Wheel of Time, The by Robert Jordan

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Submitted by Chuck Jones 
(May 11, 2005)

I first started reading this series after reading an amazon.com review on J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" Trilogy. The author of the review did not see what was so great about Tolkien and suggested if you want to read some REAL fantasy fiction, then read Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series "if you dare."

Looking back now, that statement throws me into fits of laughter. Robert Jordan is a hack, I despair that the state of fantasy fiction has fallen so low that this is the best people expect.

I made it up to Path of Daggers before giving up in disgust. Jordan's characters are two-dimensional, shallow, and implausible. Jordan makes a big deal out of illustrating situations of character growth for the core characters, only to have them revert to their former behaviors a few chapters later.

His penmanship in general varies; at time his writing is satisfactory, at other times his writing looks so much like something spewed forth by a high school student who fancies himself a writer, I almost expect to see a big red "C-" at the top of the page.
Struggling to find something good to say about this series, I guess it is at least well edited and the cover art is fairly interesting. Aside from that, I think that this series has been a waste of three weeks of my life.

I´m from Finland and the finnish version is great! The Path of Daggers did have some change on it, but I still think that Jordan should continue writing. It´s very popular in Finland too and I always have to fight over the new books if I want to read them. I wish the new book that's coming out soon here in Finland would have more interesting parts than Path of Daggers.

Here goes nothing everyone... Please let me start by stating that I have actually read every book currently available in the WOT series. What started out as an epic journey has, sadly, ended in a run on boring romp through already overexplored territory. I personally love to see the depth in characters revealed but at what point does character development become a boring litany of mundane details that simply distract from an already missing plot?

I wholeheartedly agree with the statements made by others here that these characters were simply frozen at the maturity level of your average 12 year old throughout the 10 books I've read so far. In all honesty, as much as I enjoyed the first few books, I would rather watch my children, at least they mature. Personally I would rather not hear an endless repetition of each characters little "personality quirks".

If you're looking for nice "easy" reading, have some time to kill and run into this series in a used book store by all means purchase it, it can be fun. If you're a serious fantasy fan run far, far, far away, there are better cures for insomnia but by book 10 not many....

When I first picked up this series in 1995 or so, I was very impressed. It grinds some common fantasy grist (pre-adults set on epic quest to save the world and find their place within it), but throws in some spice of its own with richly fleshed out characters exhibiting fear of change, distrust of other's motivations, and the like. All nicely set against a backstory of prophecy and lost knowledge which, for me, rose to a peak in "The Shadow Rising" with the meshing of the Aiel and Tinkers, and hints regarding the Lost Song of the Tree of Life.

Exciting stuff only tainted slightly by the repetitive inclusion of foot stamping, braid tugging, "I'll never understand women like Perrin/Matt/Rand", and other well intentioned but annoying adolescent characteristics.

Unfortunately coming back to the series in 2005, I find that the Wheel of Time stopped being a series somewhere around book 6 and became a franchise, and an under-capitalized one at that. Why stop with a video game and inspirational music, while leaving untapped a market for silver foxhead medallions, Tarabonner man-veils, red Tarien conical hats, and blue silk velvet cloaks with hooded cowls chased with silver threading with a border of beaded lilies in yellows and reds edged in lace trim?

I thought the point of this series was to fight the Dark One: instead having just finished Book 10, I find that the point is to fight through lengthy descriptions of what Aes Sedai X is wearing (while busy shivering with frosty indignation). Is Aes Sedai X a Darkfriend? You've got me, it's been 600 pages since I saw her last and she's just going to sip some more mint tea, flash her eyes dangerously, and vanish for another 300 anyhow.

I'd ask where Tor's editors have gone, except paid by the word it's obvious that they've gone to the Bahamas where Jordan is rumored to have built a replica White Tower with his royalties.

I'm making it worse than it is, but only slightly. After "Winter's Heart", I find great empathy for Perrin's men running low on food and tramping through a seemingly endless forest of mud and snow. In "Crossroads of Twilight", I share Egwene's frustration as I wait 8 pages for Sheriam to announce Egwene to the Hall. And as Tuon reminds me, women really love shopping for pages and pages. If not for the comic inclusion of weevils in everyone's food I might not make it to Book 11.

This brings up the real problem with the later books: the masses of secondary characters, the weight of flowery prose and pointless minutia cracks the delicate suspension of disbelief and degrades the primary characters' integrity. Am I really supposed to belive that the entire Aes Sedai rebel camp lacks the single nail that would suffice to fix Egwene's stool once and for all? If the Power can reheat bitter mulled wine, why can't it heat a rock sufficiently to warm a tent? If using the Power is so trivial as to be expended in lighting and extinguishing lamps, why does no one think to use it to sort weevils out of grain?

This is a shame. A tale that started so strongly deserves a strong ending. The New York Times can make the insufferable claim that Jordan has "come to dominate Tolkien's world", but that'd be in terms of raw page count. JRR told a tight, compelling and enduring tale. Would that the Wheel of Time be as tightly edited.

Check out Guy Kay's "Tigana" or Joan Vinge's "The Snow Queen" for some quality reading while you wait for WOT to finish itself up by 2010 or so.

I made it through the fifth book by sheer force of will. I'm trying to listen to them over again on audio to get back into the story, but I just can't seem to care about these characters. The world is vivid and detailed, colorful, and even original, but the characters are shallow, the women are annoying, (if Nynaeve pulls her braid one more time, I'll scream), and the men, with few exceptions, are complete door mats. My real issue, though, is all of the detail with no real impact on the story. If you want tedious detail that actually enriches a story, read A Song of Ice and Fire, by GRRM. Jordan's details, while impressive in scope, are pointless most of the time, and the characters act like children, most of the time. I find myself just not caring. I will finish the series eventually, and maybe there will be payoff. The prequel was interesting, and the final battle should be good. Beware new readers, it's thick, drawn out, muddled with useless details, but if you can wade through it, or you're a teen, this is a good book to cut your teeth on. If you've read George R.R. Martin already, you'll be disappointed in Jordan.