Oh boy, hope you're ready for this one. Measuring over 4.4 million words in just the main series, Wheel of Time is an absolute titan of fantasy, one you must try tackling. I started reading it in February 2019, hacking my way up to book 7, Crown of Swords, by February 2020 and then gave up. I'll describe some plot points, the series impressions and why I gave up.
Instead of describing the plot and mixing in my thoughts, I'll focus mostly on presenting my impressions and pepper in things I recall from the series. I didn't write down any of it while I was reading, compared to how I reviewed Demon Cycle and Red Rising series. Luckily, there's an expansive Wheel of Time wiki to fill in the blanks, which already announces the first problem: you cannot read these books without an external source of info.
Wheel of Time consists of 14 books written across two decades. The original author, Robert Jordan, was a prolific writer, producing some 25–30,000 words a month for the first six books. This tapered off to 7–10,000 until book 11. You can clearly see Robert Jordan's health failing based on his output, and he indeed died while writing book 11, with that one and the other three finished by Brandon Sanderson, his loyal fan.
The tidbits that couldn't fit into any of the books were compiled into a WoT Companion glossary spanning 300,000 words by Robert Jordan's editors. The glossary was released in 2015; reading WoT without it is straight up literary masochism, which is what I did, and that already answers why I gave up. Still, I don't think that conveys the sheer desperation I felt at that moment so let's check out the series.
I won't be using the WoT wiki to refresh my memory for any of this. The first two books start off in a poignant fashion, with plenty of character building, drama and action. We get introduced to an epic hero of the old, who is amid a cataclysm. A demon appears in front of the hero and congratulates him on going insane and wreaking so much havoc. The hero goes even more insane and levels everything.
We flash forward to the time when Rand al'Thor is just a boy. He enjoys a rural life with his dad when a strange hooded man is seeing observing them from the forest. They think nothing of it and don't give a second thought about this man raiding their secluded, unguarded farm, where they're far away from any help and nobody can hear them fight. The two prepare for the harvest feast and carry on to the village proper.
In the village, we meet Rand's two boy friends and three girl friends. They engage in typical kid stuff, such as doing pranks and teasing each other. What didn't strike me at first but became apparent in retrospect was the underlying theme of women abusing men. Girls are way too mean and cruel to the boys and at first I thought it's just kids but no, women treat not just their husbands but every man in the vicinity the same way.
Women in the series handwave this with a variation of "men are pigheaded and there's no other way" but there's really no compassion or sympathy towards men; they're just useful tools. I didn't realize this until I read a 2014 article titled "Four Sexist Themes From The Wheel of Time" published on mythcreants.com.
The article, written by Oren Ashkenazi, is typical SJW deconstructionist drivel that latches onto minutia and weakly argues that WoT series is sexist because:
I didn't paraphrase those, it's literally what Oren put in headings in his article. They all lightly touch on WoT and then go on to ramble about real-world examples; there's even mention of Angela Merkel, because why not. It's not Polygon and the utterly deranged "most erect of phallic structures: a lighthouse" level but it's subversive enough.
Try squaring complaint #1 and #4: Oren admits that women are given overwhelming amounts of power through magic but also complains the power is divided down the gender lines. How about #3? One section of women sorceresses hunts down men who exhibits the tiniest smidgen of magic and "cuts them off".
The books weasel their way out of saying these men are killed and say they are let loose and similar euphemisms but it's all but spelled out since it's mentioned they can trick others into believing they still have the magic capability and riling a rebellion. The fact this section of women does such a thing is of no concern to Oren; the fact they're seen as evil, which they arguably are, is.
Finally, complaint #2 is just arbitrary whining about men in general being stronger at magic than women. Oren probably didn't read the WoT wiki or the Companion because then he would realize each magic user has a power level. Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson just created a leaderboard of power levels and weaved the story around it. If you don't have an outside source of info, it will seem rigged but it all makes sense in the context, which the books sadly do not provide.
I wanted to contribute with a thoughtful comment to the article, but realized that it was partly right. Namely, there is sexism in WoT but it's aimed against men, not against women. From the very start, men are in a submissive position to women, who are depicted as thinking themselves flawless and born to rule. They have women councils that move mountains while men snivel and grovel at their feet.
By the way, Oren doesn't give us any references for his claims. He could have easily mentioned where he read it to provide more details but I guess he got paid to write the article, not read the book. Anyway, let's move on with the story.
One of women wizards, which are titled Aes Sedai, a gender-neutral term, arrives to Rand's village with her Warder, Lan, which is virtually a white knight protecting his princess. Women Aes Sedai can bond men to themselves, with men feeling irresistible desire to do their bidding and protect them. Some Aes Sedai marry their Warders while some abuse them etc. Later books portray quite graphic torture scenes as corrupt Aes Sedai torture their Warders, which made me queasy. It's obvious that is a fantasy representation of marriage.
Anyway, this Aes Sedai, Moiraina, is there specifically for Rand, who ignores them and goes with his dad to their farm. There they're attacked by Trollocs, depicted as Orcs with a flair, and Rand's dad gets killed. You can see where this is going — he rushes back to the village, where Moiraina takes him under her wing and they sally forth. They are joined by a "gleeman", which is best described in RPG terms as rogue bard, named Thom. The way he joins their party is quite contrived and made me laugh heartily.
For everything Robert Jordan couldn't explain, he would weave it into the story by stating the Wheel of Time spins a Pattern, which represents how individual threads of each person's life come together. Nobody really knows how the Pattern works, it just does. Listen to how the Pattern justifies Thom tagging along when their top priority is running away without waiting a single moment longer than necessary:
As the long-limbed gleeman scrambled down the ladder from the loft, Lan spoke, stiffly formal. “Is this part of the Pattern, too, Moiraine Sedai?” “Everything is a part of the Pattern, my old friend,” Moiraine replied softly. “We cannot pick and choose. But we shall see.” (Book 1, chapter 10, "Leavetaking")
If that didn't make you laugh, check your pulse to see if you're still alive. This laughter should then recede to reveal a tinge of sadness as you realize this will be the main storytelling crutch. So, the person around which the Wheel of Time spins a Pattern is called Ta'veren. You guessed it: Rand is one of them, meaning he attracts weirdos basically.
We've barely covered a dozen chapters of book one and you see how many ideas Robert Jordan weaved into his world. The scope of it is impressive but the resolution is grainy at best; the HD patch is in the wiki and the Companion book. Everyone else has to use their imagination to see Robert Jordan's vision. So, what else happens in book one?
Rand al'Thor is the reincarnation of the epic hero from the prologue and his destiny is to try and wield One Power, get mad and destroy the world, this time for good. Apparently, Rand has fought the demon countless times and this time it's the final showdown. What the demon did was taint the man's part of the One Power, the nature of which Robert Jordan describes as an oil slick floating on water: anyone trying to drink from it gets sick.
Women Aes Sedai don't have such problems and can freely use their side of the One Power, though they are advised to have a tutor to help them channel it safely and effectively. This tutelage is done in the White Tower, the most phallic of erect structures: a tower. Sorry, I couldn't resist. In the Tower, women Aes Sedai spin intrigue and struggle for power. They are split in 12 sections, called Ajah. Each of them corresponds to an RPG role, so there are healers, alchemists, engineers etc.
Book one ends with Rand and his crew discovering The Eye of the World, which is a pool guarded by a treant. The pool's water recedes and they find a box containing the Horn of Valere, which can summon the ghosts of heroes of the old; if the demon gets it, they're screwed in the Final Battle. So, they're about to ride off when two of the Forsaken, demon's elite knights, arrive and start casting spells. They kill the treant but both die.
The Forsaken are basically indestructible. They can die but the demon holds their souls in eternal servitude and can manipulate the Pattern to bring them right back. They are all chaotic evil by alignment, meaning they constantly scheme against one another and the demon in a desperate bid to take over. It is implied the demon knows about it and actually encourages it; that keeps the Forsaken on their toes and hones their powers.
The Forsaken do not use One Power but are fed magic called True Power by the demon. It does not cause insanity but does cause the user's eyes to turn black, a surefire sign it's a Forsaken. Rand will eventually capture one of the Forsaken and force him to serve him as a tutor, showing Rand all the forgotten spells. One of these spells allows Rand to ignore all distance and effectively works as Phase Door, opening a rift to a dark dimension, where Rand summons a platform to travel on to another rift and pop out thousands of kilometers away in seconds.
Now that I think of it, there's at least 2 other ways that function like the Phase Door spell I described above. There's even a Dream World, which is like a faint copy of the real world but people can die in it if they're careless. One of the two is the travel through some sort of Stonehenges, where using One Power on them in combination with their symbols allows travel to alternate dimensions filled with strange beasts.
We're already at book two, so if you guessed the box with the Horn got stolen, you're right. One of demon's minions did it and Rand has to track it with the help of a guy who can sniff things (??). What is this, Kimetsu no Yaiba? They use the travel stones and meet a MILF that is about to be eaten by a strange beast but she easily kills it.
She constantly flatters Rand, who dismisses her MGTOW style. The MILF is called Lanfear and is one of the Forsaken. She is there to seduce Rand to the dark side and basically tells him she will teach him how to use One Power safely. She salivates over him and tells him about all the magical artifacts they could find and use to bring down the demon. It's completely obvious she will use and discard him.
By the end of book two, Rand's continent is being invaded by Japan-like Seanchans from across the sea. These ruthless invaders capture any woman Aes Sedai and collar her BDSM style; they kill all magic-using men. The collared woman is bound with a chain to her handler, which telepathically orders her when and how to use her One Power. Any attempt to break free causes huge pain and distress in the collared woman.
The girls from the crew get dangerously close to the Seanchans and one of them is collared, with the others rescuing her using slapstick logic. Rand approaches the port where Seanchans landed and blows the Horn, which causes the ghost heroes to appear and curbstomp Seanchans. Rand and the demon have a fight in the sky, which the entire nation sees and starts believing he is the Dragon Reborn, which is the title of the third book.
The demon ramps up taunting and dream appearances. Rand gets wounded in his dream, with the scar staying with him when he wakes up. He is told about Callandor, a sword hanging in the air in a massive fortress, which is foretold won't fall until the sword is claimed. Clear King Arthur reference. That's when we're introduced to a pair of important concepts: angreals and Ayiels.
Angreals are artifacts from ages past that nobody knows how to use, or rather, power. Imagine a fridge in ancient Rome: people would obviously understand it has a practical purpose but wouldn't know how to power it. It is implied there are thousands of angreals, sorted in categories such as sa'angreal, ter'angreal and so on. Again, if you don't use the wiki or the Companion, you'll have no clue what's going on. Angreals can augment the caster's power but largely rely on the wielder's power. Callandor is one such angreal and allows Rand to channel his power to a tremendous degree.
As is customary with sprawling fiction, there are the desert people and Rand interacts with them heavily. They are backward, arrogant, reckless and completely overpowering in battle, just like Krasians. Rand's mom turns out to be an Aiyel woman, giving Rand a hereditary right to lead them. You can figure out what happens next. Yep, Rand clears all their challenges and becomes the leader of Aiyel later on.
He leads a small pack of Aiyel to assault the fortress and take it, which they do. He fights the demon, who turns out to be one of the most powerful Forsaken. To be clear, I used "demon" when it might have been more exact to say the main baddie is more like an evil force that speaks through this guy and just spins him back into the game as soon as Rand dispatches him. To make things simple, I just dubbed this guy "demon".
We get some heart-thumping action as the demon realizes Rand now matches him in power and starts running away into the dream world. Rand follows and they fight. Rand kills him but he just comes back later on. Moiraine uses a special sort of magic called balefire that can erase a person or object from the Pattern on another Forsaken. This type of magic can also rend reality, opening tears leading to the same void traversed when the Phase Door spell is used. Used in large battles, it can jeopardize the Pattern entirely.
Past this point, the storyline unravels. What made Dragon Reborn so special ,
The entire WoT series has 2,782 named characters.