Robert Jordan
The Eye of the World (Volume 1 of The Wheel of Time)
Tor Books 1990

Robert Jordan
The Great Hunt (Volume 2 of The Wheel of Time)
Tor Books 1990

Robert Jordan
The Dragon Reborn (Volume 3 of The Wheel of Time)
Tor Books 1991

Robert Jordan
The Shadow Rising (Volume 4 of The Wheel of Time)
Tor Books 1992

Robert Jordan
The Fires of Heaven (Volume 5 of The Wheel of Time)
Tor Books 1993

Robert Jordan
Lord of Chaos (Volume 6 of The Wheel of Time)
Tor Books 1994

Rand, Mat and Perrin are ordinary boys living in the small country village of Emond's Field in the rural country of Two Rivers. One day, Lady Moiraine arrives together with her knight Lan and starts asking questions. There is also a mysterious gleeman, the peddler, a bunch of evil Trollocs and loads of wolves, and the nice and quiet Two Rivers becomes anything but nice and quiet. Together with Moiraine, Rand, Mat, Perrin and the girls Egwene and Nynaeve set out to, rather unwillingly, save the world. Because the troubles in Emond's Field are just a short sign of the turnings of the Wheel of Time. The Dragon Reborn is back, to save and destroy the world, and the Dark One is breaking out from his prison...

Now, they have travelled around the world for several thousand pages, together with new and old friends and foes. Through their eyes we have seen cultures of the most various kinds, colourfully described. Met the Aiel, the harsh desert people living in the Waste. Followed the intrigues among the ever conspiring people of Cairhien, and a lot of other interesting kingdoms and peoples. Their lack of internal relationship is, however, somewhat confusing. In the real world, cultures are going through some kind of evolution, often inspired by their close contacts with neighbouring states. Swedes are not Danes, but closely related to them. Danes are not Germans, but closely related to them. Germans are not Dutch, and so on. Such relationships don't seem to exist in mr Jordan's universe, which is even stranger considering that the peoples of the known world all speak the same language (which has absolutely no connection with the language people spoke in ancient times, called the Old Tongue.) Mr Jordan is obviously neither a cultural sociologist or a philologist.

The most interesting organizations of this world are (more or less) religious: the Aes Sedai and the Children of the Light (also known as "whitecloaks"). The Whitecloaks are like a combination of the Crusaders and the Spanish Inquisition. Just add some more fanatism and you get the idea... They are sworn to fight against magic and darkfriends. Aes Sedai are an order of powerful female magicians, using the One Power. They are led by the Amyrlin Seat from the White Tower of Tar Valon and divided into different Ajahs (orders) depending on their major interest (green=war, blue=politics, red=destoying men with magical abilites, yellow=healing, and so on). The White Tower is much like a mytical Vatican, filled with power intrigues. The Children of the Light and the Aes Sedai are organizations working all over the known world, fighting each other so whole-heartedly they almost forget the existence of a truly evil force - which is secretly operating within their own organizations...

For this series Mr Jordan has created loads of distinct and memorable personalities. The list of main characters are, one by one, increasing. You follow them in war, adventure and romance. Sometimes it's more of a soap opera than anything else, but I like it anyway.

Mr Jordan is a great story-teller. You will soon be very involved in the lives of Rand al'Thor and his friends. But if you spend a couple of months reading these six books with their enormous amounts of words, you will find that he is using the same phrases over and over again. But compared with for instance David Eddings, mr Jordan is a master of style. This is a good series, and I am impatiently awaiting the delayed seventh book. But I really can't understand the fanatism many Wheel of Time-fans have developed. The books are good, but not that good. They aren't even the best.

Karl Henriksson

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Order your copy from Amazon.com now:

The Wheel of Time I-III	Paperback
The Wheel of Time IV-VI	Paperback
The Eye of the World	Hardcover
The Eye of the World	Trade Paperback
The Eye of the World	Paperback
The Eye of the World	Audio Cassettes
The Great Hunt	Hardcover
The Great Hunt	Trade Paperback
The Great Hunt	Paperback
The Great Hunt	Audio Cassettes
The Dragon Reborn	Hardcover
The Dragon Reborn	Paperback
The Dragon Reborn	Audio Cassettes
The Shadow Rising	Hardcover
The Shadow Rising	Paperback
The Shadow Rising	Audio Cassettes
The Fire of Heaven	Paperback
The Fire of Heaven	Audio Cassettes
Lord of Chaos	Hardcover
Lord of Chaos	Paperback
Lord of Chaos	Audio Cassettes

See also Fantasy Finder's guest book: 960523, 960726, 961230, 970202, 970217, 970312, 970313, 970323, 970412, 970413, 970428, 970508 , 970526, 970529, 970722.

Books by the same author:
"A Crown of Swords" (Book 7 of The Wheel of Time)

The Waygate (Wheel of Time fan page)