Amazon Prime is working on an adaptation of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series so I’m rereading the books. They’re old-school epic fantasy novels–all 20 of them! They’re not quite as engrossing as Tolkein, but well-written nonetheless. I’m enjoying my reread and reminding myself of the story line and characters. It will be interesting to see how well Amazon does with the tales.
I’m sure they’ll be redoing the cover and reissuing the novels with screenshots from the show pretty soon, but this is the cover of the copy I have. Im not entirely fond of it because of several inconsistencies in the size of the horses, but it’s what I have on hand, so…
In the first book, we meet four young people from the town of Two Rivers. None of them seems to be anything special: a sheepherder, an apprentice blacksmith, a gad-about, and a young lady with dreams of travel. However, forces of Good and Evil are about to converge upon this sleepy little town hunting for a child from a prophecy. A powerful wise woman and her warrior companion seek to find this young person and protect him or her from Evil. The Evil, of course, seeks to destroy the child and everyone who knows him or her. The problem is: nobody knows which one of the four this child might be.
Morraine, the powerful Aes Sedai sorceress, and her Warder, Lan, help protect the village from an attack by near-mythical creatures, then shepherd their four charges away, headed for a town that can protect them. I’m about halfway through this first book and gradually remembering more and more as I read. In Jordan’s universe, only women can use The Power. There is a male Power, but it has been corrupted by The Dark One so it drives men mad to try to use it. In the prophecy, The Dragon Reborn will be able to use this power without going mad, and will supposedly heal the world. We’ll see which of the four it turns out to be, and whether or not they can heal. In my next post, I’ll let you know how well Amazon does with the series.
