Reading Wheel of Time for the first time

**Doggles** · October 1st, 2012, 05:48 AM

Originally Posted by Harry Hoo

I didn't read nearly as much as I hoped I would over the past couple days. I'm only 200 pages into The Great Hunt but already I feel it stands head and shoulders over EotW.

Same here, I was hoping to catch you up...

I managed to get a few chapters down...my Kindle says I'm 65% of the way through though so still quite a bit left.

The book has definiltey picked up now that the main charatcers have split up into groups and are doing there own thing.

I got a bit confused on the last chapter because for some reason the kindle version of this had put the chapter back to front, in the sense that the chapter was split into 2 scenes, and it had the 2nd one first and the 1st one second...

**chris777** · October 1st, 2012, 08:14 AM

Originally Posted by MattNY

Thank you so much for the links and enthusiasm you bring for the series. I knew from reading in other areas you were a big WoT fan and I appreciate you trying to help us first timers.

I will note that the link above though can contain spoilers. Since I just finished Dragon, I decided to check out the commentary on the ending. There are several future events referenced and I only checked out the first couple of commentaries. I only mention this for those that want no spoiler information (good or bad) at all. I will definitely come back to these once I finish the series though, as I enjoy seeing chapter by chapter commentaries like this.

My bad guys. Truthfully I never read the "re-read" while reading. I just assumed it was like the Malazan re-read. Which didn't contain any spoilers, and was amazing for reading comprehension.

But I just read this from the first line of the WoT re-read....

A couple of notes before we get started:

This and all other posts will be rife with spoilers for the entire Wheel of Time series, up to and including the most recent installment, Knife of Dreams. In other words, in the unlikely case that you are reading the series for the first time, you really, really want to wait till you’ve finished them all before reading these posts.

So yeah, maybe that wasn't the best website to recommend to first timers. I hope I didn't inadvertently spoil anything major for you guys!

The other website, http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~karlh/cgi-bin/wot.cgi - Does not contain spoilers as long as you are on the correct book. This one helped me a ton.

Sorry, I feel bad now. As for myself I hate getting spoiled on anything! Tell me what you were spoiled on and I will tell you if it's a big deal or not.

**Harry Hoo** · October 1st, 2012, 06:04 PM

Originally Posted by chris777

Sorry, I feel bad now. As for myself I hate getting spoiled on anything! Tell me what you were spoiled on and I will tell you if it's a big deal or not.

No worries, fortunately I read there were spoilers before going any further and so stopped right there.

I like a surprise especially when I'm completely blindsided. As an example I've just finished chapter 21 of The Great Hunt and

Spoiler:

obviously Selene is bad news? I've had a hunch for a while now that she's Lanfear.

I'm probably completely wrong about that and will be chuckling to myself when I find out the truth.

**Harry Hoo** · October 1st, 2012, 06:10 PM

Originally Posted by Doggles

Same here, I was hoping to catch you up...

I managed to get a few chapters down...my Kindle says I'm 65% of the way through though so still quite a bit left.

I'm trying to slow down and take my time, but I'm just enjoying it too much at the moment!

Originally Posted by Doggles

The book has definiltey picked up now that the main charatcers have split up into groups and are doing there own thing.

What do you think of the girls? I don't mind Moraine and Egwene but Nynaeve really get's my hackles rising.

**chris777** · October 1st, 2012, 07:33 PM

Originally Posted by Harry Hoo

No worries, fortunately I read there were spoilers before going any further and so stopped right there.

I like a surprise especially when I'm completely blindsided. As an example I've just finished chapter 21 of The Great Hunt and

Spoiler:

obviously Selene is bad news? I've had a hunch for a while now that she's Lanfear.

I'm probably completely wrong about that and will be chuckling to myself when I find out the truth.

That's good to hear. And to your spoiler--

Spoiler:

Not going to tell you! =)

What do you think of the girls? I don't mind Moraine and Egwene but Nynaeve really get's my hackles rising.

Egwene gets worse before she gets better. Nynaeve...as I said before...still can't stand her when I think about it, and I haven't read a WoT book in like 3years. Moraine is pretty cool.
The coolest characters in this book are the bad guys BY FAR. =) Just wait for the whole Ishmael thing! If I didn't think Ishmael sounded like some bible Hebrew or Amish guy he might be one of my favorite characters. He ranks up there though.

**Whitleyrr** · October 2nd, 2012, 10:47 AM

Genesis 16:11 - Ishmael is Issac's older brother by Abraham and Hagar (Abraham's wife's female servant) and generally regarded as the Father of the Arabic people.

He is highly thought of in the Qur'an especially, though by many Christians and Jews he is thought of as a villain. Interesting enough, the biblical narrative paints him as a victim, "who will hostile to everyone and everyone will be hostile to him." However, God's blessing extends to him and to his future generations.

It's hard for me to read Jordan's villain character without holding this context in mind and wondering if Jordan were making a direct anti-arabic comment.

**chris777** · October 2nd, 2012, 10:58 AM

Originally Posted by Whitleyrr

Genesis 16:11 - Ishmael is Issac's older brother by Abraham and Hagar (Abraham's wife's female servant) and generally regarded as the Father of the Arabic people.

He is highly thought of in the Qur'an especially, though by many Christians and Jews he is thought of as a villain. Interesting enough, the biblical narrative paints him as a victim, "who will hostile to everyone and everyone will be hostile to him." However, God's blessing extends to him and to his future generations.

It's hard for me to read Jordan's villain character without holding this context in mind and wondering if Jordan were making a direct anti-arabic comment.

There are a couple websites that show similarities between this book and the bible. Though obviously contain spoilers so wait until you're done.

**Icarus** · October 5th, 2012, 06:00 PM

Doing my first ever full read through aswell. I kept buying them on release and as the years went on I stopped rereading previous ones and just tried muddling through. The story lost all cohesion for me so I gave up when 8 was published and swore to wait for the last few (ever optimistic back then) before I started again

Fast forward many years and I realise the final one is out in January so I figure I'll start early and, due to my long and weird shift pattern at work, allow myself a week/week and a bit for each tome so that we meet in january. Great plan except for being 2 weeks into it and starting book 7

Hasn't lost any of the enjoyment at all for me so far, though i hear there's a few iffy books coming up, but I'm hoping for a good long finale with Sanderson tying it up nicely. Hopefully there won't be a repeat of the huge Malazan anticlimax

**Harry Hoo** · October 5th, 2012, 09:24 PM

Just finished The Great Hunt, what and ending! Eye of the world while a good book truly pales in comparison.

Looking forward to starting The Dragon Reborn!

And as to my earlier hunch

Spoiler:

I was right! Selene is Lanfear

**Doggles** · October 6th, 2012, 09:04 AM

oh dear, I'm significantly behind you now...

almost finished EotW though!!

**Werthead** · October 6th, 2012, 05:45 PM

It's hard for me to read Jordan's villain character without holding this context in mind and wondering if Jordan were making a direct anti-arabic comment.

I think Jordan used some bits from Arabic mythology and history (along with Persian, Asian, Indian and a lot of other cultures), though I don't recall any anti-Arabic tendencies on his part. I always took the name Ishamael as a nod to Moby Dick (and the character Ishmael) more than anything else. Jordan did like dropping in some references to classic literature as well as mythology (such as the Tom Hardy reference in the name of the city Far Madding).

**Doggles** · October 8th, 2012, 05:52 AM

ok so finished the first book, eye of the world. I'm not a book reviewer by any stretch of the imagination but I will try to give my thoughts on it.

to sum up I thought it was OK, it didn't blow me away. I thought the first half dragged but the 2nd half picked up and was a lot more enjoyable.
I think the issue that I have is that I'm reading this after reading a lot of fantasy books out there, so to me it seemed very generic. I know I have to take a step back and realise that it was written well before a lot of the fantasy I have read recently and need to just take it for what it is.
I can definitley see the comparisons to LotR.
I thought the world building was good, I love books that have a lot of history in them.
I thought some of the prose was a bit off, I had to re-read a lot of sentences as they just didn't sound right.

So did the popularity for this series increase after the first book or was it mid-way through the series?

Up to chapter 4 of the Great Hunt...

p.s. I can see how authors like Terry Goodkind and Brandon Sanderson may have been influenced by this...

**Harry Hoo** · October 8th, 2012, 05:30 PM

I would agree with every point you’ve make, especially regarding his prose, on more than one occasion I’ve had to continue reading down the page before I’ve been able to grasp what the hell he is talking about.

What did you think of the ending? I was expecting a fight of epic proportions and felt somewhat let down to be honest.

As I said earlier The Great Hunt towers over Eye of the World. EotW almost feels like an extended prologue.

I guess we can freely post spoilers on EotW now?

**Rob B** · October 8th, 2012, 06:43 PM

Originally Posted by Harry Hoo

I guess we can freely post spoilers on EotW now?

You can always post spoilers

Spoiler:

Just make sure they are marked as such

Just remove the space between the opening bracket [ and the S for the opening tag and the [ and / in the closing tag.

[ SPOILER]Just make sure they are marked as such[ /SPOILER]

**Doggles** · October 9th, 2012, 03:16 AM

Originally Posted by Harry Hoo

I guess we can freely post spoilers on EotW now?

Yeam I'm fine with that!! :-)

Originally Posted by Harry Hoo

What did you think of the ending? I was expecting a fight of epic proportions and felt somewhat let down to be honest.

I'd say it was sligtly confusing in places. The bit where he suddenly appears in the battlefield between the trollocs and the army and unleashed the power for the first time, I wasn't sure wether he had gone back in time, or if he was being possessed. I think that could have had more impact.

Wasn't quite sure what was happening with Ba'alzamon and those tendrils or whatever...did he defeat him or just send him back to where he is trapped?

Spoiler:

I'm guessing Ba'alzamon might not be the Dark One cause in the prologue of The Great Hunt where he appears to the Darkfriends he seems more like a man than the all powerful evil entity that he is supposed to be...hmmm