I got 379 pages into Robert Jordan’s fantasy novel The Eye of the World before tossing it aside, feeling like I’d read enough wannabe Tolkien to last me a lifetime. My original goal was far more ambitious: I’d planned on reading Jordan’s entire The Wheel of Time series, in which Eye is merely the first entry. I think the whole series weighs in at something like 84 billion pages; Eye is 782 pages long, not including the glossary, and it’s one of the shorter books in the Wheel of Time series, which as of now, contains 11 books, plus a prequel, and plus a final, twelfth book that’s coming out this fall. (It’s being finished by another writer, as Jordan died last year.)
The whole reason I picked up Eye of the World was because I had several friends–friends I trust, friends with good taste in fantasy and sci-fi–who wholeheartedly recommended Jordan’s series to me. In fact, I’m hard-pressed to think of another fantasy series that elicits such passion in its readers (yes, even including Lord of the Rings), but fuck, I could only read so many paragraphs like these before giving up:
Soon they would reach the river and meet Moiraine, and she would put them beyond the Trollocs’ reach as well. He believed it because he needed to believe. The wind scraped branches together and rustled the leaves and needles on the evergreens. A nighthawk’s lonely cry drifted in the dark, and he and Egwene moved their horses closer together as though they were huddling for warmth. They were very much alone.
A Trolloc horn sounded somewhere behind them, quick, wailing blasts, urging the hunters to hurry, hurry. Then thick, half-human howls rose on their trail, spurred on by the horn. Howls that grew sharper as they caught the human scent.
That just seems goofy as fuck to me, but apparently I’m in the minority: The Wheel of Time series has sold a mind-boggling 44 million copies worldwide, and Universal just picked up the movie rights to the whole thing for a seven-figure deal. More details after the jump.
Variety has the story on the plan for the movies.
Universal Pictures has acquired film rights to the late Robert Jordan’s bestselling The Wheel of Time novel series in a seven-figure deal.
Adaptations of the fantasy tomes will begin with the first book in the cycle, The Eye of the World.
Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon will produce for Red Eagle Entertainment, which published graphic novel adaptations of Jordan’s books.
I like that the film’s producers have last names that make them sound like they’re fantasy characters themselves. Or at least like they’re the fake names of high schoolers who spend their Friday nights in a friend’s basement playing D&D.
Anyway, with Harry Potter winding down, I’m guessing that the theory in Hollywood is that fantasy will have another resurgence in a few years, when Guillermo Del Toro’s The Hobbit films start coming out. (Another popular fantasy series, Terry Goodkind’s 11-book-long The Sword of Truth series [which also looks just silly and hack-ish to me, though admittedly I haven’t read any of them] hits TV this fall.) Which is fine–I’m a sci-fi geek at heart, but I like fantasy stuff too.
Or maybe that’s wrong: Maybe I just like the idea of fantasy stuff, because frankly, the only fantasy things I can think of that I really, really like are Lord of the Rings, and Pan’s Labyrinth, and (SHUT UP IT’S AWESOME) Reign of Fire. (Does Reign of Fire even count as a fantasy movie?) Pretty much every other movie or book I’ve picked up in the genre has been incredibly shitty (I’m looking at you, Eragon), or utterly reliant on nostalgia and/or irony (I know I’m gonna get shit for this, but I’ll be goddamned if Labyrinth doesn’t screen like 50 times a year in Portland, and I’ll be similarly godamned if I can think of a single non-ironic reason for it to be that popular), and it’s kind of turned me off of the genre as a whole.
Am I missing something with The Wheel of Time that however many other million people are seeing and loving? Or am I just picking lousy stuff in the genre to try and read? Recommendations, anyone?
In the meantime:
Okay. So that’s also goofy as fuck. But goofy as fuck in a self-aware, still-kinda-badass way, at least? Maybe.
“The whole reason I picked up Eye of the World was because I had several friends.”
For some reason I misread this as the end of the sentence, and it made me laugh.
Trolloc sounds like Bollock, though, eh?
You’re a better man than I, Matthew, lad. I fell asleep after the first paragraph, leaing back in my chair, mouth open and snoring. Armbruster, the Association’s wandering Inspector General, happens to be visiting here in the hinterlands, thought it funny to use my mouth as a receptical for the ash from his cigar.
Gave me quite a start, don’t you know. Ash, even from a Havana cigar, tastes quite nasty, don’t you know.
You know I’ve read ALL of these, right?
Oh that Rand Al Thor. He’s a wild card.
Also, you should read the George RR Martin books.
Oh and the Jack Whyte Arthur things.
I could go on and on.
I’m shutting up now.
Terry Brooks and Shannara FTW!
Reign of Fire is everything Dragonslayer wanted to be plus super-ripped dudes.
Why am I still commenting?
If he had written a western:
The crickets and the rust-beetles scuttled among the nettles of the sage thicket. “Vámonos, amigos,” he whispered, and threw the busted leather flintcraw over the loose weave of the saddlecock. And they rode on in the friscalating dusklight.
I must be a bigger nerd than I thought because I read those two paragraphs and wanted more.
I’ve read the entire series (so far) numerous times. Granted, the beginning of the first book is slow to get going, but it is still awesome. I’m going to be looking forward to this movie for a long time. I just hope they don’t get Uwe Boll to direct. Even the thought just sickens me. But anyway, The Lord of the Rings books sucked. I couldn’t get through the first one. Loved the movies, though. Just hope they don’t destroyed the Wheel of Time series on the big screen.
I’m currently on my third time reading thru the series, getting ready for Brandon Sanderson to finish Robert Jordan’s vision. Like people have said, it is a little hard to get started, but once you do you’re hooked. I’m worried that if they do make movies based on the books that it will be horribly cheesy. The Lord of the Rings films were much more enjoyable to watch than it was to read.
My lips got tired just reading the excerpt.
George R. R. Martin’s books are awesome, but I remain ambivalent about WoT until we have some sort of conclusion to at least one plotline.
I’ve known people that can’t stand reading more than chapter of Tolkien and I think it’s complete children’s nonsense. Tolkien himself suffered from this attitude among his contemporaries. If you are truly interested in finding out why some people are excited about Robert Jordan: think like a fantasy book reader. Fantasy readers, I believe, are one of the patient, long viewed, voracious and loyal ‘fiction’ readers in the market. Fantasy readers will not drop an author after a few paragraphs or even after reading 1/2 of a book but rather only after a writer hasn’t developed in 2 or 3 books. I truly believe this is a distinguishing feature of a fantasy reader.
If you don’t find Jordan interesting after the end of the 3rd (yes I said 3rd book) then you I agree that you’ve given it your all; you don’t get it or get us. Do not expect Robert Jordan to be on par with Tolkien (I have never read a fantasy book that came close to being completely on his level of writing, mythology and story telling) but I think Robert Jordan is decent story developer. I particularly find interesting the role and his development of female characters which I believe is not typical fantasy writing (I am a male, fyi). You can see evidence of this in EotW. I truly hope you give it another try.
“Elves and Dragons! I says to him. Cabbages and potatoes are better for me and you.