You could probably make the Wheel of Time series 20% shorter if you removed the fashion descriptions and all instances of people conveying moderate annoyance through body language.
I was told books 1-4 and then the last few were amazing. I wasn't enraptured by the first few, so I put it down as well. I didn't want to slog through 5 more books in the hopes I'd potentially enjoy 4 more.
Só did I. Two stars for book one, couldn't even rate book 2, DNF book 3 and never touched it again.
It actually made me second guess other books. "If you like TWoT you'll love X" always make me think twice about reading something
I'd love to see Brandon Sanderson versions of the earlier novels. Sure, he did end up turning what was supposed to be one more book into 3 more that are each thicker than the rest, but I suspect Jordan himself would have made more than 3.
I didn't stop reading over this, but I was annoyed when one book ends in (big event that can be felt over the entire world) and then the next book doesn't really advance time at all, but just describes what pretty much every single other character was doing at that moment. Fine, it was kinda cool to see that, but I really just wanted to see the results of that big event instead of having to wait some more years for the next book to come out.
I consider Jordan kinda like Tolkien. Amazing world and story building combined with ok writing. Not bad (way better than I could do) but not amazing either.
Though I do still need to do another read through as an adult, since I read like half of them as a teen and probably missed a lot. Maybe I'll enjoy the lengthy descriptions of tapestry patterns second time around.
It's all good. It's really crazy and most of the chapters are free on their website.
And the author makes a metric fucknton of updates per month. At one point I thought there might be ghost writers....but the author streams for patreon which is wild. So yeah no funny business.
I very much enjoyed the Earthsea series, and very greatly disliked The Dispossessed. I can understand why other people like it, but it's very much not for me.
I remember thinking The Left Hand of Darkness was an enjoyable read, but kind of tough to get through. That was maybe 10 years ago, though.
I'd maybe start with the first Earthsea book since they're a bit more digestible. She's worth a read if you're curious!
Her big there are The Left Hand of Darkenss (about gender), The Disposed ( capitalism vs anarchism), The Lathe of Heaven (Dreams alter reality).
They are all good but I wouldn't describe them as easy or fun reads. I didn't enjoy any of them but after reading them I a lot of depth of thought on the topic.
I recently read and really enjoyed The Left Hand of Darkness. It's crazy that she wrote such a book back then. Now I'm longing for more books like this.
Today, I'm on (a rare) vacation (yay!). I'm reading through her Earthsea books. When they ended sooner than I expected, I realized they were intended as young adult books. It's not as in depth as other fantasy, but I've enjoyed them nonetheless.
If you were only going to read one or two, then sure, go for The Left Hand of Darkness (for sci-fi) or A Wizard of Earthsea (for fantasy), though there are some loose sequels to each of those you might end up wanting to pursue. But personally I've always been most fond of Always Coming Home.
LeGuin is one of my favorite authors. I've read a lot, but not all of LeGuin's novels. She has 2 main multibook series that I've read, the Earthsea books and the Hainish cycle.
Earthsea is sort of YA fantasy, but grows up throughout the series. The first 3 are a self contained trilogy, and my favorite is Tombs of Atuan which is book 2, I think would be okay as a standalone title. My other favorite is Tales from Earthsea which is book 5, and is a collection of short stories set in the setting. You'd be missing a little context only reading Tales, but this could also be a standalone.
The Hainish cycle is scifi, and are only loosely connected by the setting and don't have a too firmly established chronology, or any shared main characters. My favorite from the Hainish Cycle is The Left Hand of Darkness and my 2nd favorite is The Dispossessed.
The classic is a wizard of earthsea/left hand of darkness and they are always worth repeating. If you do just two, those are them. It's almost criminal how these are kinda slipping beneath view these days.
I got a steady diet of her short stories and children's books growing up. I remember sur specifically, but generally they were less fantasy oriented from what I can remember.
(Edit:huzzah autocorrect)
I think you're in for a treat, but I am horribly biased by nostalgia and it's impossible for me to be objective about that one. There is something deeply soothing to how what stands out changes even if the words don't.
I remembered " to light a candle is to cast a shadow ".
But:
"I had forgotten how much how much light there is in the world, till you gave it back to me".
Jumped out.
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