Robert Jordan (1) (1948–2007)
Author of The Eye of the World
For other authors named Robert Jordan, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Robert Jordan was born James Oliver Rigney Jr. on October 17, 1948 in Charleston, South Carolina. He received a B.S. in physics from The Citadel in 1974. He served two tours of duty in Vietnam with the U.S. Army and won The Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star and two Vietnamese Crosses of show more Gallantry. From 1974 to 1978, he worked for the U.S. Civil Service as a nuclear engineer. During the 1980's, he began writing several novels for the Conan the Barbarian series that was created in the 1930's by Robert E. Howard. He also wrote under many pseudonyms, which include the historical novels The Fallon Blood (1980), The Fallon Pride (1981) and The Fallon Legacy (1982) as Reagan O'Neal; and the western Cheyenne Riders (1982) as Jackson O'Reilly. He wrote articles for periodicals for the Library Journal, Fantasy Review and Science Fiction Review as Chang Lung. He was the author of the Wheel of Time series and The Towers of Midnight. He died on September 16, 2007 following a battle with cardiac amyloidosis. Jordan was cremated and his ashes buried in the churchyard of St. James Church in Goose Creek, outside Charleston. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Robert Jordan en 2005
Series
Works by Robert Jordan
The Wheel of Time, Boxed Set I, Books 1-3: The Eye of the World, The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn (1993) 1,015 copies, 3 reviews
The Wheel of Time Companion: The People, Places, and History of the Bestselling Series (2015) 553 copies, 4 reviews
Wheel of Time Premium Boxed Set IV: Books 10-12 (Crossroads of Twilight, Knife of Dreams, The Gathering Storm) (2011) 126 copies
The Wheel of Time - First Six Books - The Eye of the World, The Dragon Reborn, The Great Hunt, The Shadow Rising, The Fires of Heaven, Lord of Chaos (1995) 95 copies
By Grace and Banners Fallen: Prologue to A Memory of Light (Wheel of Time) (2012) 79 copies, 3 reviews
Wheel of Time Premium Boxed Set V: Book 13: Towers of Midnight, Book 14: A Memory of Light, Prequel: New Spring (2020) 53 copies
The Eye of the World: the Graphic Novel, Volume Two (Wheel of Time: The Graphic Novel, 2) (2023) 25 copies
Patterns of the Wheel: Coloring Art Based on Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time (Wheel of Time Other) (2016) 22 copies
Best of Robert Jordan: The Shadow Rising; The Fires of Heaven; Lord of Chaos; A Crown of Swords (The Wheel of Time Series) (2000) 11 copies, 1 review
Legends 3 11 copies
The Eye of the World: The Graphic Novel, Volume Six (Wheel of Time: The Graphic Novel, 6) (2023) 8 copies
A Fire Within The Ways 7 copies
The Wheel of Time, Books 5-9: (The Fires of Heaven, Lord of Chaos, A Crown of Swords, The Path of Daggers, Winter's Heart) (2017) 6 copies
The Wheel of Time Books 1-5 2 copies
A Világ Szeme I. kötet 1 copy
The Fighters of Heaven 1 copy
The Calf of Daggers 1 copy
Getter and Storm 1 copy
Tellers of Midnight 1 copy
La ruota del tempo: prologo 1 copy
The Wheel of Time, Box Set 3: Books 7-9 (A Crown of Swords / The Path of Daggers / Winter's Heart) 1 copy
La Roue du Temps 1 copy
Associated Works
Legends I: New Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy (1998) — Contributor — 2,083 copies, 19 reviews
Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy, Vol. 3 (of 3) (1998) — Contributor — 593 copies, 1 review
Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy, Vol. A (of 2) (1998) — Contributor — 289 copies, 1 review
Legends. Racconti inediti dei maestri del nuovo fantastico: 2 (1998) — Contributor — 6 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Jordan, Robert
- Legal name
- Rigney, James Oliver, Jr.
- Other names
- O'Neal, Reagan (pseudonym)
O'Reily, Jackson (pseudonym) - Birthdate
- 1948-10-17
- Date of death
- 2007-09-16
- Gender
- male
- Education
- The Citadel (BS ∙ Physics)
- Occupations
- novelist
short story writer
nuclear engineer (US Navy)
helicopter gunner (US Army ∙ Vietnam) - Organizations
- Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
United States Army - Awards and honors
- Distinguished Flying Cross
Bronze Star
Vietnamese Gallantry Cross
South Carolina Academy of Authors Hall of Fame (2008) - Short biography
- James Oliver Rigney Jr. (October 17, 1948 – September 16, 2007), better known by his pen name Robert Jordan, was an American author of epic fantasy. He is best known for the Wheel of Time series (finished by Brandon Sanderson upon Jordan's death) which comprises 14 books and a prequel novel. He is one of several writers to have written original Conan the Barbarian novels; his are highly acclaimed to this day. Rigney also wrote historical fiction under his pseudonym Reagan O'Neal, a western as Jackson O'Reilly, and dance criticism as Chang Lung. Additionally, he ghostwrote an "international thriller" that is still believed to have been written by someone else.
Jordan was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He served two tours in Vietnam (from 1968 to 1970) with the United States Army as a helicopter gunner. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf cluster, the Bronze Star with "V" and oak leaf cluster, and two Vietnamese Gallantry Crosses with palm. After returning from Vietnam he attended The Citadel, where he received an undergraduate degree in physics; after graduating he was employed by the United States Navy as a nuclear engineer. He began writing in 1977.
Jordan was a history buff and enjoyed hunting, fishing, sailing, poker, chess, pool, and pipe-collecting. He described himself as a "High Church" Episcopalian and received communion more than once a week.[11] He lived with his wife, Harriet McDougal, who works as a book editor (currently with Tor Books; she was also Jordan's editor) in a house built in 1797. - Cause of death
- cardiac amyloidosis
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Charleston, South Carolina, USA
- Places of residence
- Charleston, South Carolina, USA
- Place of death
- Charleston, South Carolina, USA
- Burial location
- Charleston, South Carolina, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- Charleston, South Carolina, USA
Members
Discussions
Wheel of Time TV Series (and books?) Discussion in The Green Dragon (June 2025)
Group Read of Robert Jordan's 'Wheel of Time' series - (2) The Great Hunt in 75 Books Challenge for 2019 (September 2023)
Group Read of Robert Jordan's 'Wheel of Time' series - (1) The Eye of the World in 75 Books Challenge for 2019 (June 2019)
Group Read : The Wheel of Time - The Eye of the World (Book 1) in 75 Books Challenge for 2013 (December 2013)
The Wheel of Time in FantasyFans (February 2010)
The Eye of the World in Someone explain it to me... (October 2008)
Reviews
All right. Couldn't take it anymore. I officially quit this series. I got up to halfway through book 4 and realized that life is too short to read bad books. I wrote this as I read the book.
I think a lot of people who compare Tolkien and Jordan miss the point. I'll give Jordan this. He has more than one female character per book and they actually have more than one significant plot line and even interact with each other. That's not to say Jordan is superior to Tolkien, but it's certainly an show more improvement.
And now that we've commented on the few highlights in this godsawful series...
Yes Rand, remind us that you're not going to dance to anyone's tune. I don't know why you care other than Jordan really wants to remind us that being manipulated by the Aes'Sedai is a bad thing. Although I don't know of any situation in the first four books where Rand was actually manipulated by an Aes'Sedai, except in Andor during that random meeting with the Queen, maybe, and he has no clue what he's doing so he's relying on other people's help anyway so how would he even know if he was being manipulated (unless help = manipulation, which just makes me think he's an idiot because from day 1 he was pretty averse to help in case it was manipulation) and unless it's for evil purposes why does he care? The way things are, he just hates being manipulated BECAUSE he hates being manipulated. I think most people do but he doesn't have to harp on it every POV section like he has an axe to grind.
I still have no idea why any of the women like Rand. At least Lanfear kind of makes sense, because she's possessive (probably out of an "I like really powerful men" trope). It's not even an interesting or well-written relationship, it just makes the most sense of the badly written relationships available, which is kind of pathetic. You could argue 'love at first sight' for Elayne, but no. Jordan used too many words for other things to use a Get Out of Jail Free card on romance. He can't write romantic relationships and 'love at first sight' is not going to be an excuse. Heck, the characters in-universe don't even understand what's going on. Elayne has an inner monologue where she admits that she doesn't understand WHY she loves Rand but she's loved him since they first met(???). Apparently she doesn't question that it's LOVE instead of something else (like lust?). And Min, the character who refuses to be beaten by destiny... is defeated by destiny? WHY? And what is with people and assuming that you only do something for a person of another gender if you're in love with them? Everyone from the Amorlin Seat to random innkeepers and merchants. It's really stupid.
Again, why does Rand have such an abhorrence for Moiraine? She didn't make him magical. She didn't throw him at Tear so he could get the sword. She's helped him where she can, saved his life and his friends' lives multiple times, helped point him in the right direction... What, he's angry because another adult with a lot of power and knowledge is treating him like the child he acts like?
I 'love' the line where Elayne says that the pompous politicians in Tear follow Rand because he's a Leader and not because he's the Dragon Reborn. Yeah. Right. Jordan, you can't write women. And you should really not spend the rest of the story demonstrating just how bad of a politician Rand is while strongly demonstrating that the only reason the politicians haven't murdered/ignored him yet is because they're afraid he could murder them on the spot with his power. Yeah. Rand. A leader material.
In this book, Rand confronts taxes. And attempts to take over a country he gave precisely zero fucks about until this book. I understand that the nobles in Tear are pompous and I support people educating themselves but no. This is not how that works. Exactly when did Rand start caring about whether or not a country was run by pompous idiots or how their farmers did or their economy was run?
Apparently PerrinxZarine is a thing now. I still don't understand why and their relationship 'development' is REALLY disturbing ('I should try yelling at her more because that works' - I couldn't make this shit up if I tried; Perrin legitimately thinks that yelling at her is a good idea). This book seems to actually be JORDAN asking why they're a couple. Like... you wrote them this way Jordan. Make up your freaking mind. They seem to hate each other most of the time. And through this relationship we see more of how much of an entitled arrogant egotistical sexist ass Perrin is. I "love" how he manipulates Zarine (for her own GOOD, of COURSE!) and then gets angry when she does THE EXACT SAME THING TO HIM, only not in as cruel a fashion because POOR BABY she TRIES to make him ask her a question and FORCES her company upon him because she wants to help him save his people, while he pretended he was in lust with someone else and insulted her looks. Poor man. He then spends a large portion of the book pouting and acting all put-out over a character (Loiyal) he was barely on speaking terms with before Zarine spoke to him.
"The Shadow Rising", making us continue to ask: WHY IS MAT A CHARACTER IN THIS STORY? Literally all he does is take up space. His story does NOTHING to advance the plot (heck, even in the HUNT THE DAGGER plotline the Heroes were all looking for The Horn, too, so if the dagger plotline was removed nothing would have been lost; Perrin could have blown the horn, Ninaeve, Elayne and Egwene end up leaving Tar Valon anyway and then essentially rescue themselves and Rand saves the day). I don't care about him. At all. I briefly cared about him last book because the rooftop confrontation scene was one of the like three moments in the first four books and the prequel where I cracked a smile but that was it. Also, where is he randomly getting his Badass Weapons Skills? Book 1 he was the Archer. Last book he magically became a master of the staff. Now he's a master knifethrower/assassin? I guess I'd understand if it was more of this "past life" bs but we're never given that explanation. The section where he's sitting and listening to the nobles talk about raping women was really stupid. Yeah, good that Mat stood up to them, sort of. But was ANY of that necessary? Also this book: more examples of how much an entitled misogynistic lecherous ass Mat is, so like... is Jordan trying to demonstrate that "no, he's actually a good guy who respects women but still feels entitled to their attention and objectifies them every chance he gets". I really, really hate his sections.
Why is Tom Merrillin a character? What does he add to anything? He's done about two things in the first four books: teach Rand how to play the flute and allow Mat and Rand a chance to escape an enemy. I know he does stuff later on but it's really frustrating when not just one but two characters are essentially dead weight for the first four books, if not more, in a series. If Moiraine is the Merlin stand-in, what is Tom supposed to represent? Loiyal is the scribe. Moiraine is the teacher. Lan is the brute force and Rand is the magical brute force. The other Aes'Sedai fill in the magical brute strength and Mat and Perrin are around.
I guess if Moiraine ever figured out that even if she "can't" teach Rand how to use his magic, she can teach him other things like politics, etiquette, language, you know, things someone who is destined to be a leader might find useful, then we might end the book series early.
But then the next part happens. I really like that Egwene and Elayne attempted to help Rand learn what to do with his power. It's a lot more than Moiraine has attempted, at least on the page. She's stated that she's going to try to help but we haven't seen any proof of that other than her upbraiding him for being an idiot. It's deserved but it's not that helpful. And again, I ask, WHY DO YOU HAVE TO LIMIT WHAT YOU CAN TEACH TO MAGIC? Why doesn't he get a book on anatomy (so he knows what to do when he's healing)? Social etiquette? Politics? Perhaps a lesson on the make-up of the various governments in the WoT planet? A monster manual so he knows how to fight various enemies and recognize the Forsaken? What about more weapons practice? Language practice since he's meeting lots of different peoples and some lessons on different cultures? Elayne could do that! Yes, we get that the TWO HALVES OF THE TRUE SOURCE are VERY different and don't work the same way and WOMEN CANNOT TEACH MEN MAGIC and blah blah blah Jordan you don't know what education means. Of course MEN can teach WOMEN magic but HEAVEN FORFEND the reverse happen! Rand seems to remedy this by browsing the library at Tear and lo and behold he actually learns some things it's like you can actually learn useful stuff from books who'da thunk?
I "love" the plot point where Moiraine essentially says "Oh, the Ultimate Evil just messes shit up. It happens now." Because that's going to explain bad magic happening. You know. Bubbles in the pattern my ass. Why? Just cause.
Oh is Moiraine speaking/acting in a detached manner/drily? I'm shocked.
Otherwise the book is so. Boring. Again, if this was a series about the female characters alone, I'd probably finish it. There's a pretty neat cast of people there. Maybe with another writer who would take half the time to tell the story and actually write women well but they're pretty neat nonetheless. I'd love a novella where Aviendha and Egwene go on an adventure together. But whatever.
The writing has not improved much at all. There might be fewer nonsensical similes and repetitive prophecies that are never explained and serve no purpose other than to foreshadow to the reader what's going to happen in the next few pages or remind them of what happened in the last chapter, but since there were already a ridiculous number to begin with and "fewer" is a rather small decrease... so what? The book is still focused on this ridiculous gender warfare bs and if a woman doesn't smooth her dress at least once per page featuring a woman, I feel concerned. Have a taste of my 'favorite' quotations:
"Time to die horn sounder." Its voice was an adder's hiss, warning of death. (Reviewer's note: nawwwww I never woulda guessed, too few death references)
Eyeing him in that way women had. (Reviewer's note: ????)
Acrid Trolloc blood, with its stink that burned his nostrils. (Reviewer's note: the definition of 'acrid': sharp or biting to the taste or smell; bitterly pungent; irritating to the eyes, nose, etc.) show less
I think a lot of people who compare Tolkien and Jordan miss the point. I'll give Jordan this. He has more than one female character per book and they actually have more than one significant plot line and even interact with each other. That's not to say Jordan is superior to Tolkien, but it's certainly an show more improvement.
And now that we've commented on the few highlights in this godsawful series...
Yes Rand, remind us that you're not going to dance to anyone's tune. I don't know why you care other than Jordan really wants to remind us that being manipulated by the Aes'Sedai is a bad thing. Although I don't know of any situation in the first four books where Rand was actually manipulated by an Aes'Sedai, except in Andor during that random meeting with the Queen, maybe, and he has no clue what he's doing so he's relying on other people's help anyway so how would he even know if he was being manipulated (unless help = manipulation, which just makes me think he's an idiot because from day 1 he was pretty averse to help in case it was manipulation) and unless it's for evil purposes why does he care? The way things are, he just hates being manipulated BECAUSE he hates being manipulated. I think most people do but he doesn't have to harp on it every POV section like he has an axe to grind.
I still have no idea why any of the women like Rand. At least Lanfear kind of makes sense, because she's possessive (probably out of an "I like really powerful men" trope). It's not even an interesting or well-written relationship, it just makes the most sense of the badly written relationships available, which is kind of pathetic. You could argue 'love at first sight' for Elayne, but no. Jordan used too many words for other things to use a Get Out of Jail Free card on romance. He can't write romantic relationships and 'love at first sight' is not going to be an excuse. Heck, the characters in-universe don't even understand what's going on. Elayne has an inner monologue where she admits that she doesn't understand WHY she loves Rand but she's loved him since they first met(???). Apparently she doesn't question that it's LOVE instead of something else (like lust?). And Min, the character who refuses to be beaten by destiny... is defeated by destiny? WHY? And what is with people and assuming that you only do something for a person of another gender if you're in love with them? Everyone from the Amorlin Seat to random innkeepers and merchants. It's really stupid.
Again, why does Rand have such an abhorrence for Moiraine? She didn't make him magical. She didn't throw him at Tear so he could get the sword. She's helped him where she can, saved his life and his friends' lives multiple times, helped point him in the right direction... What, he's angry because another adult with a lot of power and knowledge is treating him like the child he acts like?
I 'love' the line where Elayne says that the pompous politicians in Tear follow Rand because he's a Leader and not because he's the Dragon Reborn. Yeah. Right. Jordan, you can't write women. And you should really not spend the rest of the story demonstrating just how bad of a politician Rand is while strongly demonstrating that the only reason the politicians haven't murdered/ignored him yet is because they're afraid he could murder them on the spot with his power. Yeah. Rand. A leader material.
In this book, Rand confronts taxes. And attempts to take over a country he gave precisely zero fucks about until this book. I understand that the nobles in Tear are pompous and I support people educating themselves but no. This is not how that works. Exactly when did Rand start caring about whether or not a country was run by pompous idiots or how their farmers did or their economy was run?
Apparently PerrinxZarine is a thing now. I still don't understand why and their relationship 'development' is REALLY disturbing ('I should try yelling at her more because that works' - I couldn't make this shit up if I tried; Perrin legitimately thinks that yelling at her is a good idea). This book seems to actually be JORDAN asking why they're a couple. Like... you wrote them this way Jordan. Make up your freaking mind. They seem to hate each other most of the time. And through this relationship we see more of how much of an entitled arrogant egotistical sexist ass Perrin is. I "love" how he manipulates Zarine (for her own GOOD, of COURSE!) and then gets angry when she does THE EXACT SAME THING TO HIM, only not in as cruel a fashion because POOR BABY she TRIES to make him ask her a question and FORCES her company upon him because she wants to help him save his people, while he pretended he was in lust with someone else and insulted her looks. Poor man. He then spends a large portion of the book pouting and acting all put-out over a character (Loiyal) he was barely on speaking terms with before Zarine spoke to him.
"The Shadow Rising", making us continue to ask: WHY IS MAT A CHARACTER IN THIS STORY? Literally all he does is take up space. His story does NOTHING to advance the plot (heck, even in the HUNT THE DAGGER plotline the Heroes were all looking for The Horn, too, so if the dagger plotline was removed nothing would have been lost; Perrin could have blown the horn, Ninaeve, Elayne and Egwene end up leaving Tar Valon anyway and then essentially rescue themselves and Rand saves the day). I don't care about him. At all. I briefly cared about him last book because the rooftop confrontation scene was one of the like three moments in the first four books and the prequel where I cracked a smile but that was it. Also, where is he randomly getting his Badass Weapons Skills? Book 1 he was the Archer. Last book he magically became a master of the staff. Now he's a master knifethrower/assassin? I guess I'd understand if it was more of this "past life" bs but we're never given that explanation. The section where he's sitting and listening to the nobles talk about raping women was really stupid. Yeah, good that Mat stood up to them, sort of. But was ANY of that necessary? Also this book: more examples of how much an entitled misogynistic lecherous ass Mat is, so like... is Jordan trying to demonstrate that "no, he's actually a good guy who respects women but still feels entitled to their attention and objectifies them every chance he gets". I really, really hate his sections.
Why is Tom Merrillin a character? What does he add to anything? He's done about two things in the first four books: teach Rand how to play the flute and allow Mat and Rand a chance to escape an enemy. I know he does stuff later on but it's really frustrating when not just one but two characters are essentially dead weight for the first four books, if not more, in a series. If Moiraine is the Merlin stand-in, what is Tom supposed to represent? Loiyal is the scribe. Moiraine is the teacher. Lan is the brute force and Rand is the magical brute force. The other Aes'Sedai fill in the magical brute strength and Mat and Perrin are around.
I guess if Moiraine ever figured out that even if she "can't" teach Rand how to use his magic, she can teach him other things like politics, etiquette, language, you know, things someone who is destined to be a leader might find useful, then we might end the book series early.
But then the next part happens. I really like that Egwene and Elayne attempted to help Rand learn what to do with his power. It's a lot more than Moiraine has attempted, at least on the page. She's stated that she's going to try to help but we haven't seen any proof of that other than her upbraiding him for being an idiot. It's deserved but it's not that helpful. And again, I ask, WHY DO YOU HAVE TO LIMIT WHAT YOU CAN TEACH TO MAGIC? Why doesn't he get a book on anatomy (so he knows what to do when he's healing)? Social etiquette? Politics? Perhaps a lesson on the make-up of the various governments in the WoT planet? A monster manual so he knows how to fight various enemies and recognize the Forsaken? What about more weapons practice? Language practice since he's meeting lots of different peoples and some lessons on different cultures? Elayne could do that! Yes, we get that the TWO HALVES OF THE TRUE SOURCE are VERY different and don't work the same way and WOMEN CANNOT TEACH MEN MAGIC and blah blah blah Jordan you don't know what education means. Of course MEN can teach WOMEN magic but HEAVEN FORFEND the reverse happen! Rand seems to remedy this by browsing the library at Tear and lo and behold he actually learns some things it's like you can actually learn useful stuff from books who'da thunk?
I "love" the plot point where Moiraine essentially says "Oh, the Ultimate Evil just messes shit up. It happens now." Because that's going to explain bad magic happening. You know. Bubbles in the pattern my ass. Why? Just cause.
Oh is Moiraine speaking/acting in a detached manner/drily? I'm shocked.
Otherwise the book is so. Boring. Again, if this was a series about the female characters alone, I'd probably finish it. There's a pretty neat cast of people there. Maybe with another writer who would take half the time to tell the story and actually write women well but they're pretty neat nonetheless. I'd love a novella where Aviendha and Egwene go on an adventure together. But whatever.
The writing has not improved much at all. There might be fewer nonsensical similes and repetitive prophecies that are never explained and serve no purpose other than to foreshadow to the reader what's going to happen in the next few pages or remind them of what happened in the last chapter, but since there were already a ridiculous number to begin with and "fewer" is a rather small decrease... so what? The book is still focused on this ridiculous gender warfare bs and if a woman doesn't smooth her dress at least once per page featuring a woman, I feel concerned. Have a taste of my 'favorite' quotations:
"Time to die horn sounder." Its voice was an adder's hiss, warning of death. (Reviewer's note: nawwwww I never woulda guessed, too few death references)
Eyeing him in that way women had. (Reviewer's note: ????)
Acrid Trolloc blood, with its stink that burned his nostrils. (Reviewer's note: the definition of 'acrid': sharp or biting to the taste or smell; bitterly pungent; irritating to the eyes, nose, etc.) show less
Jordan’s first novel was written in the late 70s and sold twice, but never actually published until now. It’s hard to judge what I would have thought of it if it had been the first book of his that I’d read.
The Wheel of Time is one of my favourite series -- I’ve spent a lot of time rereading and analysing it -- and what I found most interesting about Warrior of the Altaii were the differences and similarities between it and WOT. In terms of the protagonist, prose and plot, it feels show more very different: its first-person narrator is a warrior and leader, already fully grown into his adult roles; the story revolves around why and how the nomadic Altaii try to take a city; and it’s all over by page 350.
But many of the worldbuilding elements are variations on things which are also in WOT: interactions between people from very different cultures, nomadic tribes living in a harsh landscape, ruling queens, a city that’s never been taken, magic that’s only done by women, travellers from a different world, detailed military strategies, matter-of-fact nudity for prisoners and magic rituals, corporal punishment, implied off-screen sexual assault… (That last one was unnecessary, ugh. At least WOT does a better job of acknowledging the horror and trauma of assault, and it’s also a much smaller percentage of the whole story.)
If I hadn’t read WOT, I would have still found the worldbuilding interesting but probably not enough to make up for not really connecting with any of the characters. There are some tense sequences, but other scenes, like the battles, failed to captivate me because I wasn’t invested in anyone’s survival.
Wulfgar is an oddly emotionless protagonist. That sort of thing can be really effective if a character then changes, or else if it becomes apparent that their lack of emotion is just a mask. But that’s not the case here, and it meant I found Wulfgar a hard character to get to know.
Jordan’s women are interesting -- they have different personalities and motives and types of power. They have the potential to be nuanced characters but are just not given enough space. I think I would have liked this story a lot more if it had been from Elspeth’s perspective. show less
The Wheel of Time is one of my favourite series -- I’ve spent a lot of time rereading and analysing it -- and what I found most interesting about Warrior of the Altaii were the differences and similarities between it and WOT. In terms of the protagonist, prose and plot, it feels show more very different: its first-person narrator is a warrior and leader, already fully grown into his adult roles; the story revolves around why and how the nomadic Altaii try to take a city; and it’s all over by page 350.
But many of the worldbuilding elements are variations on things which are also in WOT: interactions between people from very different cultures, nomadic tribes living in a harsh landscape, ruling queens, a city that’s never been taken, magic that’s only done by women, travellers from a different world, detailed military strategies, matter-of-fact nudity for prisoners and magic rituals, corporal punishment, implied off-screen sexual assault… (That last one was unnecessary, ugh. At least WOT does a better job of acknowledging the horror and trauma of assault, and it’s also a much smaller percentage of the whole story.)
If I hadn’t read WOT, I would have still found the worldbuilding interesting but probably not enough to make up for not really connecting with any of the characters. There are some tense sequences, but other scenes, like the battles, failed to captivate me because I wasn’t invested in anyone’s survival.
Wulfgar is an oddly emotionless protagonist. That sort of thing can be really effective if a character then changes, or else if it becomes apparent that their lack of emotion is just a mask. But that’s not the case here, and it meant I found Wulfgar a hard character to get to know.
Jordan’s women are interesting -- they have different personalities and motives and types of power. They have the potential to be nuanced characters but are just not given enough space. I think I would have liked this story a lot more if it had been from Elspeth’s perspective. show less
There are no endings, and never will be endings, to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was an ending.
And oh what an ending it was.
Battle is joined throughout the world, with Trollocs pouring into the borderlands and through the Ways into Caemlyn. Taim shows his true colors. Rand tries to forge a Dragon's Peace, a legacy of
something other than death and destruction.
And then. The Last Battle. A single chapter longer than many entire books. And what a chapter. The Shadow fields show more seemingly insurmountable armies, including hordes of channelers led by Demandred himself. Mat, the Son of Battles, Prince of the Ravens, is called upon to do what he does best.
“Yes, I'm alive," Mat said. "I'm usually pretty good at staying alive. I've only failed one time that I can remember, and it hardly counts.”
And even once that Last Battle is concluded, Rand fights his own private dual with the Dark One, only to realize that despite all his lofty dreams, without Evil, there is no way to choose to do Good.
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.
And so ends this cycle of the Wheel of Time. Give it a few years and I'm sure I'll read it again. It's worth it. show less
Towers of Midnight, Brandon Sanderson
The thirteenth book of the Extruded Fantasy Product that is The Wheel of Time, and the second written by premier Extruded Fantasy Producer Sanderson after Jordan’s death. This is the end-game of the series - and has been for several books - and there's still one more humungous tome to go.
Rand al’Thor has finally grown up (it's only taken him twelve books), and proves that when he puts his mind to it he has, well, super-powers. But he doesn't use them show more to defeat the bad guys because that would end the story real quick. Meanwhile, Egwene is trying to get the Aes Sedai behind her, but someone is murdering sisters in the White Tower, so Egwene arranges an ambush in Tel'aran'rhiod, the dream world. Perrin Aybara finally accepts what people have been telling him for around seven or eight books, that he's not just a blacksmith out of his depth but the actual leader of an actual army - oh, and he turns out he's even more powerful in Tel'aran'rhiod than Egwene because of all the wolf dream stuff. Mat Cauthon still eyes up every woman he meets and tries to work out which of his friends he should introduce them to, but he also rescues Moiraine (remember her?) from the Aelfinn/Eelfinn (one of the genuinely dramatic bits of the novel, to be fair). Oh, and he invents cannons, as well. And there's some weirdness going on at the Black Tower, with an increase in toxic masculine behaviour (!), and something preventing those there from Travelling out (gosh, not an obvious piece of foreshadowing at all).
There's a few other bits and pieces going on, and a handful of sections from the POVs of supporting characters - but it still feels like there's a lot of verbiage for very little actual progress. By the end of Towers of Midnight, the good guys have a gigantic army gathered at the field of Merrilor, which I think puts them in place for the Last Battle... Incidentally, I don't recall any actual towers of actual midnight being mentioned in the novel, other than in the glossary (which places them on the Seanchen continent - er, what?).
On the plus side, Nynaeve loses her braid, so there’s no more pulling of it (although it doesn’t stop Sanderson from repeatedly mentioning she wants to pull it). Sanderson clearly doesn’t have Jordan’s fascination with spanking, but every female character is introduced with a description of her breasts. There are also lots of descriptions of clothes, mostly female. The prose reads like it was dictated (which is how I believe Sanderson “writes”), the sort of narrative scramble created by someone who puts things down as they think of them. There must have been some planning, of course, given the vast cast (ugh) of the series and the even vaster wordage, but was that Sanderson or Jordan?
Sanderson doesn’t appear to know what a chapter is. There are 57 in this novel. Each one contains sections from the POVs of the different lead - and supporting - characters. The chronology is more or less linear, but there's no structure or logic to which narrative thread follows which - sometimes, several sections follow one POV, other times it flips between several in a single chapter. It's not as if the chapters were all the same length, either. I couldn't work out what in story terms signalled the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next.
There’s only one more book to go: A Memory of Light. There's a lot of heavy lifting needed to finish off the story - which no doubt explains its 350,000+ words.
We shall see how that goes.
A Memory of Light, Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson
And so the Wheel of Time finally rolls to a halt. After fourteen volumes in what was intended to be a ten-book series, and the literal death of the author. It has been a slog, a brain-rotting plod through some of the worst prose ever to appear between two covers. Jordan had no discipline, seemed to think a plot meant merely moving characters around on a map, or, occasionally, not moving them, and used quirks and silly habits to define each of his cast, who behaved like teenagers. Sanderson, who wrote the last three books, is little better. He may treat the characters like adults, but he doesn’t understand what a chapter is. In A Memory of Light, there is a chapter which describes every skirmish of the Last Battle over a single day and is nearly 200 pages long. And is then followed by three much shorter chapters, also covering the Last Battle *on that same day*. Sanderson’s prose is also somewhere around the same level as Dan Brown or RA Salvatore:
"Simply rob anyone who was not poor. Of course, that would just make everyone poor in the end."
"… a skim of ebullience over sombreness."
"The beasts yelled, howled and screeched depending on the orifice they’d been given."
"Cooked bodies. To them, it was like the aroma of fresh bread."
"… as the trumpets sounded in the air."
"The houses had the feel of mice clustered together before a cat."
The Last Battle is the centrepiece of the novel, it’s what everything has been leading up to over thirteen fat books. It takes place on the Field of Merrilor, which is actually a random piece of ground on the border between two countries. No reason is given for the name, or why a random section of countryside should deserve a name. In real history, battles are named for nearby towns or villages, such as Waterloo. The nearest town or village to the Field of Merrilor is– oh, there isn’t one.
While all this is going on, Rand is battling the Dark One in some sort of place outside of time and space. This fight seems to involve each of them showing each other what the future will be like if either of them survives, and shouting at each other IN ALL CAPS.
The whole thing is dragged out so much, it’s mind-numbingly boring. We know the good guys are going to win because Mat is a tactical genius – despite the fact the bad guys hugely outnumber them and have an actual superhero leading them. There are, of course, other battles going on elsewhere – three of them, in fact. But they’re soon lost and everything shifts to the Field of Merrilor. I’ll say one thing in Sanderson’s defence: he finds some novel uses for Travelling (but then everything else the Aes Sedai and Asha’man do is just your standard AD&D battle magic).
Pretty much all of the central cast survive to the end of the book, although Sanderson throws a few bait-and-switches in order to make it happen. The Forsaken… I’d completely lost track of who was who. They’ve changed names and appearances throughout the series. Nor did they seem to do much except whinge at each other. In fact, for much of the novel, if not the entire series, the biggest hurdles the good guys had to face were other good guys. The Seanchan invasion. The Children of Light. All the various factions. And, after all that, the bad guys turn up in overwhelming force, with hundreds of thousands of Trollocs, every other nasty creature that’s been named in the previous thirteen books, and an actual army, with its own wielders of the One Power, from some other part of the world that’s been mentioned perhaps twice in the entire series…
The Wheel of Time is not a good series, and A Memory of Light is not a good novel nor a good end to the series. I’m glad I finally finished the series. I’m also slightly astonished I bothered to read it all. show less
The thirteenth book of the Extruded Fantasy Product that is The Wheel of Time, and the second written by premier Extruded Fantasy Producer Sanderson after Jordan’s death. This is the end-game of the series - and has been for several books - and there's still one more humungous tome to go.
Rand al’Thor has finally grown up (it's only taken him twelve books), and proves that when he puts his mind to it he has, well, super-powers. But he doesn't use them show more to defeat the bad guys because that would end the story real quick. Meanwhile, Egwene is trying to get the Aes Sedai behind her, but someone is murdering sisters in the White Tower, so Egwene arranges an ambush in Tel'aran'rhiod, the dream world. Perrin Aybara finally accepts what people have been telling him for around seven or eight books, that he's not just a blacksmith out of his depth but the actual leader of an actual army - oh, and he turns out he's even more powerful in Tel'aran'rhiod than Egwene because of all the wolf dream stuff. Mat Cauthon still eyes up every woman he meets and tries to work out which of his friends he should introduce them to, but he also rescues Moiraine (remember her?) from the Aelfinn/Eelfinn (one of the genuinely dramatic bits of the novel, to be fair). Oh, and he invents cannons, as well. And there's some weirdness going on at the Black Tower, with an increase in toxic masculine behaviour (!), and something preventing those there from Travelling out (gosh, not an obvious piece of foreshadowing at all).
There's a few other bits and pieces going on, and a handful of sections from the POVs of supporting characters - but it still feels like there's a lot of verbiage for very little actual progress. By the end of Towers of Midnight, the good guys have a gigantic army gathered at the field of Merrilor, which I think puts them in place for the Last Battle... Incidentally, I don't recall any actual towers of actual midnight being mentioned in the novel, other than in the glossary (which places them on the Seanchen continent - er, what?).
On the plus side, Nynaeve loses her braid, so there’s no more pulling of it (although it doesn’t stop Sanderson from repeatedly mentioning she wants to pull it). Sanderson clearly doesn’t have Jordan’s fascination with spanking, but every female character is introduced with a description of her breasts. There are also lots of descriptions of clothes, mostly female. The prose reads like it was dictated (which is how I believe Sanderson “writes”), the sort of narrative scramble created by someone who puts things down as they think of them. There must have been some planning, of course, given the vast cast (ugh) of the series and the even vaster wordage, but was that Sanderson or Jordan?
Sanderson doesn’t appear to know what a chapter is. There are 57 in this novel. Each one contains sections from the POVs of the different lead - and supporting - characters. The chronology is more or less linear, but there's no structure or logic to which narrative thread follows which - sometimes, several sections follow one POV, other times it flips between several in a single chapter. It's not as if the chapters were all the same length, either. I couldn't work out what in story terms signalled the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next.
There’s only one more book to go: A Memory of Light. There's a lot of heavy lifting needed to finish off the story - which no doubt explains its 350,000+ words.
We shall see how that goes.
A Memory of Light, Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson
And so the Wheel of Time finally rolls to a halt. After fourteen volumes in what was intended to be a ten-book series, and the literal death of the author. It has been a slog, a brain-rotting plod through some of the worst prose ever to appear between two covers. Jordan had no discipline, seemed to think a plot meant merely moving characters around on a map, or, occasionally, not moving them, and used quirks and silly habits to define each of his cast, who behaved like teenagers. Sanderson, who wrote the last three books, is little better. He may treat the characters like adults, but he doesn’t understand what a chapter is. In A Memory of Light, there is a chapter which describes every skirmish of the Last Battle over a single day and is nearly 200 pages long. And is then followed by three much shorter chapters, also covering the Last Battle *on that same day*. Sanderson’s prose is also somewhere around the same level as Dan Brown or RA Salvatore:
"Simply rob anyone who was not poor. Of course, that would just make everyone poor in the end."
"… a skim of ebullience over sombreness."
"The beasts yelled, howled and screeched depending on the orifice they’d been given."
"Cooked bodies. To them, it was like the aroma of fresh bread."
"… as the trumpets sounded in the air."
"The houses had the feel of mice clustered together before a cat."
The Last Battle is the centrepiece of the novel, it’s what everything has been leading up to over thirteen fat books. It takes place on the Field of Merrilor, which is actually a random piece of ground on the border between two countries. No reason is given for the name, or why a random section of countryside should deserve a name. In real history, battles are named for nearby towns or villages, such as Waterloo. The nearest town or village to the Field of Merrilor is– oh, there isn’t one.
While all this is going on, Rand is battling the Dark One in some sort of place outside of time and space. This fight seems to involve each of them showing each other what the future will be like if either of them survives, and shouting at each other IN ALL CAPS.
The whole thing is dragged out so much, it’s mind-numbingly boring. We know the good guys are going to win because Mat is a tactical genius – despite the fact the bad guys hugely outnumber them and have an actual superhero leading them. There are, of course, other battles going on elsewhere – three of them, in fact. But they’re soon lost and everything shifts to the Field of Merrilor. I’ll say one thing in Sanderson’s defence: he finds some novel uses for Travelling (but then everything else the Aes Sedai and Asha’man do is just your standard AD&D battle magic).
Pretty much all of the central cast survive to the end of the book, although Sanderson throws a few bait-and-switches in order to make it happen. The Forsaken… I’d completely lost track of who was who. They’ve changed names and appearances throughout the series. Nor did they seem to do much except whinge at each other. In fact, for much of the novel, if not the entire series, the biggest hurdles the good guys had to face were other good guys. The Seanchan invasion. The Children of Light. All the various factions. And, after all that, the bad guys turn up in overwhelming force, with hundreds of thousands of Trollocs, every other nasty creature that’s been named in the previous thirteen books, and an actual army, with its own wielders of the One Power, from some other part of the world that’s been mentioned perhaps twice in the entire series…
The Wheel of Time is not a good series, and A Memory of Light is not a good novel nor a good end to the series. I’m glad I finally finished the series. I’m also slightly astonished I bothered to read it all. show less
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