How Did YOU Discover Wheel of Time?

[KChan she/her]

Poor Wheel of Time board. It looks so lonely without any threads in it.

So! Fellow WoT readers! What brought you into the turnings of the Wheel? Was it finding out Brandon is finishing the series? Perhaps a friend or family member sharing a book with you? What did it, and what got you hooked?

For me, I was in High School. I want to say it was Freshman year, but I'm not positive. Anyways, the school was having its semi-annual book fair, and one of the volumes they were selling happened to be From the Two Rivers, the YA release of the first half of Eye of the World. My friend, having just purchased the book himself, showed it to me. I had already told him numerous times how I like fantasy, and have a particular fondness for very long books, and so when he introduced FtTR as being the first half of the first volume of what was going to be a twelve-volume series, my interest was piqued. I purchased the book, found myself quickly pulled in, and devoured it in no time. The cutoff really got to me too: what was going to happen to Perrin and Egwene? What's the deal with the wolves? Is the gang ever going to find each other?

I went out immediately and purchased the full copy of Eye of the World, and the rest, as they say, is history.

What's your story?

[Joe ST he/him]

Well lets see if I can remember that far back (>.>)

I'm a fan of long series and I'd run out of scifi's that I could find that looked interesting, so I headed into my local Waterstones (I guess) and saw this great swathe of thick black books with coloured, numbered headers. I must've taken a look at EotW and noticed that I'd never heard of the author (not that I was much into the world of authors at the time, mainly just avoiding the popular culture ones). And like you say, the rest is history. It was instantly my favourite story of all time, vastly surpassing LotR and all the other stories I'd read up to that point, and any other story I'd heard, seen or experienced.

I can't remember the first read (up to 11:KoD) but I enjoyed it so much that I jumped in the net to find Dragonmount and ended up spending numerous hours posting in Fiddles, much to the distress of my schoolwork no doubt.

I grew away from there, never really sticking to an already established (and sprawling) community. But when the news hit that RJ had died, I was truly saddened. I guess I must've started frequenting there a little more again. I then found the wiki and spent another gratuitous amount of time on there.

I think I ignored TGS for a good period, into early 2010, where I finally succumbed to the temptation of a new Wheel of Time and discovered that, OH MY GAWD it was UHHMAAZZZZINNNNNNGGGG! I went and devoured Mistborn, which too was amazing. I ended up pre-ordering ToM, (which I read in one night XD) and waited patiently for WoK. I got Elantris and Warbreaker for Christmas and read them in days...and here we are, jumping up and down waiting for AoL and AMoL.

Thanks to Brandon and his fans I've discovered Malazan, Rothfuss, and Hundred Thousand Kingdoms just for the start. And OH MY GOD MORE BRANDON <3 <3 <3 <3 XD

[KChan she/her]

I think that's the most heart emotes I've ever seen from a guy. XD

Anyways, yeah, Brandon really opened the door to so many great things for me. But it was Wheel of Time that really pulled me into fantasy. I loved Lord of the Rings (still do, of course) and pretty much any other fantasy-type book I could get my hands on, but it was Wheel of Time that first showed me what epic fantasy is all about, and just how amazing worldbuilding can be.

[Joe ST he/him]

I think that's the most heart emotes I've ever seen from a guy. XD

They're ice creams

lol

[KChan she/her]

Mmmm, delicious! Now I want icecream. Thanks a lot.

So, any more takers for WoT?

[Quantum Toast he/him]

Saw a bunch of them in a bookshop (like Joe ST said, a "great swathe of thick black books with coloured, numbered headers"), got curious, bought the first... three, I think it was. Maybe four.

[Syborae she/her]

My parents owned the books and I stumbled upon them when I was 10 or 11 as I made my way through their bookcase. I only read the first few books and then moved on. When I was 18 or so I joined a Wheel of Time forum and as I got to Novice I was required to read the entire series before being raised to Accepted.

[darniil he/him]

A couple of my friends have been reading them since the third book was new. I saw how long they were, and how long the series kept getting, and I kept putting it off.

I eventually bit the bullet and borrowed the first book from a friend. I think I read the prologue two or three times before I managed to get farther than that.

When I was a DSL tech support person, working at the telco's HQ, I had found a Russian website with full-text copies of the books. I'd read the physical books on the train to work, pick up where I left off on the website once I got to work, reading between calls, and then continue reading from the physical book once I got back on the train at the end of the day.

[KChan she/her]

Wow, okay, so after reading these posts, I had to go and google the UK book covers, and dang, those are classy. No wonder you guys were curious! The American covers look pretty much like any other fantasy book cover. I have to say, though, I like the ebook covers best. I hope they'll release physical copies of the books with those covers.

[Joe ST he/him]

Wow, okay, so after reading these posts, I had to go and google the UK book covers, and dang, those are classy. No wonder you guys were curious! The American covers look pretty much like any other fantasy book cover. I have to say, though, I like the ebook covers best. I hope they'll release physical copies of the books with those covers.

well Brandon is pushing for that on the rerelease, I think he said Harriet would prefer a style similar to the Orion ones though. (according to the latest reddit interview I think). I prefer the UK covers to the current US ones, but the ebook ones are AWESOME.

[KChan she/her]

I prefer the UK covers to the current US ones, but the ebook ones are AWESOME.

This. Also, I read that, and I was really excited. No matter who wins out, though, I'll just be glad for different cover art than what we already have here in the US. I rank them as follows:

1. eBook versions
2. UK versions
3. US versions

[Eerongal he/him]

They were recommended to me by a couple of friends when i was in either highschool or middle school, don't remember specifically. It was sometime around book 6-7's release (late 90's sometime). I got the first couple of books and devoured them right up to book 5 really quick. then kinda got out of em for a while, and got back into them when book 10 was released and started from the beginning and went through all of them (at the time) and from there just read 'em as they came out.

[Mad_Scientist he/him]

My two brother-in-laws (who are themselves brothers) were both big fans of the books. I had read and loved Tolkien, but hadn't read much other fantasy yet, and I found some of their conversations about the Wheel of Time quite interesting. I decided to borrow the first book from one of them eventually. I remember that I hesitated to do so for a while though, as the series was huge and unfinished (10 books were out when I finally started reading) and I half wondered if Robert Jordan would ever finish the series.

Looking back now, some of my comments before I started reading are both sad and ironic.

[Feloxia she/her]

I've been reading Brandon's stuff for a few years, then this recent year I actually started following his website and his book updates. After finishing all his books a few months ago I decided I should read the WoT series. Usually I don't like reading long series until all of the books are out because I don't like waiting for the rest of them (especially since I have to reread the previous ones a lot), but I figured since it's almost finished I could start.

I love it so far~

[daranthered]

I had a friend in high school who was in love with the series, back in the late 90's. Every time you asked him for a book recommendation, he'd say "Wheel of Time." Eventually, I read one for a school book report. I continued on and read the first four then. Then for many years I left it, until I heard of Mr. Jordan's passing. I started back from book one and read right through to "A Gathering Storm." Total time from picking up the first books to reading to the (then) end of the series -about eleven years.

Also, I would say that I fully intend to buy the entire series in the stately UK editions once all the books are out. They are beautiful.

[Joe ST he/him]

another set of covers, unofficial, but AWESOME: OMG DO WANT

[TheBobs he/him]

I discovered WoT through a friend at a workplace about 10 years ago. And I discovered Sanderson from the dragonmount forums (prior to Jordan's death).

Personally, I much prefer Sanderson.

One thing I never liked about the Power is it seems to be able to do most anything at all.

iPhone 3g "There's An App For That"

The One Power "There's A Weave For That"

[Feloxia she/her]

another set of covers, unofficial, but AWESOME: OMG DO WANT

Those are awesome~<3

[Shard he/him]

I remember the moment I stood in the book store and I picked up Eye of the World, I looked atht eh cover thinking this was interesting and possibly had something to do with Time Travel. I mean it SAID Wheel of Time for crying out loud! Anyways I saw there was quite of few in the series already, six at the time I started, and decided that I wanted to start this clearly epic saga. Little did I know just how Epic it was going to be, that was back when I was in High School.

I also love the UK Covers and the Ebook Covers and I am estatic that Michael Whealan is going to do some covers as well.

Edited September 7, 2011 by Shard

[Darth Squirrely she/her]

Hmm, so....

Okay, I'm going to stop pretending I don't remember every detail of how I found the Wheel of Time. XD

I was a junior in high school, taking a Creative Writing class and having fun with it. We had a student teacher in that class, and she took over for a couple of weeks around the middle of the term. One of our assignments during that time was to write a "Rent-a-Character" short story. I borrowed Mogget from Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy, which was my all-time favorite series at the time (I still LOVE it). Our student teacher loved my story so much that she asked me about where Mogget came from, and I told her about Abhorsen. In turn, she recommended the Wheel of Time, by Robert Jordan. Her words to me:

"It is REALLY good, but it will suck years of your life away. I highly recommend it."

I promised to check them out, but I put it off until the beginning of the summer. I was bored, out of reading material and ideas, and I felt obligated to at least try WoT. Unfortunately, I totally forgot the author's name, so I went online and googled "Wheel of Time."

Okay, so without going into TOO much more detail, I went to the library, was excited to see that it had copies of all the books out at that time, and checked out the first book. Instantly hooked. I read about a book a week, although I usually read at least one or two smaller books in between each volume.

I finished KoD in October 2007, and I had heard something from a friend about RJ maybe being sick so I looked it up. Found out that RJ had died almost exactly a month previously. That led me to Dragonmount Forums, and that led me to Brandon Sanderson when it was announced he was going to complete the WoT series.

That's pretty much it. >.>

Oh, and my student teacher was right. XD

[Gehennaheretic]

My first girlfriend back in high school had a copy of Eye of the World on the floor of her extremely messy room. I asked about it, and she shrugged and told me a bit about it, but she wasn't all that into it.

But when I found a copy at my book store at home... I was hooked. By this point, The Dragon Reborn had just come out in paperback, and Shadow Rising was quickly approaching. I've been reading and rereading and going nuts waiting for the next one ever since.

Now she's a happy memory, but the WoT has stuck with me.

[leinton]

My friend introduced me to it, I remember it well. We were both in pit orchestra for Guys and Dolls, playing clarinet, and between songs, he was reading a book. I saw the word "Dragon" on a random page (no clue which book), and I was like, "ooh, dragons!" And then he said, "nope." And then I called him about a month later to ask him what the series was called, and I read them all in about 3-4 months. I finished right around the time that it was announced that Brandon would be taking over.

[Rose Stonewall]

Hmm... it was only a few years ago that I found WOT, to be honest. My dad's boss, knowing that I loved fantasy, loaned me the first three books. I started reading The Eye of the World, but dropped it after discovering that the first chapter was slow. A few weeks - okay, months - later, I was bored and picked it up again. And I was hooked

Pretty much the same thing happened to me today with A Game of Thrones (friend recommended it a few years back, I couldn't get into it, and I picked a copy up today and was hooked). I obviously should've taken a hint, given that was my initial reaction to WOT, now one of my favourite series...

[Gallagher]

I was in jr. high. About 5 years ago. (I'm only 18 now) and i loved reading, it was christmas and my parents bought me several books. Eragon, Dragonlance Chronicles, and The Eye of the World. I blew through Eragon and loved it, and got each book as it came out. (Still waiting for the last book on Nov. 8) Read dragonlance and was glued to it. I just kept buying more and more books under those titles. I eventually read everyone my used bookstore owned. About a year after getting the book, i read the first hundred or so pages and wasnt that interested. A year later i picked it up again, read the whole thing, and set it down. Another year passed and i picked it up again. I really enjoyed it much more this time around, for whatever reason. Then went out and bought the second one. 2 months later and i had read the entire series! The last 2 years have been reading one book, then a Wheel of Time book. Last month i re-read the whole series, and it being summer, and me unfortunately unemployed, i finished the whole series in 20 days. I absolutely love this series and i think Brandon is doing a job that RJ would be proud of. I have this thought in my head that when i finish the last page of the last book, im going to tear up because there wont be anymore books coming.

R.I.P James O Rigney

[mogs he/him]

I knew of the series but put it off for years. Due to illness i had a lot of down time. I was hooked.