So, I'm re-reading The Wheel of Time series again in anticipation of the new one, Gathering Storms, that comes out at the end of October. There's no way I'll get through the 11 books before it comes out, unless I do what I usually do: get bored after the seventh book, A Crown of Swords. It arguably starts getting bogged down even before that book, but it's a common complaint for WoT fans who are not completely blind. It is one of my favorite series, but it is hardly perfect. Something I notice with every re-read. I used to think the first 6 books were untouchable. I remember the last time reading these that my opinion dwindled to the first four. 5 and 6 are still very good, but I wonder how I'll feel about them this time around.

I'm currently about 70 pages into the third book, The Dragon Reborn, and it already has one of the things hate about this series: the prologues. They are usually centered around characters I don't care all that much about or ones who are very unfamilar. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd rather jump right in some of the better characters. Far too little time is spent with the main character in this series, Rand, especially with the later books in the series. In this book, I suffered through the relatively boring first 30 pages to get to something good. It seems like this happens in almost every book from that point on. I'm not a fan of skipping anything, just in case, but man, I'm skimming these things from now if they don't pull me in within the first few pages.

Prior to this, I enjoyed the first two like I always do. The Eye of the World has that c.l.a.s.s.i.c. Lord of the Rings feel to it, with enough new/retooled ideas to make it interesting and engaging. It's the first book and it got me into this mess of a series, so I'm going to be overly fond of it for that alone. The second book, The Great Hunt, is probably even better. The pacing is tighter, Rand really starts developing into what he will become, and the world feels more complex and diverse. You get to see some of the inner workings of the White Tower and the Aes Sedai. In general, the book is very interesting and gets things going. If you didn't know how many books were in the series, I'm sure you'd imagine that there are only 3 books left at most. It's funny though, when Robert Jordan was cranking these out once a year, the books tended to be better. When he started spending 2+ years on each one, the quality suffered. Strange.

As for The New Spring novel, that really marks the time I've been a fan of this series. I can't believe that book is approaching 6 years old! I got into the series after graduating high school in 2003 (another timeframe that makes my head spin a bit), so this prequel to the series was the first one I got at release. I didn't imagine that almost 6 years later, only one other book would have come out. Then again, I'm sure those who started this series in 1990, almost 20 years ago, didn't think it wouldn't be completed until roughly 2011. New Spring was the first of three prequels, so I wonder what will happen to the final two with Jordan's death. I especially liked it though because Moiraine Damodred is my favorite character and it was enjoyable learning more about her time as a novice. Her absence has been another reason why the later books are tough to get through.

I love the series, there's so much awesomeness in it, unfortunately, there's plenty wrong with it too. By the time it is all over, it will be close to 10,000 pages long. If we're going to be honest with ourselves, it could have been done in probably 5,000-6,000 and 7-8 books max. The story would have had better pacing and there would have been no trash to slog through. It's a shame Jordan had to die before finishing it himself, but it seems like it is in good hands with Sanderson and Jordan's wife overseeing everything. Plus Jordan left many audio tapes detailing much of what he wanted for the last book, Memory of Light. What's crazy is that it turned into about 2000 pages so it got split into 3 books because how are you going to stock a 2000 page behemoth. Plus, they get to charge the fans three more times, instead of once...

The series is deep, no question, and the world is huge with many characters, interesting ideas and concepts, and many exciting things happening, even if they aretoo far between. However, I think a more focused approach would have made for stronger results. It is a c.l.a.s.s.i.c. in the fantasy genre, but the second half of the series is just so weak. So little happens over the course of hundreds of pages at times. I still like it overall though and I'm going to try and continue reading the whole thing to get to Gathering Storms, even though it will probably take me until the end of the year.

Favorite Book in the series: The Shadow Rising (again, this could change when I get to it again, from what I remember though, this was excellent)

Favorite Characters:

1A.) Moiraine- Introduced as very mysterious and intelligent. I was drawn to her immediately. Amazing feat after amazing feat in my opinion, going toe to toe with a Forsaken is enough to be the dopest character in the series, but she does it with two! Being in only 5 books at this point hurts the series. Great character.

1B.) Rand- What can be said about this dude? You follow him from the beginning and you root for him the whole way, for the most part. His parts of the story are usually the most interesting and I love the early parts of the story where lords/kings/people in power, etc try to take advantage of him and he is so bad ass with them, thanks in heavy part to the guidance of Moiraine.

The rest:

Nynaeve- Yea, she tugs her hair too much but she does some dope sh*t throughout the series.

Mat- Funny and bad ass.

Aviendha- I actually don't remember what I liked about her but I'm sure I will when I get to her.

Cadsuane- More like, I love to hate her; seeing her and Rand butt heads is hilarious.

Egwene- Initially, I greatly disliked her character, but she really develops and comes into her own over the course of the series.

Back to The Dragon Reborn!