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I have been told by many writers and people I know that I should read the wheel of time series?

Has anyone else read it?

How long did it take people to read it?

I know its pretty darn long.

Any recommendations of what to do while reading the series? (like keeping notes on it or what?)

I read the first book - well struggled through it.

I did not enjoy it and won't bother with any more, but it depends on what sort of story you enjoy?

My main issues were very dull characters, the apparent need to have vastly long and boring travel logs. I just could not keep any level of interest.

I read quickly and many many long book series.

Other fantasy series that I would recommend instead:

Stephen Eriksons Malazan Book of the Fallen
Jacqeline Carey's Kushiel series (1st trilogy is best)
Robin Hobb - Liveship Traders

I'm a fan of long books and longer series - gives me something to look forward to!

Unless it's Wheel of Time.

I don't mind when authors get a little excessively descriptive. It's a habit beaten into me by suffering through long feast chapters from Brian Jacques as a child (and, now that I think about it, I'm just reinforcing that with George R. R. Martin...) Wheel of Time took that to the next level. Do you like to have a picture of a character painted in your head? Down to the outfit, I mean?

Would you like that for every background character?

Every time they travel, there's a solid paragraph used to describe local fashions, I swear...

For me, that's not the biggest problem, though. I can't get past how he wrote women. Most of them seem to be the same character, and that character is pretty cranky. There's some exceptions, but the general rule is that most conversations between men and women are going to include back and forth sniping about how one knows what's best for the other, etc, etc. It's just painful to read through. Apologies to any fans of the books, I know a lot of people liked them, but I gave them a shot and they did not improve for me.

I'd second the Malazan Book of the Fallen recommendation instead, if you're looking for something new and lengthy and you have yet to read it. That's got its own hangups - Erikson writes the first novel like someone teaching you how to swim by dumping you in the deep end of the pool - but it's a much more interesting and readable high-fantasy style world. Also a good bit darker in tone - although I think it keeps to the same 'cosmic magic scope' that the later Wheel of Time books I read seemed to be moving toward.

I'd second the Kushiel books only if you're looking for half-historical fantasy, half medieval BDSM romance.

I can't remember anything about the Liveship Traders except thinking 'Wow! Neat concept!" But it's been years since I'd heard of it and I think I only read the first one anyway.

Bottom line - if you want to try it, more power to you! But don't feel bad if you don't like it, I think there's just as many people who didn't care for the series as there are big fans.

I actually enjoyed it.

Yes, it's excessively descriptive... just know that going in.

Also, I'd recommend that you take a break between books.

I enjoyed the series, one of my favorite ever, as I read each book upon release since The Eye of the World when I was in middle school. The series is very much more in the traditional style of fantasy from the 80s and early 90s, before edgy, gloomy, grimdark took over the genre.

 whembly wrote:
I actually enjoyed it.

Yes, it's excessively descriptive... just know that going in.

Also, I'd recommend that you take a break between books.

This right here... unless you're like me, and have memory problems, then you simply have to read them back to back


One thing I will say though, is that the excessive descriptions really only come into play during the first 100+ pages of each book. And while I haven't read far enough to discover for myself, one of my good buddies tells me that I need to read the Sanderson books that finish off the saga, because Sanderson dispenses with the ridiculous levels of description, assuming that if you've made it to book 11+ you know what Rand, Perrin, Mat, and all the women look like in excruciating detail, and gets on with the tale.


One positive thing to note.... you won't have to do like I did, and reread the whole series whenever a new book comes out, because they are all pretty much out now