[Maceol]

I have found than in most Jordan-esque books vast amounts of prophecy have been applied to the central characters. I find that this completely undermines any concept that the character has free will. In Eddings, for example, Garion's life is completely under the dominion of one set of prophecies that he has no power over. This makes how intelligent, compassionate or brave Garion is completely irrelevant, as any choice he makes was decided thousands of years before. Also, this sort of plot device makes for an extremely predictable plot ("And he shall vanquish the Enemy on the third day of the year). I personally would like to see authors either ditch prohets altogether or have prophecies occaisionally turn out ot be incorrect.

[Jon Shannow]

In the second and third books of the Sword of truth series there were quite a few prophecies that the main characters didn't like in the later books they actively fight against prophecies and regect there teachings.

[ChrisW]

Prophecy is one of the main reasons why there are dozens of WoT forums with large amounts of members on the net compared to Martins er one(?). They are an important part of his story. Prophecy done does not lead to a predictable storyline. Heck Rands life is basically mapped out for us in prophecies, some of which are easy to guess and some which we can only theorise about(the fun bit).

Umm Erikson has no prophecy in his books that I can recall. Mb try him.

[someguy]

OK, I have to be honest here, but I really HATE prophecy in my fantasy. I tolerate it (hey, I love LOTR, WOT, SOT) but I have real problems with it. Free will is too important to me. Having said that, I think Jordan does prophecy well, incorporating it into his story and his entire 'Wheel of Time' concept. And Goodkind has a few twists to his, but still I would rather do with out.