It was all right.
First, some background. I first came across the Wheel of Time when, while visiting a distant relative, I was invited to look over their college-bound son's books. Among them, he'd collected nine intriguingly fat books - each one more than two inches thick - from the same epic fantasy series. (The entire series, at the time.) That alone said something. I borrowed the first one, found the opening a little slow, was sucked in after a few chapters and burned through it, all 305,000 words, in four or five days.
I was eleven.
Since then, I have collected the entire series, reading through most instalments at least three times - the first book seven times in all, I think. I could tell you, from memory, the story arcs of all the major characters; I could summarize the cultures and beliefs of all of the major kingdoms and factions. This series was what made me want to become an author. This was the story that made me want to write my own.
But...
For all its vast scope and intricate plot threads, epic magic and sweeping battles, my love for the series has waned in recent years.
It isn't the widely-panned flaws. I read most of the Wheel of Time in my teens. Back then, I didn't know enough to recognize them as such. Although...
In hindsight, the characters did get rather caught up in their own side-quests for the middle third of the series, the 10th volume being the worst offender. Except for the ending, plotwise, the book is absolutely pointless. (It's also the one I liked the least. Could you tell?) The author did speed things up again in the 11th, the last book he completed before his passing, and definitely among the best in the series. But still.
While annoying at times, I found the way gender differences are played up amusing, if unrealistic. Other people found it offensive.
Though there's nothing sexually explicit in the series...all the spanking was pretty weird.
And why exactly did the hero have three true loves? At the same time. I never liked that.
Nor is it the fact that the last three books were largely written by a different author. Considering how vast this series is, with its multitude of plot threads and characters, he did a pretty good job - though it was annoying how he couldn't get one of my favorite characters right.
No, at the end of the day, the reason I don't care so much about the Wheel of Time anymore is that I've outgrown it.
There was a time when I drank this stuff in like an alcoholic bathing in wine, ignoring any peculiarities in flavor for the high. (I don't like wine. That's just a metaphor.) But that was before I started writing myself. I enjoyed the final book a great deal; as an epic conclusion, it worked well.
But there was a part of me that read much more critically, looking for lessons to learn and mistakes to avoid - and finding them. Sometimes a meaningful death is better than being saved at the very last minute (the prologue). Too many action scenes too close together dull their impact (the middle). And leaving elements of the ending intentionally vague can be frustrating (the ending, obviously).
There was an author, I forget who, who said that once you learn to read with a writer's eye, it never leaves you. You'll never read a book the same way again. And I suppose that's what's happened here. Some of the magic has been lost, now that I know how to make my own.
The Wheel of Time turns, and legends fade...
So that this already prodigious post doesn't get even longer - though that would be a fitting tribute to the series - I'm splitting it in two. This first part focused more on the flaws, the places where the magic failed. The second will examine those elements of the story that I adored, that made me want to keep reading, and that I can still see in my own writing to this day.
But...
For all its vast scope and intricate plot threads, epic magic and sweeping battles, my love for the series has waned in recent years.
It isn't the widely-panned flaws. I read most of the Wheel of Time in my teens. Back then, I didn't know enough to recognize them as such. Although...
In hindsight, the characters did get rather caught up in their own side-quests for the middle third of the series, the 10th volume being the worst offender. Except for the ending, plotwise, the book is absolutely pointless. (It's also the one I liked the least. Could you tell?) The author did speed things up again in the 11th, the last book he completed before his passing, and definitely among the best in the series. But still.
While annoying at times, I found the way gender differences are played up amusing, if unrealistic. Other people found it offensive.
Though there's nothing sexually explicit in the series...all the spanking was pretty weird.
And why exactly did the hero have three true loves? At the same time. I never liked that.
Nor is it the fact that the last three books were largely written by a different author. Considering how vast this series is, with its multitude of plot threads and characters, he did a pretty good job - though it was annoying how he couldn't get one of my favorite characters right.
No, at the end of the day, the reason I don't care so much about the Wheel of Time anymore is that I've outgrown it.
There was a time when I drank this stuff in like an alcoholic bathing in wine, ignoring any peculiarities in flavor for the high. (I don't like wine. That's just a metaphor.) But that was before I started writing myself. I enjoyed the final book a great deal; as an epic conclusion, it worked well.
But there was a part of me that read much more critically, looking for lessons to learn and mistakes to avoid - and finding them. Sometimes a meaningful death is better than being saved at the very last minute (the prologue). Too many action scenes too close together dull their impact (the middle). And leaving elements of the ending intentionally vague can be frustrating (the ending, obviously).
There was an author, I forget who, who said that once you learn to read with a writer's eye, it never leaves you. You'll never read a book the same way again. And I suppose that's what's happened here. Some of the magic has been lost, now that I know how to make my own.
The Wheel of Time turns, and legends fade...
So that this already prodigious post doesn't get even longer - though that would be a fitting tribute to the series - I'm splitting it in two. This first part focused more on the flaws, the places where the magic failed. The second will examine those elements of the story that I adored, that made me want to keep reading, and that I can still see in my own writing to this day.
The Wheel of Time was, after all, the first series I truly cared about. (My first love. Heh.) It will always hold a special place in my heart. It inspired me. I remember reading one of the later books a few years back and thinking, I could do this.
I can't think of a better legacy than that.
