I never actually finished this series, but I found the first 5 or 6 books very compelling. By the 7th I felt it was meandering a bit and I never read any more, intending to come back to it when Jordan finished writing it. Of course, Jordan died before it was completed and Brandon Sanderson (I believe) completed it from his outlines and notes. Honestly, this feels like a much more likely successor to "Game of Thrones" than the Amazon "Lord of the Rings" does. Any fans?
The fantasy epic is set in a sprawling, epic world where magic exists, but only women can use it. The story follows Moiraine, a member of the shadowy and influential all-female organization called the Aes Sedai, as she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women. Moiraine believes that one of them might be the reincarnation of an incredibly powerful individual, whom prophecies say will either save humanity or destroy it. The series draws on numerous elements of European and Asian culture and philosophy, most notably the cyclical nature of time found in Buddhism and Hinduism.
I seem to think I read the first book back when I was in... maybe middle school? I have exactly zero memory of anything in the books, which means I'll probably like the series
The dumbest thing I've ever bought
was a 2020 planner.
"Does anyone ever think about Denethor, the guy driven to madness by staying up late into the night alone in the dark staring at a flickering device he believed revealed unvarnished truth about the outside word, but which in fact showed mostly manipulated media created by a hostile power committed to portraying nothing but bad news framed in the worst possible way in order to sap hope, courage, and the will to go on? Seems like he's someone we should think about." - Dave_LF
We just finished the first book and are getting started on the second. It's not my favorite series by far, but it's kind of interesting in a Tolkien derivative sort of way.
I wonder why the description in the first post says that Moiraine is the one the story follows? It's pretty obvious that Rand is the protagonist in the books.
Is that something that becomes apparent in later books? It really seems like 80% of the scenes are done from the point of view of Rand, with the others done from his friends' points of view. I don't recall one of Moirraine at all. I can't go back and check, though, because we are doing audiobooks, of course.
And as far as character equivalencies go, here's how I see it:
Moirraine= Gandalf
Lan= Aragorn
Rand= Frodo
Mat= Merry
Perrin=Pippin
Thom=Tom Bombadil
Padan Fain= Gollum
Myrddraal= Ring Wraiths
trollocs= orcs
Mt. Dhoom = Mt. Doom (OK, a place, not a person- but it was still distracting from the story to have the names the same.)
It's different enough that I can stand to listen to it, but still it's very distracting to have so much be so similar. The two stories are so much alike that towards the end of "Eye of the World" I was saying to my husband, "They've hit every major plot point so far, except an army of the dead." And then.....
Hidden text.
They acquire an artifact that will call up an army of dead warriors to fight for them. What are the chances that won't be used in future books?
At least Jordan sprinkled plenty of female parts into the tale. Those roles don't twang my "plagiarism!" nerves.
Almost seems like they are competing against themselves with this and the LOTR series. But maybe it is like having two Starbucks down the block from each other.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
Having never read the books (I was unwilling to start a series that looked like it wouldn't end in my lifetime), I'll be able to watch the video adaptation with no preconceptions. I think it'll be fun!
Mornings wouldn't suck so badly if they came later in the day.
I have only read the first 5 or 6 books, which I bought on Honeymoon 25 years ago so I'm hardly an expert, but I enjoyed them at the time. Certainly much better than Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" series which was around the same time, around the same number of books, and seemed to steal liberally from Wheel of Time.
I'm looking forward to it because there was enough quality and depth there to justify a major GoT style tv series, and I don't remember enough spoilers.
Jude wrote: ↑Wed Jul 21, 2021 2:10 pm
For those of you that have read it, does the series finish with a satisfactory conclusion?
I haven't finished the series, but I do know that Brandon Sanderson wrote the last few books and I'm a Brandon Sanderson fan, so I'm pretty sure I'll like those if I ever get that far.
So, I'm guessing it'll be a satisfactory conclusion.
Alatar wrote: ↑Wed Jul 21, 2021 5:19 pm
I have only read the first 5 or 6 books, which I bought on Honeymoon 25 years ago so I'm hardly an expert, but I enjoyed them at the time.
Why would you bring 5 or 6 books to read on your honeymoon??? (Sorry about the randomness .... I'm browsing threads for S&G)
I watched the trailer and as I have no preconceived thoughts on Wheel of Time since I never got past te 1st book, my wife has read the whole series and said it was crap, so unless I want to waste some of my solo TV watching time on it, I doubt it will get watched.
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
--Bilbo Baggins