Wheel of Time, where to start?

[KenM]

i was thinking about trying to read Wheel of Time again, I could not really get into the first book, so I dropped it. If I tryed the prequel that Jordan came out with, think that would help? Or should I wait and read the prequel until I read a few of the main books?

 

[Huw]

i was thinking about trying to read Wheel of Time again, I could not really get into the first book, so I dropped it. If I tryed the prequel that Jordan came out with, think that would help? Or should I wait and read the prequel until I read a few of the main books?

The Great Hunt (book 2) is excellent, one of my all-time favourite fantasy books. The next two books are also very good. Then it drops off again - I gave up halfway through Winter's Heart. I found the first book hard going, but it is important for background. I'd stick with it - you'll feel better attachment to the characters, and many future plot lines are set up.

I haven't read the prequel.

 

[Rackhir]

If you didn't like the first book, you probably aren't going to like the rest of the series. Reading the prequel is unlikelyt to change that. Events in the series also starts to grind to a halt around book 6, by book 9 absolutely nothing of any significance happens in the entire 600 odd pages of the novel. 10 actually picks up the pace a bit and some things do actually happen. It has been claimed that the series will end around book 12 or so.

 

[Taelorn76]

Don't

I officially stopped reading the Wheel of Time series, at book 8, until he is finished.

 

[Kaodi]

Yeah, my advice is to don't read it. I'm slowly working on Knife of Dreams. Too many of the later books are garbage.

 

[Wild Gazebo]

I am also in the camp that says don't bother; but, if you must, I would suggest waiting a few weeks and picking up the first book again. Two of my friends and myself read the first few chapters and went: 'blech' why bother? I desided to give it another go a few months later and devoured it...I mean, really enjoyed it. I said as much to my friends and they had the exact same experience. So, it might be worth a try.

 

[trancejeremy]

I hate to say this about any book or series, but don't bother.

I actually think Robert Jordan single handedly ruined fantasy fiction. At least for me. A large number of my favorite authors stopped writing the sort of fiction I like, and started writing epic, Jordanesque knockoffs, because they sell a lot better.

 

[KenM]

A friend of mine just started the first book and really likes it. I told him the series gets bogged down, but all his other friends love it. I'm trying to get him into A Song of Ice and Fire.

 

[drothgery]

i was thinking about trying to read Wheel of Time again, I could not really get into the first book, so I dropped it. If I tryed the prequel that Jordan came out with, think that would help? Or should I wait and read the prequel until I read a few of the main books?

If you're going to read the series, read them in the order they were written; New Spring drops a fair number of spoilers for later (chronologically) books if you read it out of sequence. In my opinion, the prequel novel, books 2-5, and book 7 are excellent, and books 1, 6, 9, and 11 are pretty good. But books 8 and 10 are awful.

It's probably worth noting that Jordan's health is not good, so while we'd probably expect the 12th and final volume next year by the pace he'd been working at since about book 6, that's almost certainly not going to happen.

 

[Mallus]

Start with Gene Wolfe's "The Shadow of the Torturer".