21st June 2025

Onto book four in my Wheel of Time re-read. There's a lot going on, and we open with a contrast to the previous book by skipping around the various main characters fairly quickly. After a while though, this settles into long chunks of the book following a particular character, and I found this quite draining, and that I wanted to get through it to get to the other characters. I think for me, the jumping between them works better as a style for keeping my attention.

This feels like the book where the author has realised it's going to be more books than he thought to get to the end of this story, and so things slow down a bit. There's more world to explore, and that's very much what's happening here. One storyline takes us off to learn a new culture, their entire backstory, and set up stuff for future books. Another storyline finds another culture to explore, and provides an action setting for two characters who I felt got a bit of short shrift in the previous book. And the third takes us back home to see how things are changing and provide key character and world growth.

It's one of the longest books in the series and really felt it. Particularly once I'd passed the halfway point it felt a real slog trying to get through to the end - I really wanted it to be over faster. And yet I'm already craving returning to the world and getting on with book five.

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7th June 2025

I've rapidly reached book three in my Wheel of Time re-read, and this one is strikingly different from the first two. As readers, we're now cut off from Rand, the main character we'd been with so far, and instead get long chunks of narrative following the other four lead characters of the series, before some faster chopping between them as the climax approaches.

This style I think makes the story feel slower. There's a lot to get through that feels like exposition, or just lining characters up for things, rather than developing them and their action.

Again, there's a new character who I didn't remember appearing this early in the series. It still gives that feeling that Jordan intended for a six-book adventure, not the 15 books that this became. The overall plot feels like it's taking a bound forward in each book, reaching a key milestone at the end.

I am considering a longer break now before re-reading book four, but we shall see how that pans out.

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1st June 2025

Having re-read the first book, I immediately wanted to continue. This second adventure feels a little slower going, but actually introduces a ton of the world building that I again had forgotten came so early.

The party splits, with one group following a trail left by a thief, and the other heading to the White Tower. What I had remembered is really liking the Tower parts of the story - it's the classic boarding school type of setting, so very familiar in that sense. Whereas the journey plot is slow and drawn out, and in places feels like some of the lore has come about just to make it work.

The climax then feels a bit rushed, with us barging through it in a small set of chapters. I suspect I've become used to Brandon Sanderson's style where the climax fills the final quarter of the book.

Overall though I'm still really hooked on this re-read and will be back for book three soon.

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24th May 2025

Inspired by the release of season three of the TV adaptation, I decided to revisit the books. I notice that the series has affected my thinking and I am now seeing the cast when picturing the characters, particularly Morraine, Lan, and Rand.

In some respects it's the classic story about the prophesied chosen one - with baddies out to get him, and a wise magic user wanting to guide him. However there are three candidates and neither side knows which one it really is.

I found I really enjoyed re-reading this. I knew the broad strokes of the plot, and the characters in some detail, but there are plenty of elements that I've forgotten, and others that stand out more in a re-read. I was also surprised by the amount of foreshadowing, and things that I didn't remember being introduced so early in the series.

There are a few moments that make me wonder if I'm reading sexism on behalf of the author, but those are all passages portrayed from the point of view of a teenage boy, so can possibly be judged as within that context. I was surprised that were stuck with Rand's point of view for the majority of the book, as the series is well know for multiple viewpoint characters, but it seems in these early days that was much less common, though we do eventually step into the shoes of two other characters as well.

Looking forward to revisiting book two, but probably not for a little while as it's a lot to do back to back.

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12th January 2013

The final book in The Wheel of Time, completed by Brandon Sanderson following the death of Robert Jordan, but including passages and an epilogue written by the original series creator. Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, must make the Light's final stand against the Dark One, as the Last Battle begins across the whole world.

This book has been worth the wait. The last battle is truly worthy of the name and shows Sanderson to be a fantastic author, planning the intricate detail of so many complex scenes and weaving them together in a way that not only flows but makes things clear to the reader despite the huge potential for confusion.

It's a book about war, and so was never going to be the lightest book in the series. Battles are a major focus right from the start, and there are sad moments throughout, but Sanderson mixes in humour in a subtle way that doesn't feel out of place in the context - much of it not even being a joke in the story, but which references the real world in ways to make the reader smile.

As an ending, it works well to wrap things up, although there are a few things that left me slightly confused and will probably require a re-reading of at least the end, if not the entire series, for me to understand fully. It is addictive reading, and at one point I decided to just read one more chapter before breaking, only to discover it was 190 pages long.

It is a worthy ending to the series, although I am slightly sad that this means there will be no more - I've only started four years ago and yet the characters have become very familiar, and the prospect of never reading more about them is a slightly odd feeling.

It is an ending that does justice to everything that has come before.

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11th November 2010

It's hard to digest Brandon Sanderson's second entry in the Wheel of Time series after just one fairly quick reading, but my initial impression is that he continues the story well, while restoring the passion that some of Robert Jordan's later novels lost.

Much of the focus of this book is on Perrin, and it serves as a vehicle for him to find his place in the world, much as the previous book did for Mat and Rand. Some characters are left with little coverage, however they are generally those who featured more in the previous episode and so the idea that these are just two parts of one overarching final novel comes across. Here, the final pieces are moved into place ready for next year's grand finale.

Sanderson's grasp of the characters is stunningly good, and the way he successfully emulates Jordan's style makes the book believable as a continuation. There are a few places where the language has become, what seems to me, more Americanised than that which Jordan used, which feels out of place breaking the flow of the narrative.

There is much more action in this than possibly any of the earlier novels, and despite its length this makes the story feel faster, and it seems like it has covered a lot more ground than on reflection it has. I was confused in some places as the way that Sanderson has split the plot leads to scenes being narrated out of chronological order, with much of some characters' storylines occurring simultaneously with other characters' events from the previous novel. This is of course nothing new for the series, and it makes sense that the stories were split this way, but means that at one time the same character was in two places at once. There are subtle attempts to make this clear in the narration but it is rarely made explicit and easy to forget.

The biggest frustration is that the books ends, which leaves me to wait for an entire year before I am able to read the conclusion. Sanderson has an irritatingly genius way of leaving the reader wanting more, and as I am a late comer to the Wheel of Time this will be my longest wait between instalments.

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23rd August 2010

Book 12, which is not now the final episode, is the first Wheel of Time novel since Robert Jordan's death in 2007, and Brandon Sanderson proves himself a worthy successor.

The style is somewhat different, the chapters shorter, the viewpoint switching more frequently and the action certainly speeding up - but then it has to to fit so much in. While I would hesitate to say that this style was better, it certainly wasn't worse. The action grips the reader unlike recent books in the series - you are reading because it's exciting rather than to find out what happens.

Sanderson's use of the characters is masterful as well, continuing their storylines naturally and bringing some to their concussion quickly and easily while giving others more of a challenge. The pieces are boldly moving now towards the end game, and the tension is ramping up.

It's clear from reading that there is no way this could have fitted into a third of a book - it fits so well into this format, bringing both Rand and Egwene's plot-lines to a dramatic point for a break. The only let-down is the lack of action from Perrin, and the total absence of Elayne.

I'm glad that I've read this now rather than when released, as waiting twelve months for the next instalment would have been torturous. Easily worth five stars.

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