Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc
WOT?
What wot?
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Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Fantasy, though you can make a decent case for SF.
The premise is that ages ago, the Creator made the Wheel of Time, and set it spinning. In the process, it weaves a Pattern, containing all the events and people. The Creator also bound Shaitan, the Great Lord of the Dark, away in a cosmic prison. The turning of the Wheel generates a mystical energy called the One Power, that can be "channeled" by a small fraction of the population to do all sorts of things.
Each turn of the Wheel is an Age, and during each Age, the Great Lord attempts to break free of his prison and remake creation to his liking. He is opposed by the Dragon Reborn, the Creator's designated champion, who must somehow stuff him back into his cosmic cage.
In the WoT series, Rand Al Thor, son of a peasant in the village of the Two Rivers in the Kingdom of Andor, discovers that he might be this Age's Dragon Reborn, and that the ancient prophecies about the Great Lord trying to break free again will happen in his lifetime. He must flee his home with several close friends, in the company of an Aes Sedai. The Aes Sedai are the ones in Rand's age who can manipulate the One Power. They are all women.
In the previous Age, the Age of Wonders, men and women could channel. At the climax of the Age, Aes Sedia under the command of Lews Therin Telemon, that Age's Dragon Reborn, were able to block the Dark One and seal the hole in the Pattern that would let him escape, but his counter stroke tainted the part of the One Power usable by men, and drove all male Aes Sedia insane. In the course of their insanity, they caused tectonic disturbances that destroyed large portions of the world. An order of the Aes Sedai called the Red Ajah exists specifically to find and "still" males who can channel before they become insane and cause more destruction.
So Rand must come to terms with his destiny, avoid the Red Ajah as it becomes apparent he can channel, somehow unite the world he lives in to face the Dark Lord, and deal with the ghost of Lews Theron Telemon, who seems to live in his head and is quite mad.
Fun, but drawn out. It's probably easier for folks coming to the series now who don't have to wait a year or more for one installments. (The second part of the last volume will be published in November.)
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Dennis