The best way I could describe Randland (an informal term for The Wheel of Time setting) would be a less dystopian Middle Earth.
It’s a larger and happier - and even more pure in a non-earthly-religions sense. In a good way. But there’s still world ending conflict, it’s just - incoming controversial opinion - better than Middle Earth.
It’s a massive world and worth every word read. It’s a lifelong re-read for me, and I don’t even re-read LoTR.
There is a similarity to Midworld and its relation to Earth in the series, but it would be spoiler-y for me to elaborate.
It’s very much The Hero’s Tale. Village - Adventure - Save the Cat. But it’s how it should be.
Edit: the show is not a place to start. Not slagging it, but it’s incomparable to the books. Best experience is the OG audiobooks narrated by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading, not Amazons re-recorded rights grab.
Stephen King dark tower?
No. Not western, no guns, no science, not really horror.
WoT is the whole “forgotten/suppressed magic, ‘the one’, forces of long imprisoned evil” kinda fantasy, along with a rise to power, world politics, massive battles, adventure, and - I guess - romance.
Has a lot of the tropes, but carves a great story and adventure.
I genuinely recommend it. I’ve read it 3 times, and I enjoy the TV series.
It’s a 15 book epic fantasy, with the last 3 books written by Brandon Sanderson according to (deceased, 2007) Robert Jordans notes.
It’s good.
It has it’s faults, Robert Jordans writing has it’s faults.
But it is good, a great story, a great adventure, a great over-arching story. And 15 books long, makes it great read to sink into and enjoy.
Is the Wheel of Time related to the Dark Tower books?
The best way I could describe Randland (an informal term for The Wheel of Time setting) would be a less dystopian Middle Earth.
It’s a larger and happier - and even more pure in a non-earthly-religions sense. In a good way. But there’s still world ending conflict, it’s just - incoming controversial opinion - better than Middle Earth.
It’s a massive world and worth every word read. It’s a lifelong re-read for me, and I don’t even re-read LoTR.
There is a similarity to Midworld and its relation to Earth in the series, but it would be spoiler-y for me to elaborate.
It’s very much The Hero’s Tale. Village - Adventure - Save the Cat. But it’s how it should be.
Edit: the show is not a place to start. Not slagging it, but it’s incomparable to the books. Best experience is the OG audiobooks narrated by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading, not Amazons re-recorded rights grab.
It’s not better than Middle Earth. But it is very cool. I need to reread, I’ve only read it once and that was over a decade ago.
The Amazon show was so disappointing but kinda inspired me to read the books again. It’s just such a daunting task to get started 😅
Stephen King dark tower?
No. Not western, no guns, no science, not really horror.
WoT is the whole “forgotten/suppressed magic, ‘the one’, forces of long imprisoned evil” kinda fantasy, along with a rise to power, world politics, massive battles, adventure, and - I guess - romance.
Has a lot of the tropes, but carves a great story and adventure.
I genuinely recommend it. I’ve read it 3 times, and I enjoy the TV series.
It’s a 15 book epic fantasy, with the last 3 books written by Brandon Sanderson according to (deceased, 2007) Robert Jordans notes.
It’s good.
It has it’s faults, Robert Jordans writing has it’s faults.
But it is good, a great story, a great adventure, a great over-arching story. And 15 books long, makes it great read to sink into and enjoy.