The Wheel Turns

And turns and turns again.

I first discovered Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series at university. Friends were reading it and I foolishly borrowed a copy of book one, not realising it was to be book one of twelve and that I would still be reading it fifteen years later.

In a nutshell, it depicts a fantasy world, one which owes much to other great fantasy writers (I will leave you to decide who) and to medieval England. Plus, I think, U.S military history. I suspect Mr Jordan has read his fair share of civil war battle re-enactments.

The story starts following Rand, Perrin and Matt, together with Egwene and Nynaeve and the Aes Sedai and her warder who find themselves in the provincial backwater where Rand and his friends have been living all their lives. The next twelve books follow a battle between good and evil, including all the shades of grey inbetween.

The series has its weak spots. As stand alone books, seven, eight and nine are poor. They fit into the overall story when read as a whole but very little happens in the way of major events. Some of the language can be repetitive, the female characters all have a habit of folding their arms under their breasts. I wonder if anyone has counted how many times they do this? Perhaps a challenge for my next re-read...

Robert Jordan died before he could complete the series. His successor, Brandon Sanderson, has taken over the job. Quite ably, I would say.

There are numerous websites on this epic tome, two of note are:

WoT Encyclopaedia

Brandon Sanderson's website

It took me four months of commuting to read books one through to twelve. Book thirteen is out soon. I'm not going to do another re-read until book thirteen is out.



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