what has The Wheel of Time series meant to you?

[Southpaw89]

As we all know, just over one month from now, the end of The Wheel of Time series will be here. The series begun 23 years ago for some but for me, it began rather recent; December of 2009 was when I discovered The Eye of the World for the first time. How did I discover it? Funny story at that. I was reading developer interviews in the back of the strategy guide to the game Little Big Planet and saw that one of the creators recommended this series. Being an avid reader myself, I decided to take a chance. I told myself that I would read the first three books and if I liked them I would stop reading it there. If I loved them, I would continue. Well, 11 months after picking up The Eye of the World I finished Towers of Midnight and quickly read New Spring. Robert Jordan to me, is a master. I have read The Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire, Harry Potter, The Kingkiller Chronicle series, The Dark Tower series, and much much more and nothing comes close to the genius of this series. My biggest disappointment was that I never got to meet Robert Jordan in person. The closest to him I've been was by meeting Harriet and Wilson as well as the rest of Team Jordan at Jordancon but again, I never got to meet the man himself. How much it would mean to me to be able to thank him and hopefully someday I get to but this series has meant so much to me as a reader and lover of literature that I have a feeling I will be re-reading it forever and passing it down for many generations. There are no beginnings nor endings to The Wheel of Time. What has the series meant to you guys?

[Suttree]

I've often dwelt on this very question and I have to say I'm very glad I came to the WoT at a young age. It was my "first love" if you will reading larger books and as such will always have a special place. RJ has cemented his legend within fantasy and he was a titan for certain. I'm sure he will be receiving a ton of praise as the last book is released but I also feel it is important to keep things in perspective. Fantasy as a genre has changed drastically to the point that these books almost feel quaint at times and their tone can be overly juvenile. I know that had I came to them later in life they might not have had nearly the same impact. It is important that we are realistic, statements like Ice and Fire or Kingkiller don't come close "to the genius" of this series is just a bit too much hyperbole. I don't read as much in genre as I used to but authors such as Bakker, Martin, Rothfuss and Abercrombie have seriously raised the bar. For all that things have evolved we must keep in mind that RJ was at the forefront of showing what is possible with such a large series and in depth world. He was a pioneer if you will and I can only hope that AMoL does his legacy justice.

[Southpaw89]

Oh I agree that Martin and Rothfuss (in particular) have risen the bar but I just meant personally, The Wheel of Time is at the forefront in my mind.

[ozimandias]

I picked up the Eye of the World at the age of 10 to try to be more like my cool older brother.  Now I'm 32, and my 12 year old nephew is looking forward to the next book as eagerly as I.... Except he hasn't had to wait a ridiculous amount of time: lucky little bastard.

[wotfan4472]

I started reading when I was 13 at high school and got the books for Christmas and birthday in January. I am 29, and cannot wait to see how it ends!! This series to me was when reading went from being stereotyped to being the in thing to do: at least in nz. It was also a great story. Having read LOTR, I found the WOT series to be way better, and my top series, so much so that I will not be picking up another series to read as other series like ASOIAF is not at the same level.

[goksekor]

I started reading this series at 2000, when I was 18 and have been a fan ever since. I need to give a little background information for my country and how this genre was percieved here to tell the importance though. I live in Turkey and fantasy literature started becoming popular very late 90's. The first translation of this genre was LoTR, which I read in 98 or so. Later came the Dragonlance series (the original chronicles) and thats it. I was a huge fan of Stephen King in my teenage years, and I remember how Dark Tower series excited me but those werent completed at the either. There was a long pause afterwards with translations. Remember those days, internet shopping was close to nonexistent and I was a highschool student anyway, I read a lot but could afford only secondhand books or better yet, borrowed from friends. Then in 99 I was in university and a friend of mine introduced me to the series which was not translated. EotW is the first book ever that I have read in its original language and it just amazed me. Man I dove into latter books, and being a student at the time I had a lot of spare time and could read tons. I drank in the books which were out so far.

 

Then waiting period started. The reason I had my first credit card was because of these books, to be able to order them from websites like Amazon. This is the first ever series that I started a reread because of the sheer amount of books at the beginning, but I realized how much fun a reread would be afterwards since it let me realize things, bits and pieces that I missed in the first readthrough. I reread some of my fav series as well afterwards.

 

The most important thing is, because of WoT and Robert Jordan, I now have a dream to be a writer someday. Of coure there are other elements for this, but I think WoT was the driving force behind this. I think this is not so original after all in this community, but there it is. I am at a very early stage in my own project, having started the layout and I have loaaaaaaaaaads of things ahead of me but I AM dreaming to be published someday. If I ever am, there will definitely be a thanks to Mr. Jordan on it.

[Suttree]

@goksekor

 

Wow, what a great story mate. Thank you for sharing that....pretty amazing to hear how much of an impact RJ has had from a global perspective. Best of luck in working out your career as a writer.

[WMBunt]

I was an avid reader as a kid and my parents had really encouraged reading in our house. I read Lord of the Rings when I was in the fifth grade and enjoyed it, but looking back on it I can realize that I was probably a little too young to have really gotten a lot of the nuance of the books. I was stubborn and determined to make it through because I had seen the animated Hobbit.

I put fantasy books away for a while until in eighth grade a teacher introduced our class to The Sword of Shanarra. Not really sure to this day why an Algebra teacher was pushing kids to read Terry Brooks, but she did and I was hooked again. I devoured the series and went looking for anything else I could find. I read the Dragonlance series (any book I could get my hands on in 1989). I would save all of my money from mowing lawns and go spend it on paper back books from the Forgotten Realms series and the Dragonlance series and have them read by the end of the week when I would mow lawns again on Saturday and head to the bookstore later that day or on Sunday with my parents and buy more books. I poured through Tad Williams series Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. I kept up with all of the new Shanarra books that came out from the Scions to the Elf Queen through that series.

In 1990 I had run through just about everything I could find and was searching for something new to read. I hadsomething in mind because of a prior experience with Margaret Weis (that is another story for another time but to this day has a huge impact on my world view). I went to the store and saw among the books a series that looked interesting and I knew nothing about. It had a dark blue cover and a group of people riding on a hillside at night. I studied it. It looked interesting. It also looked a lot like the covers of books by L.E. Modesitt at the time and for some reason those just didn't interest me so I kind of was concerned. The covers (don't ever try to understand the rationalization of a child) looked fake and out of proportion and just kind of cheap. It didn't click and so I hesitated and took the book, The Eye Of The World, and put it back on the shelf. I picked up the first two books in the Death Gate Cycle and went back home.

Over the next four years, I kept going back to the store as subsequent volumes in Death's Gate would be released and I would always see Eye of the World sitting there and calling to me. I would continue to look at the cover and put it back because for some reason the cover just said to me "you don't really want to read this". I picked up the fourth book in Death Gate and went home. I finished it quickly and was ready for something else to read, so I finally went back and caved in. I couldn't find anything else so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I read tEotW and was hooked. I couldn't believe what I had passed up. I was in love with the world, the characters the story. I was sold on it by the time Rand and company had left the Two Rivers. I had my favorite character already picked out. I just figured it was going to be a fun ride. I also had my least favorite character already identified and was surprised because the main protagonist is NOT supposed to be the character you are least interested in. I think that's part of what captured me the most. I went to school and told everyone I knew that had a slight interest in fantasy that they needed to read it. The Shadow Rising was the first of the series I purchased in hard cover from the local Waldenbooks. I then spent as much time as I could hunting down hard cover copies of the first three in the series because I knew this was going to be a series I wanted to preserve and have on the shelf next to my copies of The Lord of the Rings.

Since then, The Wheel of Time has been the old friend I turn to when I need an escape or when there is down time or long trips and I have nothing to do. It's been just a constant companion and a world to break away from the stresses of work and to ease the demands of a job that requires a lot of travel. I don't know what I'll do when I finish Memory of Light except seek out the first chance to read it all again.

Sorry for the ramble and thanks for the indulgence. Despite my love for the series, I know almost no one in real life who has read it. I have met one person randomly on a work trip when I pulled out Towers of Midnight (the week it was released) on a shuttle to a work venue and was reading it and heard someone exclaim to her fiance "hey honey, that guy is reading the same book you have been waiting to buy" and was able to strike up a conversation. So it's kind of been my own little personal indulgence around here that no one understands. That's part of what makes reading posts on Dragonmount fun for me.

 

[thom_merrilin]

It has been a safety net. It has been a place I can retreat to if I am at a low ebb. The characters, the world and the writing take me away, and hide me from the ills. I am dreading January because it's the end. This is something that has been with me since about 1993, and has given me so much pleasure over the years.

 

Overall it has changed a lot of the fantasy I read used to be 2 or 3 book series I'd read. Now I am more into large-type like Erikson and Feist. But it is thanks to RJ. he changed so much of my reading habits.

[goksekor]

@goksekor

 

Wow, what a great story mate. Thank you for sharing that....pretty amazing to hear how much of an impact RJ has had from a global perspective. Best of luck in working out your career as a writer.

Just seen this, I'm not too active here (noob alert lol). Thanks for the good wishes mate. If I ever get published and get to thank RJ for it, I'll post a picture here :) 

 

Cheers

[Ryrin]

It has been a safety net. It has been a place I can retreat to if I am at a low ebb. The characters, the world and the writing take me away, and hide me from the ills. I am dreading January because it's the end. This is something that has been with me since about 1993, and has given me so much pleasure over the years.

 

Overall it has changed a lot of the fantasy I read used to be 2 or 3 book series I'd read. Now I am more into large-type like Erikson and Feist. But it is thanks to RJ. he changed so much of my reading habits.

 

Same here.  I never read fantasy before.  i came to the serious about 2 years ago.  I too am dreading the last book and hope against hope that maybe there will be something further.... movie maybe?

 

I love the world RJ created.  I still marvel at it and visit it frequently.

[Hagazussa]

When I was 16 I had never had a boyfriend before but I met a boy online and we got talking, now I love roleplaying games and my favorite one is Mage the Ascension by White Wolf, I told this boy I had met about the game and quite often he would say, oh that is similar to this fantasy series I like and he told me about Wheel of Time. Now at the time I was skeptical about starting to read a long series of brick size novels in English since I have dyslexia and English is not my first language, but the boy I had met he read the first few chapters of Eye of the World for me on our first date and I promised him to read the book. I fell in love with the books as I fell in love with the boy who introduced them to me. Today I am 30 years old and I have been with the boy who read those chapters for me on our first date fourteen years ago since then and now we are talking about marriage. I have fallen in love with WoT and it have become a symbol of my relationship with the man I share my life with.

[pskarnaq]

 I'm nearly 40yrs old, been reading WoT since EoTW was in the new releases section of the book store, and I'd stay up WAY past my bedtime reading it and be SO tired at school the next day... These characters are almost like family to me. Gonna be tough to finally see the end of the story, with nothing new to look fwd to. My entire adult life, there's been that feeling of anticipation when I finish a WoT book- time to start the long wait for the next one! No more of that   !

[powelly2012]

Sorry to make the thread morbid but wheel of time to me has quite a personal meaning. I have always been a massive reader and everyone in my family would comment on the fact that I had been reading books since a very young age. Due to this I often shared books with my much older family members and compared our opinions on them. It was because of this that in 2006 my aunty who had found out she was dying of cancer asked me to read eye of the world first to let her know if it was worth reading or if it would be a waste of time! I was extremely close to my aunty and so I read the books in about 3 days I literally just read and read and read. I told her that the book was excellent but extremely detailed with some deep story lines. She passed before she would ever have gotten a chance to finish many of the books but from the moment I began reading I was hooked and have since become a huge fan of the series. now any time I read one of the books I think of her, it isn't in a way that upsets me, it is simply in the way that I think she loved reading as much as me and that this series was one of the last topics we shared together before she passed!

[Ozzie_aiel]

Wow, some really moving stories here. Its amazing how one series of novels can affect different peope from different places the same way.

 

My first WoT experience was TGH, which I got out from my library when I was 15. I was a massive fantasy geek at that point and would read anything in that genre. The relationship got off to a rocky start; I hadn't read TEotW and found it hard to get into. When I finally did though, I couldn't put it down. The Wheel of Time has helped me through aome of the worst patches of my life; break-ups, friends dying, mental illness and even a short stay in prison. I still read voraciously, but now every fantasy is measured against the WoT. Like Goksekor I hope to become a published fantasy writer and one day have my own stories admired and enjoyed as much as the Wheel of Time

[goksekor]

Awesome stroies. Hagazussa's and powelly's especially, but awesome stories all around.

 

@Ozzie_aiel: I hope you get published mate!!!

[Orange7]

I used to buy books like these to use as really cheap rolling paper. One day, when I was 22, I was really drunk, and I tried to use an ebook (I believe Vista for Dummies) instead. I smashed my laptop screen, and the money that I needed to replace it put an end to my days of extreme drug use. However, I still had three (really closer to 2.5) paperback copies of LoC sitting on my counter, so I got to work, found it to be a good series, and kept reading. I haven't been high in four years, and I am almost two weeks sober.

 

 

[Ozzie_aiel]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="goksekor" data-cid="2713481" data-time="1356083080"><p>

Awesome stroies. Hagazussa's and powelly's especially, but awesome stories all around.<br />

<br />

@Ozzie_aiel: I hope you get published mate!!!</p></blockquote>

 

Thanks, you too

[Hagazussa]

Awesome stroies. Hagazussa's and powelly's especially, but awesome stories all around.

 

Thank you. :D I am trying to convince my man that we need to have a WoT themed wedding cake. :P

 

I used to buy books like these to use as really cheap rolling paper. One day, when I was 22, I was really drunk, and I tried to use an ebook (I believe Vista for Dummies) instead. I smashed my laptop screen, and the money that I needed to replace it put an end to my days of extreme drug use. However, I still had three (really closer to 2.5) paperback copies of LoC sitting on my counter, so I got to work, found it to be a good series, and kept reading. I haven't been high in four years, and I am almost two weeks sober.

 

That is amazing, congratulations on being sober for over four years, good on you! :D

[goksekor]

Awesome stroies. Hagazussa's and powelly's especially, but awesome stories all around.

 

Thank you. :D I am trying to convince my man that we need to have a WoT themed wedding cake. :P

 

 

 

 

Pics or it didnt happen!!!!

Joking aside, I'd really want to see a picture of a WoT themed wedding cake :D

 

I am a Star Wars fan as well, and we have a bit different wedding ceremonies here, we have something like an "entrance music" where the groom and bride to be walk in to the scene. That music is chosen by newly weds, and almost always romantic stuff. I was trying for Imperial March(Star Wars Darth Vader theme) for that, but after wife's objection, we had to settle on Across The Stars (Again Star Wars, but romantic theme instead)

 

Still nerd enough :D

[Hagazussa]

Pics or it didnt happen!!!!

Joking aside, I'd really want to see a picture of a WoT themed wedding cake :D

 

Yeah what I want is to have marzipan models of a few of the books, that should not be to hard to make, stacked upon one another as the tiers in the wedding cake, but we will have to see since I am allergic to processed sugar most types of cakes I have to bake myself, it is not easy to order a specialty cake so I will have to see what I can make.

 

I am a Star Wars fan as well, and we have a bit different wedding ceremonies here, we have something like an "entrance music" where the groom and bride to be walk in to the scene. That music is chosen by newly weds, and almost always romantic stuff. I was trying for Imperial March(Star Wars Darth Vader theme) for that, but after wife's objection, we had to settle on Across The Stars (Again Star Wars, but romantic theme instead)

 

That is awesome I would love to have the Imperial March played in my wedding. :D I am a huge Star Wars fan as well.

[Ozzie_aiel]

lol, I doubt the bride and groom coming down the aisle to the theme song of Darth Vader is best message to send.

 

I'd love to see a WoT wedding cake. You should try for a Wot-style ceremony (Two Rivers would be good, the Aiel style wedding may be a bit hard to explain to the on-laws)

[goksekor]

... the Aiel style wedding may be a bit hard to explain to the on-laws)

Actually lolled to that

[Arran]

Sorry to make the thread morbid but wheel of time to me has quite a personal meaning. I have always been a massive reader and everyone in my family would comment on the fact that I had been reading books since a very young age. Due to this I often shared books with my much older family members and compared our opinions on them. It was because of this that in 2006 my aunty who had found out she was dying of cancer asked me to read eye of the world first to let her know if it was worth reading or if it would be a waste of time! I was extremely close to my aunty and so I read the books in about 3 days I literally just read and read and read. I told her that the book was excellent but extremely detailed with some deep story lines. She passed before she would ever have gotten a chance to finish many of the books but from the moment I began reading I was hooked and have since become a huge fan of the series. now any time I read one of the books I think of her, it isn't in a way that upsets me, it is simply in the way that I think she loved reading as much as me and that this series was one of the last topics we shared together before she passed!

 

My situation is pretty similar to this. My mother introduced my to the books around 5 or 6 years ago, begging me to read them because she knew I would love them. Sadly, she passed due to cancer just over a year and a half ago, never even finishing ToM. It was all we'd talk about as I was reading the series, we'd share theories and talk about what might happen in the later books. But it's thanks to her that I started these books, and I'm ever so thankful for that!

[Hagazussa]

I'd love to see a WoT wedding cake. You should try for a Wot-style ceremony (Two Rivers would be good, the Aiel style wedding may be a bit hard to explain to the on-laws)

 

Hehehe oh I can imagine my hubby's rather traditional family in a Aiel style wedding I doubt any of them would speak to us again, but then we are both open to poly so...hum... :P

 

Arran my condolences about your mother.