The Wheel of Time

I’m off by a couple of days, but what the hell, I wanted to write this. For those of you who don’t know, Robert Jordan passed away on September 16, 2007. He’s the author of an epic-fantasy series called The Wheel of Time, a series which I have been reading since I was 12. 

My first exposure to The Wheel of Time was on a trip to Mt. Rushmore with my family. My mother checked out The Eye of the World on cassette so I could listen to it during the drive. I was hooked. The problem was the version I had was only half of the book. It drove me nuts. I wanted to read more about Rand, Mat, and Perrin, learn what these Aes Sedai were, what a Trolloc was, and how a Myrdraal can cause a man to piss himself.

When we got back the first thing I did was go to the library and check out some of the books. I devoured them. I blew through the ten books that were out at the time in a few months, and then I had to wait. In the three years before book eleven came out I probably read the series three or four more times. Knife of Dreams was one of the first books I bought with my own money. Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, Elayne, Aviendha, Lan, and all the other characters had become a part of my life. They were my friends.

Fast forward another two years. Only one other book came out in that time, New Spring. I was leaving school and a friend came up to me and said, “That author you really like died.” I didn't believe him. Robert Jordan had been diagnosed with amyloidosis, a rare form of blood cancer. I had recently read a blog post that said he was doing well, and things were looking up. I jumped on the computer and went to dragonmount.com, a fansite, and there was the news. He was dead.

A part of my world collapsed. A man I had never met, who had affected my life in such a strong way, was gone. In a matter of minutes I didn't know what was going to happen to my friends that I had known for so long. There was so much to still be answered, so many stories to be told, and it wasn't going to happen. It was, and still is, one of the saddest days of my life.

I've always loved to read. I burned through the abridged versions of the classics around first grade, then started tackling the actual classics a few years later. Then, for some reason I cannot recall, I wanted to try fantasy. My mother brought me home a few books, they were from the Shannara series and the Legend of Drizzt. I burned through the books and fell in love with the genre. In these books authors created worlds from scratch. Original ideas, magic, and sword fights were a drug to me. These books were more in line with the Tolkien legacy; dragons, dwarves, elves, mages, etc. They were not epic fantasy.

Jordan blew the lid off of the genre. He wasn’t the first to do it, but he’s one of the best known for it. There are no dwarves, no dragons, no elves, no sorcerers; he had Aes Sedai, Aiel, Seanchan, Damane, Trollocs, Draghkar, and Myrdraal. He created unique cultures, a world with an actual history, a history that, essentially, never ended. I read snippets of the Age of Legends and the wonders they created. But there was more than that. Jordan’s world was our world. His stories were based on our own legends. Lenn flying to the moon in the belly of an eagle was Glen going to the moon in Eagle I. Artur Paendrag Tanreall was Arthur from the Excalibur legend. There were so many intricacies that you didn't pick up on the first time reading it. The more I read it the more I loved it.

And then he was gone. His world ended, despite there being no endings in the Wheel of Time. I had no idea how much these books meant to me. It made me depressed. But then hope came in the form of Brandon Sanderson. My friend Cody had been trying to get me to read his books for a few months before the announcement came that he would be finishing the series. He was a small author at the time, with only a handful of books published, but they were damn good books. I was hooked.

Then Tor announced they would select fans to help with the signings for the last three Wheel of Time novels. The Gathering Storm was due out in 2009, and I was selected to help. Out of everyone who applied I got to go. I got to have dinner with Brandon and be a part of the series I love. I was on cloud nine. He’s such a great guy, and remained humble even after being selected to finish one of the best-known fantasy series. He still, at signings, talks with fans for hours, answering questions, cracking jokes. He really is a good person.

I've only missed one of his book signings in the past seven years, and thankfully I have a great friend who went to the one I missed. Of course, I was the one who got Corky hooked on the books, so I have to take some responsibility for his actions. I was in Stockholm for the release, and I went into a bookstore and saw the staff unpacking the books. It killed me a little inside, but Corky had my back and I got the book right when I returned to the states.

Last year it finished. I camped out at BYU for two days, and those two days were cold. It was worth it. I was originally the twenty-second person in line, and I was incredibly happy with that. The series was finishing. Harriet, Jordan’s wife, even came out for it. I missed the first day of classes, but I could not have been happier. At the last second a person ahead of me asked to switch numbers, and I went from twenty-two to fifteen, the number of books in the series. When I went up to get the book personalized I could give a teary-eyed thank you.

Finishing A Memory of Light was bittersweet. The Wheel of Time had been my companion for eleven years, and I finally got the ending I needed. The great thing about the Wheel of Time is that there are no endings, and there are no beginnings.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.