Wheel of Time

[Zero Hunter]

It looks like they are finally starting to cast the Amazon adaptation of the epic Wheel of Time series. Variety is reporting that Rosamund Pike has been cast in one of the lead roles as Moiraine Damodred one of the powerful magic users of the Aes Sedai who helps kick of the whole story. I am so looking forward to this show and am really hoping that Amazon does it right. It is such an epic book series with amazing characters and such deep lore to draw from. If they do this right it will amazing.

[AndrewCrossett]

I tried to read the first book and couldn't get into it... but I was the same with Game of Thrones and loved the series. So I will be checking this out.

[TriggerWarning]

I tried to read the first book and couldn't get into it... but I was the same with Game of Thrones and loved the series. So I will be checking this out.

I would guess I've either read or listened to the first few books 7 or 8 times now. The only books in the series I haven't read / listened to at least three times are the last two and that just because they are the most recent so they've only been done twice (once read and once listened to). If you do audiobooks I'd highly recommend them as the two narrators are excellent (one for the males POV's and one for the female POV's).

That said if you really are struggling with the first book you probably don't have a chance. Even those of us who love the series acknowledge that around book 8 the series drags for a few books as Robert Jordan got more interested in world building than moving the plot. There is literally one book (10 I think) where 90% of it is just characters reacting and freaking out about a major event that happened at the end of the prior book. The series picks up again in book 11 and then book 12 and on are written by Brandon Sanderson who was full steam ahead and wrapping the series up.

[TriggerWarning]

It looks like they are finally starting to cast the Amazon adaptation of the epic Wheel of Time series. Variety is reporting that Rosamund Pike has been cast in one of the lead roles as Moiraine Damodred one of the powerful magic users of the Aes Sedai who helps kick of the whole story. I am so looking forward to this show and am really hoping that Amazon does it right. It is such an epic book series with amazing characters and such deep lore to draw from. If they do this right it will amazing.

I think Pike is a good choice.

I just wonder how different the series is going to be. Due to the massive length they'll have to cut a lot.

I also wonder if they'll really go the same route with Rand's relationships since that might not play as well on TV in front of a national audience without making him look like some sort of polygamist wackjob.

[PoorStudent]

I tried to read the first book and couldn't get into it... but I was the same with Game of Thrones and loved the series. So I will be checking this out.

Yeah, I tried with the first book but also couldn't get into it. The fantasy (magic, names of characters, mythology) felt so over the top and typical to the genre that I just lost patience with it. Not saying it's bad, just I need more traditional type of writing. I did like GOT though, and had no problem reading that.

I'm skeptical about amazon and their handling of fantasy. The only series they've done that has is this big of a concept and world building is the man in the high tower, which was good, but did drag on and was never great. Although they didn't botch the ending like GOT did, so I give them credit for that.

Also there are like twenty books right? So that is like ten years of shows. I think after GOT I'm going to just try smaller commitments.

[Basara]

There is literally one book (10 I think) where 90% of it is just characters reacting and freaking out about a major event that happened at the end of the prior book. The series picks up again in book 11 and then book 12 and on are written by Brandon Sanderson who was full steam ahead and wrapping the series up.

Yep, book 10, "Crossroads of Twilight", is exactly 90% composed of characters you have no investment in reacting to the events of book 9. It can be skipped entirely and you wouldn't miss much. If book 9 hadn't been as fantastic as it was, I would have rage quit the series. I still almost did.

Thankfully, book 11 was really good and then Sanderson did an absolute amazing job finishing the series with the final three books. The Last Battle in the final book is bonkers. It's one chapter that takes up 21% of the book and is freaking epic. Take the final battles of Avengers Endgame and Return of the King and then multiply the number of players by one million and that's basically the Last Battle in the final book. I doubt I will ever read anything even close to that in my lifetime.

The first four books of this series are among my favorite books of all time and I am apprehensive about seeing this on TV. I hope they do a good job, but it's so easy to mess up on-screen adaptations of well written books.

[TriggerWarning]

Yeah, I tried with the first book but also couldn't get into it. The fantasy (magic, names of characters, mythology) felt so over the top and typical to the genre that I just lost patience with it. Not saying it's bad, just I need more traditional type of writing. I did like GOT though, and had no problem reading that.

I guessing you didn't get far enough to really see how the magic works or you wouldn't have called it typical. All male magic users in the world go insane including Rand Al Thor who is the main character. His descent into madness is the focal point for much of the series as some try to control him and others try to kill him because they fear he will break the world just like the last Dragon did when he went mad.

[Jackalope89]

Read the whole series at least 3 times (not counting the times before the final books came out). And have been following this for some time. There was even a "promo" for the prologue that aired on FX at like 4am a few years back because the people that held the rights at the time were about to lose them otherwise.

[GozertheGozarian]

It only needs one line to sell me. "Kneel Aes Sedai, or you will be knelt."

[J. D. Guy]

It looks like they are finally starting to cast the Amazon adaptation of the epic Wheel of Time series. Variety is reporting that Rosamund Pike has been cast in one of the lead roles as Moiraine Damodred one of the powerful magic users of the Aes Sedai who helps kick of the whole story. I am so looking forward to this show and am really hoping that Amazon does it right. It is such an epic book series with amazing characters and such deep lore to draw from. If they do this right it will amazing.

As someone who's read the whole series and who even waited with bated breath for the latter handful of books (after binging reading the first 8-9 in a couple months or so), I only hsve 2 real worries regarding this adaptation. Both stem from A Song of Ice and Fire getting adapted first and said adaptation becoming very popular.

The first is that The Wheel of Time is, at its core soul, an optimistic series. That's a big difference between it and A Song of Ice and Fire. I worry that Game of Thrones' popularity may sway the adaptation into following aSoIaF's "Anyone Can Die" aesthetic choice in storytelling, along with's its other unyieldingly cynical proclivities. Not to say that The Wheel of Time series can't and doesn't get dark, or that characters can't and won't end up dead, sometime's gruesomely so, but the core motif of positivity remains throughout, even in its darkest moments for its characters and settings. Also, in The Wheel of Time, karma often ruled, occasionally with a vengeance, and not always in death or even functional removal from the story for those it hit. And redemption and learning from ones' mistakes are things in the series, and they tend to be rewarded and not treated cynically.

The second is that one of aSoIaF/GoT's claims to fame is its Deadly Decadent Court political intrigue aspects. The Wheel of Time is, among many other things, known for its playing the "Game of Houses". That becomes an integral part of the series as it grows and expands its world and shows its characters naturally dealing with their own expanding worlds and perspectives. But it doesn't start out that way. Not unless you begin with New Spring, at least. In fact, we only get a taste of the breadth of this when the young female leads enter the world of the White Tower, and we learn how it has its own Game of Houses in play. Before that, we begin with humble beginnings, at the start of a true hero(es)'s adventure story. My worry comes in that they will want to rush that side of the story to appeal to the GoT's crowd who ate that up as part of their soap opera. That is, I'm afraid the adaptation won't allow room for the same gradual growth and expansion present in the first 3 books that set the stage for the epicness ahead and that provide pivotal points of contrast for the characters starting out and how they change constantly over the course of the series. There is a majesty in this slow burn and worldbuilding that shouldn't be tampered with; I'm worried they might do that because of incentives to match GoT.

My worries comes into play because I know we're only getting this adaptation because of Game of Throne's success; The Wheel of Time, while similar in scope and scale of detail and immersion, is fundamentally different from the sensational juggernaut that GoTs ended up becoming. Those fundamentals are what I love about The Wheel of Time and what I would want to see transcribed into an adaptation. So whole A Song of Ice and Fire's Game of Thrones adaptation may be what paved the way for this project getting greenlit, I hope its own fundamental cynicism won't seep into the adaptation of The Wheel of Time.

I would guess I've either read or listened to the first few books 7 or 8 times now. The only books in the series I haven't read / listened to at least three times are the last two and that just because they are the most recent so they've only been done twice (once read and once listened to). If you do audiobooks I'd highly recommend them as the two narrators are excellent (one for the males POV's and one for the female POV's).

That said if you really are struggling with the first book you probably don't have a chance. Even those of us who love the series acknowledge that around book 8 the series drags for a few books as Robert Jordan got more interested in world building than moving the plot. There is literally one book (10 I think) where 90% of it is just characters reacting and freaking out about a major event that happened at the end of the prior book. The series picks up again in book 11 and then book 12 and on are written by Brandon Sanderson who was full steam ahead and wrapping the series up.

Yep, book 10, "Crossroads of Twilight", is exactly 90% composed of characters you have no investment in reacting to the events of book 9. It can be skipped entirely and you wouldn't miss much. If book 9 hadn't been as fantastic as it was, I would have rage quit the series. I still almost did.

Thankfully, book 11 was really good and then Sanderson did an absolute amazing job finishing the series with the final three books. The Last Battle in the final book is bonkers. It's one chapter that takes up 21% of the book and is freaking epic. Take the final battles of Avengers Endgame and Return of the King and then multiply the number of players by one million and that's basically the Last Battle in the final book. I doubt I will ever read anything even close to that in my lifetime.

The first four books of this series are among my favorite books of all time and I am apprehensive about seeing this on TV. I hope they do a good job, but it's so easy to mess up on-screen adaptations of well written books.

As someone who found the series by accident and fell in love with it after binge-reading up to 10-11 (it's been so long, I'm not sure how far along it was when I started, to be honest), I can say that I never had that problem with book 10 that TV Tropes said some readers had a problem with. I loved it, same as all the others before and after. I especially don't agree with the notion that it followed "characters you have no investment [in]", as that contradicts one of the biggest themes of the book series where its everyone's story. The writer made me love the characters to that point, and it was no different in book 10 and no less worth following them and learning their reactions. I love the inclusiveness of the series and had loads of fun in that book!

[TriggerWarning]

As someone who found the series by accident and fell in love with it after binge-reading up to 10-11 (it's been so long, I'm not sure how far along it was when I started, to be honest), I can say that I never had that problem with book 10 that TV Tropes said some readers had a problem with. I loved it, same as all the others before and after. I especially don't agree with the notion that it followed "characters you have no investment [in]", as that contradicts one of the biggest themes of the book series where its everyone's story. The writer made me love the characters to that point, and it was no different in book 10 and no less worth following them and learning their reactions. I love the inclusiveness of the series and had loads of fun in that book!

Your view is probably different because you didn't have to wait years between books as those of us who were reading them coming out did. Jordan wrote much more regularly than George Martin has ever dreamed of, early in the series he was doing a book a year, but later it was 2 -3 years between books by the end so when you've already waited several years between book 9 and 10 and then have book 10 be 90% about secondary characters reacting in panic to the big event at the end of book 9 it was frustrating. Especially since it then was 2.5 years before book 11. And then Jordan got ill and died so it became even more frustrating because we weren't sure if the series would ever be finished.

[TriggerWarning]

I read an interview with Brandon Sanderson last week talking about the show. He is being consulted which is great because besides being a co-author on the series he was a fan first and foremost which is in part what landed him the job to finish. So he wants it done right as much as the rest of the fans.

He said there are some changes in what he's seen but he approves of them as necessary. He likened it to how the LoTR trilogy was adapted to the screen. It kept the important parts while making it more adaptable to the screen for flow purposes. Whereas the first Harry Potter movie at times seemed like a page for page adaptation and the flow didn't work well.

I also imagine there will have to be condensing and cutting of some of the plot. Even if its successful its not going to be around for 15 seasons to do 1 season per book. Thus they'll have to streamline it and cut things to make it move faster. I remember about 10 years or so ago there was a comic book adaptation of the WoT and several issues in they still hadn't even left the Two Rivers. At that pace the series was going to need hundreds of issues to do the whole book series. I don't know how many issues it finally did get but I don't recall seeing it for very long.

[Zero Hunter]

I think anyone you talk to will say that there is a lot that could have been condensed in those middle books, especially in books 8-11.

[Sacred Knight]

Hmm, not really how I've pictured Moiraine but these things are up for interpretation so I won't knock it till I see it. The timing is so right on for an adaptation of this series. I believe Amazon has an absolute goldmine on their hands if they market this right. Its Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings all mixed together. Not to mention the large and incredibly important cast of female characters.

[TriggerWarning]

One thing I'm betting that will have to be condensed or changed is a plotline with Moraine. If you've read the books you can easily guess but for those who haven't this might be spoilerish: spoilers:

It might be hard to work out a schedule with Pike knowing she's going to die early in the series but then have to have her back several years later for the final battle. So I could see this as something where they seemingly kill her off as a cliffhanger one season only to have her brought back as the cliffhanger the following season. Easier for her to set her schedule when she knows an exact time she'll brought back

end of spoilers