Have you ever encountered a series that kept you enthralled for two decades? I have, The Wheel of Time fantasy written by Robert Jordan. The first book entitled The Eye of the World and it was published in 1990. I stumbled onto the book after the birth of my baby boy in 1991 and I have been an avid fan since. Yesterday I finished the final installment, the 14th volume A Memory of Light. When I closed the book and said good by to all of my friends, I was both very sad and very happy. Sad because that marked the end of a very long friendship with all of the people that I cared about and I was very happy to know that some fates were saved and others fell, but in the manner in which they chose; heroically and courageously.
Robert Jordan passed away in 2007 but he left enough material and notes to let his wife find another huge fan take up the baton and finish the series; the lucky author is Brandon Sanderson and I am so grateful to him for delivering on the promise of the wonderful universe that is the Wheel of Time.
The first time that I opened book one of the series, I was drawn in by what became the signature introduction to each and every book thereafter
“The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginning nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.”
I read this and it instantly appealed to the romantic in me, the historian in me, the fantastical in me. I wanted to know more of these Ages, how one was different from the others. Upon meeting the first characters, I got to know plain folk trying to make sense of extraordinary things and events. There was power, there was darkness and there was light.
I grew up loving Tolkien and here in Robert Jordan, I found a writer who paid serious homage to Tolkien all the while keeping it uniquely his own. I am writing this as a small tribute to a writer who took me to other places and gave me wonderful friends, I couldn’t ask for anything more. Thank you Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson.
laurieanichols 