Breinthewild

Books 1-3: The Beginning

(Side note: if you haven’t read part 1, it’s here.)

I read Lord of the Rings right before launching into WoT and am glad I did. It’s hard to read fantasy without seeing Tolkien’s influence, but WoT feels almost like a new world in an adjacent universe. I jokingly refer to it as ‘Tolkien x 1000.’ You liked the nine companions? Take 2,700+ named characters. Did you love traveling to Rohan and Gondor and seeing the distinct cultures of hobbits, men, elves, and dwarves? Take dozens upon dozens of kingdoms and cities and cultures and languages and customs and political battlefields. You liked that description of Tom Bombadil ‘Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow’? Prepare for a paragraph of description every time someone wears a dress (it’s plot-relevant, I swear).

All joking aside, it’s a world to get lost in for a lengthy period of time. And to be honest, for the first three books, I wasn’t sure if it was going to be worth it. The books read like the standard farm boy to chosen one arc I’d seen already in everything from Star Wars to Eragon (and many, many more). They weren’t bad books but weren’t super surprising either.

I figure this is from what I call the ‘John Carter of Mars’ effect. The John Carter books were EPIC in their day, with a fresh, lively spin on sci-fi. However, by the time the movie came out, most of what made the story interesting and new had already been stolen and used by more recent films, leaving John Carter feeling stale and out of date. For Wheel of Time, this made sense to me. The first few books came out in the 90s and I was reading them THIRTY YEARS LATER. I tried to give some grace on that front.

I also struggled to like most of the characters in the first three books. (I know, I know, let me explain). Having finished the series, I now realize this was because all of them were in the ‘annoying young Naruto’ stage of their development. This is the early game, the before. The character flaws aren’t strengths yet, and they are MANY. I knew they would be growing later on (or at least I hoped they would) but that didn’t stop me from wanting to tell a few of them to STOP COMPLAINING AND YELLING and get on with it.

These things weren’t deal breakers for me but they definitely slowed my reading pace. I took several months to get through the first three books. Once I finished book three I took another break before launching into book four (at the behest of my friends who had read the whole series and told me I needed to continue).

Books 4-7: The Empire Strikes Back

To put it bluntly, this is where I got got. Book four ruined me, moving me solidly from ‘eh not sure about this’ to ‘I will read it all and I will read it NOW’. In fact, books 4, 6, and 7 rank among my favorites in the series. Things kick up a notch. The bad guys get smarter and hit back harder. Some EXTREMELY COOL concepts are introduced. And best of all, the character growth is REAL. (Also we meet some new characters/spend more time with smaller characters that are honestly some of the best parts of the story). Plus the meme possibilities here are just magnificent.

Books 8-10: The Slog

Caveat: I did not name these books the slog, my diehard WoT friend who got me into the series called it that. Just for the record.

*Sigh*

Okay look. Some plot-important stuff does happen in these books. Just slowly. Painfully. Between chapters upon chapters of people sitting at campsites or on councils or in throne rooms discussing. If books 4-7 are the Empire Strikes Back portion, this section is the Star Wars prequels, complete with the heavy focus on long talky senate scenes. In addition, these books have lengthy sections involving my two least favorite characters not doing anything, so that may have skewed my focus as well. I tried to keep up the momentum I’d built through books 4-7 but it was a rough go.

Book 11: The Beginning of the End

This is the last book Robert Jordan fully wrote in the series before he died and it ranks among my favorites. You see the pieces settle into place and start moving toward confrontation and climax. You can feel the anticipation in the air. I honestly can’t imagine being a fan and reading these as they came out, not knowing if you would ever get an ending for these characters you love and have spent so much time with.

Books 12-14: The Brandon Sanderson Section

I honestly don’t know what to say. It’s hard enough coming up with a coherent story on your own, but piecing together the work of another author (whose universe you love) and trying to keep their legacy intact, do them justice, AND pay off decades worth of their setup? Oh yeah, while also not infuriating the fanbase or screwing up things royally. It seems like an impossible task.

And yet.

I cannot say anything but this: it was worth it.

I laughed, I gasped aloud, I cried (a rare thing let me tell you). The last three books in this series were beautiful enough to make me want to pick up book one and start again. It was the anti-Game of Thrones experience. I’m so glad I picked up this series. I’m so glad it took me a long time to get through it. The time investment was worth it and I don’t often say that about the books I pick up these days. A lot of what I read feels like pop-fiction: designed to go down easy and fade fast. I don’t mean that in a bad way. Sometimes I don’t have months to spend on an epic series and just want a fun, fast read. But I think WoT’s strength is that investment, that length, that incredibly detailed world building that gives it staying power.

For that, and the friendships I made in the process of reading the series, I say it was time well-spent.

(This is the end of my spoiler-free review. After the cut I’ll sticking some memes and just incredible things I love about the books but with ******MILD SPOILERS******* You have been warned!)

Under-appreciated characters list:
My girl Liandrin
ChadFade (what my friends call Shaidar Haran) Photo at right.
Birgitte
All of the Aiel moms who watch out for Rand and give him soup
Mervin the ~Inventor~
Colavaere
Queen Tylin
Cadsuane Sedai
Tuon
Halima
Gaul and his eternal quest for ~love~
Sevanna
All Ogier
Bayle Domon
Aludra
Bloody Uno
Paitar (he of the sexy voice and grandpa-bod)
Graendal
Siuan (my girl)
Semirhage (criminally underutilized in my opinion)
Bloodknives (so cool!)
Talmanes (but only in the last three books?)
Verin Sedai (incredible)
Keemlin
Pevara
Androl
The Sea Folk

Characters Who Are the Worst:
Alanna
Aram
Olver
Elaida
Masema
Galina (ugh)
The Seanchan (they get all the coolest stuff, but also … slavery? RJ just couldn’t let them be that cool I guess)
Good ole’ Mazrim Taim
Captain Mellar the dumbest boi
Elayne, but only after she… ya know… complains about MILK TWICE a PAGE
Most of the Forsaken. They’re seriously punks lol
Gawyn (bro, he’s so lame. At least his brother has the personality of ‘hot’)
Everyone in the Amazon Prime TV show except Moiraine (someone had to say it)
The Sea Folk

Things that Annoyed Bre:
Excessive amount of braid-tugging/skirt smoothing
The phrase “dandled on one’s knee”
Trying to pronounce ANYONE’S name (I didn’t go the audiobook route, okay!)
Forty women yelling at each other over a bowl (literally the worst)
The Aes Sedai church camp (killing me, smalls)
The warder-bonding process… via sexual assault? Was a choice I guess.
This chapter is boring oh no a bubble of eeeeevil

Things that Bre Found Amazing:
Birgitte’s ideal man is Lord Farquaad
The Red Ajah are the Slytherins in this universe
Aelfinn and Eelfinn (absolutely SLAP)
For an entire book (I think it was seven? or maybe five?) EVERY female character notices a man’s ‘shapely calves’ or the like. This led to many calf-related discussions in our group chat.
This unofficial pilot episode (Ilyena! Children!)
There is ONE (1) paragraph in book five (The Fires of Heaven) which contains some of the best description I have ever read. It is Thakan’dar as seen from an outsider and *chef’s kiss* it is perfect.
Every Mat + Birgitte interaction
Tea as a plot point
Anything to do with Moiraine
Anything to do with Mat (after he stops being such a WHINER)
Anything to do with Rand
The fact that The Circus is a recurring (and important?) plot point
In book nine where everybody tosses their cups into fires for some reason
RAZORS
Emo Rand
The whole ending, just all of it but especially my boy LAN