The Wheel of Time Totally Explained

Everything about The Wheel Of Time totally explained

The Wheel of Time (abbreviated by fans to WoT) is a bestselling fantasy book series written by Robert Jordan. It establishes its own detailed imaginary world known collectively as "Randland", and a complex . Eleven books have been published in the series, not counting the prequel to the series. A twelfth book, expected to be the final book of the series, is currently being prepared. Books 8-11 have each reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. As of 18 September 2007 the series has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. The series has spawned several games and a soundtrack.

Premise

In the beginning, the Creator made the Wheel of Time, which spins the Pattern of the Ages using the lives of men and women as its threads. The Wheel has seven spokes, each representing an age, and it's rotated by the One Power, which flows from the True Source. The One Power is divided into male and female halves, saidin and saidar, which work in opposition and in unison to drive the Wheel. Those who can use this power are known as channelers; one organization of such channelers is the Aes Sedai.
   The Creator imprisoned Shai'tan, known as the Dark One, a powerful, evil being, at the moment of creation, sealing him away from the Wheel. However, in a time called the Age of Legends, the Dark One was given purchase in the world through the machinations of people who opened his prison, and began his efforts to conquer the world, creation, and even the Wheel itself. In response to this, the Wheel spun out the Dragon, a channeler of immense power, to be a champion for the Light. Due to the cyclical nature of the Wheel, there has been no definitive victory for the forces of the Light; the war has been fought innumerable times since the dawn of Creation. The Dragon would defeat Shai'tan and seal him from the Wheel, only to have him come close to breaking out (or being released) several millennia later, forcing the Dragon to be reborn and repeat the entire process.
   Jordan's novels concern themselves with one particular incarnation of the Dragon. About 3000 years have passed since the last war between Shadow and Light. This war ended when the Dragon, then born as Lews Therin Telamon, led a daring raid to Shayol Ghul and sealed the breach in the Dark One's prison with the help of a group of other male channelers known as the Hundred Companions (female channelers, due to recent gender politics and the extreme risk of the strike, refused to assist). Though Lews Therin succeeded, the Dark One managed to spread a taint on saidin itself, bringing madness and a wasting sickness to any who channeled it. The taint quickly overcame nearly every male channeler in the world, including Lews Therin and his companions, with catastrophic results that radically changed the face of the earth. From then onwards, Lews Therin was also called the "Kinslayer", as one of the last results of his madness was to destroy everyone who carried his blood as well as everyone he loved.
   For these reasons, the return of the Dragon is a cause for both hope and fear amongst the populace. On the one hand, the Dragon Reborn is the only person capable of defeating Shai'tan, who will inevitably begin to escape his prison. On the other, the Dragon Reborn will still be prey to the madness caused by the taint of evil in saidin, and is a harbinger of the horrifying fact that Shai'tan is once more breaking free. The only man who can save the world is also the man most likely to destroy it. He must not only work to unite the civilized world against the Dark One, but struggle to stay alive—for, while prophecy indicates he'll be reborn, it says nothing as to whether he'll succeed...

Eternity or infinity motif

Jordan's Wheel of Time concept and art, while fictional, recalls common circular motifs from world religions and folklore. Buddhism has the Wheel of Rebirth, Hinduism the Wheel of Law. Taoism and other major and minor religions make use of the wheel symbol, in the round or twisted, to symbolize eternity. The snake or dragon swallowing its tail is found in folklore as a hoop snake and in fiction and elsewhere as an oroborus. The symbol for the One Power is similar to the taijitu, a Taoist icon representing the harmony of opposites.

Books in the series

#	Title	Pgs.	Chs.	Words	1st Edition	Notes
0.	New Spring	332	26	121,815	January 2004
1.	The Eye of the World	832	53	305,902	15 January 1990
2.	The Great Hunt	736	50	267,078	15 November 1990
3.	The Dragon Reborn	704	56	251,392	15 October 1991
4.	The Shadow Rising	1008	58	393,823	15 September 1992	No Prologue
5.	The Fires of Heaven	992	56	354,109	15 October 1993
6.	Lord of Chaos	1024	55	389,264	15 October 1994	First with an Epilogue
7.	A Crown of Swords	896	41	295,028	15 May 1996
8.	The Path of Daggers	704	31	226,687	20 October 1998
9.	Winter's Heart	800	35	238,789	7 November 2000
10.	Crossroads of Twilight	864	30	271,632	7 January 2003	Also has an Epilogue
11.	Knife of Dreams	793	37	315,163	11 October 2005	Also has an Epilogue
12.	A Memory of Light	(working title)			due Fall 2009	To be completed by Brandon Sanderson

All page totals given are for the most widely available paperback editions.
   There is also a prequel novella, New Spring in the Legends anthology edited by Robert Silverberg. Jordan expanded this into the standalone novel New Spring that was published in January 2004.
   In 2002 the first book, The Eye of the World, was repackaged as two volumes with new illustrations for younger readers: From the Two Rivers, including an extra chapter (Ravens) before the existing prologue, and To the Blight with an expanded glossary. In 2004 the same was done with The Great Hunt, with the two parts being The Hunt Begins and New Threads in the Pattern.
   There is a short story available on the web, "The Strike at Shayol Ghul

", which predates the main series by several thousand years. That story is also found in The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time (ISBN 0-312-86219-9), an official guide to The Wheel of Time published in November 1997. Prologue ebooks

Snow: The Prologue to Winter's Heart (September 2000)
Glimmers: The Prologue to Crossroads of Twilight (July 17, 2002)
Embers Falling on Dry Grass: The Prologue to Knife of Dreams (July 22, 2005).

Offshoots

The online game Wheel of Time Multi-User Dungeon (WoTMUD for short) is the oldest authorized game based on the series (started 1993), and various commercial game adaptations have also been spawned, including a video game released by Atari for the personal computer, and a role-playing game based on d20 rules released by Wizards of the Coast. There is also a soundtrack album. There was a collectible card game based on the books, but it has been out of print since 2002.

Miniseries

In a 2000 chat on CNN.com, Robert Jordan mentioned that NBC had purchased an option to do a miniseries of "The Eye of the World."

Author's death

Jordan had repeatedly said that the main sequence would conclude with the twelfth book, with a working title of A Memory of Light. Numerous times, including most recently on ComicCon 2006, he said he'd hold to this statement even if it has to be 1500 pages long. Before his death Jordan had planned to write two more short prequel novels, an encyclopedia, and possibly two or three other side-plot novels.
With Jordan's death on September 16, 2007, the conclusion of the series was in question. On December 7 the publisher, Tor Books, announced that fantasy author Brandon Sanderson would finish A Memory of Light.
Brandon said on his website he's begun writing the final book in the series. He also stated that he wants to finish the series in the final book as planned.

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