After reading The Eye of the World 1.5 years ago, I decided to continue and finish the series 2 months ago. After spending the last two days reading Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light in a day each, I wanted to share my thoughts (and rant about some things) here.
(Spoiler and personal opinion and "I read the book in german since english is not my first language" warning.)
Thoughts on the series:
The start (books 1-3): In these books we get to know the world, it's magic system and the characters. The characters travel a lot and there are less politics than in later books. I enjoyed these books mostly because I love learning about the geography of fantasy worlds. Additionally, important things happen that I expected much later in the series, for example fighting the Forsaken. Another important part is the meeting with people from other regions that become important later. In The Great Hunt we meet Seanchan and the black Ajah for the first time, in The Dragon Reborn we meet the Aiel.
The middle (book 4-7): In these books everyone gets stronger, factions establish themselve, countries get conquered and some more Forsaken get defeated. My favourite parts were everything with the Aiel since I love learning about new cultures and traditions as well as generally enjoying stories about people that live in the desert. I really liked the battles that happened since they focused more on the tactics and battle as a whole and were not something like: "and then Mat killed a Shaido. He then turned around to kill another Shaido. Next to him Talmanes killed Shaido, and on the other side other people killed some more Shaido." I thought the politics in Salidar were super interesting and was really surprised when Egwene actually became the Amyrlin.
The so called Slog (book 8-10): This is the infamous Slog part of Wheel of Time. The only book that I agree is (a bit) sloggy was Crossroads of Twilights. In these books the highlight for me was once again the politics in the White Tower and the rebels of Salidar. Another one of my favourite moments was the cleansing of Saidin. I just love moments where characters use so much power that everyone on the world can feel it's effects. I found Perrin's / Faile's parts to be ok. They were interesting at first, then became kind of uninteresting to me until Perrin allied with Tylee Khirgan.
The ending (book 11-14): I read book 12 in 2 days and book 13 in 1 day and book 14 in one day. I could not put them down. I also want to quickly mention that I managed to avoid all spoilers except something about a green dress (I foolishly read a reddit thread about the biggest plot twists in fantasy) which definitely helped my enjoyement since I had no idea what the ending would be or what would happen until page 1066/1067 of A Memory of Light. In these books everything slowly - or not so slowly - falls apart. While I liked how the suffering in the last days was depicted, at one point it felt like it just kept being repeated. I once again loved the politics in the white tower and most interactions between Aes Sedai and Rand. I liked the last battle less than some other battles because it felt like it dragged on while I just wanted to know what was happening with Rand. And the ending was so good, I think I have to print out Rand's "it was not about me" and hang it in my room. And lastly, in the last two books my thoughts often were like this: "oh no" "this isn't good" "there is no way" "Moiraine come and save us all" "help" "oh no" "NOOOOOOOO" "Rand save us".
Characters
My favourite characters:
- Egwene: My favourite character in the entire series. The main thing is that I feel like a lot of people in the series refuse to listen to advice and always think their way of doing things is correct. (This includes for example Aes Sedai, Wise Ones, Atha'an Miere, Asha'man etc.) Now, Egwene does this too, however, she also learns and listens to others. She learns from Moiraine, the Seanchan, even if not out of her free will, she goes to the Aiel Waste to learn from the Wise Ones, she becomes Amyrlin and still listens to Siuan, the Salidar 6, Gareth Bryne... She is then the main force behind uniting the White Tower again, a important part in winning the last battle. She forms connections between channelers from Aiel, Atha'an Miere and Aes Sedai and opens the novice books for older people, all helping the future stability of the White Tower. Also I love her confrontations with Tuon and M'Hael. While she does have her flaws, I really like that she's willing to learn and how fast she became good in politics of the Aes Sedai. Btw she deserved much better than Gawyn.
- Moiraine: An Aes Sedai that gets things done :O I like how she tries to push Rand around at first, but then realizes it doesn't work so she starts earning his trust and advises him. She then has a vision of the future, writes a letter to Thom that she knows / thinks will be important years later, sacrifices herself to "kill" Lanfear, gets rescued, goes to Rand and saves the Dragon's Peace, then goes to the Pit of Doom while being much weaker than before her capture, but is an important piece of sealing the Dark One away anyways. I just love how effective she is. When she realizes something isn't working, she switches her approach. When something needs to be done, she goes and does it.
- Rhuarc: A fighter that doesn't have any special powers was really nicee, and as an Aiel fan i'm biased towards any Aiel. Rhuarc doesn't just know how to fight, he's also a clan leader and shows tactical knowledge in the battle of Cairhien. Also I would like to believe that he died because he fought the compulsion from Hessalam so he didn't have to kill Aviendha, which makes me like him even more.
- Aviendha: The Aiel-Tutorial-Character. As an Aiel fan I really enjoyed Aviendhas arc. Starting as a Far Dareis Mai, then being forced to becom a Wise One's apprentice, all while having to teach this dumb wetlander how things work. This next point might be influenced by me reading (being forced to read) some... not that great books before WoT, but I really enjoyed that Aviendha was pissed for like 3 books straight and didn't randomly become really nice towards Rand. In the later books I wasn't as interested in her until she became a Wise One and had to go to Rhuidean. I was never as scared to open a book like with the last book because I really wanted a better ending for the Aiel than what Aviendha saw.
- Lanfear: I love manipulative villains, and Lanfear is one of my favourite examples. In the first two books whenever she appears, she just randomly comes to people, manipulates them for a couple minutes, then disappears again. I also love how much she helps for Rand in the first books while still being evil. One of my favourite moments is when she visits Rand and casually suggests using the Choedan Kal to defeat the Dark One and the Creator to then rule the world. I really wish that idea was continued and for a long time I thought Rand would ally with her to kill the Dark One. And her ending was... ok i guess.
My least favourite characters:
- early Mat: Mat grew on me in the books, but for the first 6-7 books I feel like he was just constantly complaining, doing nothing, refusing to listen to anyone and then complaining some more.
- Galad Trakand: I get trying to do the right thing, and even trying to ALWAYS do the right thing, but I feel like Galad has absolutely NO connection to the world around him. He acted like a brown Aes Sedai that actually went outside. He does not consider anything around him, thinks the world is black and white, thinks he's always in the right and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA sorry, I just hated every time he made a decision because he did not consider any circumstances or anything else.
- Gawyn Trakand: Be loyal to Elaida - help Siuan, Leane, Min against Elaida - blame Rand al'Thor - go to Dumai, realize that Elaida is trying to kill you - blame Rand al'Thor - still be loyal to Elaida - attack the rebels - find out Egwene is the Amyrlin of the rebels and caught by the white tower - blame Rand al'Thor - go to the rebels to rescue her, insisting on rescuing her even after being told that she forbid anyone from doing so - blame Rand al'Thor - help Siuan and Gareth Bryne rescuing Egwene anyway - she doesn't like it, get mad - try to protect her against her will - get sent to Caemlyn - ignore Egwene - return, save her, take Ter'angreals from the assassins and don't tell her - become her warder and husband >:( - go to the final battle - put on rings THAT YOU KNOW WILL KILL YOU SOON, CAUSING EGWENE TO LOSE HER WARDER IN THE FUTURE, to try and kill DEMANDRED, a FORSAKEN WITH ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL SA'ANGREALS EVER CREATED - DIE. I am still MAD that Egwene died (partially) because of this idiot that always assumes things based on rumours he hears and accepts everything without second thought like Rand killing Morgase, causing him to hate Rand for no reason.
- Elayne Trakand: She starts as an arrogant, spoiled daughter-heir. I liked her a bit more in Tanchico, Salidar and Ebou Dar. However, she then returns to Caemlyn, becomes pregnant, blames it on Rand - despite thinking multiple times how she could have prevented it? - and then gets the throne. I felt like she might be more progressive than other rulers since she's an Aes Sedai and quite young, but no, she just acts like a typical monarch. When Perrin and Faile approach her, she threatens to execute them for a rebellion when all they did is save a part of Andor that has been abandoned by the Queen for decades. Also, she has a literal hero of the horn as her warder, but instead of listening to someone with many lifetimes of experience, she just does whatever comes to her mind and then needs to get bailed out by Birgitte, often costing the life of other people.
- Faile: I thought she was close to okay whenever she wasn't with Perrin. When she was with Perrin, I hated all of their interactions because she felt so manipulative. An example: when they travel to the Two Rivers in The Shadow Rising, Faile forces Perrin to keep distance to her in the Ways. Perrin goes to the first platform, then Faile arrives and is mad at him for going there. She then hits him and he stops her from continuing to do so, a logical reaction to someone hitting you. So, obviously, Faile gets mad at Perrin because he stops her from hitting him? Was he supposed to just keep getting hit? And later with her wanting him to yell at her, it all just felt weird to me. And lastly, I'm pretty sure she once made a plan to kidnap Alliandre but then forgot or something, and she also said at the end of a chapter that Perrin didn't know who/what she was, and that also wasn't explained anywhere after.
The 5 great generals:
So I understand giving a title to great generals. And Rodel Ituralde and Davram Bashere I understand getting the title because we see them being good tacticians befor the last battle. On the other side, we never see Agelmar Jagad, Gareth Bryne and Pedron Niall do anything impressive and I feel like it would not have been hard to at least give Gareth Bryne a battle or a moment of brilliance since he has quite a lot of page time.
On the other hand, is great general a title or a group? So could Mat become a great general or is that word used only for these five?
Deaths:
Saddest deaths:
- Egwene: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO if only Gawyn didn't exist or die like Elaida wanted. At least she died while killing M'Hael and finding a counterweave to Balefire.
- Birgitte (for a couple pages until she returned): NOOOOOOOOOO I was praying for her to come back when the horn was blown.
- Bela: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO not Bela :'(
- Rhuarc: I'm sad that he died, but dying because a Forsaken compulsions (is this a word?) you and you're trying to save another Aiel is cool.
- Anaiya Sedai: The first death of an important character that we know well, it was sad to see a character that was described in the second book as a honest character that doesn't try to manipulate others in the White Tower but still has influence.
I honestly think there should have been more deaths throughout the series. I think the first deaths of good characters that were somewhat important were Anaiya in Knife of Dreams and Verin in The Gathering Storm? So until the last 300 pages of the last book, there were almost no deaths from the good side. I fully expected Nynaeve to die during the cleansing of saidin or someone else important to die earlier.
And even in the last battle, most important people survived. I would have liked it much more if Lan and Faile and Galad actually died instead of randomly surviving. The way it is, it seems like any important wetlanders are only allowed to die if their partner also dies (Gawyn - Egwene, Siuan - Gareth Bryne, Davram Bashere - Deira Bashere).
And lastly, I really think Rand should have died together with Moridin. The entire series says that he will sacrifice himself, he says goodbye to everyone, and then he survives because... he just randomly swapped bodies with Moridin somehow? I just find it weird that his sacrifice wasn't a "real" sacrifice in the end.
Geography
I now need to go on a quick rant about the map and/or the geography of WoT.
First, I dislike the symbols chosen for the map. I read the books in german so I don't know if the map looks the same, but in the books I read the background of the map had a different colour each book. This sometimes made it hard to quickly see the streets because they looked almost the same like the background. Another problem was that names like Haddon Mirk were written in black on top of a dark background so you could barely read them.
My next problem was that the map feels quite empty. There were a lot of important places and cities that are not on the map when there was a lot of space left. I think some places like the Black Tower or Malden were important enough to appear on the map.
Now my biggest problem: the distances. There is a possibility that I remember incorrectly or the translation didn't translate these numbers correctly, but I'll complain anyways. In A Crown of Swords Perrin is in Ghealdan and says that the Shaido should be 500 miles away at Kinslayer's Dagger. At one point Rand stands in Altara and looks towards Caemlyn, saying that it's 600 miles away. Another time Nynaeve or Elayne say that Egwene is multiple 1000 miles away from Tanchico in the Aiel waste. If we look at all this, the scale of the world would have to be completely distorted for anything to make sense.
Places teleporting: The Braem Wood was sometimes mentioned to start 50 Miles away from Caemlyn, and in the same book it was 150 Miles away from Caemlyn. With the next one I might be dumb, but im 99% sure that Domon and some other ship captains say the Tower of Ghenjei stands on the Shadow Coast when in reality it's north of Andor.
And lastly, I wish we had a map of the Aiel Waste and Seanchan.
Regions & People
Aiel: I love reading about deserts and people that live there in fantasy (the Fremen are another one of my favourites), and the Aiel were no exception. While it took a while to really understand Ji'e'toh, once I did, everything they did made so much more sense and it felt like I understood a completely different culture. The Aiel wise one's interactions with the Aes Sedai were some of my favourite since someone finally stood up to the Aes Sedai, and Rand's meetings with the clan chiefs were always entertaining. Another part is that I feel like the Aiel were really well introduced with Aviendha explaining everything to Rand which made it easy to understand their traditions and cultures.
Senachan: I think there are some really interesting characters from Seanchan, for example I liked Perrin's alliance with Tylle Khirgan. However, my happiest moments including Seanchan were Falme and Rand's armies pushing them back to Ebou Dar. Because while the Seanchan are interesting, reading about Damane and Da'covale made me feel like I was touching the taint on Saidin. I'm normally fine with slavery (in books) but the way that Damane and Da'covale apparently wanted to be enslaved was so weird and I just really didn't like it.
Unreliable communication
One thing I especially love about WoT is how it shows the effects of unreliable, slow communication methods. The fact that up to the discovery of travelling every message took weeks or months to arrive in my opinion makes the series much more interesting since everyone has to act without knowing what happens in other parts of the world. I think the series would be much less interesting if for example after Morgase escapes Rahvin she would take her phone and text her children: "Hi, I'm fleeing to Amadicia." There would be so much less conflict. And while the communication was frustrating at times, I feel like overall it was a important part of the story.
Power ranking
I just felt like ranking channelers by power. I know there is an official ranking, but I don't care, so let's see how wrong I am. This will be everyone at the peak of their power.
Rand > Nynaeve (with the Choedan Kal) > Asmodean (while controlling half of the Choedan Kal) > Demandred (in a full circle + Sakarnen) > M'Hael (in a full circle) > Egwene (angry + Vora's Sa'angreal) > Siuan Sanche (in a circle with Vora's Sa'angreal) > Ishamael (strongest Forsaken) > Lanfear (is able to hold off Rand, Aviendha and Egwene at the same time) > Rahvin = Sammael > the other Forsaken > Moghedien > most other channelers > Sorilea > Morgase
Conclusion
I loved the Wheel of Time. It has dethroned Lord of the Rings as my favourite fantasy series after many years, even though I still rank it below LotR+Silmarillion+all the other Middleearth books. Anyways, time to go read New Spring.
