more Wheel of Time dorkiness!
This was originally a reply to garpu's comment on my previous post, but it grew, and now it's just a general rant!
Consider yourselves warned. Also, may feature Wheel of Time spoilers, so if you're planning to read the books, consider yourself warned about that, too.
[to garpu] Heh, don't feel bad...I think even most of the die-hard fans lost interest eventually. The series did get pretty badly bogged down in the later books, although book 11 resurrected some of the old verve; rhodric and big_bubba and myself seem to be among the few True Believers left.
The WoT community online used to be pretty big and diverse, but it's been slowly fading over the past few years. One of the two biggest fan sites is shutting down later this year, and the usenet groups, which used to be the backbone of serious discussion about the books, are also now dead. When I first joined PoP I can remember days when you couldn't keep up with all the new posts, when the chatroom there was active at all hours (and I should know, because I was there for sometimes 20 hours straight). Nowadays, apart from the biggest of communities, a board can go weeks or even months without a single WoT-related post, and the chatrooms are rarely active. The usenet groups are dead, the WoT FAQ, although switching to what soon will be the last of the old-time big WoT sites, had lain dormant for more than five years before the move was announced. My old WoT stomping grounds, Page of Legends and wot.org, both of which came into being as the old PoP itself shut down in the summer of 2000, are for all intents and purposes dead as far as WoT-related discussion and writing are concerned, although both still exist.
I think, basically, that we all just ran out of steam. The increasingly huge spans between the books and the nature of the story itself, in my opinion, just killed off the longevity of discussion. Since book 7, there has been a gap of at least two years between books, approaching three years in one case, and if Book 12 is released as scheduled this fall, we'll have been waiting four years. Now of course the author's death has something to do with that, but I think it's hard to dispute that the story got out of control. In the first six books the pace is, more or less, fairly swift, and lots of things happen. After that, things start to compress...one book (no. 7, A Crown of Swords...which is one of my favorites, but that's beside the point) covers a mere week of events in 900 pages. The first book covered three months in 800. The later books feature sections that overlap sections of previous books, or feature different POV takes of the same scene.
A lot of fans simply gave up as books 8, 9, and 10 seemed to drag on forever, their chapters full of excruciating detail but going nowhere in terms of action, plot, or character development. Even I, the die-hard fan who professes that he doesn't hate any of the books, felt like I was going in circles reading books 8, 9, and 10. One particular subplot involves one of the main characters tramping around looking for his kidnapped wife over the course of three entire books. Even I, the die-hard fan, rolled my eyes and groaned whenever one of his chapters appeared. It's not as if exciting things didn't happen (the cleansing of the Taint, the finding of the Bowl of the Winds, etc.), but they were like hidden gems buried beneath a topsoil layer of, frankly, boring and seemingly endless iterations of plots and subplots that grew more uninteresting and frustrating with every chapter.
I don't want more Mat/Tuon romance-in-circles chapters that go nowhere, I want Mat/Tuon action! (And no, not that kind of action...not that I mind). I want to see the Band of the Red Hand kick ass! I want to see Shaidar Haran single-handedly whack an army! I want to see those oft-alluded-about cannons! I don't want to read another word about dresses, coats, tea, punch, weevils, Elaida's lesbian interludes, the Shaido, Andorian politics (and I love politics!), confusing-as-hell Aiel customs, or, Creator shelter me, the interminable name-dropping of the six-hundred-and-one Aes Sedai who even Commander Data couldn't keep straight.
It seemed like Jordan, during the last few years before his illness (I would never blame him for slowing down during that), was concentrating more on other things, like prequel projects, than on completing the story, and this certainly didn't help mollify an already frustrated fan base (similar criticisms, as I understand, are now directed at George R. R. Martin, but since I am boycotting him until he finishes his damned series, I wouldn't know). I love the series, I am still a fan, but I can certainly understand why some people ended up drifting away. And the online community that arose from the series seems to be drifting away, as well, and has been for a long time.
Anyway, back to work. :P
Consider yourselves warned. Also, may feature Wheel of Time spoilers, so if you're planning to read the books, consider yourself warned about that, too.
[to garpu] Heh, don't feel bad...I think even most of the die-hard fans lost interest eventually. The series did get pretty badly bogged down in the later books, although book 11 resurrected some of the old verve; rhodric and big_bubba and myself seem to be among the few True Believers left.
The WoT community online used to be pretty big and diverse, but it's been slowly fading over the past few years. One of the two biggest fan sites is shutting down later this year, and the usenet groups, which used to be the backbone of serious discussion about the books, are also now dead. When I first joined PoP I can remember days when you couldn't keep up with all the new posts, when the chatroom there was active at all hours (and I should know, because I was there for sometimes 20 hours straight). Nowadays, apart from the biggest of communities, a board can go weeks or even months without a single WoT-related post, and the chatrooms are rarely active. The usenet groups are dead, the WoT FAQ, although switching to what soon will be the last of the old-time big WoT sites, had lain dormant for more than five years before the move was announced. My old WoT stomping grounds, Page of Legends and wot.org, both of which came into being as the old PoP itself shut down in the summer of 2000, are for all intents and purposes dead as far as WoT-related discussion and writing are concerned, although both still exist.
I think, basically, that we all just ran out of steam. The increasingly huge spans between the books and the nature of the story itself, in my opinion, just killed off the longevity of discussion. Since book 7, there has been a gap of at least two years between books, approaching three years in one case, and if Book 12 is released as scheduled this fall, we'll have been waiting four years. Now of course the author's death has something to do with that, but I think it's hard to dispute that the story got out of control. In the first six books the pace is, more or less, fairly swift, and lots of things happen. After that, things start to compress...one book (no. 7, A Crown of Swords...which is one of my favorites, but that's beside the point) covers a mere week of events in 900 pages. The first book covered three months in 800. The later books feature sections that overlap sections of previous books, or feature different POV takes of the same scene.
A lot of fans simply gave up as books 8, 9, and 10 seemed to drag on forever, their chapters full of excruciating detail but going nowhere in terms of action, plot, or character development. Even I, the die-hard fan who professes that he doesn't hate any of the books, felt like I was going in circles reading books 8, 9, and 10. One particular subplot involves one of the main characters tramping around looking for his kidnapped wife over the course of three entire books. Even I, the die-hard fan, rolled my eyes and groaned whenever one of his chapters appeared. It's not as if exciting things didn't happen (the cleansing of the Taint, the finding of the Bowl of the Winds, etc.), but they were like hidden gems buried beneath a topsoil layer of, frankly, boring and seemingly endless iterations of plots and subplots that grew more uninteresting and frustrating with every chapter.
I don't want more Mat/Tuon romance-in-circles chapters that go nowhere, I want Mat/Tuon action! (And no, not that kind of action...not that I mind). I want to see the Band of the Red Hand kick ass! I want to see Shaidar Haran single-handedly whack an army! I want to see those oft-alluded-about cannons! I don't want to read another word about dresses, coats, tea, punch, weevils, Elaida's lesbian interludes, the Shaido, Andorian politics (and I love politics!), confusing-as-hell Aiel customs, or, Creator shelter me, the interminable name-dropping of the six-hundred-and-one Aes Sedai who even Commander Data couldn't keep straight.
It seemed like Jordan, during the last few years before his illness (I would never blame him for slowing down during that), was concentrating more on other things, like prequel projects, than on completing the story, and this certainly didn't help mollify an already frustrated fan base (similar criticisms, as I understand, are now directed at George R. R. Martin, but since I am boycotting him until he finishes his damned series, I wouldn't know). I love the series, I am still a fan, but I can certainly understand why some people ended up drifting away. And the online community that arose from the series seems to be drifting away, as well, and has been for a long time.
Anyway, back to work. :P