With Gratitude

That was a great adventure.

Dear Mr. Jordan (and Mr. Sanderson) –

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I will disdain any criticisms at this time.  I’m certain there is more than plenty of that going around and around and around the interwebs even now.  Like a record, baby.

I just want to offer my salute to a story well told and a job well done.

I read The Eye of the World in 1990 when a friend’s copy caught my attention.  I was very interested in fantasy novels (the thicker the better), and this appeared to be the thickest with Darrell Sweet’s excellent cover and interior art.  At the time, I had no idea who Darrell Sweet was, but his artwork did exactly what it should do, and pulled me right into the book.  Those two things alone brought me onto a journey that, rise and fall (and rise again) lasted until this year with the publication of A Memory of Light.

Fourteen books (plus companion pieces and such) over 23 years and here we are.  The Wheel of Time series rivals Tolkien in its scale and scope, and puts most other fantasy genre authors to shame by sheer magnitude alone.  I could go on and on about the stats, the capacity, the twists and turns, but that’s not the point.

I’m just grateful to have read the full story.  To have seen the Dragon Reborn, and the Dark One defeated (that’s hardly a spoiler).  Surely, those things were never in question (the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills), but it’s the journey that matters, even if it’s a journey through a Waygate or Tel'aran'rhiod.

It’s the getting there that’s half the fun.

So thank you Mr. Jordan, for opening the gate and front door of your world and letting us all in to see what you had done to decorate the place.  Thank you for introducing us to your friends, your family, the good the bad and the misunderstood.  Thank you for letting us pick through all the rooms, pinch the draperies, and comment on the wallpaper.  You knew we would stomp through the house, dragging mud, and sneering at your choice of color for the carpet, and yet you smiled, set an extra place at the table, and let the conversation go exactly the way you knew it would.

Sincerely,

RobRoy McCandless