Sorry for the double-reply, but I noticed something worth covering.
the ending of Book 1 established that I might not make it through the series because it seemed like a rushed blunder
The ending of book 1 is absolutely the worst scene in the entire series. Try not to judge it too hard from it. Jordan was convinced he would not get renewed to complete his series, and planned for that eventuality. The Eye climax was written to be epic enough and give enough closure that he could sleep at night if he didn’t get a book 2. He did similar for Book 3, but with years more forethought and so it’s written better.
Yeah. Long-running fantasy series were rare in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Fantasy was still largely bargain-bin tier alongside Harlequin Romance. A few people tried, but Wheel of Time is arguably only the second Epic Fantasy to ever get mainstream respect. Even Epic Sci-Fi was risky. Before Wheel of Time opened the door, the only other Epic than LotR that got any respect at all was Shannara… and it would never have gotten a $100M television budget (aSoIaF opened the door for that, but it’s not technically Epic Fantasy, either). I mean, Riftwar Saga got a video game (Betrayal at Krondor), but people remember the game more than the books.
So suffice to say, publishers were very weak on promises, and generally only signed books with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Renewals were incredibly rare and far between. Ironically, we had a couple great masterpieces back then, but they didn’t get marketed or remembered like they can now.
Sorry for the double-reply, but I noticed something worth covering.
The ending of book 1 is absolutely the worst scene in the entire series. Try not to judge it too hard from it. Jordan was convinced he would not get renewed to complete his series, and planned for that eventuality. The Eye climax was written to be epic enough and give enough closure that he could sleep at night if he didn’t get a book 2. He did similar for Book 3, but with years more forethought and so it’s written better.
Oh I figured … I try not to judge it too harshly … it’s mostly that it was pretty jarring for a celebrated series.
Interesting to hear about book 3 … was it not clear he would be able to continue the series afterwards?
Yeah. Long-running fantasy series were rare in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Fantasy was still largely bargain-bin tier alongside Harlequin Romance. A few people tried, but Wheel of Time is arguably only the second Epic Fantasy to ever get mainstream respect. Even Epic Sci-Fi was risky. Before Wheel of Time opened the door, the only other Epic than LotR that got any respect at all was Shannara… and it would never have gotten a $100M television budget (aSoIaF opened the door for that, but it’s not technically Epic Fantasy, either). I mean, Riftwar Saga got a video game (Betrayal at Krondor), but people remember the game more than the books.
So suffice to say, publishers were very weak on promises, and generally only signed books with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Renewals were incredibly rare and far between. Ironically, we had a couple great masterpieces back then, but they didn’t get marketed or remembered like they can now.