Rev Reads

The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

Fantasy ~ Adventure ~ Romance ~ Humanity

Where better to begin something new than a beloved ending?

I first picked up the Wheel of Time at around twelve years old, and finished it fourteen years later. Coincidentally, this is the same number of years as there are books in the series. Now, it would be nice to say that I read one book a year, and progressed through the epic in a reasonable fashion, but I can tell you with some manner of manic glee  that is not how I read this series at all.

Now, I will assume, as doing so is a monumental undertaking, that you have not yet read or completed the entire series. As such, I will not be revealing any important plot or character information.

I read the first four books at least four times each, and have read books five through nine at least twice each. My first time reading through to Winter’s Heart (no.9), I was heartbroken. It was 2007 and Robert Jordan had passed away. The series was still unfinished and I was so forlorn. I feared the characters I had spent dozens of hours with over my teenage years would never get the happy ending I had envisioned for them.

In 2013, Brandon Sanderson completed the writing of the final volume: A Memory of Light; but I was afraid. I owned them all, they were just sitting on my shelf, begging to be read. I had so many questions, and all would be answered if I could come up with the courage to open up the books (and my heart) and see what befell the world I adored.

They sat, a constant reminder of my own insecurities for four more years. In 2017, I was in my third year of college, and it was the hardest thing I had done before. My parents had moved across the country, and I needed something familiar. I spent hours buried in books as a child and a teenager, so why had I moved so far away from something that I loved so much? I cannot answer that question with anything definite, but in that place of strange changes, I picked up The Wheel of Time again.

I knew the first four books so well by this time, I did not need to read them again to recall the tale. I read from The Fires of Heaven(no. 5) to Crossroads of Twilight(no.10) in no time; I was ready to finish it.

Crossroads of Twilight nearly put a stop to that. It took me months to finish it. There was nothing inherently wrong with it, but it was slow. It is the entire resolution to the end of Winter’s Heart, and it was hard. Still, I was determined to complete the series. Moving on to Knife of Dreams(no. 11), it returned to the fantastic world I was looking for.

I loved it. The tears of joy and sorrow, the triumphs and failures, the true understanding of humanity in all its messiness, the good and the terrible; it is all woven masterfully throughout the series. The final book culminated so fluidly. I never knew how it was going to end; and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was excited to find out what would happen, no longer afraid.

These books have been such a huge part of my literary journey that I had to start with them. There will always be a special place for the characters and their struggles and longings. It is a fantasy, with magic, romance, adventure, good and evil, but ultimately, it is about something we all know: