The funny thing is, TSR is actually longer than LoC, by about three or four thousand words. (Which ain't much, when the total is wandering perilously close to 400K.) But I found them very different reading experiences: as I said when I re-read TSR, I think that's the book where the scope and complexity are a feature rather than a bug. The points of view haven't started to spiral out of control, and everybody's plotline is doing something important.
I've thought for years that I would love to see an edited version of the series. It'll never happen, but it would be fabulous -- bringing everything together in a far denser form, with less empty space.
Your observation about death is one that actually crossed my mind as I was finishing LoC: hardly anybody of significance dies (and stays dead). Rahvin, Be'lal, and presumably Asmodean; a variety of random women Rand angsts over; the occasional caravan of Tinkers; other side characters here and there. I never have the slightest fear that anybody third-string or higher is going to bite it, unless (as you say) they turn out to be a Darkfriend and therefore we don't really care. Contrast this with George R.R. Martin, where there are only maybe three characters I feel moderately certain will live to see the end of the series -- and maybe not even them . . . .
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yati
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Date: 2010-12-09 07:29 pm (UTC)I've thought for years that I would love to see an edited version of the series. It'll never happen, but it would be fabulous -- bringing everything together in a far denser form, with less empty space.
Your observation about death is one that actually crossed my mind as I was finishing LoC: hardly anybody of significance dies (and stays dead). Rahvin, Be'lal, and presumably Asmodean; a variety of random women Rand angsts over; the occasional caravan of Tinkers; other side characters here and there. I never have the slightest fear that anybody third-string or higher is going to bite it, unless (as you say) they turn out to be a Darkfriend and therefore we don't really care. Contrast this with George R.R. Martin, where there are only maybe three characters I feel moderately certain will live to see the end of the series -- and maybe not even them . . . .