false 10657892 652316 228665 0812511816 9780812511819 1141 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/228665.The_Eye_of_the_World 4.14 12974 ]]> 6252 3.89 106400 3704 4 5 false Tue Dec 18 18:52:30 -0800 2007 Mon Jul 14 02:32:47 -0700 2008 Strange Horizons magazine (http://www.strangehorizons.com/) and I found out why I was so drawn into it...and then I was just kinda sad....

Here is an excerpt (emphasis mine):

I will refer to the two easiest means of extending a fantasy series beyond its natural lifespan as the Jordan method and the Eddings method, though neither method is exclusive to or was originated by the writer I have named it for. The Jordan method involves the maintenance of the status quo from book to book in the same way a television series aiming for syndication maintains the status quo: putting the characters through a combination of trivial events that change nothing, or a series of "important" events which cancel each other out, changing nothing and advancing the story only minutely. The Eddings method involves a repetition of story structure from book to book or series to series, so that even if the characters involved in a book or series are different from those in the author's previous work, the reader can immediately recognize them and their situation as parallel to that of the work they enjoyed last time. Both methods are reassuring to the reader, promising them more of what they enjoyed before, which accounts for their appeal. Both methods also undermine the literary and emotional power of the stories they tell, because they rely upon the robotic repetition of story structure. And since these methods are the easiest methods of continuing a successful series, their fruits requiring less thought to produce than books with original narrative structures or genuine conclusions, they have all but drowned the few sequels or connected works of value on the shelves.]]>