Here’s a list of the 14 books in the series, plus a prequel.

The Eye of the World

The Great Hunt

The Dragon Reborn

The Shadow Rising

The Fires of Heaven

Lord of Chaos

A Crown of Swords

The Path of Daggers

Winter’s Heart

Crossroads of Twilight

Knife of Dreams

The Gathering Storm

Towers of Midnight

A Memory of Light

New Spring (prequel—planned by Robert Jordan to be a trilogy, but there are currently no plans to complete books two and three)

The Good:

The world-building in The Wheel of Time is fantastic.  I’ve read some series where the magical system and the world in which it is placed don’t work well, or are too complicated to make it realistic.  I’ve always thought that a magical system that seems natural and doesn’t take long for the story to effortlessly explain is the best—and of course it also has to be unique.  Robert Jordan does a great job with this.  The Wheel of Time takes place in our past and our future—in the series they are currently in a time in which they use horses and carts, but by the middle to end of the series changes are taking place and some of the inventions from before the Breaking of the World are being reinvented.  The magical system consists of a vat of energy or power called the True Source—only a very small number of people can actually channel the One Power from the True Source.  They use this power by weaving a combination of the five elements (Air, Earth, Wind, Fire and Spirit) to accomplish different things; for example, one weave may be used to put a bubble around a group of people so outsiders cannot hear what they are saying, while a different one may heal a wound.  Men and women use different parts of the One Power—saidar for women and saidin for men.

 

The core characters of WoT (forgive my use of abbreviations, but saying The Wheel of Time all the time is tiresome!) all come from the same part of the WoT world—the Two Rivers.  Rand al’Thor, Matrim Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Nynaeve al’Meara and Egwene al’Vere all eventually leave the Two Rivers—the small country community in which they grew up and the place they thought they’d never leave (except perhaps for Mat).  Robert Jordan weaves a tale of youngsters leaving home and gradually gaining knowledge of the world and growing as individuals and leaders.  I think it is amazing going back and reading The Eye of the World after reading A Memory of Light.  The characters develop so much and Robert Jordan does a great job of taking the characters from one step to another.  It also seems as if characters are always misinformed or they come to the wrong conclusion about something.  They always still act based on what they know, think they know, or believe is right and while it can be challenging as a reader to see them do something you know is wrong (because you’ve seen another character’s point of view) it is fantastic to see how they adapt, learn from mistakes and finally embrace who they have become.

 

The overlying theme or conflict of WoT is one you find with most fantasy novels—good versus evil, light vs dark—in this case it is the world as the Creator made it versus the Dark One and his Chosen.  This is a tried and proven method of telling a great fantasy story and I think Robert Jordan made it work so well partly by being one of the first to make women a dominant part of the story.   A major theme throughout the series is one of gender roles and relationships.  Destiny versus free will and story decay are also themes that increase the value of the stories and make everything more interesting.  With the series being so long, it is fascinating to see that as the characters grow and develop, the themes also grow and take on a new meanings.

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The Verdict:

 

Read:  If you love long, epic fantasy series in which you get heavily invested in the characters and their world, read this series!  The Wheel of Time is very detailed and draws you in—if you enjoy the first book, you will have to keep reading.  As a side notes, if you find yourself having a hard time getting through some of the books, try listening to the audiobooks as I’ve heard this has helped some people enjoy it more.

 

Don’t Read:  If you don’t enjoy long books in which there are a lot of detailed imagery or the characters are not constantly fighting in battles, don’t read this series.  With so many books and so many characters, you may get lost or bored along the way.

As an aside, I want to put in a good word for Brandon Sanderson.  If you enjoy The Wheel of Time, or fantasy in general, PLEASE read his independent work.  He is excellent at worldbuilding and creating unique magical systems that are completely believable.  He is currently working on the second book of his planned epic series The Stormlight Archives.  The first book, The Way of Kings, is currently one of my favorites.