this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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Maybe had it not been bad fan fiction instead of just, you know, following the author's story, it would have worked out.
The author's story was also pretty terrible. I re-read it again last year, and man does it drag. You could most likely cut it in half and make a better series.
I don't even disagree with you about the drag. However, books 1 and 2 are some of the best modern fantasy you can find. I knew the show was in trouble when it started making major changes to the story right out of the gates.
I just finished the series last week after starting it in January 2024. It's a pretty damn good epic. Yes there are slower parts, but on the whole it's very enjoyable and well paced. Not sure what you'd expect from a 14 book series. You're also full of it if you say the 12000 page series is terrible, yet you also reread it last year. That is nonsensical to put that much time and effort into something that's 'pretty terrible'.
I was a big fan as a child, but I haven't re-read them in about 15 years or so, since Sanderson finished it. Whenever that was.
It's not at all well paced. That's some fandom cope if I've ever heard it, good lord.
I can tell you 100% that I don't plan on reading it again. It's not worth it.
WoT is not "Well paced". It's egregiously slow and long winded. Robert Jordan should have been beaten with a chair for the bullshit he put his readers through.
It's a 14 book epic, that pretty much comes with the territory. You get the details, world building, character's nuance, etc. it's not all moving the plot forward.
It would have lost nothing if it were trimmed to 7 books. It's only 14 because no one smacked the author with a ruler.
You could potentially cut a lot, yeah. But this wasn't cutting, this was just plain rewriting.
Considering the original author had his wife do his editing, rewriting is hardly the worst thing that could have happened.
She was a professional editor and worked on his books before they started dating. She's also been the editor for several other classic and famous series'. So unless you're implying that her feminity is cause for lesser quality, I fail to see the relevance.
Wasn't implying anything about her gender causing an issue and weird that you chose to go there. My point was that an editor is supposed to provide direct, impartial, and sometimes cutting feedback to an author. In addition to providing basic copy editing, an editor on a novel has to be able to call an author on their BS, and I don't believe she did that in editing her husband's books.
The writing is repetitive, long-winded, and self-indulgent. The novels have absolutely no sense of pacing and plotting is not done with any sort of strategy. She may have been a fantastic editor, but her husband's works were poorly edited, and the fact that she was his wife I think speaks volumes as to why.
If you believe that spouses don’t give each other cutting feedback and aren’t invested in each other’s professional success, then I have a bridge to sell you.
If you don’t like the writing style, that is fine. It is not for everyone. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t resonate with others because, obviously, it has.
I've been married for more than 30yrs - and the sometimes harsh (but constructive) feedback an editor needs to supply is not a model for a lasting marriage. Also, a spouse has different motivations than a professional, independent editor provided by a publisher.
As for the writing, every single person who has ever talked to me about WoT mentions the world-building and overall story, but I've never heard anyone praise Jordan's writing style, dialog, or pacing - if it's mentioned at all, it's usually in the nature of "there's problems with the writing but the story makes it worth it." While the novels may resonate with folks for good reason, that doesn't change the fact that the writing - from a technical standpoint - is subpar.
I’m not part of this argument, but the inability to give or receive good faith criticism of any characterization is a hallmark of poor communication skills and/or mistrusting the intent of each other. In my professional life, I have encountered maybe 3 people who could not give or receive criticism that had made it beyond a year or two into a creative profession. They all did grievous injury to the workplace in terms of morale and work quality. Two of them were at the same place, which ceased creating new content after I left. They merely squat on their existing IP now while other parts of the business prosper. In my current workplace, an entrenched designer is so toxic at receiving feedback that people simply do not work with them. Leadership keeps hiring people with overlapping skill sets to ever-reduce this person’s scope of responsibility. (The designer in question has actually gone so far as to bully away multiple managers, and has secretly recorded conversations after antagonizing colleagues to later threaten HR with legal action.)
Anyway, enough of that. A question.
If you cannot preserve something as strong as a 30-year marriage with how feedback is expressed (or received) - then how do you create good work with people who don’t love you and could go elsewhere?
I have a great creative relationship with the people I work with. My wife is a designer, and I still freelance. We collaborate both professionally and informally quite often on our respective (and occasional joint) projects without strife — even when we disagree.