My Top 10 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Novels: #8 – The Wheel of Time Series

#8 – The Wheel of Time Series (1990 – 2012)

Cover of

This epic 14-book series is finally coming to a close in 2012. If you haven’t read the series, here is the skinny:

The Dark One is going to break out of his sealed prison to destroy the world and a group of kids from a small village have to stop him.

You know, that old gag.

Even though the premise is a bit overused, the first 5 or 6 books of the series were great. Literally, fantastic! Engaging characters, funny dialogue, magic and Trollocs.

Obviously drawing from Tolkien, the author, Robert Jordan, expanded on Tolkien and created an incredibly detailed and believable world in which all these events transpire.

But then, things went to hell.

Jordan had created such a detailed world, and his books sold so well, that he went a bit nuts with it. Books 6 through 11 had a much slower pace, more politics, more subplots, and less action. Most of these middle-books were by no means bad; they were still entertaining and I somewhat enjoyed them. But they had nothing on those first 6 installments.

So many of Jordan’s followers began to lose faith. With 2-3 years between books and very few plot advances, people were understandably frustrated and wondered if the series would ever get finished.

Then Robert Jordan died.

He passed away on September 16, 2007 from cardiac amyloidosis. But he did pass on all his notes to another fantasy author: Brandon Sanderson.

Sanderson took over the final books of the series, three in total. Two have been released and they have received rave reviews. It seems the Wheel has turned and the magic of the series has returned.

So that is where we are now. Waiting on the very last book. Devout fans will be flocking to the bookstores when ‘A Memory of Light’ is released, supposedly in March of 2012.

And I will be one of them.

Despite the flaws of some of the middle installements of this series, ‘The Wheel of Time’ is an incredible work of epic fantasy and should not be missed.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.

– Robert Jordan, The Wheel of Time

All Entries

#10 – Watership Down

#9 – The Harry Potter Series

#8 – The Wheel of Time Series

#7 – The Stars My Destination

#6 – To Say Nothing of the Dog

#5 – Doomsday Book

#4 – Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal

#3 – The Farseer Trilogy

#2 – Flowers for Algernon

#1 – The Martian Chronicles