Rereading the WOT

[Bodewhin]

I recently started rereading Eye of The World, I'm about halfway into the book atm. 

 

I'm kind of amazed at some of the bits I'd already forgotten. I don't think this book gets enough credit for how it handles the setting and story in a way that is easy to grasp (something I noticed when first reading but have again). It's almost like you are going on a journey to discover RJ's world while the characters are on their journey. 

 

I'm looking forward to rereading the series in the general. 

 

So, when was the last time you reread the series? 

[Gudrean]

It's been a few for me, went through a period of reading everything Sanderson wrote. I'm way overdue for a reread tho.

[WillRNDad]

Currently rereading for the 5th, 6th time... I'm not sure. Just started Towers of Midnight.  And, I find something new everytime!

[Elgee]

I agree with you, Bodewhin! 

Can't remember how many times I've re-read ... definitely over 30 times for the older books. I do a reread at least twice a year .. lol!

Last one ended just about 2 months ago.

[Samarah]

I'm currently rereading the series, I'm on "Crossroads of Twilight".

 

You know what has helped me re-imagine WoT? The graphic novels. "Eye of the World" is fully published, as is the prequel "New Spring". "The Great Hunt" has several issues but the next one isn't due until October of this year, I think. It's been really fun to see that world illustrated. If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read them all.

 

But I think I understand what you're saying. The more you reread, the more you get. Thus, the genius of Robert Jordan. 

[Figs and Mice]

Currently taking a very leisurely trip through the whole series ( having read I think three times before , and many times more for the early books) after a bit of a break from them. And yes , finding bits I had forgotten - even quite significant incidents : the fracas in the Whitecloak HQ that rather upended the chain of command took me completely by surprise as I had totally forgotten the timing and circumstances 😉

 

Some parts enthrall as much as ever  ; some more so : and a few annoy a bit more !  But always a pleasure to go on the journey again...

[Tenobia si bashere kazadi]

I use to re-read each book every time I got the next one but now I just don't have time to re-read it. 

[Manel Rochaid]

I think I must have read them a dozen times, I started the series not long before Knife of Dreams came out and for a long time it was once a year. Now I just dip into the series randomly, started rereading A Memory of Light a few days ago.

 

Lord of Chaos will forever be my favourite book in the series though.

 

Having just read the summary of the prologue for Knife of Dreams though, I've a feeling that's next!

[WoTwasThat]

I’m a couple months into my re-read. I started it shortly after it was announced the show was cancelled. I’m about halfway through Lord of Chaos.

 

Like the OP, I had forgotten how darned good EOTW was. And how relatively easy it would have been to faithfully adapt to screen. And if it had been faithfully adapted… but I digress.

 

The Shadow Rising remains my favorite book. While the homage to Dune is heavy, Rand’s journey to the Waste and Rhuidean is fantastic. As is the battle for the Two Rivers. And the two chapters taking Rand back into the Age of Legends is the finest writing in the series and, frankly, some of the best writing in all of fantasy.

 

I’d rank EOTW second! It just does such a damned good job of setting everything up.

 

I am shocked to say that I’d rank Fires of Heaven third! I had remembered this as “the book where Elayne and Nyn join the circus.” And well, yeah. That happened. But the stuff with Rand and Aiel, Moghedien, “This Day, This Place” (Mat’s battle for Cairhien), and the final showdown in Caemlyn are all terrific.

 

Fourth goes to the Great Hunt. Just a darned fun read.

 

Fifth I’d say Lord of Chaos. This is the first book I had to wait on when I first read the series. There’s a lot to love in this book - not just Dumai’s Wells. The Healing! The Forsaken actually doing stuff! But it also starts to get wobbly. Introducing the Bowl of the Winds, and Andoran succession, and Salidar squabbling.

 

Sixth I’ll give a nod to Memory of Light. No, it isn’t Jordan (good Jordan - not crazy Jordan) - but Sanderson did a serviceable job finishing the series, and did so with a satisfying bang.

 

Seventh, Dragon Reborn. Look, it ain’t great. The title of the book is ironic considering Rand is barely present until the very end. But it’s still good.

 

Eighth, Gathering Storm. You know what I think of Jordan’s later books if I’m inserting another Sanderson book here.

 

Ninth, Towers of Midnight. Yup, it’s Neo Perrin. Reads like fan fiction. Still ok, though.

 

Tenth through Fourteenth: the final Jordan books. No particular order because they’re all equally bad in my opinion. Well ok, I guess Crossroads has to be the absolute worst. Maybe I’ll change my mind after the re-read. If I slog through it. I’m going to try!

Edited September 8 by WoTwasThat

[Bodewhin]

I'm coming to the final chapters in The Great Hunt (I got sick so my reading speed is being impacted by a head-cold atm x_x). 

 

Some stand out parts for me are the beginning training scene in the tower between Lan and Rand (I really enjoy Lan schooling Rand before meeting the Amyrlin). 

 

The creepiness of Egwene and Rand visiting Fain in the dungeons. 

 

Lan and Moiraine in the library, and the garden attack. 

 

Nynaeve's testing for accepted. 

 

Loial's comic relief. 

 

The Portal Stones delighted me just as much as my first read. Rand's various lives is one of my favorite parts. 

 

Verin, she's a fun one. And knowing her dark secret puts some context into her on reread. 

 

I'd forgotten some of Min's moments in this book, but for the most part, I feel like I didn't forget half as much as was the case with The Eye of The World. 

[Loose Theremin]

I have the Michael Kramer and Kate Reading audiobooks ( except New Spring ) and I listen to them often. I'm currently listening to Eye of the World again. I tend to skip over the parts I don't like or that don't interest me though.

[Bodewhin]

Kramer and Reading were my introduction to the WOT. I really enjoyed their narrative. 

 

Another thing I forgot to mention, the first time I read The Great Hunt, I thought the Egwene/Seanchan plot was much longer than it actually is. I have no idea why. The first go around I had the impression that Nynaeve, Elayne and Min took a lot longer to plan and set their plans into motion. I was surprised how quickly it went by rereading. 

 

I'm going to start The Dragon Reborn. I have good memories of that book (especially the Mat/Thom bits and ending at the Stone of Tear), so let's see what I forgot or what my take is this time. 

Edited October 4 by Bodewhin
error

[Jaysee]

I started to read the series about 25 years ago, back when I was in high school. I got busy with college when I was on Lord of Chaos, and when I tried to go back to it, I had forgotten too much. But despite the gripes I have about every single one of the books I read, it has always been a regret that I never finished it.

 

I was talking with a friend about the series earlier this year after the TV series got cancelled. He also had started the series and never finished. I proposed a buddy read in July, and we decided to start with New Spring. But it turns out that I have way more time to read than him, so here I am now starting on The Shadow Rising. To motivate myself to read the entire series this time, I decided to write my thoughts down about every single chapter I read. This works because even when the book hits a slump, I still want to push forward so I can write about the chapter and talk about everything that was wrong with it. Nynaeve's braid tugging in The Dragon Reborn, I'm looking at you!

[Andra]

On 10/8/2025 at 3:59 PM, Jaysee said:

I started to read the series about 25 years ago, back when I was in high school. I got busy with college when I was on Lord of Chaos, and when I tried to go back to it, I had forgotten too much. But despite the gripes I have about every single one of the books I read, it has always been a regret that I never finished it.

 

I was talking with a friend about the series earlier this year after the TV series got cancelled. He also had started the series and never finished. I proposed a buddy read in July, and we decided to start with New Spring. But it turns out that I have way more time to read than him, so here I am now starting on The Shadow Rising. To motivate myself to read the entire series this time, I decided to write my thoughts down about every single chapter I read. This works because even when the book hits a slump, I still want to push forward so I can write about the chapter and talk about everything that was wrong with it. Nynaeve's braid tugging in The Dragon Reborn, I'm looking at you!

I wish you well on your adventure.

 

I was one of those who started reading at the very beginning, and re-read it every time I bought new books.  So I never had the opportunity to experience the entire thing fresh without pause. 

It's interesting to think about how that would have changed things.

[chiamac]

On 10/4/2025 at 11:56 AM, Bodewhin said:

Kramer and Reading were my introduction to the WOT. I really enjoyed their narrative. 

 

My broken record repeating comment on audio books. For me I think they are superior, for no other reason than the readers give characters their own style of speech, and it's easier to keep things apart. Without this it's easy to see block of text and loose any quirks or personality traits of the character in an effort to read through that paragraph or chapter. Historically too, books or stories were read to an audience, and I still seem to be wired to that. 

Then to mention, although off the topic a little from WOT. As cringe or cheesy as it is, audio books will show songs, lyrics, and poetry better (at least for me) than reading out of a book. Because it's easy to see text and not try to put it to song or give it anymore meaning. In LOTR for instance, the audio books bring out all the song in those stories and all of a sudden characters like Bombadil don't really stick out anymore than the Ents or others. 

I'm in the process of buying the books, and eventually I may go back and read them, but I really enjoy and am happy with the audio book format. 

[Bodewhin]

Well... I've been gone for a bit on a trip. Didn't have much time to read during, but....

 

As an update, I'm 25% into The Dragon Reborn. So far, I'm really enjoying it. The first time I read the series, I believe I walked away liking The Great Hunt a little more than The Dragon Reborn but this time, I might switch that up. We'll see by the end. 

[HeavyHalfMoonBlade]

Back in the day, I didn't like the Great Hunt much or the pre-Tear Dragon Reborn. I'd often just read the Eye of the World (sometimes just stop there, I really enjoyed it) then jump forward. 

 

Now I find it is one of the most enjoyable reads, perhaps as it is "newer" to me, or perhaps because I wasn't being fair to it when I was younger. 

[Jaysee]

Having recently re-read the first three books, it was The Great Hunt that improved the most for me, between then and now.  I think I am much better equipped to appreciate a good villain now than I used to be. I remember the Seanchan frightened and infuriated me when I read The Great Hunt as a teenager. But now that I've seen something of the world, the Seanchan had a lot more appeal. After being exposed to all of this metaphysical mumbo-jumbo with the Dark One, the Forsaken, and reincarnation, it felt refreshing to have a villain in the form of a society whose caste system has institutionalized slavery. Like finally, something that is grounded in relatable reality. It's like Jordan took some of the nastiest parts of recorded history and used them in world building.

[Irvyne]

On my first read-through, I dropped off halfway through Path of Daggers. I just lost interest.

Once the Sanderson trilogy was properly announced, I decided I'd pick it back up, but since it had been years, I began at the start again, and subsequently read through the whole series from start to finish.

When the TV show started, I picked up Eye of the World again, and I've been slowly working through my third read-through since, with some other books sprinkled in between, for a bit of variety.

I've just recently started Winter's Heart. I'm deep in the "slog" now, but because I know where the story is heading, I'm pretty confident I can push through.

Compared to the nothing-burger that was Path of Daggers, I've actually found the opening chapters of Winter's Heart pretty good so far.

 

I think my favourite book in the series is The Great Hunt. I was just kept so engaged in every plot line in that book. I also really enjoy the first one, Eye of the World.

Shadow Rising has some amazing stand-out moments, and definitely feels like the soft-launch of the series' Phase Two.

Fires of Heaven, Lord of Chaos and Crown of Swords all have some big and important scenes, but a loooooot of filler as well. That's the point in the story where I start getting a bit bored.

I seem to remember really enjoying Sanderson's first book, The Gathering Storm. I'm looking forward to reading that one again.

Edited November 9 by Irvyne

[Jaysee]

I think sprinkling books in between is going to be key for me. I got through New Spring, The Eye of the World, The Great Hunt, and The Dragon Reborn back to back, then 15 chapters into The Shadow Rising and started feeling some burn-out. So I took a two-week break and read King Sorrow as a palette cleanser. Doing so actually helped me realize that Wheel of Time is something special. This is not to say I didn't enjoy King Sorrow -- I enjoyed it a lot -- but I tried writing about it the same way I write something about every Wheel of Time chapter I read, and I found I didn't have anything to say. I'm not sure what it is about Wheel of Time, but no matter how good or bad a chapter is, I can always come up with some satisfying commentary on it.

[Asthereal]

On 10/30/2025 at 3:08 PM, Jaysee said:

Having recently re-read the first three books, it was The Great Hunt that improved the most for me, between then and now.  I think I am much better equipped to appreciate a good villain now than I used to be. I remember the Seanchan frightened and infuriated me when I read The Great Hunt as a teenager. But now that I've seen something of the world, the Seanchan had a lot more appeal. After being exposed to all of this metaphysical mumbo-jumbo with the Dark One, the Forsaken, and reincarnation, it felt refreshing to have a villain in the form of a society whose caste system has institutionalized slavery. Like finally, something that is grounded in relatable reality. It's like Jordan took some of the nastiest parts of recorded history and used them in world building.

 

I haven't gotten to a reread yet, but I too expect The Great Hunt to improve the most. It's a smoother narrative than the Eye of the World, it has a lot of interesting world building aspects and it improves big time on the main problems of Eye (not clear why we're going where we're going, super confusing ending).

It'll be a while though, before I expect to go for the reread. My TBR is LOOONG. Just from Sanderson I still need to finish Wind & Truth and then read Mistborn era 2, Skyward Flight, Defiant, Yumi, Sunlit Man and Dawnshard. Then I have Dune 3 and 4 ready, I want to finish the main series of Red Rising and there's a pile of Abercrombie books whispering to me. 😅

[Jaysee]

20 minutes ago, Asthereal said:

 

I haven't gotten to a reread yet, but I too expect The Great Hunt to improve the most. It's a smoother narrative than the Eye of the World, it has a lot of interesting world building aspects and it improves big time on the main problems of Eye (not clear why we're going where we're going, super confusing ending).

It'll be a while though, before I expect to go for the reread. My TBR is LOOONG. Just from Sanderson I still need to finish Wind & Truth and then read Mistborn era 2, Skyward Flight, Defiant, Yumi, Sunlit Man and Dawnshard. Then I have Dune 3 and 4 ready, I want to finish the main series of Red Rising and there's a pile of Abercrombie books whispering to me. 😅

That sense of "Wait, but why...?" was one of my biggest gripes about The Eye of the World as well. Readers spend the entire book wondering what The Eye of the World is until finally, around chapter 42, Moiraine starts talking about it. Only, she won't come right out and say what it is, and her grand plan is infuriatingly hand-wavey:

 

Quote

MOIRAINE: If we bring ta’veren to the Eye of the World, we might — somehow, some way — be able to stop the Dark One from using the Eye of the World for himself.

 

Meanwhile, everyone in the group is content to follow her like lemmings through the Ways, and it isn't until chapter 50 when Mat finally asks what the Eye of the World is.

[WoTwasThat]

On 11/11/2025 at 9:05 AM, Jaysee said:

That sense of "Wait, but why...?" was one of my biggest gripes about The Eye of the World as well. Readers spend the entire book wondering what The Eye of the World is until finally, around chapter 42, Moiraine starts talking about it.

The Eye is first mentioned by B’A in Chapter 14 into the first dream sequence, and in at least one more dream. Then it is mentioned mid-way through the book in Caemlyn. The Eye is a bit of a MacGuffin since the only real point of the first book is provide a quest to develop the main characters. But it also did serve a real purpose. While I agree some of the first battles between Rand and the forsaken take on a whimsical quality because it isn’t really explained at that time about some channelers being able to physically step in and out of TAR, I didn’t mind it.