Despite the fact that this is one incredibly popular series, I’ve never been inspired to give it a read. Not that the subject matter wasn’t intriguing enough, because I clearly love fantasy novels and read a ton of them. The problem was one of completion. I can’t stand it when a series drags on for book after book, only to sputter away before the ending ever comes to pass.
Robert Jordan died before the completion of the final volume of “The Wheel of Time”, so I never expected a conclusion to be written. Now it appears that the final book will be written by another author with a strong pedigree, so I have no reason to postpone any longer.
The first book is a monster of a novel, rich in detail regarding the world in which this relatively familiar tale takes place. This is the typical setup novel, and it follows the usual template for building up a fantasy saga. There’s the group of young characters with an unexpected destiny, driven to far off lands and pressed into development of unexpected abilities. There’s the wise mentor figure (a few of them, actually), and the kingdom under siege and suffering from internal strife. There’s a Dark Lord and a source of magical power.
The difference is in the detail. All of the characters manage to get some measure of development over the course of nearly 800 pages, and the key relationships emerge. I think some of the characters are a bit two-dimensional, but there’s the inherent promise of more to come, and there’s room to grow.
I cant’ say that the length of the novel is immaterial, or that it’s the easiest of reads. I usually polish off a book a week, but this took a little more than twice as long. As engrossing as it is, it requires a little patience and recognition that the story rarely skips a moment. And for the most part, that is deeply satisfying at the end, because it makes the world more “real”.
Because this is an introduction to a fantasy world and it is inevitably compared in most readers’ minds to Tolkien and his genre descendants. To make a simple comparison, I would say that this novel reminds me of Raymond Feist’s best work, if the books were far more detailed and expanded. I’m eager to discover how well the saga unfolds.
Rating: 8/10
It’s six or seven solid books. After that he kinda loses himself but recovered with his last book, Knife of Dreams. What often impressed me is that a character introduced in say book 3 as almost an afterthought might suddenly become important in book 9.
The cast of characters in this series is a long list…
Although, since you’ll be reading straight through the slowness might not be so noticeable.
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