Dabel Brothers to produce graphic novels for entire WoT series

Seems promising. I'm curious to see how different a graphic novel feels. Jordan was long-winded, and now all of the detail will have to come through in the art. If the Wheel of Time series ever gets made into movies, I bet it gets based on the graphic novels. Ha ha. Who would want to try adapting the novels?

I see it being longer than the Lord of the Rings movies.

I don't know what to do with the WoT series. I've read the first five or six novels twice, but I don't know if I can do it a third time to catch up and finish off the series. Well, finish as best as can be done, that is.

Yeah, I'm waiting for the last one to have a release date before I even attempt reading the series again. Still, I do want to finish what I started reading so long ago, and even though it's not ideal, with someone else stepping in to finish the final book (however guided by exhaustive notes), I want to read it and not just hear what other people thought of how it all turned out.

Yeah, I figure it'll take a few more years to complete the last book. I'll wait until then to reread everything.

A few years would have been my guess, too, but according to the link: "That volume, A Memory of Light, will be completed by Brandon Sanderson, a writer chosen by Jordan’s widow and editor, Harriet McDougal, and published by Tor Books in 2009."

I think it's a terrible idea. I just don't see the scope of those books coming through. Especially not in movie form.. urch. Me, I like the long winded approach.

The books stand well on their own--and I have read all 12 existing books.

Remember that he was working on 12 for several years before he died, and Sanderson says he's finished about 25% of it.

Even with so much of the work done on the final book, I figured it would take a long time for the new writer to absorb it all and write the ending just right.

I like Jordan's long-windedness, too. Still, I don't think I'd go so far as too call the graphic novels a terrible idea. Movies? Probably. Even the so-called great LotR movies don't do a lot for me. If I see epic fantasy done well in movie form in my lifetime, I'll be surprised.

I enjoyed reading the first 7, but then the next two books I read seemed to contain way too many machinations and I ran out of steam. I need to be able to follow plotlines without having to take notes and make spreadsheets.

Could someone give the rest of us a brief synopsis of what its about, if that possible. My curiosity is piqued.

That has got to be a joke.


I'll take a swing at it later.

Inigo: Le' me e'splain. --- No, there is too much. Le' me sum up.

No, there is too much to sum up. Let Ken do it.

Yeah, Ken can handle this one. I can't remember what happened anymore.

OK Ken, go for it, and remember that with my limited attention span, you'll have to keep it to 50 words or less.

Ok, I get the joke now. I just went to Wikipedia and now I am thoroughly confused and intrigued.

Who has time to re-read a 12 book series, though?

Yo. Except I'm afraid if I start it before the new one's almost out, I'll finish it way too quickly. I don't think I can stretch it out for more than a few months.

OK.

Summary:
Time is cyclical, divided into Ages. Ages are poorly remembered from one to the next, generally. The current Age is coming to a close. People are able to tap into something called the Power in order to do what is essentially magic, although it's a bit deeper than that. The power is divided into a male half and a female half. At the close of the previous Age, the Dark One (read: evil personified) tainted the male half of the power. Therefore, in the current age, only women are allowed to channel the Power.

In order to fight the Dark One at the end of this age, however, a man must channel the Power. In steps our main character, carrying with him a load of friends, hangers on, etc, all who become main characters in their own right.

There's a lot of political intrigue going on, with a bunch of evil dudes of various stripes, and a bunch of good guys who may or may not be so good.

Did I miss anything, guys?

I'm going to have to read them all again before the last one comes out. They have been so spread out, the last two that came out had me a bit lost as I read them, just trying to remember what had been going on in the past.

I'll wait a little while before I start, as this is pretty much a year of reading we're talking about if I get through 1 a month.

I usually reread the previous one before I read the new one. That seems to get me caught up. However, this last time I'm going to reread the whole series. I've started from the beginning twice.

Okay, any possible excitement for me is gone:

Eye of the World Comic Book Preview

Ahh, ass-tastic artwork.

Well, it could have been Alex Toth.

looks like a video game.

Looks like average comic book art.

Sweet. All the girls have giant boobs. That's exactly how I pictured the books in my head.



Wait, that's how I picture everything. . .

Now I really have to meet you so you stop thinking of me with giant boobs.

Not to worry, Peter, I just think of you as a giant boob.

Give him a hug and enjoy the freshly squeezed breast milk.

You don't ever want to see a disembodied boob from the wrong side.

I also don't want to tug on Superman's cape or spit into the wind.

Exactly what happened to me. I do wish I had finished but after awhile I started forgetting some of the material by the time the next book came out.

Oh, nooooo.

Wheel Of Time Optioned

This could be disastrous. I hope hope hope the adaptation comes out okay.

I'm not gonna keep my fingers crossed, though.

3 words:
Dis
As
Ter.

While watching TV tonight I came across The Legend of the Seeker. Since I was half asleep I didn't quite catch all of it, but it seemed very similar to one of my favorite fantasy series, "The Sword of Truth" by Terry Goodkind. It's akin to "The Wheel of Time" in terms of scope and length and was wondering if any of you have read it. I need to spend more time looking through the TV show trailers, but I really hope it does the books justice. Normally these types of fantasy series are silly, but I felt the books were a little more adult oriented. I hope the show is the same.

Yet you awoke from your stupor enough to share with us. That, right there, that's love.

I'm a dedicated forum buddy!

Interview with Red Eagle Entertainment (re: Wheel of Time)

I am excited and nervous about this project. It seems doomed to live up to the expectations built up by the books.

A couple posts above I made mention of a new television series based on another, similar, epic length series of books, "The Sword of Truth." Sadly, I only made it through the first fifteen minutes or so of the first episode before I turned it off. I wanted to like it, but ultimately couldn't stomach it. Chalk it up to bad timing, but I had just finished the last book of that particular series and was a bit disappointed in it as well. Bah humbug.

That's too bad about that series. I read Wizard's First Rule and liked it, but I never got around to reading any of the sequels.

Until the last couple of books, it was my favorite series. Still, you should give them a try.

Wow - I agree with St. Pat. Excited and nervous... I read the first 3-4 of those novels and really enjoyed them. It might be time to dust them off for a re-read.

Now if the author and producer can just avoid producing a dog of a movie like the Dungeons & Dragons movie(s) turned out to be...

Red Eagle to make multiple films and games based on Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books

Now video games. Sounds like they're aiming to disappoint on all fronts.

Going out in a blaze of glory is preferable to just fizzling. Epic failure has its own draw.

Ahh, in the comments of the Joystiq post that linked to that article, one of the commenters linked to this blog entry from the late Robert Jordan from August of last year in which he has unkind words to share about Red Eagle Entertainment.

http://www.dragonmount.com/RobertJordan/?p=88

Just a little more news on the final book from the writer who's trying to fill Jordan's shoes with two feet worth of words:

Brandon Sanderson update on A Memory of Light

My vote is that the publisher will absolutely split it into two books. It's almost a surefire cash cow for them.

I wonder what it would be like to write someone else's story? Would it be somewhat easier because the plot is already laid out and your own personal investment, or emotional connection with the characters somewhat tempered?

I'd imagine it would be a frightening and daunting task to finish up such a huge piece of literary work.

Yeah, there's no way I'd ever be comfortable trying to step in and take the reins, especially not at the end of the other person's master work. I mean, even being assured that Jordan wrote the ending, look at how big the books are. That's a lot of sounding like Jordan to do, even if a lot of it is completed. I imagine whatever exhaustive notes exist must be hard to keep in mind when writing, too. How do you keep an encyclopedia up there while you're writing?

Sean, you weren't thinking big enough!

A MEMORY OF LIGHT to be released in 3 volumes. + Release date

Holy smokes!! Is each novel 100 pages? Cuz that's just wrong!

After reading Brandon Sanderson's blog post about the reasoning behind the decision, I'm satisfied. What an insane amount of work.

I'm happy. We get WoT this year, then even more to come! Woo!

Ack, I just wickied to see how many novels I have to re-read before the new one comes out. ELEVEN !!!!!! Plus a prequel which, I'm pretty sure I never did read.

maybe I'll just dive in to the new one when it arrives and hope stuff comes back to me but it was such a crazy series for detail and I can barely remember the main characters, much less the gabillion minor characters. I enjoyed them but in hind sight I think Mr Jordan took the whole 'epic' thing a little too seriously.

Start over! Can't hurt anything. Not like there's a time limit on reading it.

I guess I was more concerned about the re-investment. I lost about 1/2 of my large book selection 2 years ago when we had mold issues in all our stuff in storage. The storage company came pretty good for everything but the money was spent on buying replacement big ticket items like furniture, mattresses, etc that were not sealed in containers. A lot of the small stuff like books just were not a priority.

A good portion of my books were just in unsealed cardboard boxes. Some of the unsealed boxes were salvageable but we were very paranoid about what we could safely and confidently clean as we didn't want to introduce mold into our brand new house.

We spent a very depressing weekend with a bunch of family helping to clean all we could with bleach and throwing out the rest. Lesson Learned to pass on to you all. SEAL EVERYTHING EVEN IF YOU PAY FOR SEALED STORAGE!


Anyways, on the positive side, almost all of them are listed as available at the public library.

Library is good!

This is disappointing news for me, as I have been holding off on starting over with reading them. Knowing the last one was coming out the end of this year, I just started over again a couple of days ago! I may need to put this on hold for a while and wait another year or two to start over so they are all fresh.

Off to read the blog to see what the deal is.

Finally got around to reading the blog. I feel a bit better about it after reading that, and am glad they will be done right. It just means I may give up on rereading the series for another two years and start it up again when it is closer to the last book coming out. At least I don't feel the need to reread the prequel, as I did read that already and recall it as filling in early information, but as a bit of a stand alone that is separate from the rest.

I wish that he had done the second and third prequels. I fear that those are well and truly lost.

Someone who has read The Gathering Storm has posted their impressions of it here. The section with spoilers is clearly marked. Of course, you can avoid it altogether if the mere opinion of it might spoil it for you.

I skipped the spoilers, but it sounds good to me! Still too soon to start rereading all of them, I suspect. I can usually burn through a 600 page book in less than a week...

Oh yeah? I can usually do that in one sitting on the toilet!

He meant "read" not actually set on fire after a night of hot wings.

Just finished book two of my re-read. Summer is so busy. I'll be hard pressed to finish them all in time for Novembers release of book 12.

Anyone else doing the re-read? I'm just about done with book 1. It's amazing how much stuff is set up in that book (and how much happens!)

I haven't done that yet. If I do, it'll be my third time through them. I still have some later books to go through still. I DID unpack them and have looked at 'em. Does that count?

It doesn't count unless you go all the way.

Also, I forgot to post this link. You can read the first chapter of The Gathering Storm if you register with Tor.comp. I haven't done it since I kind of want to read it all at once, and I still need to read the last couple of books, but I'd be interested in what some of you have to say about it, sans spoilers.

No re read for me until we are close to the last one coming out. Then I'll do them all start to finish. If I reread now I will just have to do it again when the final book comes out.

Just finished #3 and happy to say that I'm enjoying them as much as when they first got published. I forgot how much happens in these books. A total reread is definitely a requirement before the finales.

Hey, nice progress. I should really start sometime.

Thanks.
Did you try The Fionavar Tapestry yet?

No, I haven't. I really need to read more.

I'm just starting book 2. I did make a spreadsheet to keep track of the Forsaken. If anyone wants a copy, let me know... (yes, I'm a dork). The spreadsheet has info from The World of the Wheel of Time as well as status up to the end of book 1.

Send me a copy. I'm not re-reading any time soon, so I'd like to see it all laid out.

It doesn't have any current info in it, just book 1. Want me to wait until I have it filled out?

read faster!

I skimmed the thread list and read "Wheel of Fortune gets graphically novelized".

It seemed like a bad idea to me.

Maybe I should read more carefully.

I'd love to get your spreadsheet when you're done with it.

It'll be a month or 3, but I'll be sure to send it off if I do.

Ken, I'm in!!!

I may have to re-buy the first book. My paperback is going on, what 14 years old? Maybe more. It's a bit yellowed and I think the cover started separating from the spine.

Well, PM me your email addys. I can't find a way to link a document here, so I'll need to email it. It's in either .xlsx or xls.

http://www.Mediafire.com allows you to link any kind of file for free.

Update: I just bought volume one of that, so now I'll have to make time for it.

As mentioned prior, if you are like me and don't like when a book mixes modern day with fantasy, don't be discouraged with the beginning when the modern day people get sucked into the fantasy world. Once they get settled into their new world, you get lost in the amazingly well written fantasy world and eventually both the characters and the reader forgets they ever came from our present day.

Pulling this thread back from the depths since I am reading the series again from the start and am up to book 6. (lord of chaos).

I'm looking for a good reference to look up characters, like the Wheel of Time database. However, I don't want to get spoliers, so when I look something up I want to be able to have it not provide anything not known by the end of book X. That way I can get a refresher on who a character is without finding out something that happens with that character 3 books from now.

Does anyone know of such a resource?

I have spreadsheets on each book with data on the forsaken up to the end of the book. PM me your address and I can send them to you. It's not all the characters, but at least it's some.

Ken will also send you a chart diagramming the secret handshake. . .









Um, sorry Ken, I couldn't resist.

Thanks to the final book actually having turned into a Trilogy and the generosity of a certain board member, I just may finish my re-read before the final book is published. I just started Towers of Midnight. Almost guaranteed a win unless I lose my eyes to a rogue seagull. You may laugh but I recently had muscle shells dropped on my head for the second time in as many years. They are out to get me I tell you!

The birds really do have it out for you, Andrew!


I will wait until the last book gets published before I start rereading the series again. Probably end up buying newer copies since the ones I own are nice and yellowed now, I bet.

Ya,
My lawn is always a veritable graveyard of creatures from the sea. Clam shells, crab shells, lobster shells, small flounders and other fish, whole or remains. One morning we even found a dead eel. The fish and the eels were likely the local Osprey's catch. It's amazing what they come up with after a spectacular dive bomb into the water.

As an animal lover, I will admit that eels repulse me. I don't mind snakes but these eels are like slimy, dark, oily snakes with an ominous looking fin like tail. I spent a childhood swimming at a beach where when you got out so deep there was nothing but eel grass and if you stepped on an eel, they tended to instinctively wrap around your leg and sometimes, although rarely, take a bite before fleeing off in panic.

The old timers around here eat them. I've tried to eat them as a form of revenge but the meat remains very oily and very fishy in a non-pleasant way. I can't stand them.

Sorry, did I derail this topic enough yet?

I'll add in another WoT mention just out of guilt. Towers of Midnight is the first novel I'm reading on my Kindle. A lot of my previous WoT books were hardcover so I am really enjoying not wrestling with the size and weight of these 800 to 1000 page epics.

That's a good point about the physical size of the books. Kindling them might not be a bad idea. I still need to start my re-read of the series. I should try to time it so that I'm done reading what's out when the new book hits, since I don't want to inadvertently hear what happens in the end before I've had a chance to read it.

Eels? Do you have a hovercraft?

Thanks Ken, I have your spreadsheets. I'm basically looking for that with all of the characters listed. A large undertaking, but I figured there could be a fan site out there that did it already. For example, on the first page of chapter 28 in book 6 the following names are mentioned:

Herid Fel, Idrien, Meilan, Maringil, and Colavaere. I think I know who at least some of them are, but hesitate to look them up online for finding spoilers. None of them are in the glossary in the back, so that doesn't help.

OK, so I looked them up to verify. I had the last 3 right, didn't know the first two. I found the WOT Wiki . It looks like I can read just the first sentence about a character to find out who they are without seeing spoilers.

I knew that.

Hmm. I know who 1, 3, and 5 are.