Aperti Gnosco

I’ve been a huge fan of The Wheel of Time series ever since Alan Gasperini introduced me to it in 7th grade. I’ve read the first seven books 3 times each, the 8th book twice, and the other books only but once. When Robert Jordan died a couple of years ago without finishing his epic story, I got worried that I’d never see the end of it, similar to what happened with the Dune series.

Aside from Book 11, none of the recent books had been much good. They were still in the world that Jordan created, and stuff still occasionally happened, but they didn’t have the pizazz that the first seven or so books had. In fact, one of the books started before the other book ended and didn’t catch up until 250 pages later. It always seemed like the story was heading towards the end, but at such a leisurely pace that it was almost painful.

Brandon Sanderson’s writing for The Wheel of Time is not 100% like Jordan’s, but he said that was going to be the case. It is, however, amazing. I haven’t been enthralled with a book like this since forever. Jordan built up the world and the story, and now Sanderson is going to finish it. He got a long way there, tying up many, many storylines and even creating some more of his own.

I don’t want to put any spoilers in this review, but suffice it to say the book is fantastic. There are, of course, several things I didn’t care for, but that’s going to be true of every series that is taken over by anyone else other than the principal author. At least he didn’t fuck up the series like the Dune son did (man were those terrible books even if they were prequels).

If you’re a fan of the series at all, I highly, highly suggest getting back into it and picking this book up. Good stuff. I can’t wait for the next two books, which look to be slated for November of this year and November of next year. That’s an outrageous pace, but it looks like he’s going to be able to stick to it.