It was back in the beginning of 2008 when my family decided to take a break from freezing old Sweden and go to Thailand for a couple of weeks. There while on a snorkeling trip we became friends with one of the guides who was also Swedish and we got to discussing Fanatsy. She told me about this great fantasy series called "Sagan om Drakens Återkomst" (roughly "the Tale of the Dragon's Return", I swear whoever did the translation...) or "The Wheel of Time" in English. After ridiculing the translated name I decided to check out a bookstore when we got back to town. There I picked up a worn copy of "The Eye of the World" for roughly 3 bucks.

Sadly I didn't begin reading it right away, and I had trouble getting into it at the time (granted, I was 13 at the time). But by the end of the next year I had begun devouring book after book of epic fantasy awesomeness until I finally reached The Gathering Storm last summer.

I love this series. I feel bad for people who have trouble getting into it or just don't like reading. They are missing out. BIG TIME. It may be slow at times but I don't care. All I can hope is that the ending is as good as the rest of the series has been.

Mat Cauthon, hands down. Lucky Trickster character, awesome. Lucky Trickster character with an army that is personally loyal to him due to his epic skills as a general... We're gonna need a new word to describe how cool that is.

Forget the cleansing, a scene that has always been stuck in my head is when Tuon wanted to buy Mat's Ashandarei, especially Mat's response.

“I will give you ten times the price you paid,” [Tuon] said. “Name it.”

[Mat] almost laughed. He wanted to, and not for pleasure, that was certain sure. No would you think of selling, just I will buy it and here is what I will pay. “The price wasn’t gold, my Lady.” Involuntarily, his hand went to the black scarf to make sure it still hid the ridged scar that encircled his neck. “Only a fool would pay it one time, let alone ten.”