Funny story:
I bought Robert Jordan’s lastest installment of the Wheel of Time series a week or so ago, and while I read it I got more & more ticked. Whole sections were word-for-word repeats of the last book! I’ve been ticked at the bad editing before, not to mention the at-times contrived or pale writing. But the first five books intrigued me enough to decide to see the series through. Whatever my complaints about the writing, I am enjoying the characters and I want to know what happens to them.
But repeating whole sections of the story? Is that bad editing or incompetent publishing, or even insulting laziness on the part of the author? By two-thirds of the way through the book I felt the story was going backward, rather than forward. I began, not for the first time, to consider strongly the idea of writing Bobby and telling him to quit fucking around. He’s said himself he doesn’t know how many books the story will take, and I strongly suspect he doesn’t even know how the story will wrap. He’s gotten sidetracked in tertiary characters and sub-sub-sub plots. The central character doesn’t show up for 300 pages! It’s tedious, and I think he’s doing it to buy time.
At any rate, the blatant repitition of pages on pages of text made me angry. Dragging out a story is one thing, but copping out entirely is another.
Then I realized that I had already read the book. Almost a year ago. I own it.
I had to laugh out loud.
And then I had to wonder- why would I only recognize a few sections of text?
I’m telling myself it’s because of my frustration with his painfully slow plot development. If story-line seems irrelevant, I skim. I pick up the action but blow by names. That sort of thing.
So, Bobby. Pick it up. You may think it’s acceptable to pad your pockets with a book every year & a half for life, but you’ve started something and now you have a responsibility to your audience. Pay back my loyalty and maybe I’ll buy into your next series. Drag this out much longer and I’ll black-list you to whoever will listen.