 Okay, so I have talked about Wheel of Time a couple of times on this channel, and I think it's about time that I just went through and reviewed all the books, so yeah, let's do that. This is the introduction song. It's not very good, but it's not too long. So real quick, before I start, I do just want to say, one, I won't be reviewing New Spring because I haven't read that, and two, this is going to be a pretty brief review of each book, and it'll be pretty much impossible to talk about the series that way without spoilers, so I will say that every time I go to a book, there will be some spoilers for the previous books before that, so just, you know, be aware. There's not gonna be many for the first one, but after that, just, you know, be aware if that bothers you. So first up, we have The Eye of the World. Now, this book is, in a lot of ways, it's pretty traditional fantasy. You know, it starts off with a prologue where you don't know what the hell is going on, but it does promise things to come, like, you know, countries will rise and fall, there'll be these huge, powerful battles between the forces of good and evil, you know, that sort of thing, but then it goes right into, like, just boring peasants living in a village, and the first couple chapters are literally just people describing how boring the village is, and then some shit goes south, and the, let's call her the Gandalf-esque character, Moibrain, kind of, winds up taking the characters away, and they go on their journey, and that's the majority of the book, is just their journey, and them going off and getting into trouble and stuff, and it is hard to get through, okay? Let me tell you, it took me three times before I actually finished reading this book, and by the time I got to the end, I did really like the climax, and that's not to say there's nothing good in here, because I liked that as they were traveling, we got this feeling that this world is huge, and you hear little bits of information about other places, but they really only see a pretty tiny corner of it, and to them, even that tiny corner is huge, because they've spent their whole life in this rural, backwoods village, and so while this is a fairly traditional story, maybe, I wouldn't say generic, especially because later on it does change a little bit, but you know, it's a traditional story, there's, you know, chosen ones, and magic, and the bad guy is just the dark one, you know, a force of absolute pure evil with nothing redeemable about him, you know, there's wizards, there's all that sort of stuff, it's pretty traditional, and so if you're well-read in traditional fantasy, you might want to check this out, but it's not really going to be anything new or different, at least at first, and if you haven't read a lot of traditional fantasy, this might be good to check out as well, but it's, keep in mind, it is traditional, it's not really modern fantasy where it's harder to tell what things will happen, because if you're well-read, it's pretty easy to guess a lot of things that go down here, and like I said, that middle third is just very difficult to get through, because just not a lot happens. So now book two, The Great Hunts, this one picks up about a month after the last one, and Rand has, you know, figured out he can channel, he doesn't think that he's the dragon reborn, at least not yet, but other characters do think he is, and he's planning on just like taking off and running, because he doesn't want to get gentled, and Egwayne is preparing to go to the White Tower to train and become an ice to die, you know, that sort of stuff, and the leader of the ice to die comes and visits them and actually tells Rand, hey, we think you're the dragon reborn, but before he gets the chance to leave, some dark friends and shadow spawn attack, and they steal not only the Horn of Valir, which they need for the last battle, but they steal the dagger that Matt is connected to, and they need to break that bond, otherwise it'll kill him, so they need to go off and get those two things, and so Rand decides, okay, I gotta go off and do this stuff, and so he goes off on his own adventure with most of the other characters, and meanwhile Egwayne goes down to Tar Valin and learns to be an ice to die. Now, I really liked both of these plot lines, like, I'm not saying there's nothing wrong with them, but I am saying that when I read this book, I was realized, okay, I am not wasting my time reading this, you know, this is actually a pretty good series, I just had to get over the hump in the first book, and now I'm fine, like, little did I know that there was a much bigger hump to come, but you know, that's in the future, so I loved Egwayne's story because it's her learning all about channeling, and so we get a bunch of information about how that works, and you know, I just love seeing that because in the first book, channeling was like this mysterious and almost kind of scary thing that we didn't know much about, and from this point on, we actually understand how it works, and so it feels more like a science or a hard magic system than anything else, and Rand's storyline, also really good, you know, it's still kind of similar to before, where it's a travelogue and they're doing stuff, but the stuff they're doing is more interesting and it feels more focused than before, so it wasn't all that difficult for me to get through, and then at the climax, or near the climax, I should say, we get introduced to these new people called Shaunchan, and I'm not going to go into detail about them, but they do expand what the world feels like even more. We realize, wow, these guys are from this other place, the world feels that much bigger, and also they are, you know, an antagonistic force other than just the dark ones, or like, okay, so this might be a little more complicated, and then, you know, there's, it's a climax, so there's a big battle, which is really cool, and yeah, it's just enjoyable. It's a pretty enjoyable book. Book three, The Dragon Reborn. Now, this one starts off with Rand having just kind of, well, not totally, but kind of accepted the fact that he's the Dragon Reborn and that he's gonna have to do all this stuff in order to save the world, and the responsibility is really weighing on him, so he kind of runs off and goes to this place called Tir, which is just another country, and he needs to fulfill one of the prophecies of the Dragon while he's there, and then, Edwaine is still training a little bit, but she's also doing her own thing. The other characters follow after Rand. You know, it's just, at this point, the story does split up a little, and it loses some focus, but it's not bad by any means, I don't think, because, well, I actually read this one in about three days. That's the fastest I've read any of these books. Just like before, you know, it's a lot of buildup with some smaller plot points that happen, which are kind of fun to go through, and then at the end, there's this big climax, and, you know, further confirmation that, yeah, Rand is the Dragon Reborn. He really is the guy that is gonna save the world. But the most noteworthy part about this book to me, at least, is how, near the beginning, Matt finally gets healed and his bond with the dagger is broken, and this kind of resets his character, because before this, he was just kind of Rand's friend who was a troublemaker and would occasionally say something witty, but he just wasn't that interesting of a character, and he wasn't that cool or anything, so it didn't make up for his lack of being interesting. So, you know, he was just kind of there. You know, I didn't dislike him or anything. But then in this one, he gets a reset, and he becomes a lot different, and from this point on, he becomes a hell of a lot better. Like, he becomes a badass, he becomes helpful, he tries to run away from responsibility, but he just can't bring himself to do it, and he always does the right thing, so yeah, just Matt becomes a really good character at this point. Book four, The Shadow Rising. Some people describe this as like, the pinnacle of Wheel of Time. I wouldn't go that far, but it is very, very good. Because in this one, Rand leaves the Stone of Tear and goes off with the IEEL because the IEEL are these people that were mentioned a little bit in the first two books, but they were, again, these like far away dudes who we didn't know that much about. They were these mysterious people. Then we were introduced to them in the Dragon of Born, and in book four, we really get to see their culture and see what they're like, and they think like, okay, maybe Rand is our chosen one as well, who is different from the Dragon of Born, so that's cool and all. And then while all of that's going on, there is a little bit of stuff in the White Tower, which is not as interesting as it maybe could be, but it's still, I didn't hate it reading it, and it is building up to something pretty big, which is cool. And then the Climax with Rand in the IEEL waste is pretty great. It shows him, well, it just shows him fighting and you realize, yeah, this dude's actually really, really powerful. He's not just some guy that can make a few fireballs. He can do a lot of shit. But my personal favorite part of this book is how Perrin actually splits off and goes back to the Two Rivers, where they're from, because that's getting attacked by the Dark One's forces and they're like, oh fuck, they need help, so they get back there as quick as they can, and there's a whole plot line with that, which is, I mean, it's just a war plot line, but it is really good. It has a good beginning, good middle, good end, and we do see a little bit of how the people back in their old home are reacting to the news that Rand is the Dragon Reborn and that they're doing all this crazy stuff, which I liked. I thought that was cool. Book five, Fires of Heaven. So Rand is learning more and more about the One Power because he took Asmodean, or Asmodean, I'm not sure how to say it, but he took him prisoner and is forcing him to teach him how to learn. That's cool and all. And after the coup in the White Tower, some of the old Isidae are running away and they're trying to gather up and become their own force and they eventually coalesce into the rebel Isidae. And then meanwhile, Rand and most of the Aeile go after the Shido, who were a clan that abandons the Aeile and just invaded the rest of the world and they're trying to take over and they're causing trouble, so Rand and them have to go and help them out. And one thing I wanna mention is that, one, throughout all of this, Rand is, and the other main characters are becoming much more developed because they start off as pretty clear stereotypes. And while they aren't all my favorite, some of them are pretty annoying, they do all change and grow over the course of the series, which I think is pretty great. And Rand especially started off as a scared kid, accepted his position and at this point, he's still not totally comfortable with it, but he is getting better at it. And I'm not gonna go into a lot of detail, but it does, at this point, we do get one of the only good romantic relationships in the series, starts to develop a lot more. And like I said, not gonna spoil it, but it's pretty great. And there are some good twists and some good character deaths in this that I didn't expect. So yeah, Fires of Heaven, pretty good. Book six, Lord of Chaos. Now, this one I feel is overrated, honestly. Like a lot of these I feel are overrated, but Lord of Chaos, it is kind of starting with Rand becoming a little bit crazy. We don't really see that more until a little later books, but with Sydeen apparently causing everyone to use it to go insane, it's a big concern not only on his mind, but on everyone else's. So that's a big deal. But what's even more interesting than that is that at the beginning of this book, Rand founds the Black Tower and he starts putting out the word for like, hey, men who can channel or who think they might be able to channel come here and we'll learn and we're gonna fight the shadow together. And so he founds his own army, basically. And then throughout the course of this book, the rebelized Sydeis start to coalesce and they start to learn to do their own thing. Meanwhile, like Nine Eve and Elaine and some of the other characters are just kind of off traveling. And honestly, that's a big part of not only this book, but a lot of them is just people traveling and it's not that interesting, but whatever. More important is Rand founds the Black Tower. It's really cool. And throughout the course of the book, but especially at the end, we really see his power and how he's coming into being as this warlord basically and how he's not just gaining allies that will help him fight the bad guys. He is a power in his own right and that's really, really cool to witness. Book seven, Crown of Swords. So this is the beginning of what I called the hump before. Like this is a much bigger hump. It's just a very long stretch of multiple books which is very, very boring and I hate it. So book seven, Rand is fighting some of the Forsaken and he's going crazy. And Matt is still going around doing cool stuff and it's like really hot outside and apparently it's because the dark one is making the world like too hot and there's drought and shit. And so people are trying to find out how to fix it. And I mean, that's not a bad subplot that they go on but it lasts a long time and people travel forever. And it just, you know, it's, this book isn't great, but it's far from the worst. Book eight, Path of Daggers. So this one has a lot of Perrin trying to rescue his wife and it's very boring and Matt, or not Matt, Iran continues to go insane and Matt continues to do his thing. He is what kept me going through a lot of these books, honestly, like for a long, long, long time he was the only part that I just found interesting. Not the only part, but one of the only parts that I found interesting. And God, I think you can even tell just from the way I'm describing this, like this book, I barely even remember anything about it. Like I looked up a plot summary and looked through it just a couple of minutes ago to prepare myself for this. I'm like, oh yeah, most of that's unimportant. Book nine, Winter's Heart. So after everybody used the bowl of winds and they fixed the weather, it's now winter again and Perrin is continuing to fight the Shido or not even really fight, just look for his wife. And Rand continues to go insane, but that's not interesting. There's like traitors among the Black Tower, which is kind of cool, but they don't deal with it all that well. And then just whatever, the climax to this one is great. Okay, I'll say that, but the climax is genuinely awesome. I didn't like expect it to happen in this series, but it did. And after it does happen, you're like, wow, that's gonna change not only the plot going forward, but it's also gonna change the world. That's pretty cool. And then book 10, Crossroads of Twilight, AKA the absolute worst that the Wheel of Time has to offer. Now, I'm just gonna say this one takes place mostly simultaneously with Winter's Heart. So throughout a lot of it, characters can feel the massive surge of Sidar and Sideen, which is Rand cleansing Sideen. And they're just kind of worried like, wow, I hope my friends are okay. I hope no one's doing anything. I don't know what's going on over there, but I gotta keep doing my own business. So like Elaine is just politicking and trying to get herself like officially put on the throne as the Queen of Andor. And Matt is traveling with Tuon and apparently falling in love with her, which is, I don't buy it, honestly. Like even after finishing the series, I really didn't buy their love because the only two good relationships, romantic relationships in Wheel of Time are Matt and Avienda and Matt and Min. Okay, him and Avienda is pretty good. Him and Min is fantastic. All of the others are dog shit. Yeah, you can generalize that. They're all dog shit, all of them. They're terrible and I hate them. And just this whole book, Nothing Happens and I Hate It. And then book 11, Knife of Dreams. Now, this is the last one written by Robert Jordan before he died, but I'm glad he did because it's actually, well, it's a return to form, let's call it. Because this one, stuff happens. Perrin rescues his wife finally. I know that sounds like a spoiler. You knew it was gonna happen eventually. But Rand continues to go even more crazy and some really fucked up shit happens with him. And we do, at one point, get a, let's say we get some insight into the personality of Isha Myle, who is the leader of the Forsaken. Like, we get insight into who he is and why he decided to serve the dark one, which is pretty great. And then we get a little bit more of Rodel, who, you know what? I will say he was introduced in Crossroads of Twilight, so I guess that part of that book wasn't terrible, but he's just a cool character. He's just this genius general who is a brilliant battlefield tactician and it's cool to watch him work. And he sticks around with the rest of the series and we get some more of him in this book, which is great. Mostly, though, this book is good because it wraps up a lot of old plot threads that had them left hanging. Like, in this one, we finally start to get an end to the conflict with the Isidae and the Rebel Isidae. And I liked the way that ended. And Egwayne really starts to act like a leader at that point, which even after she officially became one, I didn't feel like she was acting like one. And it just felt a little bullshit-y, but, you know, I liked seeing that in this book and there are a lot of other smaller plot threads which get wrapped up, so pretty great. We're entering the home stretch now. Book 12, The Gathering Storm, is the first one written by Brandon Sanderson. And if I had to describe it in a word, and in fact, I would describe Book 12 and 13 in a single word, it would be set up, but it's very, very good set up. So most of The Gathering Storm is Rand, like, losing his mind and just going absolutely batshit insane. Like, whereas before he was starting to go insane, now he is like full on crazy and nuts. And this book kind of deals with that. And some people might say that they don't like the way it was dealt with. They feel it went a little too fast. I disagree. I thought it was a very satisfying end to that, well, maybe not an end to that story arc, but I thought it was a very satisfying place to take his character. And that was, yeah, that was great. And then there are some other battles going on which are also great. There's other characters just getting ready for the last battle, basically, because they're like, okay, the forces of the dark one are gathering up and they're almost ready to go. So we gotta wrap up this last couple of things. And so, yeah, like I said, it's mostly set up, but it's very satisfying set up. Book 13, wait, that's an eight. I don't know, 10, three, there we go, is the Towers of Midnight. And like I said, this one's mostly just more set up except Rand is like not crazy now, so he's actually a nice guy going around doing things that need to be done but doing it in a nice way. And just hanging out with his dad for once, which is great to see. And I obviously love seeing him with Min. And then near the end, Matt goes off on his own little adventure, which is pretty great. I mean, I don't feel like it really needed to be in the series. And honestly, if they were gonna do it, then they should have done it like three or four books ago. But whatever, you know, I like seeing Matt do his heroic badass thing. That's pretty great. And watching him and the band of the Red Hand continue to gather up and get ready for the final battle is pretty great. But yeah, there's not a whole lot else to say about this one. You know, there's some cool battles in here with Rodel and with some other people. But, you know, you kind of expect that by this point. So yeah, just Towers of Midnight is a pretty good book. And at the end, it has a really nice cliffhanger which got me pumped up and excited to read A Memory of Light. And finally, we reach A Memory of Light, which is the final book in the Wheel of Time. And I can describe this one pretty simply as well. This is the last battle, okay? Almost this entire book is just the last battle. And it's fucking phenomenal, okay? Like, it built up for like 23 years or 24 years, I think, to get to this point. And I think it paid off. Now, granted, I didn't wait 23 or 24 years because I was not old enough, but whatever. You get the point. It's a hugely satisfying battle. There's a little bit of unnecessary conflict at the beginning, I think, between like good guy characters. They're like, oh, I don't like that you're gonna do this. But anyways, like, that's a little obnoxious, but just seeing the armies of the light have this plan, get pushed back, have to come up with a contingency plan, have to do this other stuff, and watching Matt like do his own thing with the band of the Red Hand is amazing. Watching some of the ideas they come up with to defeat the Dark One's forces is amazing. Rand actually confronting the Dark One himself is a little weird because it's like 50 pages worth of stuff but it's spread out over like five or 600 pages, so that's a little weird, but it's not bad, I wouldn't say. It's just, I wish it had been spread out less, but at the same time, had you done that, it would have either ended too soon or it would have taken forever to start, so this might have been like the only way you could do it, but, you know, whatever, and also throughout the final battle, pretty much every major character and a shitload of side characters gets, they finish their arc, you know, and they finish it in a very satisfying way. Lan finishes his arc in a very satisfying way. Galad and Gawin finish their arcs in a very satisfying way. Edwayne, even though I didn't like her that much as a character throughout the series, the way her arc ends is fucking great. Okay, Loghain, the way his arc ends, is pretty great. Ranz, the way his arc ends, is pretty great, and so on and so forth. Like, all of them are great. Just, this book has a million little climaxes, I think is a good way of putting it. And rather than just having a big battle at the end, well, the big battle is the end, okay, because this is the end to the whole series. And well, very few people can write big battles the way Brandon Sanderson does, so even though I do wish Robert Jordan had been able to finish his Magnum Opus, because I'm sure he was disappointed in himself that he couldn't do it, and I would've loved to see what he'd do with it, I think that if they were gonna choose somebody else to do it, Brandon Sanderson was the best choice. And honestly, this is a very satisfying ending to the Wheel of Time. So my thoughts overall on the Wheel of Time, pretty good series, but fuck me, it is too long. This is the one piece of epic fantasy, okay? It's a good series, but there's so much bullshit in there that doesn't need to be there. I would say you could make this series about 30 or 35% shorter and not lose anything substantial. I really do think that. That's probably gonna be a controversial opinion, but I just genuinely believe that, because so much of this series is taken up by people just traveling, especially, like that's the biggest thing. I still to this day hate reading about traveling in epic fantasy because Wheel of Time ruined it for me. On paper, I feel like I should be able to enjoy, like characters move to another location so that they can do a thing, and along the way they run into a little bit of trouble now and then, but I just can't do it anymore. So Wheel of Time ruined that for me, but beyond that, I have other issues, like a lot of the characters because there are literally thousands of them, so a lot of them you just can't remember, okay? A normal person just cannot be expected to remember all of them, and a lot of the major characters are just super annoying, either some of the time or all the time. Now, obviously this series talks a lot about gender roles and gender politics, which I'm not gonna get into here because I'm just not gonna get into it here, but a lot of the women in this, especially come across as just extremely stuck up and extremely entitled, which is annoying to read, and then a lot of the men come across as like just stupid, honestly, but it's never so bad that I wanted to stop, I don't think, or rather the closest I came to wanting to stop is in that big hump section where Rand is losing his mind, and just that was terrible to go through, but you know, at the end of the day, this is a very solid fantasy series, it's a traditional series, like I said at the beginning, there's not a whole lot here that's new or different, but you know, if you wanna read about chosen ones saving the world, if you wanna read about epic battles, if you wanna read about the forces of good overcoming the forces of evil for now, yeah, you should check this out. 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