I will be the first to admit - when I was in college, I was pretty much a one note reader.
(Obviously, this was before I became Super Librarian! Defender of all written words! Reader of everything!
If it was a paperback romance novel, and pretty easy to read, I was totally there. Something to throw in my backpack to read between classes, or to switch to reading when I couldn't take studying any more non-Shakespearean Elizabethan playwrights.
Naturally, I was a bit skeptical when one of my best friends handed me *gulp* a fantasy novel one day and said, "You've GOTTA read this. It's great!"
It's not great. It's, like, 700 pages. Was he kidding?
"Seriously, you'll get sucked in - just promise me you'll read at least 150 pages. It takes 150 pages to really get going, to really get into it. Really, give it a shot."
Okay. I guess. I'll try.
I kind of carried it around for a few days, and then desperate to switch off from memorizing Victorian poetry one evening, I picked it up and started reading.
Well, he was right. After 150 pages, I was flying along, turning page after page, eager to find out what was going to happen next, but worried about reaching the end of the story.
Not to worry, he assured me. It's a series. A pretty long one.
Thus began my love affair with the fantasy series known as the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.
And he was right...it IS a pretty long series.
Released in 1990, The Eye of the World is the introduction to this incredibly detailed, fantastically woven fantasy series centering around three young men - all of a similar age from the same small town - who will, over the subsequent books, change the face of the world and become heroes of their own age as the "fabric of time" weaves around them.
I know.
I was skeptical too.
Jordan's lush, detailed writing and intricately woven plots will pull in any reader, though. Jordan storytelling is often compared to the sweeping tales of Tolkien, ripe with hundreds of characters, interlaced plots and the ultimate battle between good and evil. Jordan began laying foundations in the first book for things that may not take place until volume eleven or twelve - how I would LOVE to peek into Jordan's notes and timeline for keeping all of his story's threads in place!
Because it was my first foray into fantasy, naturally it was all new to me, but the themes were universal - good versus evil, a willingness to accept fate and to sometimes struggle in vain against it, friendships spanning across space and time, and being willing to die for what you believe in. Rand Al'Thor is a simple shepherd who wants nothing more than to marry a pretty girl and lead a quiet life, but instead he finds early on that he is the Dragon Reborn, the man who will save the world from ultimate evil. His best friends, Mat Cauthon and Perrin Aybara, though not "the Dragon Reborn", are equally important to the shaping of history, and of affecting those around them. There's magic, politics, scheming, adventure, a touch of romance, and a good old-fashioned battle or two…
Couple all of that with fantastic writing, rich detail, and likeable characters, and you have the makings for an unparalleled fantasy series between the pages of Jordan's novels, whether you like the fantasy genre or not.
Jordan had always planned on having a twelve-book series, and book eleven, Knife of Dreams, was released in October of 2005, leaving readers eagerly clamoring for the concluding book to pull the series into final focus. The last installment, A Memory of Light, is scheduled for publication in fall of 2009, bringing to a close a nearly 20-year written journey. Unfortunately, author Jordan was diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis in 2006, and passed away in the fall of 2007. Before his death, however, Jordan took pains to finalize and secure his concluding plot, and Brandon Sanderson has been chosen as the writer of the final book. Both Sanderson and Jordan's widow have sworn to uphold the quality of writing and to end the series as Jordan had envisioned.
If you have never ventured into the land of fantasy, let Jordan's fantastic series be your jumping-off point. Not only are there plenty of words to read, but the plots, the detailing, the characters: all will have you clamoring for the next book, then the next, and then the next…
Beats that Danielle Steel I was lugging around any day.
The final book in the Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light, is due for publication in the fall of 2009.
If you enjoy the Wheel of Time series, you may also enjoy Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, or the novels of Terry Goodkind.
