The Wheel of Time

The Wheel of Time. 14 books, the first published in 1997, the last in 2013. The author, Robert Jordan, passed away, and Brandon Sanderson took up the wheel to complete the last three books, based heavily on notes left behind by Robert Jordan and by all accounts did a tremendously great job at finishing it off.

My friend Elliott recommended the series to me, citing it as one of his most loved series. I remember when he told me about the series, sitting with him one night in the common room of our dorm, our freshman year of college, our friendship in its early bud. Forgetting about sleep as we talked from one topic to another, barely moving from our seats on the couch, until we noticed the sun begin to rise. This is the image in my mind when I think about what led me to this series.

That was in 2019.

The name of the series stayed in my mind, but it wasn't until a few years later that I started listening to the audiobook of the first book. Another image in my mind: jogging along the sidewalks of my college campus, listening to the audiobook. I'm not sure it was my first listening session, but it was early on in the book. I found a likely jog in my Google Maps timeline, placing this moment in April of 2021.

I take audiobooks slowly - they usually aren't my primary form of entertainment, but they are a pleasant escape while doing chores or lying in bed while sick.

I finished the last audiobook in August of 2026.

Five years. Five years total to finish this series.

Five years with these characters, these places, these concepts and systems, these plotlines, these themes, these big questions. Following the main characters as they grow and change, and see the world in different ways, and make an impact on the world just by doing what they needed to do.

I myself have changed with them. The me who started listening to these books in 2021 is not the same me who finished them. And in the infinite factors that have led to the change within me over these years, I know without a doubt that this series has contributed nontrivially to the makeup of my mind. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: "I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me." The series has given me a trove of memories, of experiences. In my exploration of dreams, I have learned that to imagine something is to experience it; visualizing yourself wielding a fantastical power will become a memory increasing your confidence of performing the same act in your dream. Likewise, in reading (or listening) to a book, as moment by moment is narrated, I imagine the events in my mind as they form, and so this becomes my own experience, my own memories. I am with the characters as they face obstacles and think through problems, and so the lessons learned become internalized for me as well. I ride the waves of emotions of the characters, from the deepest pain and sorrow, to the catharsis of joy and triumph; and so I know (for better or for worse) I can feel those things in my own life, for I have already felt hints of them in my mind. I can say this of any book I read, but The Wheel of Time has an especially strong spirit, morality, and depth to it. Its intangibles will stick with me.

I write all this right after having finished the final book. Last month, I finished up a rewatch of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is beloved by many and widely appreciated as one of the best narratives of an animated series. After my re-watch, I wondered where else I might find such high quality writing and storytelling. Maybe it's just because I'm still riding the high of having finished it, so I will have to see if the sentiment lasts, but I feel that another example has been right under my nose, with The Wheel of Time. In my mind, at least.

Okay, I feel the need to temper the above a little bit. It's now a few weeks later, and I do feel like I was riding the high of the ending, as I mentioned. It was definitely not a perfect series. There were some slow/boring parts throughout. The ending was rushed, and there are some characters and events that Brandon Sanderson probably didn't write as well as Robert Jordan would have (and it's just bittersweet to imagine what would have been different had Robert Jordan finished it himself).

Still, though, despite those qualifications -- a great series, great writing.

Notes I took before finishing the series

Fantastic series. It's epic fantasy. Fourteen books (plus maybe a prequel?). I've been listening to them in audiobook form - can't imagine consuming this series in any other way. The narrators of the audiobooks are great (there's one male and female narrator, consistent across all the books in the series). I would've been really sad if the voice actors changed partway through the series, so I'm glad they kept it consistent.

At the time of writing this, I am midway through the second to last book. I'll probably finish them all this year.

On Audiobooking

I treat audiobooks very differently than books (that I read with my eyes). I have a daily book-reading habit before bed, and sometimes (usually if I'm sick and don't want to use my eyes) I do audiobook before bed. But I can go large phases of time without listening to audiobooks at all, even if I'm in the middle of listening to the book. In the past, I might've gone months or longer without touching the audiobook. It usually gets to a point in the book, though, where a lot of action is happening and I can't put it down. It's not fully a boredom situation though -- I just don't strive to maintain the audiobook-listening habit.

That's changed a little bit in recent months, though. Maybe it's just because I'm at the exciting end of WoT when everything is coming together, or maybe it's because of life circumstances (recently moved to a new apartment^[1], going on more walks in the park, winter months so I've been sick a couple of times). But I've pretty consistently been working through the audiobooks. I'm not sure what I'll do once I finish WoT - if I'll take a break from audiobooks or start another series (likely another long fantasy series. It seems I like to do those in audiobook form).

On The Writing

The writing is really good. Character development is really good. The way Robert Jordan weaves together plots over long spans of time is really amazing. It feels great when plotlines resolve and things come together finally. These books give so many moments like that.

Part of this is due to the pacing. It's almost frustratingly entrancing. The story covers a really interesting scene or arc, and then that chapter ends in a cliffhanger (not necessarily a super dramatic cliffhanger, but it makes you want to continue staying with those characters and seeing what they do next) and then moves on to a different scene or set of characters. And you are feeling, "nooo! I want to stay with these other characters and see what happens next". But then really quickly you become invested again in the next scene because it's resolving that cliffhanger feeling from an earlier chapter. And it continues like this moment to moment until things resolve or converge.

Graphic Novel

Since I just finished the series, and because I've been thinking about Creating Webcomics recently, I decided to look up whether there is a graphic novel format of Wheel of Time. Turns out there are some -- At least as of 2026, a full set of six volumes for the first book (Eye of the World) and the prequel (New Spring, which I haven't read/listened yet^[2]), and several volumes for book 2 (The Great Hunt) -- that was in 2023, and supposedly more volumes are due to come out in October of 2027 (according to Wikipedia^[3]).

Anyway, I ended up purchasing a used copy of the first volume of Book 1 from eBay for ~$6^[4] -- I don't particularly intend to read through it cover to cover, but I expect it will be nice to occasionally flip through.

It feels like I'm discovering that I like graphic novels (/ comics?) for the first time. For now, I feel that only applies to material that I'm already familiar with and love and want to see them in visual form.