November 6, 2009

• The Gathering Storm and the importance of the Author's Voice

  Recently I read the latest book in the Wheel of Time series titled The Gathering Storm.  This was the first in a three part finale of the already 11 book long series.

  A while back Robert Jordan the author of the Wheel of Time passed away. He was in the process of writing book 12 called A Memory of Light.  Brandon Sanderson was chosen to be his successor and finish the series. However, A Memory of Light promised to be so long that the Sanderson together with the family and publishers decided it would be best to split it into three books.

  Altogether, The Gathering Storm was a worth successor. It was exciting and intense and the events that transpired fulfilled the promise of the previous books in the series. I very much enjoyed returning to the world of WoT. It was so nostalgic re-experiencing the lives of these characters I've been reading about since I was 12 years old.

  But something was... off...

  Brandon Sanderson is a skilled storyteller. There's no question about it. I've read his Mistborn series and was surprised by the creativity expressed in his world and simple clarity of the language he used. It was a lot of fun. His fight scenes were perhaps the best part of his stories. They were detailed, fast paced, intense, and immensely entertaining. There's no real question as to whether Sanderson had the necessary skills to complete the series.

  When Sanderson was asked he said that he had no intention of trying to imitate Jordan's writing voice. He said that that would be a mockery. He was right. And it was good that he didn't. If he had, I doubt I would have been able to stand reading it.

  But Sanderson is not Jordan. And you can tell. I grew up with these books. I'm in love with these characters. And it's... different.  It feels like there's like this itch I can't scratch. It's off. It doesn't fit.  It just feels wrong.

  There were times when I was reading Jordan's words and his descriptions would just strike something within me. The hair on the back of my neck would stand on end. A shiver would run up my spine. It just felt sooo real. So powerful. I was entranced as I read, unable to put it down.

  And technically, I can see problems with Jordan's writing. Sometimes his descriptions are just too long. Sometimes his plot dragged. Often I was annoyed with how slowly the story was unfolding. He was by no means perfect. In some ways Sanderson is a superior writer.
   
  But in other ways, he doesn't hold a candle to Jordan.

  There was just a way the words flowed. A style to his language that made it unique. It was his voice. His masterful, brilliant, storytelling voice.

  The Gathering Storm has some of that. You can see Jordan's touch on the story. It's pretty clearly unfolding according to his plan. At many parts it even feels like Jordan's prose and it probably was since it's well known he wrote as much as he could before he passed. In particular the prologue alone captured me in the same old spell. I was lost in the words same as always.

  But at other parts the differences just annoyed me. Even the tiniest differences would remind me that this is not Jordan. And it just made me sad. It made me melancholy. I wondered at what might have been.

  In a lot of ways it's the same sort of feeling you get when a copy cat band plays a song from your favorite band. Or if in the old days if a bard's apprentice were to play the epic songs or tell the tales of his master. It might be good. Indeed it might even be impressive, but it's not the same. And that alone is enough is to make it not as good. You want the original. It was JORDAN's vision. It was Jordan's world.  Nothing else is the same.

  This is why I can't get into fanfiction. The author's voice means a LOT to me. Sometimes, I'll find fanfiction I enjoy. Some writers of fanfiction are VERY skilled. But it's not the same. I just KNOW the author would never write that  or do that thing  or have the character say this or that, and it just irks me. It's that itch. Always there. I can't banish it from my mind.

  I suppose it would have been worse if Sanderson had obviously surpassed Jordan or equaled him in every way.  Then it would have felt as if Jordan was replaced so easily and that would have been really sad.  But that was never a real possibility. Nobody can write exactly like Robert Jordan because nobody IS Robert Jordan. He's a unique individual who had an amazing extraordinary vision that we are lucky he chose to share with the world.

  I'm glad the story is being finished. I love that I'll eventually find out exactly what Robert Jordan dreamed would happen to his characters.  I'll read the books as soon as they come out just like I always do. I'll get hours of enjoyment same as always.

  But all the time ever mixed with the pleasure will be this perpetual sense of sadness that comes from the knowledge that there will never be another novel, another story, another chapter of writing with Robert Jordan's remarkable unmatched storytelling voice. And I'll remember then how much I miss him.

  • 7:14 pm
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