The Wheel of Time

by Robert Jordan (Finished by Brandon Sanderson)

I am in the middle of the last THE WHEEL OF TIME book, A MEMORY OF LIGHT. Unlike many fans out there, I have only been reading the series for about 2 ½ years. This is because my family told me that I would probably be better off waiting until the end was in sight. For those of you who don’t know about the WHEEL OF TIME series it is 14 books long (more if you count the companion prequel novels) and each book is over 1,000 pages (or 200,000-300,000 words). I started reading them after the author Robert Jordan passed away. A Utah author, Brandon Sanderson, was chosen to finish them, and it was shortly after this that I decided it was time to begin the journey. Because that is what the books are about taking a journey with all of the characters. When I invest that much time reading or listening to something, I want to feel invested. I want to know what happens to the characters. I laugh. I cry. I yell. I tell Moose my hypothesis and then wait a few books to see if my thoughts were true. It is a journey in every sense of the word. Now on to the meat of the review.

Truthfully I am not going to talk much about plot. I mean with so many books and so much happening, you can always get that information from Wikipedia if you want the condensed version (and no I didn’t skip any of the books and read the wiki like I thought I might). There are things that Jordan does really well, and there are things that drive people crazy, myself included. And there is an obvious shift of writing when Sanderson takes over, which I will discuss in a bit.

The parts that draw me in:
Jordan creates the world. I can see it. I know he knows everything there is to know. The world is its own character and he gives vivid details so as a reader, I knew exactly what he was talking about. Also, I didn’t need the maps, which was good because I listened to the audio books for more than half of them. I found the maps useful at times to try and remember countries exact relation to one another, but they weren’t necessary.

I love the characters. They are unique. They are human. They are varied. It isn’t just one character who is the absolute favorite. Depending on who I talked to, depended on who was their favorite (as a side note, my favorite is Mat.) As the books progress, the characters grow and develop, though they stay true to themselves. It isn’t that the characters become completely new people, but rather we get to see what changes them.

And not least . . . the story is original. I get tired of reading LORD OF THE RING spin-offs. Jordan creates his own creatures, races, and magic system that may borrow from other fantasy tropes, but have their own unique touches. One of the best parts of listening to the audio books was hearing how the two voice actors did the accents of the various characters. I could picture various cultures they were emulating but it didn’t overwhelm what Jordan had done, rather it helped solidify who the people were.

The parts that kick me out:
When I said Jordan creates the world, he does it all, and then tells everything. At times the use of description for every character in the scene was a bit much. Sanderson does a good job of toning this down.

The characters grow and develop, some just don’t develop fast enough for my taste. My husband knows I give nicknames to all of the characters that annoy me. This book had a lot of nicknames because some of the characters have decided that they obviously know what is best and the other characters couldn’t possibly be right. I just wish they grew out of it faster. I got really tired of people (especially the women) who treated the men like idiots. Enough on that point.

And finally, the story is so in depth that it takes more than a dozen books to complete. Yes. You have to read all of the books in order to learn how it is going to end. (At least I hope there is an end. Since I haven’t as of yet finished it I don’t know. But no one better spoil it for me.) There are times when the plot doesn’t move forward, it more of plods. And with so many character viewpoints, at times I grew tired of multiple characters making the same observation regarding the same event.

Conclusion:
Should you read the series? If you like epic fantasy, I believe it is worth the investment. A story well told. I also recommend the audio version, though I had a long commute for several years so I could actually get through them in about a month or two.

Should you purchase the series? See if you like it first, than invest the money. I am slowly collecting the books as I see them on sale.