Your Favourite Books in the Series

[Darth Krewl]

Favorite's TGH. One of the best sequels to an already excellent opening novel in TEotW. Worse by far, CoT, one of the worst books I've ever read in any series, genre, etc. Though I must say that TWoT feels like a true roller coaster ride to me: the first 6 books were amazing, then books 7-10 were quite forgettable, but fortunately the series picked up speed after KoD and closed with a satisfying –albeit not memorable– finale in AMoL.

[Darki'n]

It's difficult to judge single books of the series, but I think I can rank at least the first three and last three books. I should read the series from the beginning to clear my thoughts- I haven't read TSR for a while and haven't even touched the latter half of PoD since I read it first time. It's difficult to find WoT books in Finland...

 

But here's my list for a few books:

 

1. The Gathering Storm- I have read Rand scenes in this book so many times that the shine of it has faded a little, but Veins of Gold still remains my favourite scene in the series. True battle between Light and Shadow.

2. The Dragon Reborn- When I read this book for the first time, I understood that WoT is the best fantasy series I have read. The best in first read, probably.

3. The Eye of the World- Good adventure in this book. No politics.

4. The Great Hunt- Same as previous. I loved all first three books.

5. A Memory of Light- I was very disappointed in the middle of the book, and I'm not sure if TSR and TFOH were actually better. In the middle-end the book was however excellent, and Rand's and Dark One's visions of Light and Shadow were really beautiful. It confirmed that WoT is at its best in showing alternate worlds of future, past and present.

6. Towers of Midnight- This was a good book. Nothing special, just ordinary good.

 

 

The Shadow Rising and Fires of Heaven probably rank over some of these books, but since I haven't read them for a while, I'm not sure where to put them. I can't rank books 6-11.

[Ryrin]

EoTW.

The Dragon Reborn.

The Great Hunt.

New Spring.

[TheBeerPatriot]

I'm always a sucker for the book ranking polls, and this one is no different.  Here it goes:

 

1. The Great Hunt-been my favorite for some time, really expanded the series from mimicking Lord of the Rings, and packed an emotional punch between Egwene's collaring, the redemption of Ingtar and Rand accepting his destiny.

2. The Fires of Heaven-the most action packed book of the series that provided many turning points and provided fodder for two of the series' biggest mysteries (Asmodean and Moiraine).

3. Eye of the World-even though the similarities to Lord of the Rings are unmistakable in this book, Jordan clearly set out on his path, and his incredible gift at foreshadowing reveals itself in surprising ways late in the book.  An amazing and compelling intro to the series.

4. The Dragon Reborn-although I was initially turned off by the lack of Rand's viewpoints, the divergent storylines of Mat, Perrin, Elayne, Nynaeve and Egwene makes for a powerful convergence of destiny in Tear.

5. The Gathering Storm-despite the mischaracterization of Mat, there are many powerful moments in this book (True Power, Verin's revelation and Rand's redemption).  While there are flaws in this book, Sanderson did a fantastic job in taking over the series and really put the series back on track after meandering over the prior few books.

6. The Shadow Rising-after Rand is crowned the Dragon Reborn, the path to his destiny truly begins in the Aiel Waste.  A powerful backstory of the Aiel and an emotional battle in the Two Rivers makes this a rich story.

7. Lord of Chaos-arguably the best prologue in the series showing multiple scenes of the Forsaken that really display the danger posed by the Shadow.  The introduction of Taim, combined with Dumai's Wells and the surprising twist of Egewene's destiny build to a crescendo.

8. Towers of Midnight-despite the timeline errors, the battles between Perrin and Slayer juxtaposed with the battles in the White Tower make it a fun read.  But that all takes a backseat to the overdue rescue of Moiraine, great scenes in the Tower of Ghenjei.

9. A Crown Of Swords-this was a very slow start, but the second half of the book really picks up in Ebou Dar.  Rand's battle with Sammael was a bit underwhelming but Mat steals the show in this book.

10. Knife of Dreams-this was an uneven book that had its moments, especially the revelation of Moiraine's letter, Semirhage's identity.  Egwene's scenes were quite enjoyable as well.

11. Winter's Heart-most of this book dragged, the epic finale is the only thing that saved this book

12. A Memory of Light-while the battle in Shayol Ghul was satisfactory, this book was very disappointing.

13. Path of Daggers-not much happened

14. Crossroads of Twilight-nothing happened!

[Leopoled Boothe]

Haven't given this a great deal of thought but off the cuff I'd put them in this order:

 

1. LoC

2. TSR

3. TFoH

4. TGH

5. AMoL

6. EotW

7. TGS

8. ToM (unpopular I know, but I really enjoyed this book)

9. TDR

10. KoD

11. WH

12. PoD

13. CoS

14. CoT (no surprises here I'm sure, but if the shoe fits...)

[Orange7]

1. The Gathering Storm

2. Lord of Chaos

3. The Shadow Rising

4. The Dragon Reborn

5. The Great Hunt

6. Eye of the World

7. Crown of Swords

8. Winter's Heart

9. A Memory of Light

10. The Fires of Heaven

11. Path of Daggers

12. Knife of Dreams

13. Towers of Midnight

14. Crossroads of Twilight

[Guest DRAGON REBORN]

Lord of chaos dumais well

[Guest AndyT]

I find it very hard to pick a single favorite book in this series, since I have been reading it for over twenty years and I have changed and matured since I first started reading it.  However, if I had to choose by four top favorites and the ones that I still go back to and read passages from are the following:

 

Eye of the World-I picked this up because of the cover painting and the hope to read a fun but substantial story.  It was fantastic.  The mix of personal stories, the hero's journey, the hints of prophecy and the connections to a history of this world were awesome.  I read the Great Hunt almost immediately afterward as I picked this and Great Hunt up in Nov. 1990. 

 

Great Hunt-The chase for the Horn, Rand growing into the role of the Dragon. (Having just re-read it, the scene where Perrin and Mat see Rand in this light in Cairihien is just goose-bump inducing), the hints of the deeper struggle to come, the Seanchan, and the Heroes of the Horn were mind blowing(of course the reveal of Lanfear was also).

 

Shadow Rising-A simply brilliant book.  The entire walk through the glass columns which allowed to see not only the history of the Aiel, but the world back to the AOL was masterful.

 

Lord of Chaos-Dumai Wells, 'nuff said.

 

This does not diminish my enjoyment and respect for all of the novels in the sequence.  I enjoyed the entire journey and felt that we were brought into the harbor safe and sound.

[Talathar]

LoC: (you only need to speak the title out loud, it rulez ;D. Oh, it was interesting also)

[Paul H]

I haven't given this a ton of thought, but off the top of my head, here is my ranking:

 

1.  The Great Hunt

2.  The Eye of the World

3.  The Shadow Rising

4.  The Dragon Reborn

5.  Lord of Chaos

6.  The Fires of Heaven

7.  The Gathering Storm

8.  Towers of Midnight

9.  A Crown of Swords

10.  Knife of Dreams

11.  Winter's Heart

12.  A Memory of Light

13.  The Path of Daggers

14.  Crossroads of Twilight

[randalthorr]

2. Lord of Chaos: The start of the Black Tower; a pivotal point in Egwene's character development as she's named Amyrlin; and of course Dumai's Wells and the sequence of events leading up to it.  Rand's captivity and battle with madness made for some powerful reading.

 

 

Dumai's wells is THE MOST EPIC battle ever. Rand half mad with rage and ... well madness, asks Taim to destroy and Taim giving the orders for carnage. And then we realise what Rand had created, with an extremely questionable character leading the faction.

 

I really hoped for an equally epic showdown between Taim and Rand, more so than any encounter with the forsaken. I had imagined this great sequence where Rand and Logain work together to take out Taim and his cronies; the dragon and the two most powerful false dragons of the time, locked in battle together. BLOOD AND BLOODY ASHES! Unfortunately did not happen. I was so excited for it when AMoL was released, I expected every following chapter to be about it, until Cadsuane makes a causual remark about the entire thing and made me rage.  :P

[Arani Lepenque Aes Sedai]

I do not understand why everyone hates CoT so much ... I found it refreshingly slow and I loved the political drama in Egwene's bits ... so much detail until it kind of does resemble real life.

[muddasssir]

I do not understand why everyone hates CoT so much ... I found it refreshingly slow and I loved the political drama in Egwene's bits ... so much detail until it kind of does resemble real life.

you just nailed it the part you found interesting was the one that ruined it for most people. Though some of them will not admit it. Eggy dearest had this effect on the series. You will see that all the books and scenes that we had to read to realize the exaltidness of The Mighty eggy were the ones that ruined books 7- 10. Sorry barid I just could not resist it  . Anyway getting back to the topic. One thing that i found strange is that tghis is not the first time that such a poll is taking place at DM. However, almost all earlier polls claimed that first three books were the best and series started to slow down around the Shadow Rising. Whereas in this poll almost everyone has ranked books 4 - 6 among the top three. I guess we have a whole new generation of readers. In fact, I tend to agree with them. Books 4 - 6 was where the series came into its own. however, there are two scenes that will always stand out in my memory as the ones that best describe WOT for me and both of these scenes were in first two books. First was prologue of "the Eye of the World" . Second was the Rand's second journey through portal stones when he took himself and his companions to Toman Head. There are lot of other scenes in these two books that make them memorable for me, but these two really set the tone of the series for me.as for ranking

 

 

 

top three are books 4 - 6 not in any particular order. They just blew the competition out of water so to speak. This has to be some of the most powerful writing in the genre. 

 

 

ranked 4-6 are the first three books in the series again in no particular order. I loved reading these books, This series would never have been what it became without these three books. 

 

 

 due to cleansing, I will rank Winter's heart at 7.I beg to disagree with people who think that it had nothing else in that book. Well not with that sentiment it had nothing else in the book, but you had to give the most momentous event in three thousand years due importance. It had to be stand out moment in the series, that is why rest of the book had to be slow so that nothing could distract from what was truly important. 

 

8 & 9 are the Crown of Swords and Path of Daggers in that order. 

 

 

10 has to be Knife of dreams

 

 

11 is the Gathering Storm

 

12 is Towers of Midnight

 

13 is A Memory of Light

 

14 is, no points for guessing that a Cross roads of Twilight. 

 

 

Interesting thing is that it was one of my favorite titles in the series until I had read the book. You remember that somewhere I think it was said that twilight and cross roads are particularly bad places to meet the dark hounds. I always thought that it will be a major plot development, but it just never panned out tat way. Any way here is my two bits.

[Suttree]

One thing that i found strange is that tghis is not the first time that such a poll is taking place at DM. However, almost all earlier polls claimed that first three books were the best and series started to slow down around the Shadow Rising. Whereas in this poll almost everyone has ranked books 4 - 6 among the top three. I guess we have a whole new generation of readers. In fact, I tend to agree with them. Books 4 - 6 was where the series came into its own.

Don't want to derail things but what are you basing that off mudd? TSR has almost always been rated number 1 over the years(in fact I just searched old rankings in General and about all polls agree). Don't think anyone has ever suggested the slow down started then. You usually hear ACoS as the earliest that began.

 

http://www.dragonmount.com/forums/topic/75664-how-do-you-rank-the-books-thus-far/?hl=%20rankings

 

http://www.dragonmount.com/forums/topic/54839-favorite-book/

[muddasssir]

no mn I am talking about early polls when the a PoD came out and earlier most people used to complain that thing slowed off significantly from tSR. You are talking about recent polls. Sometime I forget how young all of you are by old you people mean a couple of years and by old I mean couple of decades lol. 

[Suttree]

Those were just the first two I found but I've been around the online fandom since the CoT release. TSR has usually been #1 and overwhelmingly so from then on but I don't have a frame of reference for around TPoD.

 

Further when you look at it from a critical perspective it is really hard to understand people saying things slowed as of TSR. Just doesn't work with any rational analysis. I have never seen anything even remotely like that. Would be interested to hear from Jason, Jennifer Liang, Luckers, Mr Ares or some of the others that have been around longer if they recall it the same.

[cgiam311]

I have read the first 11 books in the series 4-5 times each, and tGS and ToM 2 times each.  I thoroughly enjoy all of them each time I read them, they all have their special moments that bring a smile or a tear.

 

I won't try to rank them in any particular order because for me it's too difficult an exercise.  I won't even say I likes CoT the least, because while it didn't do much in plot advancement it offered a different kind of read from the rest of the series.

 

As for picking a favorite book, again it's too hard to do, but I would say that it probably comes from books 1-6.

[Paul H]

Don't think anyone has ever suggested the slow down started then.

 

Actually, I would agree that the series started to slow down with book 4.  Now, I would say that it started to slow down much more in book 7 (and even more in books 8-10), but yeah, I would be one of those who would say the slow-down started in book 4.  I remember when I first read book 4, I loved it, but I thought the pace was a little slower than the previous books.  And then I thought that books 5 and 6 seemed very slow, though in retrospect they don't seem that way to me so much, after having read books 7-10.  :-)

 

Having said that though, I think books 4-6 were great.  I considered voting for book 4 as my favorite book of the series, and the ending of book 6 was terrific.

[Suttree]

I guess it comes down to what people mean by "slow down". The story certainly started expanding/world became much more fleshed out around then(actually it started in TDR) and that can often give the illusion of slowing at times. The depth and immersion level really increases at this point. But if one is speaking purely of pace in relation to the story then it really doesn't fit. Books 4 & 5 are towards the top of the list if one was to rank them based on that criteria(certainly it would be higher than tEotW). Pace was frequently cited as one of RJ's strengths post TSR and TFoH. Certainly as we hit those mid-late 7-10 books things slow way down as you say above though.

[BFG]

I can see an argument being made for it slowing down from 5 onwards, based on the fact this is when some story arcs didn't finish by the end of the book (I don't agree with it, but I can see an argument for it).  Imo 4-6 are when the trade-off between pace/story/characters/etc works the best.  And 3 is the last time (until MoL) that the characters ended the book in roughly the same place...

[Paul H]

I guess it comes down to what people mean by "slow down". The story certainly started expanding/world became much more fleshed out around then(actually it started in TDR) and that can often give the illusion of slowing at times. The depth and immersion level really increases at this point. But if one is speaking purely of pace in relation to the story then it really doesn't fit. Books 4 & 5 are towards the top of the list if one was to rank them based on that criteria(certainly it would be higher than tEotW). Pace was frequently cited as one of RJ's strengths post TSR and TFoH. Certainly as we hit those mid-late 7-10 books things slow way down as you say above though.

 

I think a big reason I would say the story started slowing down around book 4 is that book 4 is where the plot really started to diverge into different groups of characters doing different things in different places.  Certainly there had been some of this prior to book 4, but I think that the series moved more in that direction starting with book 4, and especially as it progressed onward through the next several books.  (As BFG pointed out above, book 3 was the last time, prior to AMoL, that all of the main characters ended the book in the same place.)  And I would say that the more plot lines a book has, the less each plot line can advance (assuming the same pace of writing and a fixed number of pages).

 

 

I think another thing that factors in here is my changing perception, as I read the series for the first time, of how big a story RJ intended to tell.  When I started reading the series, the first six books had already been published.  I remember reading books 1 and 2, and thinking that surely the series couldn't possibly go beyond three books total, so I wondered how it could possibly fill the six books that were already published.  Then, as I read books 4-6, I gradually increased my estimate to around eight to ten books total.  And my estimate kept going up, so that by the time I finished reading book 10, I was thinking there is no way that the series goes fewer than sixteen books.    Anyway, since my perception of the probable total length of the series began to increase around book 4, that may also be part of the reason why the series seemed to me to begin slowing down with that book.

[BLKNIGHT18]

1. The Shadow Rising

2. Lord of Chaos

3. The Great Hunt

4. Fires of Heaven

5. The Eye of the World

6. The Dragon Reborn

7. A Memory of Light

9. A Crown of Swords

10. Towers of Midnight

11. Winter's Heart

12. Knife of Dreams

13. Path of Daggers

14. Crossroads of Twilight

[Lord D]

BLKNIGHT, you've missed the number 8, and don't have the Gathering Storm in your list.

[SylvanFox]

I went with Winter's Heart for this poll, but I don't know if I can really pick a favorite. It's just that when i started thinking, I thought about the cleansing, and so at the moment, I'm loving Winter's Heart.

[szilard]

1. FOH (No Perrin ) 

 

2. TGH (pretty fast, our heroes are still not superheroes)

3. LOC (Nyn and El are AWESOME in the first half, Mat's speech to the girls, MIN, MIN, MIN)

4. TSR (AIEL, I don't care about the random TR characters)

5. TDR (I will never forgive Rand's absence but otherwise: the book is almost (FAILE) perfect)

6. COS (really good (MIN) except the terrible Perrin stuff: he had good stuff for 1 chapter but he stretched it out for 7 or 8 = slow down)

 

7. POD (good (MIN) but extremely short)

8. WH (the bonding, the bonding - a diamond in the sea of filler, unfortunately: very short)

9. EOTW (too rushed, too fast, too LOTR - not just the first 200 pages, young Treebeard - phleease)

10-11. COT and KOD (Eg's stuff is good, the rest is unforgivable: where the heck is Rand, Nyn, Avi, Min, Lan etc.) - still reread at least 5-6 times

 

I always (almost every week) reread random chapters: Rand, Min, Nyn, Mat

 

Sanderson's books: I have read the third of TGS, then skimmed through TGS, TOM and AMOL. Well, ... er... no comment. I'm lucky: I have no memories about TGS and TOM, so I hope I will forget everything what happened in AMOL really soon. 

 

Slow down: EOTW-TGH-TDR: we should go to Paris! And they are in Paris in the next chapter.  (By the way, he is not alone: GRRM had no idea where to go, Erikson will write at least another 10-12 novels to get a proper ending, Bakker is unable finishes his stories etc.)

 

I love this series to the death but everybody able to see right now that Jordan had no idea how to finish his saga. He has -maybe- a plan up to POD (Min's visions in EOTW) but he (Jordan) saw nothing useful after FOH, so what did he do:

 

the books are shorter, everybody got a POV/a subplot or subplots, nobody does nothing remarkable, lenghty summaries in every book (Mr. Jordan we know about the taint, we know about the Maidens, we know about Callandor, T'A'R, Aiel, warders, the landscape of the cities, Bair's hair/face/body, Lan's stony eyes etc. etc. etc. etc.etc. Our heroes are getting more and more passive or they are disappearing completely...

 

And I agree with many friends of mine (and many commenters, reviewers): in real life there is no ending, so we/I have no problem not reading Sanderson's books. I don't care. I (will) always go back to EOTW and got the greatest adventure of my life. Again and again and again.

 

Thank you, Mr. Jordan!