The Wheel of Time

I have always been into fantasy and science fiction. They were the first types of books I read, when I really started reading in earnest in seventh grade. My older brother had a series called The Belgariad by David...

I distinctly remember buying this book in 1992, the paperback version. I got it at Star Realm, a comic / gaming store in Papillion, NE. The place wasn't too far from my high school and I would go there often....

In this second book of the series, we start off knowing who Rand is for sure. I mean, we knew it in the first book – this archetypical fantasy story is generally predictable, some unknown person is actually a wizard...

Now the series starts to get really good. With this third book, The Dragon Reborn, the last of the "setup trilogy" as I like to call the first three books in the series, all the somewhat disparate elements that were...

This is hands down the best book of the series, in my opinion. Most of the setup from the first three books (the setup trilogy) is complete, events pick up and the scale of Rand's task, as well as the...

While a good book in its own right, this is where Jordan really starts to get long winded. Aside from that, this book is notable for several reasons: Perrin is missing entirely, one of the most popular murder mysteries in...

This is the last book of the "Action Trilogy," as I've dubbed Books 4-6, and it ends with a bang. The final sequence in this volume, from the capture of Rand to the confrontation at Dumai's Wells, is one of...

I don't consider this volume part of any "trilogy" within the overall sequence, like I have for the previous volumes. It's more of a bridge between the first half of the series and the second half. It's the end of...

This volume begins the third trilogy in my organization of the series. We had the Setup Trilogy (1-3), the Action Trilogy (4-6) and what I'd call the Bridge to the Second Half or the Midpoint (7). This next trilogy, comprised...

We continue the "Wandering Trilogy" with Winter's Heart, another short volume that required another two year wait. This is when it really became evident that the pace of the series had slowed considerably. It wasn't a one-off anymore; it was...

Overall, I love this series. I wouldn't be writing these retrospectives if I didn't. However, I don't like this book. It is by far my least favorite of the series and I was so upset by the book when it...

In my division of the series, Knife of Dreams doesn't fit into a nice grouping. The feel of the book is half of the previous trilogy and half of the next trilogy, as though you're straddling the border between two...

After Book 11, Knife of Dreams, it seemed certain that Robert Jordan was back on track and finally ready to deliver the ending to the series that many of us had been waiting years and years for. Anticipation was high,...

For the first time since Book 6, we get a new Wheel of Time book a year after the previous one. (I don't count the New Spring prequel that was released between Books 10 and 11 since it's not a...

Now that I've made it through the main sequence, it's time to move on to the prequel, New Spring. Or as the novel version is called, New Spring: The Novel. I've never read the original novella that appeared in the...

The release of A Memory of Light, the 14th and final volume in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series, is fast approaching (less than 3 weeks!), so I figured it was time I do the long-delayed post on The...

A couple of days ago, the 14th and final volume in The Wheel of Time, titled A Memory of Light, was released. If you been following my retrospective on the series, you'll know that I'm a long-time fan, having...

And now... it all comes to an end. Earlier this year, in January, the 14th and final book of The Wheel of Time, entitled A Memory of Light, was released. After more than 20 years of waiting, I could finally...

Now we get into the meat of the book. The Last Battle. Imagine my surprise when I realized the chapter entitled "The Last Battle" was actually 190 pages long. It's a novella in itself. Bravo to Brandon Sanderson for deciding...

As I've mentioned in the last few Wheel of Time blogs, a sequence from the final book, A Memory of Light, was cut. This sequence concerned Demandred and some of what he was doing in Shara throughout the series. It...

So here we go, my first retrospective conclusion. Took me over 2 years to get here, but I finally made it. For these conclusions, I figured I'd do a few things. First, I'll do a couple of lists. These are...

Over 7 years ago I completed my The Wheel of Time Retrospective, celebrating the completion of the series after 20+ years. At the time, I mentioned Team Jordan was working on an official "encyclopedia" for the series, but wasn't sure...