The Man with No Time

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, and Age long past, a wind rose in the great forest called Braem Wood. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning. " A Crown of Swords " marks the halfway point in my journey through the story of " The Wheel of Time ". But it doesn't feel that way at all, either in terms of the story itself, or my enjoyment of it. After brief slowdown with the previous volume (occasioned by my going on holiday for two weeks, without space to takes giant books), I'm back to rattling through roughly 50-75 pages a night. A measure of my enjoyment can be found in the fact that I've re-established a bad reading habit, namely jumping ahead...

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, and Age long past, a wind rose among brown-thicketed hills in Cairhein. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a  beginning. Book six of the Wheel of Time saga is entitled " Lord of Chaos ". It's an apt title in many ways, as the sheer number of plots and counter-plots, secret machinations, and intrigues that are going in is mind-boggling. In fact by the end of the book the source of some of them is still not entirely clear, and I'm sure that for some of them it will remain that way by the end of the series. There's almost no point to some of the things that go on, other than to cause havoc, which they certainly do.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that fade 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, and Age long past, a wind rose in the great forest called Braem Wood. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a  beginning. It's taken me a while to finish book five of the Wheel of Time. That's not because it was a drag, far from it. But I've been very busy recently, and have been catching up on some other reading that's got in the way a little. Nonetheless, I still hooked on the story, and just about on course with my goal to finish by the end of the year.  The revelations continue to pile up, and this book has some truly shocking events in it, including the death of one of a major character. It's hard to talk about the book without discussing these, so ...

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, and Age yet to come, and Age long past, a wind rose on the great plain called the Caralain Grass. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a  beginning. The Wheel of Time continues to turn, and it's starting to get serious. Book 4, ' The Shadow Rising ', is an extra 50% longer than longest of the volumes that precede it.  Not only that, but Robert Jordan once again ups the stakes with some astonishing revelations, whole new areas of the world explored, and some events that could (and probably will) have massive implications. 

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, and Age yet to come, and Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning. It seems that my read-through of ' The Wheel of Time ' is accelerating as I get into it! This third volume in the series proper took me only a couple of weeks to finish, and marks a bit of a change for the series. The 'epicness' of the series seems to have ramped up, and the scope and scale, not to mention the stakes, and becoming bigger and bigger.

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, and Age yet to come, and Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a  beginning. And thus my journey through the Wheel of Time really begins.

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. As I've already talked about, one of my personal goals for this year is to read my way through the entirety of the Wheel of Time series. The natural place to start seemed to be the prequel novel, 'New Spring' . Published in 2004 between the 10th and 11th books in the main series, it's one that I've never read. What better way to start.

If you talk to a lot of fans of fantasy literature, then many of Them will cite the Lord of the Rings as a Major Influence on Their interest in the genre. But I would suggest the many que almost would bring up the Wheel of Time. Written (mostly) by Robert Jordan, the first volume was published in 1990 I say mostly, because Jordan sadly died before the Completing the 12th and final volume, Which was subsequently completed from his notes by Brandon Sanderson Extensive (turning into three volumes in the process). The series is almost the archetypal epic fantasy, with a sprawling storyline, large cast of characters, inventive magic system, and a good-vs-evil storyline.

Time for my first book review. I've actually read quite a lot of books since my  Time-sinks post  on books and other media, but this is one of only two that I've read that have grabbed me strongly enough to warrant a blog post. Well, that's not strictly true, but in most cases I've not managed to get around to it! The book up for review today is Brandon Sanderson's "The Alloy of Law", part of his Mistborn setting. This was the first book of Sanderson's that I've read, although I've heard of him and been meaning to read some of his output for some time. He was the other chosen to finish off the Wheel of Time upon the death of Robert Jordan, and my friend James is a big fan of his work and has been pestering me to try it out. Actually, this book was originally bought for James, but he already had a signed copy so gave it back to me! UK paperback cover for The Alloy of Law. (Credit: thebooksmugglers.com)