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End of GoT left you unsatisfied? Check out the Wheel of Time, a legendary 15 book fantasy series

Deleted member 279

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,270
With Game of Thrones over and the series possibly ending similarly in the books, I can imagine many people giving up on ASOIAF and being distraught over their lack of fantasy series to obsess over.

Worry no more, I have a fantasy series for you that while being less dark and rapey, has an incredibly deep story.

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I'll let wiki catch you up:

The Wheel of Time is a series of high fantasynovels written by American author James Oliver Rigney Jr., under his pen name of Robert Jordan. Originally planned as a six-book series, The Wheel of Time spanned fourteen volumes, in addition to a prequel novel and two companion books. Jordan began writing the first volume, The Eye of the World, in 1984, and it was published in January 1990.[1]

Jordan died in 2007 while working on what was planned to be the twelfth and final volume in the series. He prepared extensive notes so another author could complete the book according to his wishes. Fellow fantasy author and long-time Wheel of Time fan Brandon Sanderson was brought in to complete the final book, but during the writing process it was decided that the book would be far too large to be published in one volume and would instead be published as three volumes:[2] The Gathering Storm (2009), Towers of Midnight(2010), and A Memory of Light (2013).

The series draws on numerous elements of both European and Asian mythology, most notably the cyclical nature of time found in Buddhism and Hinduism, the metaphysical concepts of balance and duality, and a respect for nature found in Taoism. Additionally, its creation story has similarities to Christianity's "Creator" (Light) and Shai'tan, "The Dark One" (Shaitan is an Arabic word that, in Islamic contexts, is used as a name for the Devil). It was also partly inspired by Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace (1869).[3]

The Wheel of Time is notable for its length, detailed imaginary world, well-developed magic system, and large cast of characters. The eighth through fourteenth books each reached number one on the New York TimesBest Seller list. After its completion, the series was nominated for a Hugo Award.[4] According to Jordan's French publisher, as of 2017, the series has sold over 80 million copies worldwide, and is the best selling epic fantasy series since The Lord of the Rings.[5] Its popularity has spawned an eponymous video game, roleplaying game, and soundtrack album. On April 20, 2017, it was announced that Sony Pictures will adapt the series for television and on October 2, 2018, Amazon ordered the series with Sony as a co-producer.[6][7]
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The quantity of books may seem daunting but other than two, the series will keep you hooked. Brandon Sanderson taking over was phenomenal as well, with the ending being spectacular and extremely satisfying.

Not-coincidentally, GRRM and RJ are connected too, with GRRM crediting RJ with introducing his audience to ASOIAF, leading to a boost in popularity. Along with GRRM's blog post after his passing, RJ is actually immortalized in ASOIAF proper:
  • In A Storm of Swords, Lord Trebor Jordayne of the Tor is mentioned by Tyrion Lannister as being one of the great lords of Dorne. Robert Jordan was published by Tor Books for most of his career.
  • In the Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, Lady Rohanne Webber of Coldmoat has her hair tied in a long braid and tugs on it in moments of high stress, similar to the character of Nynaeve al'Meara in Jordan's Wheel of Timenovels.
  • Archmaester Rigney is mentioned as theorizing that time is a wheel.
With that said, the books aren't without their criticisms. Some find books 9 and 10 to be a bit drawn out. What's typically recommended is to try the books but to jump on one of the many fan sites to read a summary if you're having a tough time.

It's all worth it for the absolutely memorable conclusion of the series.

Also, the series does differ from ASOIAF in certain ways. While having its dark moments, it definitely does not start off like that. It's less so political and definitely more fantastical.

Besides that, I found the story of Rand Al'thor and friends phenomenal. I'm a few books deep into my reread right now, and I feel like each book mostly gets better than the one before.

If 15 books sounds like too much, it's well known in the fandom that the audio books are great and could be easier to get through. The voice actors really add a special touch.

With the show being produced by Amazon and coming out soon-ish, you might as well get a head start on the next big series to take over.

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Ortix

Ortix

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,438
Eh, couldn't get through book 3. I just hated all characters, and their teenage drama most of all.
 

nitewulf

Member
Nov 29, 2017
7,202
Uhhhhhhhh.....too long, as well as author actually passed away prior to finishing it.
 

SpokkX

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,495
Ortix said:
Eh, couldn't get through book 3. I just hated all characters, and their teenage drama most of all.
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Yeah this is typical teenage nonsense fantasy with all that comes with it - it is NOT comparable to got or tolkien

Gave up after 3 or 4 books - could not stand the angst even when i was a teenager myself
 
Lord Vatek

Lord Vatek

Avenger
Jan 18, 2018
21,509
Literally every time I see someone recommend this series it's followed by a ton of people saying to stay away.
 
Chivalry

Chivalry

Chicken Chaser
Banned
Nov 22, 2018
3,894
Don't do it. While some parts of it are great, the overall experience isn't worth the time investment. Wait for the tv show and read The Elderlings saga instead.
 
Waxy

Waxy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
440
KrAzEd said:
I'm liking this thread already. Come on people, recommend some other great fantasy books, filling up my amazon cart 🎉
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I absolutely love the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Though they aren't for everyone and the first book while great isn't an easy starting point.
 
BigDes

BigDes

Knows Too Much
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,795
First three books are great
Books 4-6 ok but each one drops off in quality
Books 7-8 mediocre
Books 9-11 Literally nothing happens in this book
Books 12 -14 Yeah actually pretty good
 
Dr. Monkey

Dr. Monkey

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,029
nando said:
less dark and rapey
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uhhhhh less dark, maybe.

But when women in power routinely spank the naked asses of their female charges and dudes force orgasms on women to form a bond (and these are just a few examples; let's not forget the people exploited by the powerful over and over), I'm gonna just called it "differently rapey."
 
Baliis

Baliis

Member
Oct 25, 2017
539
BigDes said:
First three books are great
Books 4-6 ok but each one drops off in quality
Books 7-8 mediocre
Books 9-11 Literally nothing happens in this book
Books 12 -14 Yeah actually pretty good
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Saying literally nothing happens in 9 and 11 is pretty wild considering 11 is one of the best books in the series and 9 has
the cleansing.

I couldn't tell you a single thing that happens in 10 though, I'll give you that one.
 
Claude Augario

Claude Augario

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,991
Last time I thought about getting into this series I saw a bunch of hardcore fans bickering about how the story doesn't start to payoff until book 10, which always sends me fleeing in the opposite direction.
 

Deleted member 41178

User requested account closure
Banned
Mar 18, 2018
2,903
I'd probably recommend the First Law books and/or the Mist born series over The Wheel Of Time.

In fact, just pick up any of Brandon Sandersons work.

I really struggled with The Wheel Of Time, I was told it got better after the first few books and I agree it did but it never felt like the time I spent reading was worth it.
 
A Black Falcon

A Black Falcon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
255
Look, I love the Wheel of Time series. It's fantastic and is probably my favorite fantasy series ever. I do think that the last three books, from after Robert Jordan sadly died, are a huge step down in quality from his books (yes, I love the late Jordan books too, sure not much happens but the writing is so amazing that I didn't care!), and have a few issues with the plot, but despite that it's still really great.

But serioiusly, if people were unsatisfied by GoT's ending, is recommending Wheel of Time really a good idea? Its ending may conclude the main plot but for a lot of reasons it is far from satisfying, and will never get a sequel from the original author, that's not possible...
 
Instro

Instro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,008
I've been slowly reading my way through the series for a little while now. I'm on book 4 at the moment. I have no reason not to recommend to others if your looking for a good fantasy series.
 
ArbitraryWater

ArbitraryWater

Member
Feb 12, 2019
1,429
I have a lot of fondness for The Wheel of Time, especially as a formative introduction to non-Tolkien giant-ass epic fantasy novels when I was in middle school. It's the point of absolute bloated excess in the epic fantasy genre, and I don't think anything has quite matched it in sheer absurd grandeur. In some way, I think its absurdly detailed worldbuilding and rich characterization poisoned the well for me and fantasy novels, to the point where only a handful of modern authors really do it for me in that space these days. Definitely recommend Brandon Sanderson (who helped finish the series after Robert Jordan's death, conveniently enough) if people are looking for a similar, if slightly more restrained, kind of thing.

That said, when I say The Wheel of Time is the point of absolute, bloated excess in the fantasy literature genre, I mean that I find it hard to recommend to people without a considerable amount of free time (i.e. people who didn't start reading it when they were 14.) I'm not just talking about the series length, which turns into a real slog from books 6-10 (once again, going to utter the phrase "books 6-10" and let that sink in) but also some of the more juvenile, problematic stuff. While a lot of the main characters end up having satisfying character arcs, Jordan's general portrayal of women is... uh, suspect. Doesn't help that there's some weird kinky shit with the Seanchan and the Aiel on that front either.
 
Sgt. Demblant

Sgt. Demblant

Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,030
France
These have been tempting me since my teenage years but they always looked too daunting.
All the people mentioning them because of GoT (which I'm not even watching) finally got me to order the first one.
I'm a really slow reader these days though, so... Pray for me.
 
MajesticSoup

MajesticSoup

Banned
Feb 22, 2019
1,935
User warned: Inappropriate joke
I need something thats is a little dark and rapey, lets say HBO-ey.

Edit: lol at the infraction for repeating the ops description of GoT.
 
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ara

ara

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,013
grmltr said:
Spicy take:
Brandon Sanderson is a HACK
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I loved Skyward for what it was but ye I might agree. I think a lot of his stuff is really weak. I really wanted to get into the Stormlight Archives books, but I couldn't give less fucks about the whole Cosmere thing so I ended up dropping the first book halfway through.
 
Static

Static

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
6,108
Ortix said:
Eh, couldn't get through book 3. I just hated all characters, and their teenage drama most of all.
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I was bored to tears. All these people do is walk place to place. Nothing's happening. It's like I'm reading someone 's novelization of Randal's description of The Lord of the Rings movies.
MajesticSoup said:
I need something thats is a little dark and rapey, lets say HBO-ey.
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Dark but not rapey. Sex is actually at an absolute minimum. Glenn Cook's The Black Company.
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ara

ara

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,013
Very excited to check The Black Company books out soon. Probably after I'm done with Kings of the Wyld.
 
robot

robot

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,470
While I do think the end of the series is well done...some of those middle books draaaaaaaag.

Still very interested to see how Amazon handles their adaptation.
 
Saifu

Saifu

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,875
Wait..Amazon is adapting both LOTR and Wheel of Time!!?
Jesus they are throwing so much money in these shows..
 
Feep

Feep

Lead Designer, Iridium Studios
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
4,602
Never understood the love for First Law. I hated *literally* every character in that book.

Sanderson's character work isn't the *best*, but at least some of them are likable. (Jasnah!)
 
Rover

Rover

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,418
I'm gonna push Discworld, which spans a variety of genres and has a ton of world-building, satire and really poignant moments. Kinda hard to overstate how those books feel like a writer in his absolute prime of creativity, and it went on for dozens of books.

And Earthsea, which I've only read the first one of so far, but it's such a strong, believable and personal narrative that defies a lot of things you expect from fantasy. It's a world I definitely want to revisit.
 
Xeteh

Xeteh

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,386
I read Wheel of Time to the 7th book and I just couldn't take it anymore. I've never read anything that made me feel like I was reading nothing but padding for 70% of the book, the only interesting parts were the first and last chunk where things actually happened. Each character just, aside from Rand, felt like they made zero growth. And just in case you forgot what the major city looked like because he'd re-describe it as if it was the first time you were there every single time.
 
spootime

spootime

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
3,430
General fantasy recommendations ahead:

The sad truth is that there isn't really any fantasy thats on the same level as ASOIAF.

Wheel of Time: was great to read as a teenager but on recent rereads I have to skip like half the fucking book. Also most of his characters are terrible. I've got a huge soft spot for these books but I can't honestly recommend them.

Sanderson: generally really good, but if you like the political intrigue, nuanced characters, and realistic dialogue of ASOIAF then he's kind of the opposite of what you're looking for. Sanderson writes fantastic battle scenes and overarching plots. However, his characters are decent at best. Dialogue is people using the same made-up curse words fifteen times per sentence. This probably comes out harsher than he deserves, I like his books a lot and he's one of my favorite authors. I think he's kind of like the Michael Bay of books (bad boys 2 and transformers 1 michael bay)

Name of the wind: First book is good, second is pretty bad. Everyone talks about the prose and yeah, its damn good. The plots pretty interesting, but the characters kind of just exist for the main character to interact with. In the second book the
main character outfucks the fuck fairy and then fails to teach the sex ninjas how pregnancy works (but he sure fucks em good)
. If that sounds cool then you should read them, if that sounds horrible then avoid. Also grrm is more likely to finish both his next books before rothfuss finishes his trilogy.

The Stone Sky: man this book is amazing. One of the best I've read in a while. Unfortunately I didn't like the two sequels quite as much but I would definitely recommend this book to everyone

Third Law trilogy: this is by Joe Abercrombie and its pretty good. I really liked it when I initially read it but honestly its a bit forgettable. I would still recommend people read these.

Lies of Locke Lamora: The first book in this series is a masterpiece. The sequels dont really live up but god damn is the first book good.


Overall if I was going to recommend to a stranger the two fantasy books they should read next: The Stone Sky and the Lies of Lock Lamora
 
Reven Wolf

Reven Wolf

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
4,563
So currently on book 7 myself!

Overall I'm enjoying the series but I'm not going to lie, you have to get through some near insufferable stuff before it starts to get interesting. My general thoughts on the books so far:

Book 1: Generic mcGeneric goes on a generic adventure of genereicness! This book sets up a metric fuck ton of stuff for later books, but as a result, nothing in it really stands out and it felt incredibly bland.

Book 2: Effectively more of the same, some things start to stand out a little as different, but honestly still felt like I've seen it all before.

Book 3: Definitely better! still not great, but I didn't suffer through it nearly as much.

Book 4: Things start to pick up, and the world actually starts to feel like it's own thing instead of generic fantasy light.

Book 5: I was really into this book, it honestly felt like a breath of fresh air comparatively and the series felt like it was hitting it's stride.

Book 6: Events here felt like an absolute glacial pace, but at this point, I felt like the characters have been steadily improving, certain characters that I found insufferable at the start of the series have been steadily improving across the series, and this was the point were I noticed that I was actually happy to see each of their stories going forward (including those that I hated earlier).

Only near the start of Book 7, so I can't comment on if I feel I'll enjoy it more or less.

ara said:
Very excited to check The Black Company books out soon. Probably after I'm done with Kings of the Wyld.
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Thanks for reminding me of that series, I started and stopped that series constantly, and I really need to find time to just sit down and consume them.
 
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