“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.”
--Robert Jordan
These words have become synonymous with the epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time, as they are the words that open every book in the series. Written by the late great Robert Jordan, The Wheel of Time is one of the most influential works of epic fantasy to ever come out of the genre. Besides it being a huge inspiration to many modern fantasy authors, such as my personal favorite, Brandon Sanderson, the series is—in general—absolutely phenomenal.
Although it follows a large cast of characters, the series is really centered around one young man named Rand al’Thor, who is destined to either save or destroy the world, while slowly going mad in the process. This may sound like a typical “hero’s journey” type story, but I can assure you that Rand’s journey is anything but typical; in fact, his story feels more real to me than most other “chosen one” stories out there. This, is due to the fact that Robert Jordan wanted to explore what it would really be like if, one day, you were told that you, and you alone, were the prophesied hero who was destined to save—or destroy—the world. In the beginning of the series, Rand is, understandably, very reluctant to accept and step into his destiny. He doesn’t want to be the hero; he doesn’t want this enormous responsibility; yet he has no choice but to take it. As the series goes on, Rand slowly steps into this larger than life role until, in the last book, he manages to unite all the nations of the world under one banner, his banner, to fight The Last Battle.
In total, the series is comprised of fourteen books and one prequel novel, so to call it lengthy would be quite an understatement. If, however, the sheer size and scale of the series doesn’t deter you, you will find one of the richest, most well defined worlds ever created. The world of The Wheel of Time is massive, spanning multiple continents, each with its own people and culture, and the history of the world is long, grand, and extremely detailed. In fact, in my opinion, Jordan’s world is second only to Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
So, you may be asking, “Who is the series actually for?” Like I said in my previous review of Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive, The Wheel of Time is for those who want a genuinely epic story with some incredible characters and great worldbuilding. Just to emphasize how epic the series is, I should mention that in the final book, A Memory of Light, the highly anticipated Last Battle takes place within one chapter, and this single chapter is one hundred and ninety pages long! To put that into perspective, that is only thirty-three pages shorter than the first Harry Potter book, which is insane!
Ultimately, the Wheel of Time series was released over the course of twenty-three years, beginning in 1990 and ending in 2013. Jordan released the first two books in 1990 and continued to release one book each year, until the seventh book was released in 1996. With this book released, Jordan began to take longer breaks in-between releases, and books eight through ten were criticized by fans for being too slow moving, though Jordan took these books to expand the world and focus on more minor characters. Even now that the series is finished, the fans still refer to books eight through ten as “the slog”, due to the fact that not much happens in those volumes.
Thankfully, however, Jordan delivered a great eleventh book that managed to set the series back on track. Jordan planned for the twelfth book in the series to be the last, no matter how long it had to be, but in 2006 he revealed that he had been diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis and wasn’t expected to live much longer. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2007 at his home in Charleston, South Carolina. With the terrible news of Jordan’s death, many fans believed that the series would never be finished, or worse, that someone else would do a poor job of finishing it; after all, who except Robert Jordan himself could possibly give the series the ending it deserved? Fortunately, however, Jordan’s widow, Harriet McDougal, had recently read Brandon Sanderson’s first book in the Mistborn series, and was so impressed with it that she chose him to finish the series.
However, while going through Jordan’s extensive notes on the series, Sanderson realized that it would be near impossible to wrap up the entire series in just one book, so he and Harriet decided to split the last book into three books. The final book in the series, A Memory of Light, was released in January 2007 to wide acclaim, with many fans expressing shock that Sanderson was able to finish the series in such a satisfying way. In the end, Sanderson decided to keep the epilogue to the series that Jordan had written long before his death, so the last chapter of the series was written by Robert Jordan, bringing everything full circle.
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