After reading the fiction series "Harry Potter" during college, I longed to read one more fiction series. That happened finally with "Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan. These book series is much longer and much more diverse than "Harry Potter". The reason I started reading these books is due to the TV series made on Prime with the same name(which was unfortunately discontinued).
First of all, we have to give credit to the late Robert Jordan for his huge imagination. The way he created a new imaginary world which contains magic, valor, evil, friendship, sacrifice, and what not is remarkable. How the many imaginary nations, each with diverse cultures had a common belief that the Dragon "reborn" will fight the dark one in the last battle is interesting. From Kings to Peasants, this long story talks about people from diverse backgrounds. While some people can tap the One Power and perform miracles, some people use the same one power to do wicked thing, some people hate One Power and some people wants to enslave people touching One Power for their benefit. Ofcourse, there is also the True Power source specifically for followers of the Dark One.
The journey of Rand, from a simple peasant boy to the all powerful savior is one interesting journey. A common pattern I see in many fictions is good friends, while Harry has Ron and Harmonie in "Harry Potter", Frodo has Sam in "Lord of the Rings", and King Author has Merlin. Similarly, in the "Wheel of Time" series, Rand has Perrin, Mat, Egwine and Nynieve. Each of them plays a significant role in helping Rand. The journeys all of them taking either together or separately is mostly engaging. I have to be honest here, sometimes those journeys get exhausting to read. For me, my favorite character to read is Mat. He is funny, loyal, brave and has this incredible gift to win gambling always.
With so much diversity, imagination these books should have become super popular like "The Song of Ice and Fire" book series. But, as always too much of everything is bad. The author tried to get everything imaginable together. He doesn't even want a dead character to continue to be dead. Be it Ishamael or Lanfear or any forsaken, they all come back alive as the Dark One can just spin them back to the world. Even Moiraine comes back alive at the end of the book series. I felt why they even killed a character just to bring them back.
Of all the imagination in these books, I have few favorites. The first one is linking each one to a thread that is woven in an unpredictable way. This is same as our lives which always springs surprises however carefully we plan. Another one is, cycle of world. How the cycle follows and repeats, this seem to be taken from the Yuga concept of Hindu philosophy directly. I felt it fascinating to see a famous western author taking clues from Eastern philosophy to advance his imagination.
It might diverge from the opinion of other readers of these books. But, I loved the fight between Rand and the Dark one. This is a fight of futures. This clearly demonstrates how happiness can't be enjoyed if there isn't sadness. We appreciate light because of darkness. The way Dark One shows this Rand is simply superb. Happiness alone leads to emptiness within. I feel this with many people in a day to day basis, who try to do their best to protect themselves from any downside without realizing that without ups and downs in life, we will end up empty within.
Overall, I think these books are worth reading for fiction lovers. But, don't start your book reading journey with these books. They can be super dry even with all the imagination. I wish the author confined these books to 7 or 8 instead of 14.
Comments
Post a Comment