Fantasy Book Club discussion

Hey,

I will probably be starting to read the "Wheel of Time" Series soon, and from checking the Series info here on goodreads, it looks like there are a few prequels and books that play between the main titles ("in-betweenquels"?).

Is there a general consensus on how one should read the series? With the Malazan Series, I read the main books first and then discovered the "Tales of the Malazan book of the Fallen" Series, which plays in between the books, and I think the main series would have been easier to understand if one had read those in the correct spots, but I don't know if it is the same for Wheel of time.

A possible reasons that might warrant NOT reading it in chronological order would be if the author were not to properly introduce characters or rules of the world, as he thinks the reader is familiar with them. This has been the case for the Tales of the Malazan book of the fallen, but that doesn't count since it was a) no prequel and b) the main series does the same (Seriously, the first book is hard to follow).

If anyone has read the series, I would be interested to hear your opinion on this.

Thanks ;-).
Max

We're reading this in the sister group, you could follow the order used there.

If I were you, I would just start at The Eye Of The World, book 1 of the series proper. It does an excellent job of describing the world and the magic system and introducing you to the main characters. Granted, I haven't read the novel New Spring(I read the short story version that the novel was adapted from), but if it's anything like the short story, it deals with two supporting characters and their back story, which may be more interesting to you if read about them in the regular books first. Similarly, the short story The Strike At Shayol Ghul will have much more meaning once you're properly introduced to the world via the main books. Hope you enjoy them!

Helen wrote: "We're reading this in the sister group, you could follow the order used there."

Good advice, Helen. I'm moving this to series discussions.

Awesome, thanks for the info. Once I am done with my current audiobook, I'll start on the Wheel of Time Audiobooks. That should keep me occupied for a while.

Edit: There is a "Series discussion" Folder? Must've missed that one when I created the thread...