Where to start?

[Kenny Johnson]

A friend of mine that suggested I read 'A Song of Ice and Fire' suggested now that I've read all of those books and liked them that I should give 'The Wheel of Time' a try. I was at the bookshop and saw that there is a book called 'A New Spring' which is the prequel and then 'The Eye of the World' which is the first book. Should I start with the prequel or with book 1? I'm going on holiday for 10 days and I want to pick up the series to read while I relax.

 

Thanks!!!

[Terez]

Definitely start with book 1. The prequel takes a lot of mystery out of the first book, and despite an attempt to make it noob-friendly, it kind of drops you in the middle on some aspects of worldbuilding. It's a great little book, though; I'd either take a break to read it after book 9, or wait until you're done with all the main sequence books.

[Suttree]

Definitely start with book 1. The prequel takes a lot of mystery out of the first book, and despite an attempt to make it noob-friendly, it kind of drops you in the middle on some aspects of worldbuilding. It's a great little book, though; I'd either take a break to read it after book 9, or wait until you're done with all the main sequence books.

 

+1

[a5m]

And if you're going to read them using the above suggestion, stay off the board until you finish everything.

 

I'd personally put it after The Great Hunt the first time through the books. And first on the second or more pass through.

[Terez]

I recommended after WH because most of the characters in NS are developed in the surrounding books, and because that's about where RJ wrote it, so most of the ties into the plot are relevant at that point.

[yoniy0]

I happen to think, beside it working well after WH, that you could also do it just after ACoS. Not before that, though.

[DaoineSidhe]

I usually recommend going in published order. This allows you to see the story unfold as close as possible to how the author meant the story to be told. As stated earlier, however, reading it after Winter's Heart is also not a bad idea, although not technically in the published order. Regardless, however, definitely start with book 1 The Eye of the World.

[yoniy0]

I usually recommend going in published order.

That's a problem, though. Would you have him read it where Legends came out (TPoD-WH), or the novel (CoT-KoD)?

Also, and this has been discussed (Terez deserves the credit for the observation, IIRC) in the last such topic we've had (not so long ago), TPoD and WH function as a single book, and so do CoT and KoD, so reading anything in the middle of any pair might be ill-advised.

[DaoineSidhe]

I would generally recommend when Legends came out. (So between TPoD & WH).

 

I don't disagree with waiting until WH necessarily, but for me personally, for a first read through any series, I like to read the series in the order that it first appeared to the public. This is because I feel it gives the truest vision of the story as the author tells it. This is a general rule, however, and some tweaking of it (changing where you read it by one book) is not a big problem.

 

I generally believe that nothing happens in a book, or a series of books, without a reason for the author to do it that way specifically. There is a reason that RJ chose to release New Spring to the public when he did. While it is true it could have been something the publishers pushed him to do as a fanservice to the community to sate us in between two books, I would guess the publishers probably would have wanted something like that any time they could get it, again leaving RJ with the choice of when to release such a story to the public.

 

That being said, if someone feels that reading New Spring in between TPoD/WH could cause confusion due to the fact of those two books being so closely tied plot-wise, it would be A-OK to me to change the reading by one book. I've never really had issues following the different plot-lines and characters in WoT, so I didn't really consider that for ease of following the complex stories of WoT, a new reader might want to keep certain books together for continuity purposes. That does make sense, and in a series of the colossal length as WoT, you aren't changing perspectives too much by changing the order by one book.

[yoniy0]

It's not that. It's that TPoD is less satisfying without WH to follow it.

[Terez]

Also, most of what is added to the novel version (basically Moiraine's whole Tower plotline) is relevant more to COT than the previous books because RJ was writing them at the same time. He said it was originally novel length and he had to cut it for Legends, but he contradicted himself on that point by saying he was taking the time to expand it.

[DaoineSidhe]

I totally forgot that the second version was slightly expanded! That complicates matters lol. In such a situation I have to say I'd have to defer to your reading order (After WH). When a flashback sequence like that has been revised multiple times, and different parts were written in between different books in the series, reading it in the order that is best in terms of plot-tie-ins, background information known, and story continuity would trump the importance of published order.

[metalisticpain]

Wait till after Winters Heart... you'll need it by the time you get to the end of that book :P

[Terez]

I'm not sure how ^^ meant that, but it's true in many ways. It gives you the backstory you need at exactly the right time, gives you a certain character you've been missing at exactly the right time (the halfway point, for the studied), and helps develop all the random Aes Sedai you have to keep up with beginning in ACOS, and gives you a much-needed normal perspective of a certain character who has lately been acting like a dumbass because he has to do what his wife tells him to all the time, and she's a bit rash. And the end of WH is a nice place to take a break because the ending is very satisfying.