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Rediscovering
Dec. 30th, 2010 12:45 pmFourteen years ago, on a whim, my cousin gave me a copy of Robert Jordan's 'The Eye of the World' as a gift. He knew I was a bookworm, and a fan of fantasy novels, and thought I might like it. And when I was bored one day I started reading it, not knowing that it was part of a series.
By the time I was 100 pages in, I was hooked. And I spent the next six or seven years enthusiastically devouring Wheel of Time novels as they came out, and getting more and more frustrated with them as they showed up in bookstores less and less frequently, grew longer and longer, and less and less seemed to happen in each volume. Finally, somewhere around 'Winter's Heart,' I gave up. I still wanted to know what happened, but I decided to wait until the whole darn series was over and done before I read any further - I was tired of waiting and being let down and having to go back and look up details from 5000 pages earlier.
And then Robert Jordan died. And then the ghost writer they got to finish the last book announced that it was really the last two books. Or maybe three. And I despaired of it ever ending.... until a couple of months ago, when I was amazed to realize that the publication of the last book was in sight - and that I had approximately 50 pounds of rereading to get through before I would be ready for it, and that I honestly couldn't remember much of the early plot details, beyond character names and generalities.
So I've started rereading the series, at book one. I'm not going to plow through them all in one stretch; as much as I like them, that'd be a bit much. But I'm already halfway through the second book, and... it's an interesting experience.
By the time I gave up, I had forgotten why I ever liked the series in the first place - my frustration got in the way of any appreciation. Going back through them now, though, I'm reminded of just how good they are, and why I fell in love. The depth and detail he puts into building his world, the complexity and interrelation of all of the legends and cultures and plots, all of the things that eventually bog him down - early on in the story, they're the same things that make it rich and real and enthralling.
Hopefully, knowing that there's an end in sight, this time the slowdown will seem more like pacing and less like aimless wandering - because right now I'm loving these books, maybe more than I ever did before, and I don't want to lose that feeling.
(And I really, truly, need to know how it all ends....)
By the time I was 100 pages in, I was hooked. And I spent the next six or seven years enthusiastically devouring Wheel of Time novels as they came out, and getting more and more frustrated with them as they showed up in bookstores less and less frequently, grew longer and longer, and less and less seemed to happen in each volume. Finally, somewhere around 'Winter's Heart,' I gave up. I still wanted to know what happened, but I decided to wait until the whole darn series was over and done before I read any further - I was tired of waiting and being let down and having to go back and look up details from 5000 pages earlier.
And then Robert Jordan died. And then the ghost writer they got to finish the last book announced that it was really the last two books. Or maybe three. And I despaired of it ever ending.... until a couple of months ago, when I was amazed to realize that the publication of the last book was in sight - and that I had approximately 50 pounds of rereading to get through before I would be ready for it, and that I honestly couldn't remember much of the early plot details, beyond character names and generalities.
So I've started rereading the series, at book one. I'm not going to plow through them all in one stretch; as much as I like them, that'd be a bit much. But I'm already halfway through the second book, and... it's an interesting experience.
By the time I gave up, I had forgotten why I ever liked the series in the first place - my frustration got in the way of any appreciation. Going back through them now, though, I'm reminded of just how good they are, and why I fell in love. The depth and detail he puts into building his world, the complexity and interrelation of all of the legends and cultures and plots, all of the things that eventually bog him down - early on in the story, they're the same things that make it rich and real and enthralling.
Hopefully, knowing that there's an end in sight, this time the slowdown will seem more like pacing and less like aimless wandering - because right now I'm loving these books, maybe more than I ever did before, and I don't want to lose that feeling.
(And I really, truly, need to know how it all ends....)
