Wheel of Time #0 - New Spring
I first read The Wheel Of Time series when I was 19, back in 2005. I’d been aware of them for years, and I don’t remember exactly what prompted me to start the series. I assume it was the release of Knife Of Dreams, but I honestly don’t know.
What I do know is that I was working at JJB Sports, and I read the whole series (as it existed at that time) on my lunch breaks over the course of about 6 weeks. And then I began to read Robert Jordan’s blog, eagerly awaiting the release of the “final” book in the series.
Perhaps interestingly, the final three books are the only Brandon Sanderson I’ve ever read. I thought he did a good enough job on them, though I remember really hating the way he wrote the characters in the first of his three books. I tried to read Elantris at some point after they came out and could never get into it, and I’ve simply never been interested in anything else that he’s done. (I also tried to read one of his Kickstarter novels when he made them available for free online. The less I say about that, the better.)
Over the years I’ve considered rereading the series and I think I may have made a start on it at least once. I distinctly remember being surprised that the sequence in which Egwene escapes from the Seanchan only takes up a page or two in the book, because the first time I read it it seemed much longer, so I must have at least re-read the first two books. I have no idea how far I actually got that time around, though.
One thing I’ve always been sure of is that I haven’t read New Spring before, the prequel novel that was released in 2004. I know I own a copy, but I have no memory of having sat down and actually read it.
So I decided, today, that I’m going to read it. If that becomes a re-read of the series, then so be it. Cue my surprise when I went to mark it as “Reading” on Goodreads to find that I have logged it (though there’s no date for when I did that) and given it 3 stars. I have zero memory of that happening.
At the time of writing this, I’m about 50% of the way through it. None of it is really ringing a bell, and I’m not convinced I’ve read it before. That said, I have this vague idea that I know some of the things that will happen in it, and I’m not sure if that’s just through them being mentioned in the other books or if I have read this before and I’ve just forgotten.
So far I’m enjoying it, though, and it’s making me think that maybe I do want to re-read the whole series. I probably shouldn’t, given I have so many other books that I keep saying I’m going to read (International Booker Longlist, I’m sorry I keep neglecting you), but I am as always an impulsive reader and sometimes I simply can’t control where my attention goes.
So, I guess there will be a review of this book coming soon. I don’t know why I’ve chosen to blog about it before finishing reading it. Maybe I just wanted to touch this blog again after not really updating it for a while (because I haven’t been reading as voraciously as in the past). Or maybe I’m just putting off doing actual work. Who knows?
This is not me committing to re-reading Wheel Of Time, but I wouldn’t be surprised if those books end up finding their way into my life again.