The Complete Wheel of Time

The Wheel of Time #omnibus

by Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson

Written by Robert Jordan and completed posthumously by Brandon Sanderson, The Wheel of Time is one of the greatest epics of fantasy and a #1 internationally bestselling series. Taking place both in our past and our future, the saga tells the story of a man destined to face the Evil One and save the world—or destroy it in the process.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Epic, Ebooks, Science Fiction Fantasy

11095 pages, ebook

First published May 1, 2014

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Robert Jordan was the pen name of James Oliver Rigney, Jr., under which he was best known as the author of the bestselling The Wheel of Time fantasy series. He also wrote under the names Reagan O'Neal and Jackson O'Reilly.

Jordan was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He served two tours in Vietnam (from 1968 to 1970) with the United States Army as a helicopter gunner. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with bronze oak leaf cluster, the Bronze Star with "V" and bronze oak leaf cluster, and two Vietnamese Gallantry Crosses with palm. After returning from Vietnam he attended The Citadel where he received an undergraduate degree in physics. After graduating he was employed by the United States Navy as a nuclear engineer. He began writing in 1977. He was a history buff and enjoyed hunting, fishing, sailing, poker, chess, pool, and pipe collecting.

He described himself as a "High Church" Episcopalian and received communion more than once a week. He lived with his wife Harriet McDougal, who works as a book editor (currently with Tor Books; she was also Jordan's editor) in a house built in 1797.

Responding to queries on the similarity of some of the concepts in his Wheel of Time books with Freemasonry concepts, Jordan admitted that he was a Freemason. However, "like his father and grandfather," he preferred not to advertise, possibly because of the negative propaganda against Freemasonry. In his own words, "no man in this country should feel in danger because of his beliefs."

On March 23, 2006, Jordan disclosed in a statement that he had been diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis, and that with treatment, his median life expectancy was four years, though he said he intended to beat the statistics. He later posted on his Dragonmount blog to encourage his fans not to worry about him and that he intended to have a long and fully creative life.

He began chemotherapy treatment at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, in early April 2006. Jordan was enrolled in a study using the drug Revlimid just approved for multiple myeloma but not yet tested on primary amyloidosis.

Jordan died at approximately 2:45 p.m. EDT on September 16, 2007, and a funeral service was held for him on Wednesday, September 19, 2007. Jordan was cremated and his ashes buried in the churchyard of St. James Church in Goose Creek, outside Charleston.

Reviews

[Olivier Delaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, here we are—11,100 pages read in 3 months, but who’s counting!

Now I can finally say that I have read the Wheel of Time cover to cover, a work of Fantasy that's been more than 23 years in the making. As many of you WoT fans out there know, the first book in the series entitled The Eye of the World came out in 1990, and, unless I’m mistaken, it was a huge success, and deservedly so. While heavily influenced by The Lord of the Rings (sailing too close to plagiarism for comfort at times), Robert Jordan managed to veer off that slippery road as soon as book 2 (The Great Hunt) came out, creating as a result a juggernaut of a Fantasy world of amazing depth and detail (too much detail, some might say) peopled by just as deep and detailed characters, many of whom will forever live in many a Fantasy-loving heart.

I believe everyone is or should be familiar with the story by now—that of Rand Al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, whose destiny is to save the world from destruction, thwarting in order to do so all attempts by the Dark One and his minions and eventually defeating them. You can’t get more traditional Fantasy-esque than that, and I love it. Page after page, Robert Jordan manages effortlessly to take us readers on an amazing adventure full of plot twists, action and magic, and truth be told I couldn’t get enough of it…

that is, until I got to book 7, A Crown of Swords, and everything fell apart. The plot began to meander and go nowhere, the amount of useless description and detail of this or that dress, shawl, jewelry and whatnot simply became indigestible, the characters and especially the female characters became downright obnoxious verging on sexist, and all in all the reading experience became a chore reaching outright torture in book 10, Crossroads of Twilight. At this point, I believe that even the most hardened reader would just call it quits and move on to something else. I think I vented my frustration loud and clear about this in my review of book 6, Lord of Chaos, so I won’t bother you guys with a rehash here.

Anyway, long story short, the thought of quitting was real, but then one day I found myself picking up book 11, Knife of Dreams… and, miracle of miracles, it was so good that I simply could not put it down! Robert Jordan really penned an amazing book with this one, proving to the world (or, at least, to me) that he was back at the top of his game. Unfortunately we all know what happened next: Jordan became sick with an incurable disease and in no time he was gone, leaving behind the WoT unfinished. But then, as fate would have it, Jordan’s readers and fans were blessed with Brandon Sanderson as the young Fantasy writer accepted to finish the Wot series, releasing the first of the last three books, The Gathering Storm, in 2009.

Now we all know that it can be a risky business for an author to pick up the baton and continue another author’s series. People will invariably compare him/her to the original author and more often than not find him/her wanting. Not so here. Sanderson was the perfect choice to accomplish such a feat, and the fact that he himself is a huge fan of the series is nothing but icing on the cake. While managing to blend to perfection both his own voice and that of Robert Jordan, Sanderson injects not only a breath of fresh air into the WoT, but a much needed dose of action and resolution to many questions that were both sorely missing in books 7 through 10. The ending, while somewhat predictable, was masterfully written, totally satisfying, and, after more than 23 years, could not have come soon enough.

Best passage of the whole series (and quite possibly the most well-known!):

The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legends fade to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the third age by some, an Age yet to come, an age long pass, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings or endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.

OLIVIER DELAYE
Author of the SEBASTEN OF ATLANTIS series

[Matt Still · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, this is the definitive work of fantasy literature. Everything I look at reading comes up for comparison with this series--as well it should, as I started reading when there were only 7 books out. I remember eagerly snatching up The Path of Daggers as a teenager when it came out, I remember hunting Winter's Heart down in a local library, and I was devastated when Robert Jordan passed away in 2007.

I lost track of it over time, and only recently reread all 14 books, more than a decade after my journey first started. It took about six months, but I was able to find the first 11 books online.

A few cons, and then to the pros.

--The dialogue, compared to natural-flowing conversation or today's young-adult novels, seems stiff and not how normal conversations would actually go. This is especially noticeable in the first book, but I quickly became desensitized due to the sheer awesomeness of the story.

--several of the women characters (Nynaeve, primarily) are a little-over the top in their drama, and some of the female storylines really bog down the series about halfway through. Women play a HUGE part in this series, but the inter-female drama is clearly told from the viewpoint of a man who somehow sees women as more complex than they actually are.

--Jordan likes describing things. A lot. Between this and the thick female drama, there are several sections of the series where you're tempted to skim more than to read.

--At the 12th book, Brandon Sanderson took over writing after Robert Jordan passed away. A Gathering Storm was the most difficult to read for me, because Sanderson nearly ruined two of my favorite characters up to that point in the story.


So...these seem like pretty big pitfalls, right? Why is it still the best epic fantasy ever?

--The characters. The story progresses, in classic epic style, from humble beginnings to the grand scale. But the characters are SO fullly fleshed out--with flaws, strengths, quirks, and so on. They plot, they pursue their own goals, and they're often convinced of something the reader knows is false. You become intimate with them, like old friends. You feel the sense of wonder at the new world as characters discover things, you can feel the desperation in hopeless situations, you take part in the mirth and frustration and every mood that the characters feel.

--The world-building is massive, meticulous, and consistent throughout the series. I don't mean to say that every nation, culture, quirk, is broken downand explained in detail--but rather, they're fleshed out throughout the series. You become familiar with the distinctive dress, speech, naming conventions, habits, and temperaments of well over a doezn different cultures through the book, without him ever breaking down and having to explain it. At the time that Brandon Sanderson took over the writing, there were about 3 million words of Wheel of Time in print. Robert Jordan's comprehensive notes included more than 4 million words of unpublished description of the world, of character traits, of nations and histories, everything. And that meticulous care is shown in every book.

--The foresight, having read most of the series twice, is incredible. Events in the first book foreshadow events as late as the 13th book, written years after the author had passed away. And by foresight I mean not just in hinting at what's going to happen several books before it does, but also in anticipating what a modern reader would think up and then implementing that. I remember thinking about events and possibilities as they opened up, and imagining (like a silly fantasy nerd kid) how I would do this or use it in that way--and then, two or three books later, feeling both excited that he thought of the same thing I did, and crestfallen because there didn't seem to be an obvious way to improve upon it.

--The "magic" system is beautifully complex, and Robert Jordan never actually calls it magic, which is pretty cool. It's presented as a natural force, which some can "channel," and with rules as straightforward but as complex as normal physics. The fabric of the universe itself, called the Pattern, and the way that our lives (threads of the pattern) weave through it like some giant cosmic quilt, creates a really nifty--but also deep--concept. Which is, like other things in the series, revealed gradually and maintained consistently throughout the series.

--The humor. Sometimes dry, sometimes overt, but usually there's just a sprinking of subtle comedy mixed in that make it readable. He's superb at summing a character up in one or two sentences, from another character's perspective, that makes you just stop and chuckle a bit.

--The ending, which is worth the whole slog. After Book 12, Brandon brings his inconsistencies back in line, and the last two books are almost like one gigantic extended climax. It's fulfilling, and it's satisfying, and it's worth it. And it's comforting to know that Robert Jordan wrote out the entire last scene, years before we actually got to read it.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started this series June 2012. Around book 6 it turned from reading for pleasure into a project I was determined to finish, so I began just taking my time. Once Sanderson took over the story picked back up, but even he at times exhibited a bit of Jordan's writing-just-to-write feel. As another reviewer put it, the story is great but there is so much unnecessary, burdensome text to slog through that it brings my satisfaction with the series way down. That being said, the character development is great. Although at a minimum I would expect an author to provide in-depth character stories when you have thousands of pages in which to do it.

I did in the meantime finish Sanderson's two completed books in his Stormlight Archive series. Those are great. While I wouldn't recommend the Wheel of Time series, perhaps you should checkout Sanderson's books for something similar but more succinct.

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time . But it was a beginning." Jordan, Robert (2009-10-24). I knew when I started this beastly series it would be an investment and the investment was worth it by a long shot. Wheel of Time exceeded in a fantasy story about heroes. It seems fantasy besides Sanderson and a few others has gone very dark lately. Don't get me wrong I still enjoy those, but nothing rings more with me then a story about heroes that rise up beyond what they think is possible to put evil at bay. The Wheel of Time does this as well as any. The character list is vast and I grew to actually care about them all. Our three core heroes Rand, Mat, and Perrin were exactly what we wanted and I loved it. The series possessed a large detailed vast rich world and a magic system that was fantastically described and written. I read about scenes that will forever be printed in my mind and caused me more than once to think "that was freaking awesome." Now it wasn't perfect, a few of the middle books in the series did drag on with lots of description but man writing 14 books there is bound to be a few we don't like. Overall The Wheel of Time series requires some time and investment but the payoff is worth every page you turn and I recommend to all who enjoy heroic fantasy. RIP Robert Jordan and thank you for the amazing journey you took me on.

[Jason Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suggest this series to anyone who enjoys fantasy, can make the time commitment to get through 12,000 pages, and deal with some slow books in the middle. If you like great prose, this will work for you. Character development? Jordan's your pusher. Compelling story? This is your hook up. However, be prepared to be frustrated with effusive excess and repetition.

Mark Twain encouraged James Fenimore Cooper to "eschew surplusage." Jordan should have done that too. (And so should I, actually).

Everything I have to say about the series can be found in my reviews for the individual books:

New Spring ★★★★✰
The Eye of the World ★★★✰✰
The Great Hunt ★★★★✰
The Dragon Reborn ★★★★✰
The Shadow Rising ★★★★★
The Fires of Heaven ★★★★★
Lord of Chaos ★★★★✰
A Crown of Swords ★★★✰✰
The Path of Daggers ★★★✰✰
Winter's Heart ★★★★✰
Crossroads of Twilight ★★✰✰✰
Knife of Dreams ★★★★★
The Gathering Storm ★★★★✰
Towers of Midnight ★★★★✰
A Memory of Light ★★★★✰

If you've read those reviews, you know I spend a lot of time picking on the series as a whole. After all, there's no dearth of shortcomings that deserve excoriation. However, I really do love the series. In fact, I was so enamored with it at one point that I was inspired to make an afghan based on the Amyrlin's stole.



Shown here is five and a half years worth of work (between several other projects). I ended up giving it to my sister for Christmas a couple of years ago. Well, I didn't have any use for the thing; I was just making it to keep my hands busy from time to time.

The stripes go in order of the Ajahs in the stole, and each has the Aes Sedai symbol on it. I even represented the Black Ajah with a black border, and it was supposed to indicate that the White Tower was keeping the darkness at bay, or some other dorky shit like that; I really don't remember.

Five and a half years might seem like a long time, but this was faux double-knit. Meaning it comes out like a double knit piece, but it's really just a long afghan folded in half and tacked together on the inside, so I ended up doing twice as much work as I would've for a regular afghan. Here it is before I doubled it.



This makes it super warm and great for winter nights. And it was fun learning the mattress stitch to seamlessly sew the stripes together. A lot of calculation and scribbling went into it, and like Rand in The Eye of the World when his farm was first attacked by Trollocs and he was trying to get away safely, I "tried to make a plan," and by the time I got started I "had made and discarded ten." (Turning a good phrase was not one of Jordan's shortcomings which is what made slogging through parts of this bearable.) Here are some of my plans in making a pattern.



There were also three or four false starts while trying to figure out how to make it work in practice. I tried to make up double-knit intarsia, and... no. Just no. That is not a thing. It is an impossibility as near as I can tell, and I may as well have been a male channeling Saidin before the taint was removed for how insane that would've made me. Here's one of the first, failed double-knit efforts.



Once I got to the Aes Sedai symbol and saw it wasn't going to be the same size as the rest of it, I added a couple of button holes on the flap, as well as a couple of buttons, knitted up an i-cord, tacked it on the side, gave to a coworker to use to store her yoga mat, and called myself a hero. Oh, pack up your troubles in your old kit bag, and cry, cry, cry.

You may be asking what's the point of all this? I'll tell you. When a book burrows so deeply into your psyche that you feel inspired to make something based on it, and you spend over half a decade doing so... Well, if that isn't high praise, then I don't know what is.

[Kaminsod · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wheel of Time turns and ages come and pass.

Honestly, I feels like it has been an entire age since I read Eye of the World – but in reality, it has only been about five months. And now I am here – I finished A Memory of Light and I am trying to summarize my expirience with the series. I warn you, this is probably going to be very long and messy. So, let’s start at the beggining.

When I started to read this series, I went into it with limited expectations. From what I heard about it, I knew that WoT might not really be my taste. I prefer darker, more original and untraditional fantasy like Malazan, First Law, Song of Ice and Fire etc. But I also heard a lot about its incredible worldbuilding, character arcs and I just thought that it is one of those series one just have to read, if he wants to call himself „well read in fantasy genre“.

So, I tried Eye of the World and honestly, I was surprised. It was not the most original book in the world and I had a lot of isues with it, but I felt captured by the worldbulding, Jordan’s prose and my curiosity. Then I got into Great Hunt and it was great – much more original, I started to click with more characters and I saw the huge potential which the series had. I was in and I even thought, that this could be one of my favorite series ever if it keeps the same quality. Aaand then my hype was immediately killed by Dragon Reborn. I am not saying that book is bad, but it repeated exactly the same formula for the third time in a row, it had more fluff than previous books, some POVs were just boring and overall it did not bring anything new and it absolutelly killed the momentum for me… momentum, that quite frankly was never fully rekindled.

I liked Shadow Rising, but I was not wild about it. I loved the worldbuilding more and more, some moments were amazing, as well as some characters, but I also started to wonder in which direction is the story even going, why do we spend so much time with some unnecessary stuff and why is not Jordan using his worldbuilding for more than just describing the different cultures. And those problems remained relevant in Fires of Heaven, just on much larger scale, which resolted into me not enjoying that one at all.

Then I read Lord of Chaos. And I will not pretend I did not see the same negatives in that book, but I finally felt like the story is moving forward, lot of plot lines were concluded, characters were developing, world was changing, stakes were high and the final part was absolutelly amazing and it gave me hope that the other books can be on the same level. And yeah, Crown of Swords maybe was not as good as LoC, but it definitelly continued in the direction I liked and I thought – „Well, if this book is representative of the quality of so called slog, than I think I will have no problem with it“ – but yeeeah, that was not the case.

Path of Daggers, Winter’s Heart and Crossroads of Twillight are bad books. They could have been just one book and I still probably would have problem with some of Jordan’s decisions. And just like that, my hype that was rekindling, was killed for good, especially with CoT. If I was not completionist, I would have stop reading the series.

However, I am glad I did not. Because even though I did not get what I wanted from this series and I still have a lot to say about that later in this review, I enjoyed books eleven to fourteen quite a bit. Knife of Dreams set the series back in good direction, Gathering Storm send it into its final arc, Towers of Midnight prepared everything for a finale and Memory of Light delived a satisfying final part of this journey.

But as I already said, even thought this series kind of redeemed itself after the horiffic slog and it was ended in a way fans of it really love, I just can not ignore the fact, that as a whole, the series has enormous flaws and tons of wasted potential. And I would like to talk about those.

Let’s go through minor critisisms at first:
- There is a lot of over the top melodrama
- Romance in general is terrible
- Even though it becomes its own thing, there is still a lot of things that you see and go „I have seen that 100 times before“
- It is very predictable at times
- Jordan is overdescribing things, especially dresses (I do not have a problem with that, I quite like Jordan’s prose, but sometimes it was too much even for me)
- He is also repeating info dumbs over and over again
- Some storylines and characters have very weird or no conclusions to their arcs
But I would be willing to kind of accept all of that because of the worldbuilding, some amazing character arcs, the big epic moments etc. However, there is just one thing that never allowed me to fully enjoy this series and it’s the structure of it. And I mean that in several ways.

It is extremely fluffy – really, a lot! And unnecesarly so. Expect of Memory of Light, you could cut atleast hundred pages from any of there books. Also, some plotlines just do not go anywhere at the end of the day – and that makes all the time spend with those characters and those boring plotlines even more painful. And to add to that, Jordan re-uses some formulas a lot, so that can also annoy you a lot.

In summary, for me it just felt like not only the series has seriously slow pace, but that I do not know where is it even going. What is the point? What is the next step? Why should I feel like the stakes are high? It was so frustrating to me, when every book started to deal with the same thing in a different cloak, with some other annoying side quest, when the main storylines were just kind of… hanging there? I did not know why should I care. I did not feel like it matters and I always knew good guys are gonna win, because… yeah, that is how it goes.

I do not know how to explain it better, sadly. Maybe like this: It felt like Jordan decided to make this series as long as possible to show you the best of his world, but he did not have enough material for the story, so he decided to let it just be and entertain you with some sub plots. And yeah, now when I know how the series ended I think that actually really is what he wanted and he did quite a good job with it… not for me, but the series is good for what it was suppose to be. In other words, it is the showcase of cultures and other elements in Jordan’s world till you get to the Last Battle.

And that brings me to my other big issue and by that I mean… it really could have been so much more than preparation for the Last Battle. Jordan clearly had so much talent, he showed that numerous times. So why didn’t he spend less time with melodrama and did not explore some other fantasy ideas? Why didn’t he make things faster and add more twist? Why didn’t he make Rand fall more to dark for a while? And these are just random examples, but most importantly… why didn’t he use the potential of scifi elements or the concept of Wheel of Time almost at all? Yeah, there were some minor things, but that was what could have take this series to another level for me and I did not quite get that at all, just like any other of the things I wrote about and lot others.

Well, to kind of conclude this… so far I think I had just two opinions overall that are considered fantasy hot takes. First one being, that I do not like Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere that much and second one being, that I hate Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicles. But while Sanderson just isn’t my taste, I absolutely get everyone who says, that he is their favorite author – I respect his work, I acknowlage its quality and its place among the greatest fantasy series. I just do not love it personally. But with Kingkiller… I do not get it at all, I think those books have horrible characters, horrible story and even though they are written sooo beautifuly, I do not get how can someone enjoy those on that level. And with Wheel of Time… it something in the middle.

While I get why this can be someone’s favorite series of all time and I absolutely agree that it is amazing in some ways, I also thing it is very flawed structuraly, it has wasted potential and it has a lot of other isues, and that’s the reason I do not agree with the fact, that it should be called one of the absolute best, TOP 10 if you want, fantasy series of all time.

I do not regret I read it, but I can not say I enjoyed it overall. It was more of an mix-bag. Only books I trully liked a lot were The Great Hunt, Lord of Chaos and The Gathering Storm. I will never re-read this… but I am glad I can say, that I have read Wheel of Time.

My final ratings:
The Eye of the World 6/10
The Great Hunt 8/10
The Dragon Reborn 4/10
The Shadow Rising 6/10
The Fires of Heaven 5/10
Lord of Chaos 8/10
A Crown of Swords 6,5/10
Path of Daggers 3/10
Winter’s Heart 3/10
Crossroads of Twilight 2/10
Knife of Dreams 6,5/10
The Gathering Storm 8/10
Tower of Midnight 6/10
A Memory of Light 7/10

Wheel of time 5/10

[Peter Gould · Rating 2 out of 5]

I definitely enjoyed the first 3 books in this series. The advice my older brother gave me when picking it up was: read the first 3 books and then imagine whatever ending you like because they are not as good afterwards. Though this advice was being given around midway of the books being written. I feel that I should have heeded his advice. After the first 3 books the author held me in for a while yet the story continued to expand, and more and more characters were introduced. I never felt much attachment to the newer characters and some of the old characters who still got focused on began to become tired. What I wanted was a resolution, the plot to move forward and the secrets to be revealed. However the further I went the slower that resolution seemed to become. Instead the focus seemed to go toward repetitive mannerisms, introducing new characters and expanding the scope of the story. Bitter and bored I gave it up around book 7 more or less.

[Sadnan R. Swachho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book ratings~

1. Eye Of the World (3☆)
2. The Great Hunt (4.25☆)
3. The Dragon Reborn (4.25-4.5☆)
4. The Shadow Rising (5☆)
5. The Fires Of Heaven (5☆)
6. Lord Of Chaos (3.5☆)
7. A Crown Of Swords (4☆)
8. The Path Of Daggers (3.75☆)
9. Winter's Heart (3.5☆)
10. Crossroads Of Twilight (2☆)
11. Knife Of Dreams (5☆)
12. The Gathering Storm (5☆)
13. Towers Of Midnight (4.75☆)
14. A Memory Of Light (6☆) [Greatest Ever]

Overall series — 4.75☆

While WOT has its lows, the highs more than make up for them, some of the best in all of fiction imo. The character arcs, in particular, are life-changing. Especially Rand's character arc, easily the greatest ever.

Overall series is probably my T2, just behind Discworld

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best fantasy series out there. Used this Coronavirus time to reread all of them prior to the new series getting released on streaming.

[Bearcanyons · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've finally done it. Twelve thousand and change pages are behind me, and my mind is filled to the brim with thoughts of chosen ones and crystal swords and mythological references and invaders from the west. Good god. For the past year, this series has been my fantasy white whale. Although I didn't overly enjoy the first book after finishing it earlier this year, I decided to march on. It ended up taking most of the summer, save for a couple short breaks for books that I, in all honesty, enjoyed much more, but I managed to finish A Memory of Light last Saturday, September 5th of the year 2020. The question is, was it worth it? Well. I honestly don't know.

If the question was instead "Did I enjoy The Wheel of Time?", I would say yes. Mostly. I managed to find things to like in all except one of the books in this series, and a fair number of the series' entries were honestly a lot of fun. But this brings us to The Wheel of Time's biggest problem: every single damn book in this series could be shortened by at least a third and lose little in the grand scheme of things. Yes, I am mainly talking about the infamous slog, but the first six and last three aren't exempt by any means. I'd say the two books in the series which I found to be the tightest (although they're by no means lean) are probably The Dragon Reborn and The Gathering Storm, but even those two could probably lose a good 100-200 pages each.

What did I even like about this series, then? There are certainly good parts, I'll admit that. Some great parts, even. Rand's overall journey was quite entertaining to me. The way he slowly went insane was often captivating, although at some points rather tedious, and I quite like how his story ended as well. Mat grows from a more traditional sidekick role to be one of the more interesting characters in the series, frequently echoing the tales of Odin and Loki. Then we have some truly fantastic moments spattered throughout. I'm thinking of the seizing of the Stone of Tear, Rand and Mat's visions at Rhuidean (Rand's vision into the Aiel's past is one of the most brilliant moments of fantasy I've ever read), the battle for Cairhien, the battle of Dumai's Wells, Rand's assault against the Seanchan, the cleansing of Saidin, The Golden Crane, and so on. There are so many god damn brilliant moments in this series, and I can't help but lament that it's not about half as long as it turned out to be.

In those five or six thousand pages that just aren't really necessary, we get some truly excruciating plot lines and characters. The flee of the Shaido Aiel goes on for about six books before finally, and seemingly reluctantly, coming to a close in Jordan's final chapters. The split in the White Tower, which I actually found quite interesting in books 4-6, doesn't fully wrap up until the end of book twelve, and gets pretty old by book seven or eight. Perhaps the worst example is Elayne's plot line throughout books eight through eleven. Her reclaiming of Andor is, to be sure, an important component of the later part of the series, but it should have been wrapped in, at the very most, one book, and certainly shouldn't have taken up a good third of four novels in a row. I'd estimate well over a thousand pages are dedicated to this dull, drawn out waste of a story line, when in reality it should have taken no more than two or three hundred at most.

To add on to this, The Wheel of Time also boasts a vast catalog of unlikable and uninteresting characters. At this point I probably sound pretty damn harsh, so I must clarify: I like a lot of characters in this series. Rand, Mat, Perrin (mostly earlier on), Egwene, and Nynaeve (mostly later on) all make up a fairly engaging main cast, and side characters such as Thom Merrilin, Moiraine, Loial, and Lan are likable as well. But then you've got hundreds and thousands, literally thousands, of named characters who range from simple pieces on a game board to somehow being even more hateable than all of the Forsaken and the Dark One himself combined. The greatest example of this is Faile, a noblewoman who apparently comes from a land where domestic abuse is actually effective, wouldn't you know? To my relief, she's later on shifted over to the vast list of characters who don't show much of a personality at all in the Sanderson books, but there's about eight solid books of Faile in all of her Jordan-written glory before that. Besides the short list of stuck-up noble boys, chin-raising ladies, and scheming Aes Sedai who I grew to despise throughout the series, there are approximately... let's see... two thousand and a half thousand characters who I have exactly zero knowledge or memory of. Who the hell is Mezar Kurin? Or Birlen Pena? Edesina Azzedin? I'll be damned if I know.

Then we get to perhaps my biggest issue with the series: the gender politics. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some sort of raging anti-feminist by any means, quite the opposite. In fact, I think it's my progressive tendencies that turn me off from Robert Jordan's rendering of differences between the sexes and, overall, his portrayal of women throughout the series. I must state this here as to not confuse any readers: Robert Jordan did, indeed, write a number of interesting and likable female characters. I truly believe that. But, there is a difference between writing good female characters and writing women well. One involves generally being a good character writer, while the other involves not being a subconscious or, in some cases, blatant sexist. I don't believe that Jordan fell into the latter category at all. If anything, I think he actively tried to portray a bit more of a feminist point of view in his books, and that was admirable in a time when ninety percent of women in fantasy were damsels in distress and the other ten percent were evil lesbians. The problem comes down to Jordan's personal view on gender differences. From what I can tell. he truly believed that men and women were more different than they were similar, and that the goal was not to treat men and women basically the same but rather to acknowledge the vast differences between the sexes and solve the problem from there. I completely disagree with this world view, and throughout the series it drives me a little crazy. In The Wheel of Time, most men share common traits and most women share common traits. Men are usually outwardly stoic yet also a little rash, though they're certainly not afraid to voice their feelings in lengthy inner monologues. Women, on the other hand, are portrayed as more plotting and scheming, but also constantly whine about everything and are incredibly dramatic about even the tiniest of issues. There, I find, very few exceptions to these rules. This doesn't mean that there can't be personality differences between characters of the same gender, but I do find that it restricts personalities of both gender. Another thing that really bothered me was that... well... I don't mean to disrespect the late Robert Jordan or anything, but he could be a bit of a nasty old pervert sometimes. There are an absolutely incredible amount of bosom and breast descriptions, near countless scenarios of women (and almost never men) having to strip naked for a variety of reasons, and a bunch of really weird examples of pseudo-sexual moments involving usually younger women (women embracing Saidar and sighing and moaning, Elayne using the "red rod", that one Aes Sedai pretty much orgasming when she's bonded against her will). Then, to add onto this, there's Jordan's inclusion of LGBT characters. I know that sounds like a good sign, but it's really not great. There are some LGBT themes included throughout the series, mainly in the form of "pillow friends". But although pillow friends are (usually) women who engage in sexual activity with other women, it's not really lesbianism. Jordan shows it as young women who help each other satisfy their libido, then move on when they discover the wonders of men. This sounded like the author being a bit of a boomer until I read some interviews about the subject, but now it seems like Jordan was, uh... getting a bit of a kick out of this idea. Besides lesbianism more or less being portrayed as masturbation material, there are exactly zero male gay characters written in all twelve of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time novels. It isn't until Towers of Midnight that Sanderson finally includes some brief references to a gay military officer.

God, I've just been complaining for two straight paragraphs, and I'm not even done yet. At this point, I'll move onto the Sanderson novels for a bit. I enjoyed them. I think they were more even, in general, than most of the Jordan books, largely due to Brandon's plotting skill. There's also the fact that the gender politics are heavily toned down, and the differences between men and women are pretty neutered as well. I also think that a couple characters are just as well written as they were in the first eleven books of the series, Rand being one of them. The problems start here. A fair amount of the characters are, to varying degrees, fucked up in these last three books. The most infamous and egregious example is Mat. Mat Cauthon of the Jordan books is a really great character. He's charming while still remaining really god damn cool as well, and is a bit of a sexist but in a funny, ironic way that's obviously not endorsed by the author. From The Gathering Storm on, Mat is pretty much just comic relief. His entire personality, which used to be infused with so much sardonic humor, is pretty much flipped towards patented Sanderson-humor, involving quips and dad puns galore. A lot of his cool factor is also neutered; we hardly get any of those moments that just make you go "holy shit, that's actually really awesome idea." Although Mat is the most obvious example, plenty of others are affected. I feel that a lot of the side characters lose some of their charm. Then you've got some other Sanderson quirks, such as the anime-esque "power-up moments" that seem to show up in many of his works. He doesn't always do this, as evidenced by the great scene with Rand atop Dragonmount, but it's a bit jarring to see Rand or Perrin going fucking Super Saiyan when they need to solve their problems. Despite these quirks, however, Sanderson's books are enjoyable. The last book in particular is near constant action, and I'd say more individual things happen in these three books than in the previous five or six combined.

Ah, here's where we get to it. Throughout the entire slog, approximately from the end of Dumai's Wells to halfway through Knife of Dreams for me, I was begging for the Sanderson books to start. So many parts of those middle books were simply excruciating. The constant whining from just about everyone, entire books where Rand was pretty much absent, story lines that take ages for little immediate payoff (I'm looking at you, fucking Bowl of the Winds). God, it was bad. But after finishing the series, you know what I think about the most? Those damn Robert Jordan books. Now, I'm mainly talking about the earlier books to be sure. I still not particularly apt to revisit Winter's Heart or Crossroads of Twilight, and I don't think I will be for quite a while. But there are a number of moments, mostly from those first six books, which I can't stop thinking about. They pop up in my mind when I'm falling asleep, they enter my day dreams in the middle of the day. I think there's a reason for this. Despite all of his myriad flaws, and there are a fucking ton, Robert Jordan knew how to write these absolutely magical moments that really stick with you. Despite the fact that so many bombastic events happen throughout Sanderson's books, none of them stick in my mind as much as Dumai's Wells or Mat's meetings with the 'Finn. That's why I say that if Jordan had been able to cut down the books, the Wheel of Time would be one of the greatest fantasy series of all time. But unfortunately, there fantastic, incredible moments are surrounded by thousands upon thousands of pages of pure fluff. For every Dumai's Wells there are two hundred pages of flowery description, and for every Mat or Rand chapter there are five chapters where nothing really happens. The Wheel of Time is brilliant. The Wheel of Time is awe-inspiring. But, even more so, The Wheel of Time is dull. It's mind-numbing. Entire books go by and nothing happens. Five thousand pages are gone and we're more or less back where we started. This Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, and I lament those machinations despite their inevitability.

Did I enjoy The Wheel of Time? Sometimes. Mostly? I don't know. Do I regret reading The Wheel of Time? No, not at all. Despite the amount of boredom and annoyance that this series caused me, I think I'll read it again someday. Perhaps on audiobook. Not physically though, not for a long while. I don't have that kind of fucking time, all right?

2/5

[Konstantinos Amvrazis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Το review για όλη την σειρά!

Θέλοντας να μοιραστώ μαζί σας την αγάπη μου για τα βιβλία fantasy αλλά και γενικά για το είδος θα ξεκινήσω μια σειρά από reviews των αγαπημένων μου βιβλίων.
Η αρχή θα γίνει με το Wheel Of Time. Δε θα μπορούσε να ξεκινήσει αλλιώς αυτό το ταξίδι μας καθώς πρόκειται για το δικό μου all time favourite βιβλίο , ή μάλλον σειρά βιβλίων, του Αμερικανού συγγραφέα James Oliver Rigney Jr a.k.a Robert Jordan.
Ας μιλήσουμε όμως με αριθμούς για αυτή την πραγματικά επικών διαστάσεων σειρά. Πρόκειται για μια σειρά από 14, ναι καλά διαβάσατε 14 ολόκληρα βιβλία τα οποία στην αγγλική γλώσσα αριθμούν κάτι παραπάνω από 11.500 σελίδες και περίπου 4.600.000 λέξεις υπολογίζοντας σε αυτά και 1 prequel novel(New Spring) και 2 companion books!! Στα ελληνικά κυκλοφορεί χωρισμένο σε 2 τόμους το κάθε βιβλίο,σύνολο θα φτάσει τα 28(!!)βιβλία και μέχρι τώρα αριθμεί 13241 σελίδες (ανάλογα την έκδοση). Δυστυχώς δεν έχει ολοκληρωθεί ακόμα η έκδοση όλου του έργου καθώς μόλις το 2020 κυκλοφόρησε το 12ο βιβλίο( Gathering Storm). Το πρώτο βιβλίο (The Eye Of The World) εκδόθηκε το 1990. Το 2007 ο R.J. έφυγε από τη ζωή έχοντας όμως φροντίσει με τη σύζυγό του , Harriet McDougal , να βρουν τον συνεχιστή του έργο στο πρόσωπο του Brandon Sanderson ο οποίος ολοκλήρωσε τα 3 τελευταία βιβλία, με το τελευταίο να εκδίδεται το 2013 (Memory of Light). Στη σειρά λοιπόν , εμφανίζονται ούτε λίγο ούτε πολύ περίπου 2780(!) χαρακτήρες ,σε έναν φανταστικό κόσμο που αριθμεί 18 έθνη/πόλεις κράτη, με ακόμα 3 που αναφέρονται αλλά έχουν πλέον εξαφανιστεί, με 3 φυλές ανάμεσα τους , τουλάχιστον 2 είδη εκτός το ανθρώπινο και τουλάχιστον 4 διαφορετικές διαλέκτους και γλώσσες. Ενώ αξίζει να σημειωθεί ότι έχει πουλήσει παραπάνω από 80.000.000 αντίτυπα σε όλο τον κόσμο.
Ενας κόσμος με λεπτομερείς περιγραφές όσον αφορά την μορφολογία του εδάφους ,με λαμπρές πόλεις, ερήμους, βουνά, πελάγη και όλα τα φυσικά χαρακτηριστικά ενός κανονικού κόσμου σε επικές αναλογίες!! Η εμμονή ,θα μπορούσα να πω, του R.J. στη λεπτομέρεια μπορεί να κουράσει κάποιον, εμένα προσωπικά με έβαλε τόσο μέσα στον κόσμο του που ένιωθα σαν να ζούσα πραγματικά μέσα στις σελίδες των βιβλίων του.
Ο συγγραφέας έχει πάρει αρκετά στοιχεία από ευρωπαϊκή και ασιατική μυθολογία καθώς και στοιχεία από βουδισμό, ινδουισμό, ταοϊσμό, χριστιανισμό και ισλαμισμό. Η όλη ιστορία διαδραματίζεται σε σχεδόν 3 χρόνια από την στιγμή που γνωρίζουμε τους πρωταγωνιστές μας ,αν και υπάρχουν αναφορές σε γεγονότα που συνέβησαν χιλιάδες χρόνια πριν, πράγμα που σημαίνει ότι το lore έχει δουλευτεί αρκετά, και εξελίσσετε σε ένα περιβάλλον που μας θυμίζει ευρωπαϊκή Αναγέννηση θα έλεγα. Η ιστορία είναι η κλασική πετυχημένη συνταγή της σύγκρουσης του καλού με το καλό, του φωτός με το σκοτάδι θα έλεγα καλύτερα.
Οι χαρακτήρες του έργου ,ναι αυτοί οι 2700 κάτι, είναι τόσο καλά "χτισμένοι" που αν και είναι 3 οι βασικοί ήρωες ( Rand al Thor, Perrin Aybara ,Mat Cauthon), υπάρχουν στιγμές που ταυτίζεται κανεις με τόσους πολλούς κατά τη διάρκεια των βιβλίων που είναι δύσκολο να ξεχωρίσεις ποιος είναι ο πρωταγωνιστής και ποιος ο δεύτερος ρόλος!
Για το τέλος κράτησα το καλύτερο. Το σύστημα μαγείας του βιβλίου. Δε θα μπορούσε να λείπει η μαγεία από μια σειρά επικής φαντασίας! Εδώ λοιπόν το σύστημα μαγείας δίνεται από τον συγγραφέα σε απόλυτο βαθμό που ορίζει το ίδιο το βιβλίο θα ελεγα. Οι κανόνες που το διέπουν , οι περιορισμοί που υφίστανται οι ήρωες και ο τρόπος που περιγράφεται είναι μοναδικοί. Πρόκειται για ένα είδος channeling το οποίο πηγάζει από τη Μια Δύναμη η οποία είναι διαφορετική σε άντρα( saidin) και γυναίκα(saidar). Ένα σύστημα που βασίζεται στα στοιχεία της φύσης -γη , αέρας, νερό, φωτιά- αλλά και στο πνεύμα. Οι μαγεία λοιπόν μπολιασμενη με έντονες και μεγαλειώδης μάχες δίνουν ένα εντυπωσιακό αποτέλεσμα που παρόλο το μέγεθος του βιβλίου σε κάνουν να σκέφτεσαι να το διαβάσεις από την αρχή ξανά και ξανά!!

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[Tanya Brodd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have FINALLY finished this series. For me, this will forever be one gigantic book. Two years and four months!

What can I say? It is a great book and if the prequel and the 1st book had been the end I would have been happy. The middle (as everyone I know who has read or tried to read has said) is the never ending slog.

And yet, Robert Joran, for all his purple prose and split skirts, creates an amazing world. He is able to give voice to the prejudices and bigotry, xenophobia and nationalism that an entire world would bring. But, at its heart, it is also a story about some young people from a quiet, out of the way place and their trials and tribulations. Both epic in scope and amazingly intimate at the same time.

Some of the main characters could have shown a bit more growth but this is certainly a fantasy masterpiece. Still, it was worth reading.

Also, Lan. I totally have a crush on Lan.

[Apan · Rating 4 out of 5]

spoilers ahead. be prepared. though they'll not make much sense till you've read the whole series. and if you're reading this before reading the series, you'll probably forget all about them by the time you're at whichever part.

Right, so I'm not one to usually bother wiring a review after I finish a book because I'm too busy looking for the next one to read. But after reading the whole series in under two weeks with few breaks in between, but I'm feeling a sense of withdrawal and the characters continue to nag in my head wanting a continuation. As if 14 volumes was not enough from one world. So perhaps writing this will let me move on to something new.

Anyhow, it was an epic, so obviously, the story was pretty epic, teasing out tears, sobs, laughter, fury, wishes to punch characters, wry smiles of irony and everything else stories make you feel. It's hard to review a whole series, especially one this long, because opinions often changed. Characters changed. Characters I wanted to punch and strangle eventually became tolerable and even likeable, while others I found awesome and rooted for turned out to disappoint or somehow disappeared without good reason (see: Asmodean. I hated how he just became forgotten. I feel like there was so much potential in his situation and his presence there. He was like the only person Rand could really talk and relate to, back in Rhuidean but once he disappeared, it's like 'ah, the guy just disappeared. Crap, I let a Forsaken out into the world, but oh whatever.' and next thing you know nobody ever mentions him again. I kept hoping for him to turn up again but nooo that couldn't happen could it. He's a Forsaken, after all. Forsaken do not deserve a chance at living or at happiness or at just being a fun lot. Tch. Well, actually, they were quite the fun lot, a lot more interesting than most of the main characters, but most of their fun resolved around compulsion and that's kinda nasty. I'd have had more respect if they could earnestly gain respect from people and then trample on and betray them. In that sense Rahvin was quite a disappointment, needing to compel his harem despite his good looks and charm. In that same sense, Demandred was actually quite cool, the way he was trying to snuff out his feelings for the people he was manipulating. It's quite sad the way he begging for attention for Lews, but Lews didn't even bat eyelash at it. In a way, most of the Forsaken turned out to be disappointing in the end. Except maybe Lanfear and Asmodean. And Elan. I actually came to find Moridin quite cool in the end. And Asmodean, so much potential just snuffed out. I still hurt over him. All he ever wanted was be recognised as a musician and spend eternity making music. Though, I guess him surviving may have made me worried for Thom. And Thom is awesome.)

It was pretty long-winded, the story and sometimes never seemed to be going anywhere. And sometimes there was far too much description and rambling. But since I usually skim through those parts anyway, taking in only the important stuff, it didn't bother me too much. I'm the type that tries to skip to the dialogue as much as she can. I don't care all too much about what colour a building is unless it's relevant to the plot.

Let me start (or continue, I guess, after that long paragraph about the forsaken in brackets) with Nynaeve, Elayne and Egwene. Three of the most arrogant, hypocritical, ungrateful, self-entitled idiots that think they know better than eeeeverybody else that I have ever read of in fiction that get faar top much screentime. I've come to eventually tolerate them and somewhat like them but ugh. For a looong time I just wanted to strangle the three. And there I'd anticipated their awesomeness when they were first introduced. But apparently being a strong woman meant being an annoying know-it-all bitch in this series. Unless you're Min or Verin or Satella or Alivia or Egeanin - they were pretty cool although, Min deserves a paragraph of her own. And Verin. Most women in this series have the same stubborn know-it-all personality. I want them to have their ears boxed for once instead of them whining about how much better they think they are than everyone else. For goodness' sake these barely adults (still talking about egwene, elayne and nynaeve) think they're smarter than the much older experienced Aes Sedai. (And I don't care if they're the most powerful in the One Power that the world's seen for centuries or something. The One Power doesn't give them brains). And the Aes Sedai aren't any better. The girls fit in with them perfectly. Since the whole White Tower and every one of its inhabitants and members think they know better than every one else. The only time one of their bigheaded controlling string of actions may have been justified, was after one of them gets herself on the Amyrlin seat. Before that they were just trying to assert to the world that they are indeed important and not complete fools. Some of Elayne, I can understand. She's a spoilt Daughter-heir, but what excuse did the - oh, I'm gonna stop now. It's a pointless rant that could go on forever. I don't mind manipulative characters in fiction or giving them main roles, but when every actually-important-to-the-plot woman is a manipulative liar with communication and trust issues (especially trust in the intelligence of others that aren't herself), it gets frustrating. Min is the sole exception. And maybe Avienda, but Avienda's not all that much better. She made me realise for sure that Rand Al'Thor has a thing for tsunderes and is a bit (or much) of a masochist. Even if he pretends to be a sadist at some points throughout the series.

The girls eventually - eventually - warm up to you, though. Once they stop being pure bitches to Mat (and Rand perhaps). Mat might actually be my favourite character. Maybe that's why I dislike Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve so much - because of the way they lie and use their own friends and think they are always correct because they are female (they're like the type of feminist everybody dreads, the ones who see all men below them and their intelligence). Anybody who's not female is fair game for their lies. And everyone forgives them for it. Even the author forgives them for it, since their stupid actions rarely have bad enough consequences. And when the consequences are bad enough, they manage to shift the blame on someone else. Acting like they were right all along. If Jordan wanted to give them some legitimacy, he should have made them taveren as well. Because coincidence loved following them around even if they couldn't win every dice game.

Let's get back to Mat. Yes, Mat is awesome. A scoundrel, maybe, but an awesome scoundrel that has all the luck in the world and a military mind that could compete with Demandred. Even Birgitte Silverbow admits it.(And I want to take out this time for a bracket to mention that Birgitte is one woman that doesn't get annoying and is absolutely awesome.) That's gotta count for something. Even though he started out as one of the characters I'd dread having to read about, he quickly became a favourite. And most of his annoyingness was clearly the Shagar Logoth dagger's fault.

And somehow I never hated Tuon's self-entitledness as much as I hated Nynaeve and Egwene's. She was actually quite reasonable, if you ignore her tendencies of treating humans as pets and/or slaves along with her superstitions. But she's the heir to an empire. You can't expect conventional morals from someone whose empire's military power comes from the illusion of rightful slavery.

Perrin is another slice awesomeness. He'd break the world if it was for his wife. At least, if his wife didn't need to live in said world. I want to hug him and his wolves. He's whiny before his wife gets kidnapped, but every character in this series is whiny at some point or another. There's more to say about him, but I'm not one to sing praises for long - not even in a spoiler filled review like this. Criticizing comes easier.

As for our dear ol' Rand. That's a character I'd rather not get into. He's a complicated old... something. I disagree with him on a lot of counts and on a lot of others I wish people would just stop being such dicks to him and just spend a moment to listen to him. Though that's mainly aimed at the women. I did quite love his arrogant Darth Vader phase. Though, sometimes I did frown and shake my head at his disregard of respecting others. But what can you expect from the founder of the Dragon Empire. Really, what he ended up with was basically an Empire in the end, though he pretty easily gave away influence and set up other rulers since he had little wishes to actually rule, outside of making sure the citizens were being fed properly and that he left some kind of legacy behind, in the form of the schools he set up. All the romance surrounding him was pretty crap though. I usually hesitate to call something in a book just plain crap, but the romance felt pretty crap to me. Forced. His period of being in love with Egwene felt the most heartwrenching, but that somehow just dissipated. It is a really good thing though that he wasn't in love with Elayne alone, since spending too much time with her would have destroyed him. He may love her and she may love him back in whatever twisted way she loves people (except with Thom, I quite like her relationship with Thom), but she would have been poison to him (his character as well as his plans) without Min and Aviendha balancing things out. Min alone was good for him honestly. His only anchor. Avienda and Elayne both had other priorities and as much as I am an advocate for not letting a man turn you into a fool, their way of loving him were quite cold. They're more fling or occasional mistress or an old flame you can't forget material than wife material. Funny thing is Avienda and Elayne became first-sisters to marry him, but both could only ever give him the time they give to an occasional affair. Min was the who one who could afford to actually be with him when he needed her. She was actually useful to him as well and not just a pretty accessory for him to keep his sanity for. (Also, I think the only reason he fell for Elayne was because of her uncanny resemblance to Illyena)

Several potential plot and character developments were ignored, but this is such a giant book already; there was probably no time. And the last three volumes did have to be written post Jordan's death by Brandon Sanderson (who did a fantastic job btw). It's just such a shame that Rand never got to really interact with any of his blood relatives. I wish I'd gotten to read some interaction that acknowledged his heritage. And I'm not even one of those people who give worth to noble blood or anything. It would just have been nice if it wasn't just something acknowledged, or rather just mentioned, right near the end in that offhand way.

I could write another few thousand words on how great the world building and actual writing was, but you can read someone else's review on how cool the Aiel are or the intricacies behind Dae's Daemar (dunno if that's spelt right). I'm tired now, so I'll finish off with how worth your time the series is. Just don't read it within two weeks forgetting all about real life for the duration like me. Even though I was complaining most of the time, that's a pretty good sign. For a book to get me talking that much means it's worth reading. I think.

[Georgi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The things that I didn't like about the series:

1. The Prophecies - from the first chapter of the first book you know that your heroes would reach the final battle(which is 14 books later). You have a main character(Min) which can pretty much see every major plot point before it happens through the series and it's really frustrating when you read a quality chapter but somehow know the end of it. Offcource there are some nice moments with the whole prophecies system(Mat) but it end, personaly, this reduced my overall score with one star.
It's like viewing one of the greatest football matches while knowing the final score.

2. Sea of characters - the story somehow expects from you to remember 2nd-3rd grade characters that keep coming back and back again. In the first book a random captain saves out heroes, in the second book the story needs a captain of a ship(half a world away) and it uses the same random captain, later on you meet the same captain every time the story demands it. And it's not only him, after the 3rd or 4th book every time our heroes need some random help in order to progress somehow we meet a character that we already met or at least is connected to someone in the story. Gavin and Galad are completely needless as characters - remove them from the entire story and it remains 99% the same. Galad is presented somehow as a really bad guy by Elaine(his sister) but ends up to be 100% naive noble dude.

3. Women would rule the world - in a 14 book long story еvery major women character(at least 10) is somehow strong,independent, incredible and smart. Constanly they are arrogant, presuming, daring and proud and I can't count the times that I wanted to slap them really bad. For example after 12-13 books Elaine meets Perin- the childhood best friend of the love of her life Rand whom is also the strongest person in the Galaxy and her first words are - tell me one reason why I shouldn't cut your head off!!! Nynaeve is really poorly written in my opinion, no way she can survive that long in the story before her character becomes bearable(9th-10th book). I liked Moiraine, Tuon is "Ok" but overall the late Robert Jordan maybe far too often left his wife to intervеne.

4. Love is in the air - I would start with the main love story. No way in hell 3 women would love one man and they would be "ok" with each other and even become best friends. Let say that I understand that Min is open minded given her gift, that Aviendha is coming from a open minded comunity but Elaine is a princess(a future queen) that lived her entire life receiving everything she wants and somehow suddenly she is ready to share a man with two other women? Every lovestory in the books seems forced except maybe Aviendha-Rand. They meet, they stare at each other and week later they are in love. Till the end of the story for some reason every 1/2/3 grade character is hooked up to another one and we are talking about 20-30 people here. I am single and I find this offensive!

5. Who is the bad guy - the Dark Lord has 12 choosen ones on his side. They are thousands of years old, being strong in the force and the story present them as very powerfull foes and yet somehow they lose every battle against our green teenager protagonists. As a reader I dont like/respect/fear this kind of villain. We have orks - they are big strong powerfull and you can guess right they never kill anyone. Everytime our heroes needs to level up they meet 1000 orks and unexpectengly they kill them with their last breath. You have Padan Fain whom had potential as a character but somehow fades away after the 3rd book and gets unsatisfied ending in the final chapter of the last book. To me the Church guys never felt right in the story, especially after the 2nd or 3rd book they occasionaly receive some chapter ploting some evil plan but in the end nothing really happens with them. The Saenchans(probably didn't spell them correctly) are really cool as an idea but in the end they are "So-so" in the whole story. In the second book they are presented being tyrannical towards the ordinary person living in the village and yet later on they became a fair rulers defending the human rights which completely contradicts their methods of enslavement for people using the force. I really dont know what to thing of them and we have a major character whom somehow marries their emperor..........

6. Nobody dies - till the very very end nobody of mather really dies - not the bad guys whom are reborn later in different bodies, not the good guys not even their horses. Till the end they kept riding the same fu..ing horses. What happen to Moiraine was obvious from miles away. How can you feel about someone when you know that they can't die?

7. Too much dreaming chapters - in my eyes they were boring. I get that different people from me can like them but still just from the dreaming chapters alone we have material for 1-2 books which is just too much.

8. Lord of the rings - I get that this is the very foundation of the fantasy genre but still I can see way too much similar story lines. Four kids from a small village, a wizard whom helps them, a great warrior whom is also the king of a great fallen kingdom, a Dark Lord with 10-14 dark knights using a poison blades, a swamp escape scene, the big final All in battle to give some time for our main protagonist Fro ... aarrr Rand.

9. Why Rand didn't meet his father before the final books. At the beginning they were presented as very close, his father was injuried when he left and you would at least expect that when Rand found the portal system he would go visit his father and this never happened. Why Two rivers from a small village that nobody ever visits and which is minor enough for the queen not to ask for taxes suddenly can produce an army of the best archers in the world? And if they really have the best tabacoo in the world>>>they would be famous>>>> they would make money >>> and the queen would probably ask them for taxes!!!!

10. Why every interaction between man and women ends with stupid comments as such "Pffff Mennn", "Pfff Womennn". "Pfffff men(women) they always ......".

11. Why people snort so much?! Everytime someone says something, the person next to him snorts in disagreement. We have ordinary snorts with no meaning, silent snorts, loud irony snorts, accepting snorts. At the end of the series I felt that there is at least one snort per chapter. I get that real people snort and probably some of them far too often for my taste but they also go to the toilet and yet not a single time in the books someone went to the toilet.....

In the end I think that 14 books are far to many for a story with a known/expected ending that people have allready see in a similar book. For example if all this was concentrated in 3-4 books, the story would be far more action packed and it wouldn't feel like soap fantasy opera.

[Michael Ambler · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems appropriate, when writing about this particular series, to have a lengthy prologue followed by an even lengthier review— so here goes.

Prologue
This is very much a five-stars-for-me review. If I read the series fresh today, after a long career reading modern SFF, I might be more critical; there are certainly weaknesses that become apparent over the course of five-million-ish words. But as a teenager, the Wheel of Time was absolutely revelatory, and it will always have a special place in my heart. This was my introduction to adult, post-Tolkien fantasy, that took its world and themes and writing seriously.

Onto the review proper!

The first thing that sets the series apart is the absolutely sprawling cast of characters. It sneaks up on you, because the first two books in the series read like pretty straightforward heroic journeys; a quest, a magical mentor, a shadowy villain, a farmboy Chosen One. But Jordan is just laying the groundwork for what's going to come after; pretty soon it turns out that everyone our heroes meet along the way — from queens and generals to farmers and traveling merchants — are going to get their own points of view. Everyone, even the people who seem initially like archetypes, end up imbued with interiority and depth. There's a profound empathy to the writing that I often found deeply moving.

The flipside is the second thing that sets the series apart, and that's simply length. It turns out that if you write the point of view of everyone our heroes meet, and then everyone those people meet, and so on, the law of exponents kicks in and your novels get pretty ungainly. By book 7 or 8, there's so much going on it takes entire (thick!) books just to move the plot forward a day or two, since we need to check in on so many people — some of whom, frankly, don't have much interesting going on at that particular moment. Reading the novels in real time, this could lead to a sort of despair; the next installment would come out, it'd be 900 pages, and at the end you'd think... that's it? Now, with the benefit of the whole series having been written, it's a bit easier to forgive the pacing in the middle, because you know there really is an ending coming. But, of course, that means we have to talk about how we got the ending. Robert Jordan died before completing the series, and his widow - and editor - handed the torch to Brandon Sanderson to complete the work.

I have complicated feelings about the last three books of the series. I'm tremendously grateful we got them, and that the project wasn't left incomplete; I'm also grateful that Jordan was a meticulous plotter and notetaker, and as a result we really did get something close to his vision for how things would turn out. I also think that Sanderson did what amounted to a badly overdue spring cleaning, pruning the POVs down to a more manageable number, wrapping up some plotlines that weren't going anywhere, and generally doing a professional job taking the series to its conclusion. At the same time, he simply isn't as talented a writer, either in terms of prose or character writing, as Jordan, and it's hard not to be a bit melancholy about how some of the characters were flattened in translation, or how the prose shifted from a poetic register to something softer and duller.

What else made this series such a revelation? Well, here's a big one; in an era where 90% of fantasy series either ignored women, or relegated them to love interests, the Wheel of Time is absolutely stuffed with female characters - villains and heroes, farmers and queens, brilliant and incompetent, and everything in between. Jordan's world is one dominated, in fact, by powerful women.

I should pause here and note that while I think there are some fair criticisms to be made about how Jordan approaches gender, there are a lot of frankly silly ones as well. A cornerstone of the worldbuilding here is that for the last several thousand years, men have not been able to use magic without going violently insane; when that first became true, the existing male magic-users devastated most of civilization. An all-female institution of magic users, resembling the Roman Catholic Church at the height of its temporal power, is the strongest institution left. To keep the metaphor going, this is a world where Adam was responsible for the Fall, and everyone is still mad about it. Women hold most of the physical and political power (though there are also plenty of exceptions and complications); Jordan is subverting the gender stereotypes and histories that we're familiar with, and so criticisms like 'why do the women keep dismissing men as too emotional to make decisions?' or 'why do men keep accusing women of being arrogant bullies?' sound a bit obtuse. Why indeed?!

Along those lines, there are so many female characters that none of them have to bear the burden of representing women as a whole. Yes, there's a female character who processes losing her magical abilities by learning to use her sexuality to manipulate other people; another woman in the same situation reacts by training a successor in the art of politics and warfare to take revenge, and a third just retires to a cottage in the countryside to knit and garden.

Like Jordan and his magnum opus, I could keep adding to this review endlessly, but I'll close by noting that Jordan was a truly fine writer of prose, which made even the slower passages a pleasure. Here's how he writes a doomed final battle — and note that these are antagonists he's portraying, not the heroes.

Maeric touched Dyrele’s cheek, careless of how many eyes were on them. "Shade of my heart, you must prepare to put on white." Her hand strayed toward the hilt of her belt knife — she had been a Maiden when she made his wreath — but he shook his head firmly. "You must live, wife, roofmistress, to hold together what remains." Nodding, she pressed fingers to his cheek. He was astonished; she had always been very reserved in public.

Raising his veil, Maeric shoved one spear high above his head. "Moshaine!" he roared. "We dance!"

Up the slope they followed him, men and Maidens, nearly a thousand strong counting the Brotherless. Perhaps they could be counted among the sept. Up the slope and west; that way lay the nearest and the fewest. Perhaps they might buy enough time, though he did not really believe that. He wondered whether Sevanna had known of this. Ah, the world had grown very strange since Rand al’Thor came. Some things could not change, though. Laughing, he began to sing.

"Wash the spears, while the sun climbs high.
Wash the spears, while the sun falls low.
Wash the spears; who fears to die?
Wash the spears; no one I know!"

Singing, the Moshaine Shaido ran to dance their deaths.

[Niyel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moiraine Damodred: Ah Moiraine my Queen I love her so much a truly iconic and wonderful character and a Queen both figuratively and in the sense that she is descended from literal royalty.
When we are introduced to Moiraine we see her as a duty-obsessed, ruthless bully and most of the main cast that is part of her crew don't like her and frankly, she makes it pretty clear that she doesn't need any form of validation from them but in New Spring we are shown her character beginnings and New Spring humanised her very much which made her very relatable and enjoyable.
It also gave insight into her character because we have been used to the unshakable staunchly Aess Sedai Moiraine so seeing a Moiraine that was young and foolish is kinda like hearing tales of your parents' youth and seeing that they were just as mischievous as you are and you start to wonder how they grew into the mature people that they are, we see her love and sacrifice we see her efforts to chase her dreams and carry on duty and it's admirable.
I respected the way she dedicated herself to finding and guiding Dragon whatever it required, she did what Cadsuane could never have done in a million years and even at her return, we see how much everyone loves and respects her, especially Rand, Egwene and Nynaeve heck even Mat that claims to bloody hate her and despises Aes Sedai is the one that goes into the bloody Tower of Foxes to save her and comments on how much he missed her.
She is not only stern and ruthless but calm and gentle too and even in all that she does what she believes is best and is the most important figure in the lives of the Emond five she's the mother of the Dragon, The Greatest Amyrlin, The Prince of Ravens, Wolf Brother and the Queen of Malkier she raised them and I love her character.
She is one of those characters that sneak up and grow on you then have your whole heart by the end of the series.

Nynaeve reminds me a lot of many of the women in my life that I look up to, especially my Mum and some of my friends
her resilience, strength and unyieldingness while being able to love is everything.
She is one of the best depictions of a character who is characterised by love and positivity and she shows what it means to love and love in every capacity we see her love for the Emond field 4 and her protectiveness of them how she makes sacrifices and concessions just to protect the people she loves, her fierce loyalty to Rand, how she loves him and continues to guide him despite how she is treated and his behaviour towards her, her love for Perrin, Mat and Egwene and how she is equally protective of them, we also see the culmination of the relationship between her and Moiraine to besties, there is also her and Lan which while I found pretty cringe initially but they came to have their moments and their growth was interesting.
Most importantly we see how she is impulsive and bullheaded initially yet grows out of it, refines her impulsiveness into resilience, how she controls her temper and displays multiple instances of wisdom and insightfulness but most importantly how she is staunch on values and how she refuses to compromise them that even when it seems that it makes no sense or that she should not she is always willing to help people and do her best to make the world better the biggest evidence of this is the moment during her Aes Sedai testing in which she helps the helpless( using balefire) even when she knows that she should not and it makes no sense she refuses to accept it and not only challenges it but wins ( in a manner of speaking),
Throughout the series, we are constantly reminded that she is a protector but even more importantly a healer and she aspires to heal people and help make the world a better place she even develops a motto about how everything short of death should be healable and she demonstrated her resilience in healing too with her discovery of healing stilling and the madness of the taint even when she was discouraged that it was a fool's journey.
A paragon of unyieldingness, resilience, wisdom and love Nynaeve Al Meara reminds me of a lot of things that we should all aspire to be.

Egwene on an objective scale is probably the most impressive character in the series I mean compared to Rand, Mat and Perrin many might say she's not all that but everyone seems to forget that Rand, Mat and Perrin are Tavaren they are literally walking ass pulls, the pattern shapes itself to favour them and gives them what they need while Egwene on the other hand was just a regular human a powerful channeler agreed but still only human without the pattern to work in her favour yet through sheer force of will, determination and hard work she ends up having one of the most impressive resumes in the series and revolutionizing things she was not Tavaren but still made impact on the level of Tavaren like she went from random farm girl #72472 to becoming Initiate of the White Tower, Aiel Apprentice then Amyrlin of one half of the White Tower and a captive of the White Tower half to Saviour of it , Amyrlin of the united White Tower and General of the Light she's also the youngest and one of the greatest(if not even the greatest because who topping her) Amyrlin I don't even like Aes Sedai( because of their condescending nature) but she had my loyalty and I was impressed by her sense of responsibility, competence and capability her impact is simply unrivalled too while I did get annoyed occasionally especially with her behaviour towards Rand and her Aes Sedai hubris I still respected her and her death was the most painful one in the series.
I liked her mirroring with Tuon too and how they are reminiscent of each other but I wished she didn't die because I would have wished to see a stare-off and watch her add the ending of damane captivity to her roster but Alas we can never always have what we want.
Egwene is an iconic and groundbreaking character and she blows my mind with her sheer willpower and wisdom, especially for one so underestimated she reminds me of myself and how I have to constantly deal with older people who often underestimate me and the imposter complex I struggle
with.

Perrin: The Wolf Brother, Dream Walker, Youngbull, Golden Eyes himself is my least favourite among the boys and while I came to appreciate his character towards the end of the series I found him the least interesting for most of the story I really disliked his dynamic with his wife up till the 12th book too but his character development was simply stunning we are introduced to him as a bumbly blacksmith with low self-esteem, watch him fall in love, become an even better version of himself and slowly accept his roles and responsibility in the universe, be struggles with acceptance both within himself and among others one of my favourite moments from him have to be when he overcomes compulsion and when he totally masters the dream world and casually deflects weaves hell even bale fire we see how that parallels with his internal acceptance of the wolf and the man,he also faces the demons of his past and beats them down while embracing his responsibility and his relationship with his wife improves towards the end of the story it is very reminiscent of watching a child grow in real-time and it is amazing.


There are a lot of other wonderful characters in the series that I enjoyed of course especially Siuan and her dynamic with Moiraine but I already talked about this in my review of New Spring I also love Min and how she anchored Rand I hate how she doesn't have anything going on for aside being Rand's lover but I let it slide because she's awesome, I find Aviendha interesting because of her Aiel heritage and motivations, Elayne's ambition is also interesting, Logain's growth is also amazing, Androl a character that was introduced relatively late in the series was very impactful, then there is Fortuona the Queen all are very interesting characters and the cast is pretty strong despite it being a plot-heavy story.

The conclusion was underwhelming and overwhelming simultaneously it's a great ending no doubt but for such an expansive universe it leaves so many unanswered questions and loose thread and there are some plot points that I wish got resolved but didn't chiefly among them the Seanchan-Damane thing, The fate of the Black Tower and Rand and his people,
Also really wanted Mat's family to meet he and his wife but hey we can't always get what we want and the ending does it justice enough.
It would be unfair to say it's not a good story because I enjoyed some moments of it but at the same time it's not great, it is a series that is genre-defining and it has its moments but at the same time is very disappointing and very problematic, especially in its treatment of women and the gender spectrum and horrible technical issues with the pacing.
I still think that Jordan is a great storyteller though and a master at drawing parallels and his work is very impactful.
At the end of it all, there are only 7 books out of 15 that I consider great and they are New Spring, Gathering Storm, Shadow Rising, Dragon Reborn, Lord of Chaos, Memory of Light and Fires of Heaven, 3 I consider decent to good which are Eye of the World, Knife of Dreams, Towers of Midnight and another 5 I think are downright horrible to just painfully average(2+/10) Crown of Swords, Crossroads of Twilight, Winter's Heart, Great Hunt and Path of Dagger).
With interesting commentaries and depictions of the ephemerality of life, Destiny, Love and human nature as a whole It is a series with a lot of highs and lows and there are really good highs with ridiculously horrible lows as a whole I rate the entire series 7.5/10 not something I would recommend but if I see someone who likes it I would be willing talk about it still has its redeeming qualities though.




The first half of this review is here

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

New Spring: The Aes Sadai are the holders of the magic in the world. A fierce and powerful force for good in the world since the Wheel of Time was broken, they stand watch for signs of the coming of the Dragon Reborn: a man who can channel magic, who is destined to bring the world to Tarmon Gai'don and the final confrontation with Shaitan. The Dragon will have the ability to channel the powers of the Aes Sadai without going mad.

Robert Jordan's prequel to 'The Wheel of Time' stands well on its own, while also serving the awkward balance of tying into the wider narrative, it also reinvents the past of Moraine Damodred and the Sisterhood.

The Eye of the World: Three young men from a quiet backwater find themselves forced out of their homes as a terrible enemy signals the arrival of a war to end all wars.

The first volume of 'The Wheel of Time' is detailed and provides an excellent foundation for the series. Well written and with grounded characters, this is a challenging novel worth the investment.

[Audrey Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two years ago I started listening to the first audio book to have something to occupy my mind when feeding and cleaning up my newborn. Since then he has become a toddler and I now have a second baby, we have moved twice, and I've learned a lot on the way :
1. sometimes worldbuilding really is everything
2. don't die before you finish writing your epic saga
3. if you do, make sure you've left a truckload worth of legible notes
4. never pick up a series with more than 4 books in it, even if you're just looking to burn time
5. It's perfectly ok to grow as a writer within a series, your audience will follow you

[Viktor · Rating 3 out of 5]

After Book 0,1,2,3,4,5 i can tell the Wheel of time is a very good story, but it has some major issues. And thats why i wont continue reading the series.
First of all its too long, its obvious the author wanted to write more quantity and less quality. In a lot of chapters nothing happens.
Secondly i hate most of the female characters. Their arrogant feminist attitude has really bothered me throughout the books.
I'd say this series would be as good if not better than Lord of the Rings if instead of 12000 pages it would be 6000-8000 and there would be a lot less gender hate.

[Skitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a deep emotional attachment to these books, but they are, objectively, not very good. The bioessentialist hard magic system is difficult to stomach, as is the constant "battle of the sexes" worldbuilding.

[Angela]

17 November 2015: $68.72 on Kindle

[Bhavik (Semi Hiatus)]

I think I might just read this mammoth of a book next year!

[Lucas Chance · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did I finish it? No

Does it need to be this long? Definitely not.

There are moments where it feels like the greatest fantasy series ever written but most of it just you waiting for the payoff or feeling like you’re going backwards in both plot and characterization.

[Terry L. Estep · Rating 5 out of 5]

After working my way through these audiobooks over the past year, I almost want to start over at the beginning and listen to them again.

[Liesbeth Kampen]

Geweldig! 4 maanden over gedaan, ging er zelfs over dromen :)

[Lundos · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.”

As Sony and Amazon are doing a Wheel of Time (WoT) TV series I decided to read this series again. I sort of went through my teenage years and early 20s with WoT and I remember fondly discussing the prophecies, direction of the plot, and the men/women relationships back then.

Fantasy wasn't as big a genre back then as it is today (it was before Harry Potter, A Song of Ice and Fire, Malazan Book of the Fallen, the Lord of the Rings movies, etc). Men tended to have most (all) of the leading roles and most of the power, the general level of epic fantasy was more or less a fight of good vs. evil and ninjas didn't hug. Then came Robert Jordan (RJ). While the overall plot is (heavily) inspired by Tolkien and is a fight of Good vs. Evil, RJ went his own way regarding world building, magic system, characters and especially the way society is controlled.

WoT is an epic tale of love, life, friendship and duty. It's full of adventure, suspense, surprises and invention. The plot is timeless both in the sense of the good vs. evil fight but also in its continuation since the Wheel of Time itself is supposed to repeat itself endlessly in all worlds and realities.

The world is rich and diverse with different cultures and manners from each country from the extremes of Aiel tribes of the Waste to the Seanchan caste system. Each are individually described in detail as the main characters visit each cultural area.

The cast is huge entering into the hundreds over the 14 books. While the main three characters are arguably Rand, Mat and Perrin there is no denying that Egwene, Nynaeve and Moirane are almost as important in the overall plot and then we have Min, Aviendha, Elayne, the Daughter of the Nine Moos, etc who are also very important. One of the main concepts are the way that men and women interact and behave, how love can affect you (to make stupid decisions but also "force" you to do more than you thought possible), how men and women are equal and how - despite differences and behavior - men and women have to work together. This is set up in the first book when it's mentioned that in the Age of Legend the most powerful magical creations were done by women and men working together, and it's important during the entire series even until the end.

The magic system itself is extremely innovative. Only women can use the One Power without fear of madness in this Age. The background for this and how it affects the world is one of the better parts of books and it is an important plotline from the beginning of the Eye of the World. Both in which women uses their magic power and how they use the fear of that power in a way to control men and countries and society.

Overall, while it's quite long, it's the best classic tale of good vs. evil and definitely worth the read.

There are, quite right, also some critique of the series. One of the better ones are this review (contains spoilers for the first 10 books): https://forum.malazanempire.com/topic...

[Travis Cooney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished the series and had to include my rankings of the books. From favourite to least favourites. But all of them were great!

A Memory of Light
The Gathering Storm
Towers of Midnight
Knife of Dreams
Lord of Chaos
Dragon Reborn
Shadow Rising
The Great Hunt
Eye of the World
Winters Heart
Path of Daggers
Crown of Swords
Fires of Heaven
Cross Roads of Twilight

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, 12000 pages takes some time.

It's hard to encapsulate a review of 14 books in one post. But, I didn't want to do individual books because after five and until Brandon took over become quite a bit of a blur.

Some random thoughts:

1. The first several books are outstanding. After five, it starts to slow down but is still fine. Eight through eleven become a slog, though. If I hadn't known that Brandon was taking over, I probably wouldn't have survived that.

2. I felt like the final three were uneven, but at least things were happening. At the close of Knife of Dreams so many "side quests" had finally been completed that maybe the avalanche of events would have finally started anyway. But, in any case, as everything begins to happen in The Gathering Storm, it's just such a relief.

3. The unevenness came in some of the characterizations. Mat had grown so much from his entry to Ebou Dar to the end of Knife of Dreams, and all that growth was stripped away in The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight. I do think it was reclaimed in A Memory of Light, though.

4. Even though Rand can be boring (I don't really tend to like the "Chosen One" in any series), Mat and Perrin are great. Of course, during the middle book slog, they at times would become boring too. I think the saving grace of the series as a whole is that the three of them were never all boring at once.

5. The conclusion was excellent. Many threads were brought together in an emotionally satisfying way. Few questions were left unanswered, and those that were just contributed to the depth of the world. I do think that the busyness which was required to answer the questions showed that there was a lot of room to edit without substantially changing the story, e.g. Padan Fain.

6. While the ending was great, I was truly hoping for a longer, LOTR style wind down from the Last Battle. Of course, such things are not done these days, but it would have been nice.

[Olga Werby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a big commitment...

I want to start this review by being very explicit -- don't start unless you have the time to finish in one go (over many months). There is so much detail and so many characters (all sounding similar) that it would be difficult to get through without an online guide...or if you just give up caring.

I posted the images of the books, spines out -- I want you to fully understand the commitment you are making. It took me about a year to finish all 14 books. I haven't decided if I want to spend additional time reading the prequels; certainly not any time soon. Below are my short notes on each book (not summaries of the plot) and the number of pages per book:

#1 The Eye of the World (written by Robert Jordan) -- 753 pages
Very interesting world, very well defined, with many nuances. I liked the characters. It was a bit long-winded, but enjoyable.

#2 The Great Hunt (written by Robert Jordan) -- 658 pages
After reading the first book, I felt committed to continuing. I was still enjoying the story. And for the first time, I noticed just how much "The Game of Thrones" and "Harry Potter" 'took' from this fantasy. The parallels were numerous and kept coming. I feel like "The Wheel of Time" is the true original. It is both deeper and wider than either of these other fantasy series.

#3 The Dragon Reborn (written by Robert Jordan) -- 673 pages
Once committed to this story, I've read it one book after the other. For if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to keep up with all of the names and places. There is a LOT to remember! I wish there was a way to click on the name in the book and get a quick recap of who this was... I don't know how people read these books when they had to wait for the next installment for several years. Thank goodness I didn't start these until they were all done.

#4 The Shadow Rising (written by Robert Jordan) -- 1051 pages
Okay, this is where I've invented the term Peril Loop -- a continuous series of bad events that happen to the main character in a story -- and Peril Loop Fatigue — how the reader feels when too many improbable bad events happen to the main character one after another in a continuous barrage of peril. Book 4 is where I almost stopped reading these series several times. Enough is enough!!!!

#5 The Fires of Heaven (written by Robert Jordan) -- 926 pages
Still reading...

#6 Lord of Chaos (written by Robert Jordan) -- 1049 pages
I've made it this far...

#7 A Crown of Swords (written by Robert Jordan) -- 902 pages
I love how detailed the world developed in this fantasy is. Everything seems motivated by deep time events. You get a sense of how customs and people changed based on historical events. This is far better than "The Game of Thrones." Robert Jordan must have a library-worth of notes... Unfortunately, I don't.

#8 The Path of Daggers (written by Robert Jordan) -- 669 pages
This one is a bit shorter. Is Mr. Jordan getting tired? As much as I love the millions of details, I'm getting exhausted... I heard about these series many years ago, way before I read "The Game of Thrones" (GoT). I figured as a writer, I should read "The Wheel of Time" as a great example of world development. I have a lot to learn... Yet, GoT HBO series was in some ways an improvement over the book -- the stories were tightened up; many characters were combined; unnecessary details removed altogether. I will NOT be reading the last book of GoT if it ever comes out...

#9 Winter's Heart (still written by Robert Jordan) -- 705 pages
Like in any story, you fall in love with some characters more than others. Mr. Jordan is careful to give equal time to all his main characters and to develop their storylines fully. But I feel like the main story is getting sidelined...

#10 Crossroads of Twilight (still written by Robert Jordan) -- 832 pages
For all of the details, some main ideas are starting to get lost. Still reading...

#11 Knife of Dreams (still written by Robert Jordan) -- 886 pages
So glad that I'm reading this as an e-book version -- I don't have that much room in my house...or in my purse -- I read everywhere; and if I had to carry these books, I would have serious back problems.

#12 The Gathering Storm (written by Robert Jordan AND Brandon Sanderson) -- 861 pages
I began reading these series partly because Brandon Sanderson was one of the authors. He picked up writing the series towards the end. Brandon has an amazing imagination and I love his writing style. I think "The Wheel of Time" books are the better for having him as a co-author. Still, this story is getting long in the tooth.

#13 Towers of Midnight (written by Robert Jordan AND Brandon Sanderson) -- 977 pages
When will this end?! I love long books...but this is too much! And things are getting muddled. The story is getting lost in the details... Who are these people?!!

#14 A Memory of Light (written by Robert Jordan AND Brandon Sanderson) -- 1025 pages
Aside from Book 4, this was the worst of the bunch -- too long; too many unnecessary plot points while the main plot points are left unresolved. I couldn't wait for this one to end. Some interesting bits, but overall a disappointment. Peril Loop Fatigue. Peril Loop Fatigue. Peril Loop Fatigue.

Overall review: the best-developed fantasy world I have ever read. But too long, too meandering, too lost. These series should have been shorter, tighter, more intense. The "side" stories were entertaining and might have been a nice addition as stand-alone novellas, but they should not have been included in the first read-through. People will probably hate me for writing this, but I'm also one of those who believe GoT would have benefited from some judicious editing. And did I mention Peril Loop Fatigue? How many readers gave because they just got too tired of the main characters continuously battered by bad guys and fate? At some point, such twists of fate stop being engaging and become burdensome. Still, for the sheer scope of vision, I rate the whole series as 4 stars. Some books are better than others...

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

By the time I got to the end of this book I wanted to dig up the author and bury him again. It was a great story and the last three books were more readable but there was so much dross and filler that this 14 book series could have been well told in a trilogy. Seriously, each book had to fill in what had happened in the previous books and I spent most of the reading with my eyes glazed over. I have never seen this so poorly done. I also began to dislike, strongly dislike the characters in the books. You know how sometimes you just want to slap a teenager upside the head and tell them "It is time to grow up! you are NOT the center of creation"! I felt this far too often. There was not a single character in the book that I actually liked by the end. Still, it was a great story. Especially if you love authoritarian societies and behavior (another reason I really did not have fun reading this tale).