So, I finished book eight of the Wheel of Time (WOT) series by the late Robert Jordan (he died, so Brandon Sanderson of Mistborn fame is finishing up the last couple of novels in the cycle).

This all started because my field director left the second WOT book lying around. But just six more books to go (I think).

Let me just sum up briefly. You’ve got the chosen one who uses special magic only available to males (but it also, eventually, drives them insane). You’ve got women who can use magic (mostly members of an order called Aes Sedai) who don’t trust male magic because, you know, the insanity part. But many do understand that chosen one (his name is Rand) is the only one capable of defeating the evil force threatening the world. And he’s got a bunch of friends. The total cast of characters from who ‘viewpoint’ (I put it in quotes because the novels are written in third person omniscient) is Song of Fire and Ice sized, which can be unwieldly. Jordan generally handles it well, though sometimes it seems to slip out of his control.

In the past, I’ve talked about some of the weaknesses, like Jordan’s laughable inability to depict romance with any realism (it can get really bad in Path of Daggers; one character tells another how to better relate to his wife, saying you should do x because your wife is thinking y, and he follows that advice and the wife literally thinks to herself, ‘thank heavens my husband did x because of I was thinking y before’). Also, Rand, the ostensible main character, was okay in the first few books, when he was basically Frod-esque, country boy cipher, but now he’s simply insufferable and the sections featuring him are just a pain to read for that reason.

All that was a digression, actually. To begin anew, ‘In the past, I’ve talked about some of the weaknesses, but now I want to talk about some strengths.’

Jordan gets some of the politics and difficulties right. One of the most frustrating parts of the book is the way that challenges and obstacles keep mounting for the intrepid heroes. It can be overwhelming for the reader and sometime I want to scream, ‘for heaven’s sake, quit dumping c–p on the heroes and let them win the freaking war against evil, already.’ But…

But this is, like most fantasy novel worlds, a roughly medieval style society, except with magic. And while some characters can ‘Travel,’ or move long distances instantly via magic, most can’t. This means long, long delays in communications and movement, which causes grand schemes to constantly unravel because the people who think they’re in charge are unaware of a crisis occurring half a world away. Which is about right. It’s frustrating, as a reader and empathizer, but it’s ‘realistic.’