Books: The Wheel of Time

When I was a teenager, I searched for a new fantasy epic to read. I walked around the bookstore, and basically picked a book at random, noting the amount of accolades that critics had accorded it. The book I settled on was The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, and it was the first book of "The Wheel of Time." The cover was iconic - a great knight, an elegant lady, and some peasants following them. I dove in greedily, and the Tolkien-esque story about a young shepherd named Rand became one of my favorites.

Unfortunately, my feelings towards "The Wheel of Time" became rather ambivalent as the years went on.

I enjoyed the first eight or so volumes (no small achievement, given that each book runs about 800 pages long), since they contained everything a teenage boy could want. There were swordfights, horrific monsters, good, evil, love, hate, and all sorts of interesting places and people to read about. The simple peasants of the first book had been transformed into powerful world leaders, with all the baggage that accompanies that heavy responsibility. The characters felt real - I could see Nynaeve tugging at her braid, or Egwene's exasperated expressions.

Then, right around Winter's Heart, the ninth volume, my progress slowed. Where once Jordan had lead the reader through wizard's duels in abandoned cities, there was now so much description, so many side characters, so much sheer minutiae that the story's momentum ground to a halt. I would never accuse anybody of selling out (least of all a fantasy author who has already made his money and thus lacks a motive), but it was evident that the author had become too enamored of his fantasy world, and forgot the basics of plot and drama. To this day, Winter's Heart remains in my bookshelf, unfinished.

The author is writing the final book, A Memory of Light, which is slated to be released in 2009. In it, I assume Rand finally faces his Satan-like nemesis in an apocalyptic final battle for the fate of the world. I just hope it doesn't take 3000 pages to get there.