I finished the first Wheel of Time book, fucking finally.
Seriously, why is this such a popular series? I don't get it. Like, at all. The pacing sucks ass, the descriptions suck ass, the characters are mostly really irritating, I felt like page and pages and pages were devoted to shit that didn't matter at all, whereas the things that maybe I could have given a rat's ass about were hastily scribbled in vague language. I can respect this if you're going for pure realism in pacing; generally when you read a fantasy epic, you skip over the long boring parts where the travel from place to place. So fine, more 'realistic' pacing here.
My other real pet peeve is treatment of female characters. There are only three in this book that matter, and two of them are bratty and simple-minded peasants while the third is, as someone else put it, the all-knowing ice queen. I feel like Moiraine is supposed to be a complex character but my god is she not, not at all, at least not yet. There are four other bit female characters that come to mind, and they're either determinedly and rebelliously enigmatic, cold angry bitches, or perfectly heart-melting in every way (that would be the princess, of course, of all people).
And then there are the male characters, which are all so very similar even though Jordan writes about how they are different; they all act the same. There is one singular character in the entire book that has any sort of personality and depth, and that is Lan, who is constantly described as stone-faced. Something is wrong when your most interesting charatcer is also the most stoic.
That's seriously about all I have to say about this hot mess. Maybe one day when I'm in a more patient and understanding phase of my life, I'll try again.
No comments:
Post a Comment