive. At first I thought it was because I read them back to back, but now I see it is accually the way Jordan writes. I mean so much happens in each book, but yet nothing really happens to advance the story. It seems to be the same formula of charcters criss-crossing the continent, and ending with Rand battleling a Chosen One. One other issue I have is that there are way to many characters and plots going one that you loose track of what is going on.

The series started out good but it has dragged on for way to long. What mmu1 said about "show, don't tell" is right on the money. I think that you could remove 50 to 100 pages from each of the books and still have a good if not better understanding of what is going on.

 

[Dragonblade]

I like Jordan and feel he is an exceptional writer. I agree that there are definitely slow parts and his prose could be a little more focused in the later books, BUT that being said I said I still think he is awesome.

Writing is all a matter of taste anyway. One man's "hack" is another man's genius and vice versa. Personally, I prefer books that are fun to read with cool epic stories, and larger than life heroes. Robert Jordan, Raymond Feist, and David Gemmell are my favorite authors.

 

[KenM]

I love the LotR movies, but I hate JRRT's writing style. I could never get into RJ either. George RR Martin is better IMO.