Wheel of Time #wotrr - Winter's Heart - Prologue

Welcome to my Wheel of Time re-read! This will be the 1st post of many posts to come. Now you may be wondering, "Wait a second Krit, if this is a re-read, why in the world are you starting at Book 9?" Well I'm glad you asked, my good friends!

You see, everyone out there is doing a re-read out there right now. Check out Dragonmount.com for a list of some other re-reads that are going on. Well, I'm tired of starting at TEotW. Everyone does that. Recently, I think it was Terez (a notable WoT fan, especially via Twitter/Theoryland.com) that said we've all read TEotW n times, TGH n-1 times, TDR n-2 times, etc. Well. I'm starting most of the way through at Winter's Heart for that reason. So, in the interest of keeping things fresh for myself and my readers, this is what I've decided to do.

Perrin and his merry men

To begin, I like talk about the covers. I think they are interesting in how they represent a book. When I think
of Winter's Heart, the colors Blue and Purple come to mind every time. A cover is the 1st impression of a book. So seriously, WTF.

WoT Entries starting next week

Starting next week, I'll finally be starting my re-read posts for the Wheel of Time that I promised I'd do months ago. I haven't fully decided on the format yet, but look to my initial post http://www.kritpetty.com/2010/11/wheel-of-time-me-and-my-obsession.html as a starting place.

Look forward to seeing you all here!

Chinese Wheel of Time - Coolest Gift Ever!

In case you don't know, I speak Mandarin Chinese somewhat fluently. Used to be better, but I don't use it as often as I should. My wife is also from China... anyway... that's important to understand this post.

So this year at Christmas, my dearest wife got me one of the neatest gifts of all time. She got me a Simplified Chinese translation of The Eye of the World, the 1st book in the Wheel of Time. Now, thumbing through it, I know that it is WAY past my current comprehension level of reading Chinese. However, my wife being a native Chinese person has no problem.

The Eye of the World - Book 1 of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan

This is where it gets fun. My wife, while she has wonderful English, is understandably reluctant to read heavy or long materials in English. This is why we also own the entire Harry Potter series in Chinese as well. Well, last night we read Dragonmount together. She asked if the entire book is this detailed and slow... I laughed, and said, "That's what makes the world so real! The detail!" 

Thanks, Babe, for one of the best presents ever!

Wheel of Time - Me and my Obsession

Recently, book 13 of The Wheel of Time was released by Robert Jordan + Brandon Sanderson. This is a photo of me waiting in line for the event dressed up as one of the main characters Mat Cauthon.

Me as a fatter Mat Cauthon

I should have prefaced this post: I am a HCFF or "Hard Core Fan Freak" Wheel of Time (WoT) fan. I love this book series mightily. I have been reading and re-reading the series for the past 13 years (I think). In my awkward middle school days I even wrote poems and song re-wordings that were WoT themed for my favorite WoT fan site of the time Wotmania.com (which no longer exists). That photo of me was taken a full 36 hours before the book was released... that's right, I camped out too.

Now that I've relayed my inner nerdiness to the masses, I want to talk about my history with WoT and my opinions, joys, and also criticisms about the series. Then later, I plan on writing reviews of each of the books in order. Let it be known, for those of you that have read, are reading, or plan on reading the series in the future, I am always up to date on the latest WoT news, theories, etc. So sufficient to say, there will be SPOILERS.

Neither a beginning, nor an ending...

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, a young man sat in his office trying to understand the complexities of life, family, and relationships when he decided to write a blog. The blog was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But is was a beginning.