Jerry Friedman writes: >--- Mark A Mandel <mam at theworld.com> wrote: >> LotR is not a series; it is a single book that was published in three >> physical volumes. (Here's the test: Can you pick up any book in the >> set and read it as a whole?) >... >Yabbut, Konrad was specifically asking for comparison with Robert >Jordan. I assure you, that's a single book that's being published >in n physical volumes. Yes, but he was being compared to Hobb, whose first series [under that name] of books does have some closure in each book (though the Hobb "Fitz" books (the Assassin books and the Fool books) are probably best taken as a single narrative in six parts; note that they do have a single point of view at all times, since they are written as autobiography; near as I can tell, this renders them utterly dissimilar to Jordan's work, and far closer to, say, Brust, if not either as compartmentalized nor as well written). -- Joshua Kronengold (mneme at io.com) "I've been teaching |\ _,,,--,,_ ,) --^--him...to live, to breathe, to walk, to sample the /,`.-'`' -, ;-;;' /\\joy on each road, and the sorrow at each turning. |,4- ) )-,_ ) /\ /-\\\I'm sorry if I kept him out too late"--Vlad Taltos '---''(_/--' (_/-'