The Blue Board

WoT no question.

A lot of people will say 'A Song of Ice and Fire' because it's more popular at the moment but if you've read both I would say there's no comparison.

WoT is so deep and has an epic story, whereas the other is good but...I honestly read the first five books and got bored mid-way through the latest and just quit reading.

I don't know, I just prefer the stories that are epic in their length and yet have mortal heroes. No one is a hero in ASoIaF IMO, which makes it interesting but also boring in my mind.

I am playing to start WoT here soon. Loved fire and ice. How many WoT books are there and what series would you compare it too?

Never read anything Jordan.

Must be the end of this year. I check Sanderson's website occasionally and on the left of the main page he updates his progress on everything he's working on.

Last I checked he had just finished his first draft and now...wow, he's finished his second draft. Apparently Tor has set the release date for January 8, 2013 though.

Sanderson has written one book in the series already and it was pretty good in my opinion.

He actually has started his own epic fantasy series called 'A Stormlight Archive' and it has the potential to be better than WoT IMO. It's even deeper than WoT and yet maintains that kind of good/evil fight though with some series differences.

WoT no question. It has all of the political intrigue of SoFaI but has a much more developed world. I have read both and agree with the post above that some of SoFaI can get a little boring, which also happens for a few books in Wot (~8-10), but is just a necessary step in the development of the end game and is not pervasive throughout the series. As far as the Sanderson books, I think they are some of the best in the series. You could tell toward the end that Jordan was getting lost in his own story and it really took a fresh voice to bring it back around for the end and I think he has done a great job of doing it. That having been said, they're both great series and I know both authors thought really highly of each other.

I've read all the books of both series. I started reading WoT in 7th grade . . . . and I'm still reading it at age 28. It is NOT written for a middle school audience, by the way, it's very much an adult series. I've always been an avid reader (not just fantasy), so the series suited me well.

I picked up A Game of Thrones last year and knocked out all 5 books in 8 months.

Here's how I look at it.

Length: Both series are incredibly long in a day and age where a decent novel is 300 pages. The shortest book in the Wheel of Time series is 672 pages (226,687 words, thank you Wikipedia!), not counting the prequel, while the longest is 1,001 (393,823 words). For A Song of Ice and Fire, the books are actually longer, with a Game of Thrones "only" at 807 pages and a Dance with Dragons reaching 1,136 (all paperback lengths). The biggest difference is that there are currently 13 books published for the Wheel of Time (Book "12" has been split into 3 parts, the first 2 of which have been released, giving the series 13 separate main-line titles) vs. 5 for a Song of Ice and Fire.

Pace: That sounds like a ton of reading, and you're correct. The good news is that the two series are paced pretty darn well. There are lulls in the action (most noticeably books 8-9 of the Wheel of Time and Book 4 of a Song of Ice and Fire), but the world and cast of characters are just so darn big that there's almost always something interesting happening somewhere.

Moral complexity: A Song of Ice and Fire leaves WoT in the dust . . . if moral complexity is your thing. A Song of Ice and Fire has VERY FEW "purely" good or evil characters and to me that makes the characters "more realistic" (as realistic as a fantasy series involving dragons can be). If clearly defined lines in the sand is your thing, then WoT is your best bet; there are titanic forces of good and evil struggling as essentially the entire world (and the approx. 500 different characters you meet) are forced to choose one side or the other.

Cast of Characters: This kind of flows from the prior section. Both authors do an absolutely excellent job of developing not just the main plot characters, but the ancillary characters as well. Both series include an index in the back of each book to help you keep track of things. Wheel of Time is larger than A Song of Ice and Fire in the sheer # of characters, and Robert Jordan always had 10 different subplots going in the middle of the series. The other thing is that characters, ummm, die off, at a much faster rate in A Song of Ice and Fire. Both authors will have you rooting hard for certain people and really hating others. You definitely get involved in the action.

Tone/writing style: Martin is more of a direct writer than Jordan. That's about the best way I can say it. Each book is presented in point of view format, with the title of each chapter telling you who's point of view you're reading from. There are 7-10 POV characters per book. Jordan also takes a POV view . . . but the POVs can change within each chapter and later in the series you'll be reading 25 different POVs in a single novel. Both authors give you looks from the "good guys/bad guys (in a Song of Ice and Fire, the "people you're going to hate")" perspective, so you get the feeling you're seeing the whole picture. Martin definitely provides more "HOLY *#*( DID THAT JUST HAPPEN" moments, but Jordan's guys have more of a "ok, this guy is a BAMF" quality that sets up some truly epic confrontations.

Plot: Kind of feeding off the moral complexity part, both authors have a plot that is sprawling in scope. Jordan's seems to have more focus: Evil Dude is breaking out of his prison, end of the world is nigh, Good Dudes need to stop Evil Dude. That sounds simple, but it has a War and Peace type scope as the entire world is brought into the conflict piece by piece. The anticipation towards the final confrontation is pretty sweet. Martin seems like he's taking the series in one direction, then yanks the rug out from under you and starts charging off towards a new goal . . . only to pull a 90 degree turn and go another way. I have no idea what the culmination of the series is going to look like, which is intriguing.

If you like political manipulations, BOTH series will satisfy your urge. There are tons of back-stabbings, usurpers, surprise tactics and subtleties. One area that Jordan excels at is his description of battles; he studied at the Citadel and his understanding of military tactics comes through in his writing. Martin touches on it, but since he's wedded to the POV perspective, it's hard for him to convey the full scope of some of these conflicts. I'd argue that due to the sheer # of characters, Jordan's political plots are much more involved; he essentially takes you through the inner-workings of a Congress/Senate and all the political alliances/betrayals that it takes to make several coups work. Definitely some "Oh SNAP!" moments when you realize how all the little hints/nudges come together.

Magic/Fantasy Elements: This is probably the biggest difference between the two "worlds". A Wheel of Time has a very well developed "magic" system (Called "channeling the One Power"). A Song of Ice and Fire is mostly medieval knights/lords/ladies; there's some mention of magic and you do see some of it in practice, but it's background and your understanding of how it works is minimal at best. Ironically enough, there's plenty of "magic" in a Wheel of Time, but no dragons, while there are dragons in A Song of Ice and Fire, but very little "magic".

Now that I've outed myself as a super nerd, feel free to flame away/ask questions .

Wow..thanks Spartan. Im finishing up my latest Star Wars novel and then will read WoT.

Straight up. Thanks, Sparty. +1. Sanderson picked up perfectly (Jordan left tons of notes). In his first book, my only problem was he messed up my favorite character's (Mat) voice a little. Then he bounced back with Towers of Midnight and perfected it.

Rand and Mat themselves outpace any character in SoFaI in terms of likability, IMO.

I know. That big bastard might eat himself into an early grave.

My biggest complaint with Martin is he writes to damn much about food.

For real. If I have to read another two pages worth of him discribing how the "hot grease from the fatted pig trickled down Tyrions fingers" before he gets to some dialogue, I'm gonna lose it.