Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan was the pen name of James Oliver Rigney Jr., born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1948. He served two tours in Vietnam as a helicopter gunner between 1968 and 1970 and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, then studied physics at The Citadel and worked as a nuclear engineer for the U.S. Navy before quitting to write full time. His first published novel, The Fallon Blood (1980), opened a historical saga, and he wrote original Conan the Barbarian novels for Tor Books before starting his own fantasy series.

Tor published The Eye of the World in January 1990, launching The Wheel of Time. Jordan completed 12 books in his lifetime, 11 main volumes plus the prequel New Spring. In 2006 he announced that he had cardiac amyloidosis, and he compiled detailed notes so the series could be finished. He died on September 16, 2007. Brandon Sanderson used those notes to complete the story in three final books published from 2009 to 2013, the last carrying Jordan's own title, A Memory of Light. The finished series of 14 main books and a prequel has sold about 90 million copies.

Start with The Eye of the World, not New Spring. New Spring is set twenty years before the main story and follows Moiraine and Lan, two characters the main series introduces; reading the prequel first fills in their backstory before the series has given you a reason to care about it.

Give the series two books before judging it. The Eye of the World takes time to establish its world, and the story widens with each volume. Read the 14 main books in order, without skipping, since the plot threads run continuously. The final three books were written by Brandon Sanderson, working from Jordan's notes to finish the story Jordan had planned.