Happy Wheel of Time day! If you’re like me, then you’ve probably been obsessing about this show a few years ago when they actually made the announcement that it was going to be a show. But the happy day is here and I know we’re all going to rush and see what this is all about.
I’ve been reading lately that the show is “the next Game of Thrones,” which is my least favorite way to describe any high fantasy. In fact, it doesn’t make sense for Wheel of Time because the books written by Robert Jordan predate Game of Thrones. If anything, Game of Thrones is the next Wheel of Time.
The Wheel of Time show combines the first three books within the series, but I would highly recommend checking out the first one, The Eye of the World. It’s an incredible novel and if the show wasn’t based on these books, I would have added it. But if you’d rather read something else, here’s some other great books to read after finishing Wheel of Time!
The Lord of the Rings by J RR Tolkien
This one isn’t surprising especially since The Eye of the World is an homage to Tolkien’s work to create this genre of book. Filled with reluctant heroes, adventures across massive landscapes, the deep story of a world beyond what you read on the page. It’s no wonder Robert Jordan felt the need to page homage.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins.
From Sauron’s fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, his power spread far and wide. Sauron gathered all the Great Rings to him, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion.
When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom.
The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider.
Find it on Amazon | Find it on Bookshop.org
Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
If you loved Egwene and Nynaeve and the magical powers held by the women in this world, then I highly recommend Samantha Shannon’s epic Priory of the Orange Tree. Filled with females with magical powers, dragons, and a fantasy adventure you won’t forget, it will definitely keep that WOT high after you’ve finished the series.
A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction – but assassins are getting closer to her door.
Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
Across the dark sea, Tané has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.
Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.
Find it on Amazon | Find it on Bookshop.org
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Robert Jordan sadly wasn’t able to finish his epic series before passing. However, Brandon Sanderson was appointed to finish it for him after he died. The final two books in the Wheel of Time series were written by him, but Brandon Sanderson is also a great author on his own. His series, The Stormlight Archive, is only on its fourth book, but I truly recommend The Way of Kings to keep your Wheel of Time feels going.
Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.
It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.
One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.
Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.
Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar’s niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan’s motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.
The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.
Find it on Amazon | Find it on Bookshop.org
Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
I think of Wheel of Time as a very character development story. You follow along with these five friends and see how they go from naive young people and turn into the heroes of their time. Of course, there’s some reluctance to that position from each of them and I thought Assassin’s Apprentice was a great story to compliment that theme.
In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma.
Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals – the old art known as the Wit – gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.
So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.
Find it on Amazon | Find it on Bookshop.org
The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
Of course, if you’re the chosen one, it comes with a lot of responsibilities. The chosen one trope is huge in the Wheel of Time and it’s also big in The Rage of Dragons. I highly recommend this one, especially since Evan Winter was inspired to write his book from reading Robert Jordan as a kid.
The Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable fight for almost two hundred years. Their society has been built around war and only war. The lucky ones are born gifted. One in every two thousand women has the power to call down dragons. One in every hundred men is able to magically transform himself into a bigger, stronger, faster killing machine.
Everyone else is fodder, destined to fight and die in the endless war. Young, gift-less Tau knows all this, but he has a plan of escape. He’s going to get himself injured, get out early, and settle down to marriage, children, and land. Only, he doesn’t get the chance. Those closest to him are brutally murdered, and his grief swiftly turns to anger. Fixated on revenge, Tau dedicates himself to an unthinkable path. He’ll become the greatest swordsman to ever live, a man willing to die a hundred thousand times for the chance to kill the three who betrayed him.
Simone and Her Books 
I’ve always wanted to read the Wheel of Time series, but it’s so thick, it seems like something I’ve got to block out a few months for 😰
But these are great recs! I love what I’ve read of the Realm of the Elderlings, and I own 3 of 4 of the other books but haven’t found the time yet.
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Oh yes! That’s why I’m taking things slowly, but hope to read a substantial amount of the series next year!
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