In the early ’90s, I had two requirements for my fiction purchases.
They (nearly always) had to be fantasy, and they (always always) had to be heavy.
I was a fast reader without a lot of money, and I never seemed to be near an open library when I needed something new to read. (Besides which, I’d long-since learned that my tendency to keep library books well past their due dates sometimes resulted in them costing more than they would have if I’d just bought them in the first place.) I bought used when I could, but for the most part, I gravitated toward fantasy epics available at the Waldenbooks in the Foothills Mall.
That was where I first met Robert Jordan.
This was not a case of love at first sight. How could it be, with Darryl Sweet’s notorious cover art? (Who could ever forget the “dwarf Moiraine on a pony” problem?) But as the series grew, and I began to run out of really large books to read, I softened, and finally one day I agreed to take just one volume home.
I was hooked. I tore through Eye of the World and quickly moved on to The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn. The books were still coming out once a year at this point, so in between I’d re-read the previous novels and lurk on the various websites that were already springing up to discuss them.
To tell you how much the series meant to me, my very first tattoo (since covered by my very second tattoo) was an Avendesora leaf.
But then the publication schedule started slowing down. It was two years between Lord of Chaos and A Crown of Swords, and very little happened in Crown of Swords. Another two years passed before The Path of Daggers, and by then there were seven books to be re-read before I started into the next one. When I heard from a friend that not much more happened in Path than had happened in Crown, I decided that I’d wait for the final book, then start over at the beginning.
I never expected it to take another 14 years.
When the news came out last year that Brandon Sanderson would finish the series in November 2011 (since pushed to March 2012), I got ready for the re-read. I started it in November, figuring I could read one book a month at that rate and be ready when A Memory of Light was released. I finished Crown of Swords last month and stepped back a bit. There are other things I’d like to read, and I don’t want to finish the series too soon, especially now that Memory will be slightly delayed.
It’s been interesting to revisit books I read so long ago, not only because I’ve forgotten so much, but also because I don’t read the same way I did then. As I intimated in my last post, I’ve learned to read like a writer – a skill I’ll keep developing for the rest of my life – and while I admire the way Jordan does some things, there are others I find almost painful. I’ve also discovered that some fantasy tropes that didn’t faze me 20 years ago bug the shit out of me now.
So, tomorrow’s post will be about characterization, and sometime later we’ll talk about blood.
Right now, I’m going to go read some more Lawrence Block, and think about the things I learned at Viable Paradise.
