h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Okay then, how's that?

much better



have some

FABT

*nudges MaW*

Ummm, Eye of the World came out in 1992

Wizard's first Rule in 1995

I suspect the Blood of the Fold came about *after* the creation of the Children of the Light so I don't think that's really a valid criticism of Robert Jordan but of Terry Goodikind

I personally think a comparison of Aiel and Fremen is better althought the similarities are certainly not as close as the 'clone' comment above.
Even less close is the comparison of Aes Sedai and Bene Gesserit.
Ummm, let me think - they're all women.... can't think of many other similarities.

Are you going by the film or the books?

The books - the Film of dune is

Okay, modified it to reflect that. Unfortunately I didn't have a copy of either set of books to refer to

Anything else?

The crit section at the end is a definite improvement. I didn't know it was only supposed to be a trilogy, and yes, it does show through - certainly in the first book.
At the risk of pushing a point, you still haven't referred to the Dune books - I think these are quite important, as they are often quoted as having the most similarities with Jordan's (later) work.
OK, the story of a hidden messiah coming of age and embarking on a battle, or war, which has been awaiting his (prophesied) arrival is hardly new, but Jordan does rather cast a similar set of larger circumstances;

Fremen(Dune) - Aeil(WoT) = Tough desert dwellers with strict moral codes that are persuaded that Paul/Rand are the leaders they have been waiting for.
Differences? - A few. Herbert cast his Fremen as swarthy, dark haired types. Jordan has for some reason suggested the Aeil have blonde or red hair. With this colouration comes fair skin - not a great desert survival trait. They also dress in copious amounts leather. We can only assume they have to stitch a lot of gerbils together.

Bene Gesserit(Dune) - Aes Sedai(Wot) = A secretive, ancient organisation consisting only of wise women. Both pull the strings of government as advisors - both resist getting their hands directly dirty.
The main differences between the two groups is the phenomenal amount of bickering the Aes Sedai manage to entangle themselves in. We can only assume that this is one of Robert's ways of turning a 100 page story into a 600+ page novel.

But it all depends on what you want to see, I guess. Jordan is, as you point out, a bit of a plodder. He is no literary genius, but has a certain knack. The WoT books are OK, but, as you have hinted at, are less than completely satisfying. To sum up, the Dune books left me wanting more, the WoT books merely left me wanting to know what happened to everybody. There *is* a difference, but you night have to hunt around for it.

Other than that, I think this should definately go in.
Have a (premature) on me.

Well, it's been recommended now...

I never really found Dune all that satisfying actually - the first book was great, but the rest sort of fell flat for me. Jordan appeals to me a lot more.

And he also leaves a lot of opportunity in there for roleplaying... and that's gotta be good

Seeing as it was me who put it here in the first place I guess it falls to me to do the final recommendation too

Nice one MaW

Well Bene Gesserit are not capable of wielding massive amounts of magic as I recall, they also aren't divided into ajahs either.

I agree with MaW - Dune is A1 brilliant - in fact one of my favourite books but you get decreasing excellence as the series goes on.
You need a degree in weirdology to get Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse dune. WTF is that all about.
Personally I can stand them up to God Emperor and then they're just silly.

"You need a degree in weirdology to get Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse dune. WTF is that all about.
Personally I can stand them up to God Emperor and then they're just silly."

WHAT!!!! That's when it starts to make sense!

Bene Gesserit and Aes Sedai aren't really similar at all beyond the superficial features. Underneath they seem pretty different - well, I'm not entirely sure about Bene Gesserit, but I know what Aes Sedai are for. I spent quite a lot of time re-reading the relevant parts of the books (and all the other bits too) for background material to use when role-playing

Oh, and by the way, I'm not the Mistress of Novices anymore, just plain Eldhrin Sedai of the Blue Ajah now. Having novices flee in terror when one approaches is all very well, but it gets dull after a while.

A Blue. Cool.

Do you get many Reds?

cant you kill her off, you've been playing her for ages.

why cant you have a nice exhiting character?

i dont get role playing at all

FABT

We don't have any Reds on our site. It's set after the events of Winter's Heart, a bit further into the future. All the main characters from the books are conveniently "out of the way", and the White Tower is reunited under the Amyrlin Seat, Joiya Sedai, formerly of the White Ajah. Because the Taint has been cleansed from saidin, the Red Ajah no longer has a purpose, and because of the rumours about them setting up false Dragons, the Reds were either driven out of the Tower or invited to join other Ajahs (which most of them did) so we have only six Ajahs in our Tower. The getting rid of the Reds was lead by a Green sister, Sayuri Kovaris, one of our longer-running characters who is now a Sitter. There's currently a roleplay in the works regarding Reds who didn't agree that their purpose was done, which should be interesting...

FABT, I'm not about to kill off Eldhrin, I like her! There's still plenty more to do, she's got a fair bit of stuff in her past that she hasn't resolved yet, and she's currently falling for a Darkfriend trap in Far Madding, in the company of Faerlyn Sedai of the White, Celest Sedai of the Grey, her Gaidin Ad al'Finnegan, Faerlyn's Gaidin Jael, and Eorin, an Asha'man and former Gaidin. Eldhrin and Celest hate each other's guts, and Eldhrin and Faerlyn don't like having an Asha'man around either, Eldhrin especially since Celest invited him - although Celest seems to be beginning to regret it, because despite being blind she resents the implication that she's incapable of doing anything for herself (even though she can hardly channel anything without being able to see - she lost her sight to a nasty poison during a diplomatic mission in Arad Doman) and Eorin has declared that he will be there to look after her all the way through this mission.

Roleplaying is fun. You should try it. Find a site that's fairly free-form - or there's always YK's Free-Form Fantasy Forum here on h2g2 - to try it out.

Hmmm, article gives away no spoilers - not sure about that last post though

MaW

I'm on the tolkein thingy in the post. but so far all we've done is gone down the pub. still a bit confused, and i think i am playing myself (FABT) so other than being short and hairy i'm basically still me


FABT

Whoops!

FABT, Eldhrin's remarkably like me - apart from being a woman, of course.

Note to Sub-Ed, if this is read - I updated this Entry today, just a little bit where it mentions the forthcoming Book Ten, as a Tor representative has now reportedly said it will be called "Crossroads of Twilight" and I wanted to mention that. Hopefully that change will come through...

I have to admit that I'm still on book three in the series and that it is a bit scary to read that it looses more and more tempo for each book. Still I think I'll fight myself through to the last available book. I also noticed that a .pdf-file of the first nine books are circulating on the web, but who has the patience to read it on-screen, or worse still: to print the darned thing on a small rainforest worth of paper?

The article is great as far as I can see! It contains enough facts to be informative, still it is no longer than that I can read it on my screen without headaches. Thank you and keep up the good work!