The Wheel of Time

About The Wheel of Time

In the Third Age, the Wheel of Time turns and ages come and pass, but the Dragon is bound to be reborn to save the world — or break it. Robert Jordan's fourteen-volume epic follows Rand al'Thor, a sheepherder from the Two Rivers, as his quiet life is shattered by Trollocs, Aes Sedai, and the growing, terrifying suspicion that he is the prophesied Dragon Reborn, doomed to fight the Dark One at the Last Battle even if it means going mad and destroying everyone he loves. Around him, his childhood friends Mat Cauthon and Perrin Aybara are pulled into their own destinies, and the story steadily widens into one of the most fully realized secondary worlds in fantasy: a magic system built on the male and female halves of the One Power, a deep and consistent history stretching back thousands of years, and a cast that eventually numbers in the hundreds.

This is the series that codified the modern doorstopper epic fantasy that came after it — readers who love intricate political maneuvering, slow-burn found-family relationships, prophecy that pays off literally instead of vaguely, and a magic system with real rules will find their patience rewarded many times over. It is also famous for its sprawl: subplots multiply for volumes at a time before converging, and the middle books test the reader's commitment before the back half accelerates hard toward the ending. Jordan died in 2007 with the series unfinished; Brandon Sanderson completed the final three books from Jordan's notes, closing out the story he began in 1990.

How to read this series

Read the fourteen numbered novels in publication order, starting with The Eye of the World. That is the only order the series was designed for, and it is also the order almost every reader recommends.

The one wrinkle is New Spring, a prequel novel published in 2004 (after book 10) that tells the story of Moiraine and Lan roughly twenty years before The Eye of the World. It can technically be read first, but most longtime fans advise saving it until after at least the first few main books, since it's a much better read once you already know who Moiraine and Lan are and why their choices matter — reading it first spoils some of the main series' slow reveals for very little payoff. Treat it as an optional bonus, not a required prologue.

The short story "River of Souls" (2013), collecting scenes cut from A Memory of Light, is only worth reading after finishing the main series — it's a coda, not a bridge. Be aware going in that books 12-14 (The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight, A Memory of Light) were completed by Brandon Sanderson from Robert Jordan's notes and outlines after Jordan's death in 2007; the change in prose voice is noticeable but the story is fully Jordan's.