No wonder I’m struggling with The Wheel of Time books
If you know, you know.
The Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan, is 14 really long books about a group of people in a fantasy land with magic, demons, witches, creatures, and humans. It is all about a war between good and evil, where the forces of light and the forces of dark are in constant battle. The Wheel of Time turns and is seen as controlling fate. They’re fantastic stories, and relatively infamous in the industry and genre.
My son Jacob loves them and is on his fourth or fifth reading, plus we watch the TV series.
Me? I read book 1, and it took a LONG time to finish. I really enjoyed it, but I also like variety so hadn’t tried book 2 yet. But when Jacob and I were watching the TV series, I turned into THAT guy. I kept having to pause and ask Jacob, “Okay, wait, which side is this group aligned with?” or “Who does that one work for?”. I was even struggling with the main six to eight characters from the first book that I had already read.
I started on book 2 this past week and I cannot keep a bunch of the characters straight. It should be EASIER since the TV series has faces and names to boot that I should be able to remember more easily than just reading the books alone. Right? RIGHT?????
Anyway, I’m struggling to keep certain characters straight. Tonight, I decided to cheat. I thought, “Okay, let’s treat this like a play…let’s look online for a list of the characters!”.
Holy fudge.
Book 1? The one I already read? It apparently had references to 259 characters. Sure, many of them were throwaway references to past Lords or Kings or Queens, names from history, but over 250 of them? Holy fudge, indeed.
Book 2 that I’m reading now? 255 characters. Sigh.
Let’s look ahead, shall we? 238, 437, 403, 602 (hah! the book is called the Lord of Chaos!), 466, 460, 444, 522, 685, 454, 715, and 466.
I really must be getting old. I have never quit a book because I couldn’t keep track of the characters, but this one is sorely testing me. I love the stories, but heck, I made it through watching most of GoT and never struggled with all the names. I haven’t gone back to the books yet, but I will at some point. Fire and Ice was nothing compared to this.
Would it be too much to ask for them to give me a little org chart?
Lucie forwards me some of your posts and they are always interesting. This one though is directly commenting on, IMHO, the most satisfying fantasy series I’ve ever read. TBH, there are a LOT of series I’ve yet to read, but this is another topic for another time (thank you md job and dear family to sourly limit my reading time). There are really a lot of named characters in the WoT, but really you mainly have to remember the main characters, the main villains, the stronger Aes Sedais and the rulers. It’s more a few dozen characters than hundreds. Don’t forget to use the glossary at the end of the books. If a name is not there, it’s the the lost important characters of the series. I urge you not to abandon your reading. The Emond’s Field’s “five”
have such great character arc over the series. Just be prepared to the sluggish pace of books 8-10. After that, books 11-14 are a sprint you can’t stop reading. Don’t forget to also read the prequel, New Spring, when you’re around books 5-6. Have a great time with WoT. Read the books 2-3 times and when through the audio twice from start to finish. Time well spent.
Thanks Eric…maybe I’ll do a cheat sheet from the back. I read on e-versions, so hadn’t seen the lists at the back.
I was wondering when to read NS, thought I would do that after, but will consider at B5. I’m hoping to keep it clearer but I’m finding myself losing focus when I meet 3 characters and don’t know which is which! 🙂
Thanks for commenting…