Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

There will not be nominations nor a poll for August. There was much interest a couple of weeks ago in creating a completionist challenge for The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. To kick this off, we will be reading The Eye of the World in August. This long read will give those of you who are apprehensive about attacking this massive series a chance to dip your toe in. The hope is that you will join the subsequent challenge of reading the other books in the series, one every two months.

Such a good plan, Allan!

So the challenge is going to last until summer 2023?

Hoooodang, welp I'm in!!

Technically, yes, but consider that it’s 15 books of 800-1000 pages. It took me about a year and a half to read it. It’s definitely a challenge that requires persistence and stamina! Of course, if you are so inclined, you can always read them faster!

This will be fun!

Gabi wrote: "This will be fun!"

And he survivors would envy the dead :)

I won’t be joining you all on this, as I found The Eye of the World to be wholly disappointing and can’t imagine slogging through a dozen more books to find out what happened. Good luck, though! 🤪🤪🤪

Been hearing stories of this and those always get me interested to see, how much of a slog this indeed might be. I might want to check this out just to appease the curiosity.

I also hear this has repetitive motifs; perhaps hunting those will get one through 🙃

So. Many. Inns!

A booming inn-dustry?

So. Many. Braids!

Lol, you guys are cracking me up. I was the opposite. I was very intrigued by The Eye of the World, and what epic doesn’t have traveling in it??? I enjoyed the progression of the books. Some books were better than others, but what do you expect in a series like this?

I loved the series. I read up to book 9 in one summer in high school and then was caught up with the series (at the end of Winter's Heart no less, what a g*damn cliffhanger!) so had to wait for each release as it came and read them immediately, usually staying up all night or for two days just to immerse myself.

I recommend people give it a shot if they haven't already. But for me, I have so many unread books on my physical TBR shelf (shelves) that I really want to get to, and time is precious hard to come by right now. I may pick up Eye of the World (it's right there on my shelf beside my desk) for nostalgia but don't know if I'll keep up with the challenge.

Jemppu wrote: "A booming inn-dustry?"

Lol Jemppu, that pun was inn-genious

I probably won't join either, but we shall see

I may read the New Spring before EotW

If this is your first time reading WoT, I wouldn't start with New Spring. EOTW really is the beginning of the story and does the worldbuilding heavy lifting. New Spring is backstory on characters that won't matter as much to you if that's your first encounter with them.

Kalin wrote: "If this is your first time reading WoT, I wouldn't start with New Spring. EOTW really is the beginning of the story and does the worldbuilding heavy lifting. New Spring is backstory on characters t..."

Oh I see, I guess I'll follow the publication order then

Snif. Tugs braids.
Won't be rereading, have already done a number of times (because I spent a lot of time waiting for the next one to be published).
May you find water and shade. (Not sure if it is as good to read for over 25s...)

sounds interesting. good idea

I like it! I'm in.