I think even its most ardent fans would agree that the series wandered away from where it really need to be for quite some time… but it’s still been an incredible journey that has had a special place in my heart for around 20 years. And the most recent 3 books (Knife of Dreams, the last one Jordan wrote himself, and The Gathering Storm and The Towers of Midnight, by Brandon Sanderson), have been, at least in my opinion, a definite return to form.
These characters have been close to my heart for over half of my life. I’m thrilled to finally see their truly epic tale come to an end.
(The final book, A Memory of Light, comes out in January.)
My brother (Brandon’s assistant) sent us a section where somebody’s fixing a saddle, to have my husband (who does leatherwork) look it over. That was kind of cool. (“Oooh, as-yet-unpublished Wheel of Time!”)
Wow, yeah, I guess I started reading just after college. Haven’t picked up any of the later books - maybe I read Knife of Dreams, that sounds really familiar - I should get back to it. Heck, knowing the series is done, maybe I’ll just start from the beginning. That first book was a very long time ago!
I have a soft spot for Wheel of Time - it was the first epic fantasy series I ever read. I remember sitting in a chair for hours on end, absolutely riveted. The latter half of the series has been a bit of a slog, to put it mildly, but I am still looking forward to reading the last book!
I mostly just wanted to finish the series, but I’ve been very pleasantly surprised at what Brandon Sanderson has done with it. I was probably around 10 when I started reading the books almost 20 years ago, and I loved the first 5 or so. The 6th book was ok, and from there it just went downhill rapidly. The last few books have reminded me of what I liked about the series way back then.
I read the first eight books on my husband’s (then boyfriend’s) recommendation, and by the end was flipping and muttering and making fun of everything. He gaemly kept on, even though he started MSTing it, but when he picked up and read the Brandon Sanderson books, he said, “These are actually good. I think you’d like them.”
So I read them, poised to hate and mock.
They were quite good. The characters had character. I no longer wanted to punch everyone all the time. The stories made sense.
About six years ago, I gave up at book 9. But I heard last year that Sanderson had picked up the pen and I’m a big fan of his Mistborn/Stormlight Archive work so I decided to give it a shot. While he’s still constrained by the rules and universe Jordan eventually got mired in, it’s a pretty fresh, competent take and it doesn’t feel at all like fan-fiction. (Like I feared.) They turned out to have a significant upward curve, actually, and I’m confident Sanderson will be able to end the series on a high note.
And then get back to the Stormlight Archive, because I seriously want those books so bad.
You know, Nynaeve probably annoyed me more than anyone else in the series, but Sanderson really saved her…what she does in the penultimate book is seriously wonderful. She finally matures beyond her penchant for bossing people around and does an incredible and selfless thing for Lan. That whole section really moved me.
Not to hijack, but was the first book really that good? I’m hesitant to begin because it is supposed to be a 10 book series, right? I’ll wait until we are sure he is churning them out at a pretty good pace.
Crossroads of Twilight was so goddamn bad I stopped reading the series. The series had dragged to that point, but I didn’t have many series complaint. Then absolutely nothing happened in 800 pages and I was out.
I’ve made such a huge time commitment, and people say Sanderson put the series back on the right track, so maybe I’ll finish it off at some point.