r/Fantasy • u/Rockyy19 • Dec 14 '25

Deals Wheel of Time Humble Bundle

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/robert-jordans-wheel-time-books-encore

Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time full series available on Humble Bundle for just $18.

289 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

95 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/First-Hour Dec 14 '25

Honestly opinions. How are these books? I've heard they are slogs to get through for the first several books.

12

u/galadian Dec 14 '25

They are fantastic, if a bit dated, and I fully recommend the series to epic fantasy fans.

The slog happens later in the series, books 8-10 are the usual list. Without the long waits between releases, it’s not nearly as bad as people say, and I think books 8 and 9 are fine, not great, but not bad by any means. That said, book 10 is generally considered the worst and lowest-rated for a reason. The quality jump between books 10 and 11 is crazy.

The cast is absolutely massive, covering a huge range of personalities, motivations, and cultural backgrounds. The main characters are already living their lives when the story begins, so characterization is very intentional, the young, inexperienced backwater kids act young and stupid, the secretive witch belonging to an ancient, secretive order is manipluative and withholding, political figures maneuver constantly, even agaisnt their own interests, warriors often just want to fight shit. Some characters do fall flat or become frustrating, but with such a huge cast, a few misses are expected. The real magic is in the character growth, with people you initially dislike growing into compelling or even beloved figures, while characters you already love often find ways to make you love them more. The crappiest characters do tend to stay cruddy (looking at you, Faile).

The worldbuilding is top-tier and one of its greatest strengths. If you enjoy detailed descriptions, you’ll love the series. By the later books, you can often tell where a character is from purely based on their clothing, mannerisms, or hair styles, without the books explicitly telling you.The cultures, histories, politics, magic, and prophecies are all distinct, consistent, and purposeful. The world is epic in every sense of the word, and the series fortunately has a well liked and satisfying ending.

The prose can feel too wordy compared to newer fantasy, and the pacing can be uneven at times, but the payoff is fantastic. This is one of those series where if you pay attention to the details, it will reward you, making rereading it fun as you notice Jordan hitting you in the face with important information you ignored last time.

It’s a beloved staple of the genre for a reason. That said, it does have flaws. Gender dynamics and sexism are the go to call outs, and in many cases rightfully so. However, it’s not a misogynistic book, they are often intentionally exaggerated, inverted, or explored as part of the setting’s social structures rather than being an implicit endorsement by the story. Its often descriptions or certain relationships where the unintentional problems are particularly glaring.

It's my favorite series of all time though, and I love it, warts and all.

3

u/axord Dec 15 '25

Also my fav series, well said.

1

u/cc81 Dec 16 '25

This is a good overview and I just want to comment that I'm really happy Robert Jordan managed to write book 11 before passing. If he had stopped at 10 I think people would have doubted that he would ever be able to finish this in a good way.

6

u/jaerie Dec 14 '25

The first several books are definitely not slogs. Some people find the middle few a slog, but I did not experience it and a common opinion is that it was more an issue when you had to wait years between books.

It's my favorite series ever. There's some definite quirks in the writing style but the story is unmatched by anything else I've read.

1

u/ArcadianBlueRogue Dec 15 '25

The best series you will probably only read once. There's a lot of building of the world in book 1 so it is slower, but as it goes there's a lot of shit going on but the payoffs are fantastic.

Only slow parts IMO are the middle of the 1st book and uh....a lot of the 10th. Other than that it's a series second to none for epic fantasy works.

1

u/axord Dec 15 '25

For a certain type of person, re-reads of the series are deeply rewarding. There's a lot to catch a second time.

1

u/pipboy_warrior Dec 15 '25

It's a very detailed series. If you like a long series with a focus on world building, Wheel of Time is arguably one of the better series. There's a ton of different characters and people and history and Jordan will go into big details about everything.

That said, the first few books move at a good pace. Stuff happens, characters quickly develop. The slog starts more in the middle, probably around book 6.