Any original fans left?

[ThreeFoldMan]

Started with TEOTW in 1989...been with it ever since.

[futurehermit]

Started in 1991 when I was in grade 8 and have agonized over the wait between books ever since :) Loved every book and character and can't understand why people don't like CoT, Egwene, Min, Elayne, Perrin, etc. on these boards :)

[Gathering Storman Norman]

Loved every book and character and can't understand why people don't like CoT, Egwene, Min, Elayne, Perrin, etc. on these boards :)

 

I'm with you on that. I can understand a dislike of a character, but there are many here with a flat out hatred of those characters.

 

Hating any fictional character just baffles me, especially any in this series!

[atlas74]

Hi, I'm just curious to find out how many of you are "original" wot fans? By that I mean people who've been following the series from the very beginning - ie 1990! I started in the late nineties (POD was the first book I had to wait for). Sadly the friends who recommended it to me have fallen off the wagon.

 

I started reading EoTW shortly after it came out, I was traveling and found it in a bookstore in the airport. I was 15. After spending the better part of my life waiting for the next book I dont kow what I'll do with myself after this last long wait! I'm glad to get to an end but sorry to see it go!

[Swithin]

It's actually pretty cool to hear everybody's stories. Mine's not particularly interesting, but it means a lot to me.

 

In spring of 1994 I was in the seventh grade. We had a class trip to Washington DC; coming from Seattle, it was my first time on the East Coast and I was excited the whole time. A friend of mine had TEotW with him, and was going on about how great it was, but he didn't finish it so that I could borrow it. I picked it up as soon as I got back, and then left to spend the summer with family in Greece. I forgot about the book until mid-July, but I was hooked as soon as I cracked it open. At the time we were in the islands, but I knew there was a chance I could find the next few books back in Athens. I re-read EotW a couple times in anticipation, got back to Athens and... there they were. Several copies each of The Eye of the World, The Dragon Reborn, and The Shadow Rising, and (IIRC) The Fires of Heaven. Zero copies of The Great Hunt. XD I think I read EotW six times before I got back to the states.

 

I picked up books two through five and started tearing through them... only to have them taken away because I wasn't doing any of my homework. After learning my lesson about responsibility, RJ's books came with me anywhere I had free time; in the back of the car, to restaurants, etc. That autumn was one of the best times of my life. We planned to visit Athens again for Christmas, and arranged a five day stay in Paris on the way. Lord of Chaos came out just a few weeks before our trip, and I wasn't quite caught up. I read most of TFoH on the flight over, and read all of LoC in the hotel bathroom after my parents were asleep. This probably started my life-long habit of routine all-nighters (such as today.)

 

After that winter my father's illness became more pronounced, and my flawless childhood was pretty much over. The Wheel of Time played a large part in the most care-free year of my life. I liked to read beforehand, but it instilled in me the idea that finishing a book in more than one sitting was a capitulation, and it taught me how much you can discover in a re-read. Robert Jordan is one of the reasons I've chosen to pursue writing. I got to chat with him several times at signings, but I never told him that. I wish I had.

[Norienne]

Been a reader since '93.

[Mandro]

I owned the eye of the world when it came out, I am not sure if I read it till I was a member of a book club and got The Dragon Reborn on accident. so. . . about 1992 on my part I reckon, likely a little later, cuz book clubs often have a delay in shipping for the purposes of reduced cost.

[Mandro]

I'm glad I came in late, I would have been really piss if I'd found out that RJ had left this world for the better place and left us with no ending, as newbie its been a good journey.

 

Yeah, that's good in a way, but you don't get as immersed into the world, unless you are that sorta person.

 

Mentioning "not finishing" after I read "Drawing of the three" in the Darktower series I was like "Stephen King better not effing die before he finishes this." but he soon made clear that he never would and validated my earlier opinion that he was a paycheck writer (nothing wrong with that, just don't make promises.) Same with GRRM No way in hell Song of Ice and Fire is gonna be a full series with it's creater at the helm.

 

But here's a funny story. On a site I took part in a lot (not dedicated to any particular book or subject) we would often have book threads, and I JUST happened to find out about RJ's passing about 12 hours before I commented. and I said something like "EFFing RJ DIED after he said the last book would be published in the next year or so! I'm so pizzed!!!" (I'm summarizing of course.) Universal responses were "That inconsiderate PRICK!" But it turned out that RJ is the only author I've read who meant that he had a detailed outline and plan.

 

Granted, as we've all noticed, he's done some fine tuning to a little history here, a little mechanics of the power there, and so on, but that's just natural.

[UGAShadow]

my story with WOT is the most craziest. I dare anyone to have one as loopy as mine. Here goes. It's 1997. I am in my cousin's house. He says yo check out this book. And he proceeds to hand me one of the fatest books i have ever seen. I am like what's this. He says it's fantasy book. Try it man. you will like it. It had no front or back cover. and it looked like pages were missing. It looked completely torn and fragile. He also introduced me to the shannara series and i loved it so i said no probs. I ask him where did he get it. He says the folks who lived in the house prior to him left in store room and he found it there by chance one day cleaning it. He then gives me advice. 'It's a bit slow in the beginning'. i say who cares, slow starting books do not worry me.

 

so i go home and i start reading the book. After reading the first few chapters i am like hmph, this is all a bit weird. 11 chapters later and i was thinking 'slow? this is not slow. This is bloody confusing. I am halfway in the book and by this time i tearing my head out. I have no idea what the hell is going on. I was sitting there and thinking, what on earth did my cousin just give me?

 

So i stop reading it for a week. Then i said, hmph lets try reading from the beginning again. It might make more sense this time. 3 days later and still it made no sense. i ain't reading this anymore i thought. so i proceed to take it back to my cousin. He says so do u like it? i laughed and said it was one of the worst books i have ever read. It was confusing and i could not be arsed to read it anymore. he laughs and says he read it to the end and it makes a bit of sense. But i wasn't having it. He then says man i need to clean the store room could you help me? i say no worries. we were cleaning his store room and we find alot of trinkets and other stuff. There was alot of papers lying around. I was shiftting through the papers and i was like damn look at this and my cousin was like what? I recognise some of these names on these pages. There's rand here there's the aiel there. So we spent the entire afternoon rummaging through. And then we came across this paper. It was thick. It had colour on it and it was in the midst of the papers we were looking through. And it looked like a cover for a book. I clear the dust of it and it read 'Fires of heaven' Book 5 of WOT. I was like Damn, no bloody wonder....

 

Years later i am still wondering who the hell was that moron who dared throw such a book in a storeroom with lots of missing pages?

 

 

My story is similar. My friend was given a copy of the Dragon Reborn when his mom got some free books from a library sale. He read part of it and gave it to me saying, "There aren't any dragons in it." So I read it and was confused. I liked Mat though and after a couple months got the first two books. It cleared up much I was confused about. That was 2002-2003 (I was 14). I got Winter's Heart in paperback and had to wait for Crossroads of Twilight.