Hopefully this Dragon won’t come to a tearful end.

Isn’t that a coincidence. While I was still getting acquainted with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12, I got a notice that Comixology – the electronic comic store – was having a sale on the Wheel of Time comic books (based on the fantasy classic by Robert Jordan). And of course the first of these comics, based on the prologue from the Eye of the World, features the Dragon, Lews Therin Telamon. (The main character of the Wheel of Time books is known as “the Dragon reborn”, and I have used this phrase repeatedly as a pun to describe new versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking… except this one. Well, up until now.)

I bought a number of the comics on sale. It seems like the kind of initiative that I would support, as long as it is cheap enough and I don’t have to actually carry the comics around with me every time I move. It made me remember the old days when I used to read the Wheel of Time books. This was back when I read a lot of fiction, especially fantasy but also some science fiction. To be honest, I seem to remember that I bought the first book because of its size: Lots of pages for the money. But I ended up very impressed by it. I still consider it one of the best fantasy books I have ever read, fully comparable to Tolkien. So I enjoyed now seeing it popularized for new readers.

This was the time when the Internet was coming to my native Norway. Common people still did not have Web access, but it was possible to get an email address. I got mine through a BBS called Manhattan. It was not actually located on Manhattan, but here in Norway. The BBS was run by a young man who I still occasionally meet online. Anyway, I got my email address and a subscription to a handful of USENET groups. One of these groups was dedicated to the books written by Robert Jordan. The regulars of that group where younger than me, smart and funny. I had reached the age where most of my classmates were thinking about money and diapers, so I felt more at home with these strangers who read the same books as I did. As it happens, many of us still keep in touch online on a regular basis, for some of us almost daily. Some of them also keep in touch offline, to the point of in some cases being married to each other now. I guess we were a tightly knit bunch…

So I might be a bit sentimental about the Wheel of Time series. But as I see it, the first book was quite a bit better than the rest, and it went gradually downhill from there. When I stopped reading (around book 9 I think) it seems painfully obvious to me that Jordan was stretching the series to “milk” his fans. He seemed more worried that he might outlive the series than the other way around. This also came to pass. Jordan died and Brandon Sanderson took 3 books to finish it. I think it was 3 books, I haven’t seen any of them. He is not one of my favorite authors, although I can see why he was asked to finish the series. I have read 3 of his books. Sanderson has great technique, but I find him sadly lacking in the sense of wonder that is the hallmark of great fantasy writing. Finishing someone else’s work seems a perfect job for him. Perhaps I will read the books one day, at least if human lifespan is greatly extended. As it is, I barely even make progress on the esoteric literature. Of course, reading Wheel of Time comics doesn’t exactly help…