# Should I get/read the Wheel Of Time series?



## Guest (May 9, 2011)

Anyone?

Actually, it's more for my Mom, but I was wondering if folks would recommend getting into the series--is it even finished? There are like, ten books right? And then Jordan passed away? And okay, if I did get the books and Mom read them and enjoyed them, I'd probably try at least one.


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## Remi Michaud (Apr 24, 2011)

The series isn't finished yet. There's one last one, A Memory of Light, to come out written by Brandon anderson (R.I.P James Oliver Rigney, Jr. aka Robert Jordan   ). It's a really good series. It bogs down a little toward the fifth or sixth book, but Brandon Sanderson has done a great job with The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight (books 12 and 13). I certainly recommend it for any fantasy lover.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I really enjoyed the first few books. Then the series got off track for me as more and more time was spent with petty (at least to me) character conflicts, and I gave up on the series somewhere around the 6th or 7th book.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

If you're into fantasy you should totally read at least the first few books. A lot of readers get bogged down around book five and give up. Not me, I enjoy a long series. 

Last I heard there is one more book left to be written before the series is over. Brendon Sanderson recently put out what I sorta think of as parts one and two of the final installment. Back when Robert Jordan was alive there was meant to be one final book called Memory of Light. When he died he left a lot of notes and partially written scenes behind. His wife asked Brendon Sanderson to finish the series but he said it'd take him three books rather than the one Jordan had originally promised. So yeah, Sanderson has written two and has one more left to go before the series will be concluded.


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## gatehouseauthor (Apr 22, 2011)

Yes.  Indubitably. Undoubtedly.

The folks who say the series bogs down in the middle... they're absolutely right.  Jordan tried to bring in a lot of ancillary characters and subplots, and put in a great deal of detail in strategy and battle tactics.  But he began to pick it back up, and by his last two books, a lot of the main plots started to come to the forefront again.  Now, with Sanderson writing the last two books based on Jordan's notes and some prose he had already written, things are coming to a close.  The last two Sanderson books were, IMO, a phenomenal continuation of the story, and the end promises to be epic.

You should definitely pick these up.


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## malligator (Jul 1, 2010)

I've not read any of the books, but a good friend of mine is a huge fan of the series. He tells me that Sanderson is doing a very good so I wouldn't let the fact that Jordan has passed keep you from reading it.


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## Gregory Ashe (May 5, 2011)

I enjoyed the beginning of the series, and the last couple books (by Sanderson), have been much better than the few before them, but it's a huge investment of time and (potentially) money for what seems to be very little payoff (at this point). I would say buy the first one or two and see if you want to invest the time (and anguish, in some ways) of working through *all* of them.


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## jonathanmoeller (Apr 19, 2011)

I'd say read the first one, and see if you like it enough to proceed.

The middle books (8-10) are pretty weak. However, I re-read them recently, and knowing that the series was in fact going to be completed (and not just meander on forevermore) improved them considerably, in my opinion.

-JM


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## Chris Strange (Apr 4, 2011)

I'm a big fan of the series. The others are right when they say it slows down in some of the middle books, but for me it's totally worth it to be able to read about such a huge and detailed world. 

I wasn't a fan of Sanderson's other books, but I was pleasantly surprised by the two WOT books he's written so far. I'm looking forward to A Memory of Light.

That said, the series isn't for everyone. Your mother has to be prepared to invest a lot of time in the series to get value out of them. But the series is one of the classics of epic fantasy, and I would highly recommend it.


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## WrongTale (Feb 16, 2011)

The first book was the first ever fantasy book I read (after LOTR), so it still holds a special place for me. I ate up the next two books, but... for me the problem started with the fourth. The endless boring dream sequences, the endless repetition of miniscule details (we know you tug your braid! there is no need to remind in every other sentence!), and the aforementioned petty characters... I barely finished it. 
I had bought them up to the nine, and now they sit gathering dust.

I also have read good words about Sanderson doing a great job, but I cannot imagine how to get past the books in the middle... especially if there are so many great fantasy books I have not read yet.


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## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

I didn't know the second Sanderson book was out. I don't think I would start this series knowing how long it is, but I read the first when it came out and I kept going over the years because there were some things I liked. Now I feel like I have to continue just to make the previous time investment worth it. I did think Sanderson did a good job on Gathering Storm.


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## David M. Baum (Apr 21, 2011)

I can agree with what most of the other commenters said. 

The first three books are dynamite, as good as epic fantasy comes. Then there's a middle part which is less than stellar, and you have to be really invested in the story and characters and/or a bit forgiving to keep going. The pace has picked up in the latest installments, including those by Sanderson, and the series is clearly building towards a climax. Great worldbuilding, good action, excellent battle scenes, some interesting characters that will get on our nerves sometimes and a huge collection of plots and subplots that finally seems to show a pattern of coming together. 

Love it or hate it, I think the WoT series is a study for aspiring fantasy authors, for both the good and the bad in it.


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## jonathanmoeller (Apr 19, 2011)

> I wasn't a fan of Sanderson's other books, but I was pleasantly surprised by the two WOT books he's written so far. I'm looking forward to A Memory of Light.


I really like what I've read of Sanderson's so far. Even after he was picked to finish WOT, I wasn't planning to resume reading it. Then I happened to read "Mistborn" on a whim, and was sufficiently impressed that I resumed WOT. I'm glad I did - "The Gathering Storm" excellent (especially Rand's final scene on the mountain, and Egwene's climatic moments), and I'm definitely looking forward to getting to "Towers of Midnight".


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

NogDog said:


> I really enjoyed the first few books. Then the series got off track for me as more and more time was spent with petty (at least to me) character conflicts, and I gave up on the series somewhere around the 6th or 7th book.


Ditto

I wonder if it would work to jump in with the last 3 or so books without re-reading the earlier ones and skipping the middle ones?


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## jongoff (Mar 31, 2011)

They're worth getting and reading. They give a whole new meaning to the word epic, but as others have said, they story bogs down a bit in the middle, and there is some redundancy, but Jordan's pacing is good, the story and character's engaging, and the series is entertaining.  The plot is formulaic, but Jordan does a lot of groundbreaking work, and has the most "main" characters of any author I've ever read.  It's a hefty investment because there are so many volumes in the series, but it's worth the read.


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## Guy James (May 2, 2011)

I loved the first book in the series, and the character development is good throughout. I didn't think it was a genre I could enjoy until I read it.

I would recommend trying the first one for sure.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

I like fantasy, but the length of this series, and the consenus of it dragging in the middle has kept me from starting it.

It would be a huge time sink for me since I don't read a ton (just a little a night usually).  For instance, I read the Song of Ice and Fire series first 4 books this winter/spring.  Start the first one in mid-January and finished the 4th in late April.  So Wheel of Time would take up all my leisure reading for a heck of a long time if I ever take the plunge.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

_A Memory of Light_ comes out tomorrow! Not on Kindle, unfortunately, but I am going to make a special trip to Walmart just to get this last book in a phenomenal series.

Who is with me?


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## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

I got the last two at the library, so I will probably do that with the last one. I have too many books in my place already.


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## RavenclawPrefect (May 4, 2009)

I started reading them in 1990 and while it does bog in the middle books, it is worth reading.  I did a reread over the summer and you really can't just read the final three and get the scope of the series.  



UPS just dropped off my copy of Memory of Light, the final installment so I am off to read!


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

This may make me a Bad fantasy dude, but I never started reading these ... I have the first as an ebook even and it's just sitting there covered in electronic dust....


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## RavenclawPrefect (May 4, 2009)

I ordered mine via Amazon and it was delivered this morning.... a day early! Woo hooo!



Cherise Kelley said:


> _A Memory of Light_ comes out tomorrow! Not on Kindle, unfortunately, but I am going to make a special trip to Walmart just to get this last book in a phenomenal series.
> 
> Who is with me?


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## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

As much as I enjoyed the first few books, this was he series that drove me away from the monstrous doorstopper fantasy epics that _never _end, and into the arms of the short stories and novellas. I'll probably read the cliff notes at some stage to see how it ends, or browse it in a book store to read the last couple of chapters but the thought of wading through a million words of padding in themiddle of the series doesn't appeal to me any longer.


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## Mandykins (Sep 24, 2012)

My husband's pre-ordered copy I bought him for Christmas arrived today and he's been overjoyed.


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## NicWilson (Apr 16, 2011)

Personally, I didn't care for it. I may enjoy the stuff Brandon Sanderson has done to tie it off-I do love his work. 

It was a bit too... soap opera-ey for my tastes. The conflicts felt repetitive, the conclusions felt inconclusive, and I couldn't attach to any of the characters.

That's just personal taste, though. There's any number of fantasy authors I prefer so much more. Brandon Sanderson is great, Tad Williams is great, even Kristen Britain is entertaining(though I think her work is more flawed). I just can't imagine spending hours and hours on end in Robert Jordan's stories.


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