Reading Burnout?

[MarkusTay]

Is there such a thing?

I just finished the second book of the Wheel of Time series. Just before that I finished the 9th book in the Sword of Truth series, and I noticed STRIKING similarities between the two. Since I know there are many Wheel of Time fans on this site I\'m wondering if anyone else has read both series?

In The Great Hunt the lead character, a young man with awesome power he neither believes he has or knows how to control goes up against a mighty invading empire (the Shienarans) who use a group of vile women (Sul\'dam) to control others who have \"the power\".

In Wizard\'s First Rule the lead character, a young man with awesome power he neither believes he has or knows how to control goes up against a mighty invading empire (the D\'harans) who use a group of vile women (Mord-Sith) to control others who have \"the power\".

If it looks like I pasted the same sentence, it\'s because I did. I just changed the names in the parenthesis. The lead characters both started out as rural nobodys that had great destinies in store because of their bloodline. In both cases the young man was \'saved\' as a baby and brought to live far away where he was raised by an \'adopted\' father (no mother in eaither case!).

It gets worse, The invading forces in The Great Hunt are actually the \'lost\' peoples that went away over the sea a thousand years before returning to take over. A group of mystic women went with tham to help guide them while they were away, but became corrupt and their \'sisterhood\' changed to become a much darker form of itself. To me, that sounds like it was ripped off from Frank Herbert\'s fourth(?) Dune book. Just exchange Aes-Sadi for Bene-Geseriat(sp?) and change \'sea\' to \'space\' and thats the identical story line. Frank Herbert referred to the people leaving as the scattering, I believe, which in turn sounds a lot like the Jewish Diaspora.

Is it my imagination, or are we being fed the same exact stories over and over with only a few name changes, just like they do with TV?!

It\'s sad, and I hope it\'s just me, but I noticed this same exact thing some thirty years ago after reading The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny and The world of Tiers by Philip Hose\' Farmer. Both of those series ran exactly five books, and were about a strange all-powerful family that basically controled many alternate universes. Same stories, just in one the family actually created the realities, and in the other they merely had the power to shift through them (and thereby control stuff).

I think maybe I have finally read too much, and my brain is full and needs a good cleaning out.

 

[Evil Dave]

Hell, I got burnt out just reading your post. lol

No, I find that quite a few fantasy authors find a good story that makes them some money and they try to follow the same formula, over and over and over.

If you want a good quick, read pick up Steven Brusts \"Jhereg\" and follow the series.
Everyone I\'ve recommended it to has loved the series and is waiting for the next book with bated breath.

 

[RedSevenBlue]

The Wheel of Time is called just that because it will take you all of time for him to finish the series.

I suggest \"The Sword of Shanara\" or something spelled like that last word. It, of course, is not a 29 book series that is still going, it is written by Terry Brooks. Each book is like a seperate story sorta. The books aren\'t too long either.

If you like Sci-fi, I recommend \"Starship Troopers\" the book. Excellent read if you want a stand alone book.

 

[Arjay]

I got my hands on the Wheel of Time audio books to listen to whilst painting... Through sheer force of will I made it through book 5, thankfully book 6 was a dud recording and I had to stop there...

I don\'t think Jordan\'s had an original thought in his life (I noticed the similarities to Dune as well) so I wouldn\'t be too worried if I was you.

 

[Sand Rat]

Well, since Jordan has admitted that his source material is Norse Mythology to a point, its entirely possible that more than one author could have the same ideas from the same stories.

You really want to have fun read \"The Oddyssey\" by Homer, then read \"Cross the Stars\" by David Drake. At least Drake admits he got the idea from Homer.

 

[Hoblit]

Come now, you guys want to discuss similarities, try for something cross genre.

How about the striking similarities between Star Wars and The Da Vinci Code.

You don\'t believe me Check it out

But i\'ve found that most fantasy authors tend to have the same basic plot. It\'s one of the reasons I enjoy it so much. you know what to expect. Generally, the differences come in the way they treat certain things (magic springs to mind)

 

[Shaetano]

Doesn\'t every story start in almost the same way?

There is a character who has to rectify a wrong situation (be it the world that needs saving, his own life or the universe for that matter), discovers inner strength or a power he didn\'t know he had, save the world, his life or the universe and gets the girl(s).

What i find more interesting in fact is how it is written. I find that every author has his/her own style to create the world. Robert Jordan for instance describes everything in detail. Advantage is that the \'world\' is very well explained, disadvantage is that it gets confusing sometimes (especially if there\'s some time between reading the books).


And yes, there are many similarities, but many differences as well. That doesn\'t stop me from liking both series

 

[MacBrown]

I\'ve found that quite a few books I have read (IMHO) are rip offs of others. I read one of the Shannara books and found it to be very similar to LOTR, but my mate loves them and doesn\'t like LOTR.

I\'m currently reading Isaac Asimovs \"Foundation\" which is quite clear that Mr Lucas has lifted lots of ideas out of for his Star Wars series (Correllia and Korrellia, a planet that is a City etc).

Even Wilbur Smith books follow the same formula time and again.
I like David Gemmell books, but they can also be quite similar to each other.

For a completely original and refreshing series I would recommend Steven Eriksons \"Fall of the Malazan Empire\" Series.

Maybe the solution Markus is to write your own!

 

[paintingploddy]

Aren\'t there meant to be something like 29 storylines out there. All fiction is just a variation of one of these basic story lines.

I switched to non fiction books a couple of years ago, and am only just beginning to read fiction. It was a change for the better for me.

 

[Infidel Castro]

As per the fella above...

I also dived right out of fantasy as the whole genre is so turgid it beggars belief. There are very few original writers out there, and the whole trilogy/series lark is just proof of the limits of the field and the skills of the writers. I\'ve never been big into Sci-fi, but recently I started reading Iain M Banks. He\'s got a brain the size of a small planet, I\'m sure of it. But that\'s just one facet of my current reading habits. I read a lot of fiction from the greats of the last century, such as Huxley, Amis (the elder), Orwell, Golding, Greene, plus a few more contemporary authors like Milan Kundera, Peter Carey (sound Aussie writer), Houllebecq...

There\'s a whole world out there, and I\'m gutted that I ever limited myself to the fantasy genre - I could have been rolling in quality years ago

 

[philologus]

For most of my life I stuck to Non-fiction. After returning to school I began re-reading some sci-fi from childhood to break the monotony. I just re-read the Dune series.
As for storylines bearing similarity I have always believed that all enduring stories share the same essential plot from the epic of Gilgamesh to the present.
Most plots can be boiled down to:\"something imoprtant is lost and then regained.\"
Kurt Vonnegut made a nice explanation of this with his myth/story diagramming which he explains briefly in his book \"Palm Sunday\"

 

[johnboyjjb]

There is nothing new under the sun.

If you want something different read the classics. The books they wanted you to read in school but didn\'t. Or the books they made you read in school that you hated. I liked most of the books outside of school that I hated when I read them in school.

Farenheit 451
Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn
The one were Cary Grant played Atticus

 

[philologus]

Originally posted by johnboyjjb

The one were Cary Grant played Atticus

That\'s \"To Kill a Mockingbird\" by Harper Lee

 

[penguin]

According to some people, there are only seven basic plot structures, and I can see what they mean. If you read any book and pare the plot down to the basics, very likely it will be extremey similar to another. But yours are on another level Mark lol

 

[Astorderire]

Message original : paintingploddy
Aren\'t there meant to be something like 29 storylines out there. All fiction is just a variation of one of these basic story lines.

I\'m afraid it applies to either fiction or non-fiction...

 

[MarkusTay]

Have read many of the books above, including Starship Troopers (which was actually very good compared to the movie which SUCKED). The Odyssey of course, along with many of the school \'classics\'. Have read two by Vonnegut, The Galapagos and Cat\'s Cradle, but I will have to look into Palm Sunday (Thanx Phil).

I did a 35 page essay in college on The Hero with a Thousand Faces (non-fiction), and in it Joseph Campbell shows how ALL stories, even biblical, follow the same guidlines. Even many of Hercules\' labors were copied from older Celtic tales.

But I\'m not talking about a storyline here. The similarities between the two series is much more then that. In many instances the names have BARELY been changed (Renna and Raena, Venna AND Verna)! It\'s practically plagerism; the only major difference I see is writing styles. Jorden is more \'High Fantasy\', where as Goodkind is gritty (low fantasy?). And I tried to read Shannara years ago, but the books seamed to similar to the LotR. I still have the book, so maybe someday I\'ll try to read it again.

The Foundation series was awesome, and the fellows doing newer books with permission from Asimov\'s estate are up to the task. Good stuff, and fairly original. I really liked the way he tied all of his books together toward the end of his career.

I sometimes read horror (along with everything else), and I really enjoy cross-genre stuff. The best read I\'ve had in awhile was a book called The throne of bones, which was a collection of VERY gritty short stories. Excellent stuff and highly original. It\'s set in an alternate gothic world and is VERY dark.

Well, thanks for the input guys, I\'ll be starting The Dreamthief\'s daughter by Moorcock tonight. At least he admits his heroes are clones because they are all part of the Eternal Champion.

 

[paintingploddy]

I\'m not surprised if that is the case. I still love it when I find something in a History that features in a favourite work of fiction.(Polish cavalry saving Vienna from an Ottoman siege being the most recent).

 

[RedSevenBlue]

Originally posted by reverend
As per the fella above...

I also dived right out of fantasy as the whole genre is so turgid it beggars belief. There are very few original writers out there, and the whole trilogy/series lark is just proof of the limits of the field and the skills of the writers. I\'ve never been big into Sci-fi, but recently I started reading Iain M Banks. He\'s got a brain the size of a small planet, I\'m sure of it. But that\'s just one facet of my current reading habits. I read a lot of fiction from the greats of the last century, such as Huxley, Amis (the elder), Orwell, Golding, Greene, plus a few more contemporary authors like Milan Kundera, Peter Carey (sound Aussie writer), Houllebecq...

There\'s a whole world out there, and I\'m gutted that I ever limited myself to the fantasy genre - I could have been rolling in quality years ago

HEINLEIN! READ SOME OF HEINLEINS BOOKS!He\'s one of the best sci-fi writers out there. I heard \"The cat who walks through walls\" was good.

 

[RedSevenBlue]

Originally posted by paintingploddy
Aren\'t there meant to be something like 29 storylines out there. All fiction is just a variation of one of these basic story lines.

I once read a book where at the end of the book, after defeating the figure of evil in the book, he commited suicide.

 

[Ebonbuddha]

Yes. I noticed that they were teh same. But I think the Wheel of Time is much better. Richard Rahl whined to much.