Origins Of The Wheel Of Time: The Legends And Mythologies That Inspired Robert Jordan, by Michael Livingston

I’m not sure what I expected in reading this book, but what I found was not really what I would have liked. This is not to say that there is nothing enjoyable about this book. I am, in general, fond of fantasy literature and though I am not by any means a hardcore fan of the Wheel of Time series, I remember being at least mildly interested in it at one time, and have at least a casual interest in seeing how the world created by Robert Jordan is portrayed here. In this case, I was both informed, but not as much as I would have liked in the areas I preferred and perhaps a bit too much in the areas I would not rather have been. It would seem that the keepers of the Robert Jordan estate, or at least those who have been given permission to write about it, have sought to present themselves as fans of the “current thing” in writing, and that as portrayed in this book, the process of writing fantasy led to a genuine moral decay on the part of Jordan himself that reflected the general decay of American culture. It is little wonder, then, that the adaptation of the Wheel of Time series has been so upsetting to so many fans of the series, given that the interest of many people embedded within the world of publishing and media to further moral corruption and the interests of people to fight against it are so completely at odds.

This particular book is a slim one at just over 200 pages, and its organization is simple enough. The book begins with a brief foreword from Harriet McDougal, who was a notable editor in her own right even before marrying the late Robert Jordan. This is followed by a letter from the author to the readers that seeks to introduce his own place in academia (a negative) as well his love of fantasy. After this comes a brief introduction to the book. The first chapter of the book then follows, which contains a brief but very interesting biography of Robert Jordan, who himself was a Vietnam War veteran, and a graduate and professor at the Citadel, a noted South Carolina private military college. The second chapter of the book discusses the relationship between Tolkien and Jordan, where the author unsuccessfully attempts to paint them as equals within the fantasy sphere. The third chapter of the book then discusses Jordan’s work practices, which are remarkable and enjoyable to read about. The fourth and final chapter of the book, which takes up almost half of the book’s entire length, discusses some aspects of the real world (or at least myths from the real world) that appear in the Wheel of Time series, organized in alphabetical order. The book then ends with acknowledgements, endnotes, and an index.

In terms of its contents, this book is a bit of a tease. The author of the book promises that he is spoiling “everything” in the series by revealing the last battle in the midst of a circular kind of world where the past is not only past but also present and future, but the result of the book is a bit disappointing. The parallels that the author makes between Jordan’s legendarium for Randland and the real world is limited, and it likely that longtime fans have made many more connections than the author has. Similarly, while there are some revelations from the Robert Jordan papers that are private and that will remain sealed, at least in part, for some time, the reveals are not quite as much as one would expect. The book is, properly speaking, not a companion for the series because that book has already been written (though it could probably stand to be updated, but without such an ambition, this book does not end up being anything special in its own right. It has as foreword by Robert Jordan’s widow, who is a notable editor in her own right, and it reveals something of the nature of their symbiotic relationship, as well as Jordan’s work practices, but again, there is a lot more that could have been recorded that would have made the book better. Still, the author’s discussion of how the Vietnam war influenced Jordan greatly and the revelation of how basic most of his references to the history and mythology of our present world, at least those examples included here, considerably dims the level of lasting achievement that Jordan achieved. Robert Jordan was certainly a fine fantasy author, but he was no Tolkien, not even an American one.