No wonder I’m struggling with The Wheel of Time books
If you know, you know.
The Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan, is 14 really long books about a group of people in a fantasy land with magic, demons, witches, creatures, and humans. It is all about a war between good and evil, where the forces of light and the forces of dark are in constant battle. The Wheel of Time turns and is seen as controlling fate. They’re fantastic stories, and relatively infamous in the industry and genre.
My son Jacob loves them and is on his fourth or fifth reading, plus we watch the TV series.
Me? I read book 1, and it took a LONG time to finish. I really enjoyed it, but I also like variety so hadn’t tried book 2 yet. But when Jacob and I were watching the TV series, I turned into THAT guy. I kept having to pause and ask Jacob, “Okay, wait, which side is this group aligned with?” or “Who does that one work for?”. I was even struggling with the main six to eight characters from the first book that I had already read.
I started on book 2 this past week and I cannot keep a bunch of the characters straight. It should be EASIER since the TV series has faces and names to boot that I should be able to remember more easily than just reading the books alone. Right? RIGHT?????
Anyway, I’m struggling to keep certain characters straight. Tonight, I decided to cheat. I thought, “Okay, let’s treat this like a play…let’s look online for a list of the characters!”.
Holy fudge.
Book 1? The one I already read? It apparently had references to 259 characters. Sure, many of them were throwaway references to past Lords or Kings or Queens, names from history, but over 250 of them? Holy fudge, indeed.
Book 2 that I’m reading now? 255 characters. Sigh.
Let’s look ahead, shall we? 238, 437, 403, 602 (hah! the book is called the Lord of Chaos!), 466, 460, 444, 522, 685, 454, 715, and 466.
I really must be getting old. I have never quit a book because I couldn’t keep track of the characters, but this one is sorely testing me. I love the stories, but heck, I made it through watching most of GoT and never struggled with all the names. I haven’t gone back to the books yet, but I will at some point. Fire and Ice was nothing compared to this.
Would it be too much to ask for them to give me a little org chart?
JotD: Spiritual comfort (PWH00009)
QotD: Absence (PWQ00039)
A Purple Place for Dying by John D. MacDonald (1964) – BR00270 (R2025) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪
Plot or Premise
McGee is running low on cash and is looking for some work. A friend of a friend asks him to come out to Nevada to discuss a possible salvage job, but it’s looking like a bust for good old Trav. She’s been robbed of her father’s estate by her husband, and she needs lawyers and accountants, not Travis. Which he is in the process of telling her when a large rifle bullet takes her life.
What I Liked
The explosive opening leaves McGee somewhat ticked off, as you can imagine, and he immediately reports the murder. Except when the Sheriff comes to check, the body and all evidence are gone. Someone has made it look like the wife ran off with a lover, even if McGee swears he saw her die. It’s an interesting plot after that, as the only person who would seem to want her dead doesn’t seem like the person who killed her. And there doesn’t seem to be any other rationale for the death. It’s well into the third act before the likely killer becomes more obvious. There are a lot of red herrings, too, with crooked business dealings, rival businessmen, and the IRS sniffing around.
What I Didn’t Like
The pseudo-runaway wife was having an affair with a young professor, who had an unhealthy relationship with his sister, both depending on each other too much. But the sister is written as a terrible cliché from start to finish. To be honest, the story would work a lot better without her involvement, and it would have left more room for McGee to play Sherlock.
The Bottom Line
Great story, lousy secondary character