Books That Made Me Part Whateverith: Wheel of Time (series) by Robert Jordan (feat. Brandon Sanderson for the finale)
When I was younger and living overseas, one of the greatest gifts that I could or would ever get were the huge Media Mail bags of books from my former librarian grandmother. We didn’t always have the best of relationships, but she never failed to support me in what I wanted to do and she would always send me books. Books of all stripes and sizes and genres that she would get at library sales and used book fairs. It was not unusual to get several books in a series, all out of order. So I’d get book 1 and then book 5 and book 7 and then have to piece the rest of the series together by myself. However there was one M Bag that carried a prize beyond measure – sometime between late 1999 and early 2000 – we got an M Bag that held all eight of the Wheel of Time books in it.
A complete series (so far – as the 9th book had not yet been published) was a rare thing to find in these bags and I immediately set upon them like a starving feral child who hadn’t seen decent food in a while (according to my sibling at the time). It caused a bit of conflict with my mother who worried about me potentially reading things that I wasn’t old enough to understand until I pointed out that if I had questions, I had a track record of asking them to explain stuff. I was 14 almost 15 and exceedingly resolved that nothing was going to get in my way of reading these books. The covers were glorious and catnip to my brain and I cannot stress enough how amazing it was that they were all there so I did not have wait or wonder what happened next or how exactly we got from point C to Point X. It was all there for me and it was a glorious feast.
I sped through these books faster than I think anyone would believe possible (unless you’ve seen me read and I was faster then than I am now) and I was completely subsuming myself in the Wheel of Time world and the characters and everything about them. I got to the end of Book 8 and screamed out loud because that was a nasty cliffhanger and where was the next book? Was there even a next book? Surely, we’re not going to be left hanging forever right?!!? Understandably everyone else in the household was not amused by my outburst but I maintain the scream was warranted. Might have helped that it wasn’t almost bedtime when it happened.
I remembered the Internet was a thing and started diving into the Wheel of Time fan sites and the forums and reading through all the different fan theories and speculations and the excitement over the ninth book coming out and I was a joyful fanthing. Waiting for books 9 and 10 was horrific especially since I had yet to be able to convince anyone back home to send me book 9 – I had to wait until I was back in the states briefly myself in order to pick 9 and 10 up. I was exceedingly fortunate that our departure date was the day after the release date for book 10 and that I had very understanding grandparents who did not mind the emergency trip to the nearest bookstore. It helped that they knew that if they didn’t take me, I was totally going to find the nearest bus route or hitchhike to the nearest bookstore that carried new releases. I was 16, looked about 10ish, and would not be stopped from this quest.
My second email address was failebashere@***** and I legitimately could not get enough of Perrin and Faile and Egwene and Gawyn and then Mat who stole my whole heart and then some. I loved watching Lan and Nynaeve and them being the definition of “its complicated.” I still (forever) want all the backstory and the additional tales of the time of legend even more so than what we did get. I could happily lose myself in this world for ages upon ages and never ever get bored. If I was stuck on a desert island with only one book series for the rest of my life, it’d be this one. No contest.
One of my college friends and I became friends because she was reading The Great Hunt and I legit just sat down across from her in the cafeteria, held out my hand, and said something along the lines of “Hi I’m [x] and I have never seen anyone else actually reading these in real life, I think we should be friends.” We are still friends to this day.
Another college friend allowed me to commission her to make me an Aes Sedai shawl. It’s handknit -the pattern assembled from 3-4 separate patterns and combined to make one of the most priceless fandom costume pieces I own. She didn’t charge me nearly enough for it, either.
I have found amazing people through this series and it never ever gets old. The squee we all share is intensely and deeply infectious and joyful. It’s one of the happiest fandom communities I get to share in.
I never ever thought I would see an adaptation of Wheel of Time – especially not a live action one. I have been cautiously hopeful during the initial announcements and then we got casting news and I got more excited. We got a teaser and my faith and confidence grew.
We got a trailer and I’m pretty sure I stopped breathing for a good minute there as I just got overwhelmed with FEELING. My roommate watched me blink back tears as I watched the trailer another three times, just to make sure I was actually seeing this in real life and not an extremely detailed dream/hallucination.
We’ve got a show. The first episode premieres tomorrow. We’re getting an adaptation that as far as we can tell looks like its going to be AMAZING. It looks like the showrunners not only understand the source material but they’re respecting it. The cast looks lovely and the settings were breathtaking from what we got in the trailer.
Just like there were no words for what it meant to me to have been seen and represented in Every Heart A Doorway, there really aren’t the words to encapsulate what it means to see this world in live action, to be able to watch this story that I love from the beginning. To know that the show is going to bring in new fans to come and share in the joyful squee. It’s exhilarating. I can barely wait.