Favorite Book

[Twitchy]

So, what is your favorite book of the series, and why?

 

Personally, my favorite is Fires of Heaven.

So many plot huge events happen in this book, it's incredible.

 

1. Moiraine "dies"

2. The Aiel cross the Dragonwall and the Shaido go loose into Randland

3. Mat manifests his memories from the Finn, and founds the Band

4. Birgitte is ripped from TAR

5. Morgase leaves Caemlyn

6. Nyn captures Moggy

7. Rand and Aviendha

8. Asmo is killed

9. Salidar begins to form

10. Lews Therin begins sneaking into Rand's thoughts

11. Rand forms the list of women that begins to harden his soul

 

 

There are probably more, but those were the ones that popped into my head. My only complaint in the book is Elayne and Nynaeve's plotline, they stalk around the whole time fighting each other like two alley cats, and lounge about in Valan Luca's show for a good 200 pages, talking about how much they hate each other and Nynaeve whines about showing her tata's.

 

I find Rand's plotline in this book to be the strongest out of all of them, he starts realizing what he must do to win the Last Battle, begins learning more of the Power with Asmodean (which begins his madness) and he and Aviendha have my favorite character dynamic in the whole series, and this book truly shows it.

[moratcorlm]

I'm a big fan of the Elayne-Nynaeve plotline in TFOH; it's easily the most consistently funny sequence of the series. TFOH is a very good book, and ranks second for me. But I think TSR is the best book in the series, and by a sizable though not enormous margin over the next three. It is well-written; it is well-plotted; and it is well-structured. The world really blows up into something that feels big and complex for the first time; we get a sense of the history of the age in Rhuidean; the Aelfinn and Eelfinn are introduced as a delightfully creepy element; every single plotline is well-handled, with character development for all six members of the main cast and several important secondaries as well; and there are some of the best 'awesome' and action scenes of the series as well.

 

This will inevitably turn into a full ranking of the series, so I may as well get this out of the way:

1) TSR

2) KOD, TFOH, LOC

5) ACOS, TPOD*, TOM

8) WH*, COT*, TGH

11) TGS, TDR

13) EOTW, the Shaido stuff from *d books above

As I said, I think The Shadow Rising is the best of the series, but I won't argue with anyone placing the next two books or Knife of Dreams in that spot. Actually TFOH and KOD beat TSR in my list of best chapters, 18 and 16 to 15, respectively, but if the runners-up are added in that changes to 29 and 22 vs. 31. And I think the change from the more linear and much more self-contained plot arcs of the introductory trilogy to a more intricate level of storytelling gives some additional degree-of-difficulty points over TFOH's maintaining that high level.

[socom-delta]

I chose the first book. It got me thoroughly excited to continue the series. It reminded me quite a bit of Star Wars: the overall story arc is quite similar:

 

Young farm kid from a backwater village in the middle of nowhere, raised by adopted parents. Evil comes to find him, and he's rescued and whisked away by a mysterious cleric with strange powers. He journeys to his first big city and

[daveq65]

My personal favourite (I'm English this how we spell it) is tEotW. It starts us all of the journey. From the very start you transported to LTT and the Dragon. Then it starts soft and quiet with the road, and we find Rand, and the epic tale begins.

The pace is fast and furious as more characters are drawn in and we start to see story arcs develop. We also start to see some of the rich, and dark history of the Dragon and the Dark One. This for me hands down wins the best of the series, but that may change in the next few weeks as I have tGS (which I am currently reading) and ToM (due to be downloaded and started 31st of Jan)to read.

 

I think I must have read this one at least five or six times, I even use to read it while walking to work, the postman who picked up our mail used to comment and ask how it was going

[Thanatos]

Definitely tSR.

 

The book is so brilliantly written, and it moves from plot to plot seemlessly. Rand's POV's are the best they get in the entire series. The ter'angreal in Rhuidean are my favorite chapters in the entire series.

 

Perrin really is coming into his own in this book. The battle for the Two Rivers is as epic a fight in the series. All in all, I just LOVE this book.

 

Ranking the rest of the series:

1. tSR

2. EotW

3. tFoH

4. KoD

5. tGS

6. tDR

7. tGH

8. LoC

9. WH

10. aCoS

11. PoD

12. CoT

[yoniy0]

This sort of poll appears every now and then, but what the hell (I wonder what would happen if someone takes the time to find my previous statements on this topic).

 

My favorite is definitely TSR. I'm not sure I have anything to add over what's already been said, but it's just wonderful. I really liked Moiraine's PoV (though TGH/Watchers was the first, IIRC). We get to know Aviendha. And Lanfear. Oh, and Perrin really comes into his own. But mostly, I just love Rand's and Egwene's arcs in that book.

 

So, if I too were to rank the lot of them, it would probably go (as I won't differentiate inside each line beyond picking a favorite, the books appear in chronological order):

1. TSR; also: TGH

2. KoD; also: TEotW,TGS

3. LoC

4. WH (for Far Madding and the Cleansing, if little else); also: TFoH,ACoS,ToM

5. TDR; also: TPoD,CoT

[Sbond91]

Lord of Chaos. Which is strange, because I don't remember a lot of what happens in it. Purely for Dumais Wells, I suppose. The thing is, I don't really like the whole "Bowl of Winds" storyline, but I think Rand's storyline makes up for it. I like the discovery of the Kin.

 

Going for rankings:

 

1. LoC

2. tGS

3. tSR

4. tDR

5. KoD

6. tFoH

7. ToM

8. WH

9. CoS

10. PoD

11. TGH

12. EoTW

13. CoT

 

To be honest, though, the top 3 are almost interchangeable. LoC only gets out ahead because of Dumais Wells, and tGS because I really was hooked on Rand's storyline there.

 

I actually didn't like EoTW the first time I read it, and was going to place it last (I didn't really get into the series until tDR). I'm reading it again now, though, and it's better than I remember.

 

CoT is just... not bad, because this is WoT, but nothing like the others. Too much Shaido.

[Davin Richmond]

EoTW

i Actually liked Egwene back then no im on LoC and i despise her

[Dragons_Eggman]

LoC for me, although it takes a while to get going, I'm currently re-reading it atm and my fave parts would have to be (in no particular order) Rand's reunion with Min, Dumais Wells (duh), Rand putting Alanna in her place after a certain event. There are a couple of others but I haven't got to them yet. As for ranking my top 6 are pretty interchangeable.

 

1. LoC

2. tSR

3. tGS

4. ToM

5. KoD

6. tDR

7. EoTW

8. WH

9. CoS

10. tFoH

11. PoD

12. TGH

13. CoT

 

CoT took me 3 attempts to read through, though it's not so bad now as I can understand where a lot of the slow paced stuff in it leads to.

[coolpool]

TFoH was my favourite.. i like how rand started learning sadin properly and him hearing voices (i got really excited to read him when he started to hear LLT)

 

the LoC is good aswell, i LOVE the dumais wells scene with the asha'man.. poor rand

[alligator]

Not sure why, but the Dragon Reborn always struck a chord with me. Crazy-Rand, and real character developments for Mat and Perrin. But The Shadow Rising is a close second. For reasons everyone else stated above, it's just a genuine really-good-book.

[trench]

My turn,

 

1. The Shadow Rising

2. The Great Hunt

3. The Fires of Heaven

4. The Eye of the World

5. The Gathering Storm

6. The Dragon Reborn

7. Lord of Chaos

8. Knife of Dreams

9. A Crown of Swords

10. Towers of Midnight

11. Winter's Heart

12. A Path of Daggers

13. Crossroads of Twilight

[Medo123]

1. Crossroads of Twilight

 

 

 

 

 

 

only joking.

 

1. The Shadow Rising

2. The Eye of the World

3. The Gathering Storm

4. The Fires of Heaven

5. Lord of Chaos

6. Towers of Midnight

7. Knife of Dreams

8. The Great Hunt

9. The Dragon Reborn

10. Winter's Heart

11. A Crown of Swords

12. The Path of Badgers

13. Crossroads of Twilight

[CTM]

1. LoC

2. KoD

3. tFoH

4. tDR

 

5. TGH

6. CoS

 

7. tGS

8. tSR

9. CoT

10. WH

11. ToM

12. EoTW

 

 

 

 

13. PoD

 

 

Lord of Chaos is my favourite because of the interactions between Rand and the Aes Sedai. I also enjoy the cover art:)

 

It's still a bit early for me to place ToM.

[Arc]

I agree with all of you, but still placed tGS on the top of my list. Rand almost beyond redemption, on the verge of breaking, was a very intense read. Also - though I disagree with Eggy most of the time - her 'mending the Tower'-arc was awesome. I liked Mats' arc a lot. He's constant muttering about not giving up drinking or gambling and stuff, just because he's married now... and nobility. Ituralde POV's were quite good, etc.

[crm2442]

1.tGS

2.tSR

 

It would be a tie, except for Faile's play to get to the Two rivers.

[Myrenna]

I can't put them in order, but I really did not enjoy Jordan's later books. They felt quite longwinded to me. My favourite is Eye of the World. :) imo it works well enough as a standalone book for people who don't want to read a series of fourteen. Really loving Branderson's contribution, too.

[Shimmer]

I really enjoyed ToM and for me it would tie with tEotW for first place. Loved tEotW since it started off the epic jouney and we got to meet the wonderful main characters and ToM really got the pace of the series going again after the slow pace of the last few and TG is literally in sight.

[hankscorpio]

Would say about a three way tie between The Dragon Reborn (which I've always though was the most underrated book in the series), The Shadow Rising, and The Gathering Storm.

 

If I absolutely had to make an order, I'd probably say:

 

The Gathering Storm

The Shadow Rising

The Dragon Reborn

The Fires of Heaven

Lord of Chaos

Towers of Midnight

The Eye of the World

The Great Hunt

Knife of Dreams

A Crown of Swords

Winter's Heart

The Path of Daggers

Crossroads of Twilight

 

Of course despite ranking it in the middle of the pack The Eye of the World will always have a special distinction among the other books merely from being the first.

[Beidomon]

I'm surprised there isn't at least one WOT-nerd that voted for Crossroads. Seriously, though, I'm happy to see that a plurality of voters so far have gotten the "right" answer - The Shadow Rising rocks.

 

So many chapters of pure unadulterated awesomeness in one book. The Rhuidean ter'angreal sequence in Chapters 25-26 are the best chapters in the series to date, and didn't Jordan even admit as much in an informal conversation? To me, these are the chapters where the sheer depth of this series really hit home for me. So many great plotlines are linked together here, and the links are forged convincingly, as they might in a real history, over the course of thousands of years. The Age of Legends isn't just some fanciful garnish to the story - it is actually an integral part of the story.

 

Then you have Mat's encounters with the Aelfinn and Eelfinn. More great plotlines. More great dialogue.

 

Then there are Rand's defense of the Stone of Tear, plunging Callandor into the Heart of the Stone, uniting/breaking of the Aiel, struggles with Lanfear/Asmodean, and just general awesomeness.

 

This is also the high water mark of Perrin's arc, in my opinion (and yes, I've read through ToM), and probably the only book where Faile isn't completely annoying. The defense of the Two Rivers storyline is great, but it is actually overshadowed by all the other awesome stuff that happens in this book.

[yoniy0]

i Actually liked Egwene back then no im on LoC and i despise her

Oh, yeah, I know what you mean. I hope you'll consider keeping an open mind, though, because I think she really comes around by KoD. Let me know what you think once you've reached it.

[W_A]

I voted for LoC, mainly because of Dumai's Wells, but also because of the amount of new plot developments, and because it was the only time Demandred seemed to be doing anything. My personal order is pretty typical, except that I really liked WH more than many others seemed to, and I didn't particularly like tEoTW.

1. LoC

2. tGS

3. tGH

4. WH

5. tSR

6. KoD

7. aCoS

8. tDR

9. ToM

10. tFoH

11. tEoTW

12. CoT

13. tPoD

[dholm]

The best book? Probably the Fires of Heaven, though the Shadow Rising, the Dragon Reborn, the Gathering Storm, Winter's Heart and Knife of Dreams are right behind it.

 

Most of those are due to Mat Cauthon -- in the Fires of Heaven, he starts being a general. In the Shadow Rising, we see Perrin's rise to leadership of his people, which is almost as strong, and we see Mat gain his memories. In the Dragon Reborn, we get our first Mat viewpoint, which served to completely vindicate him as a character. The Gathering Storm has Rand's near-disastrous descent into madness, Winter's Heart has the Cleansing as well as Mat's first meeting with Tuon. Knife of Dreams has their marriage, Perrin freeing Faile.

 

If I had to rank them all, I would probably put them in the following order:

 

1. tFoH

2. tSR

3. tDR

4. tGS

5. WH

6. KoD

7. ToM

8. LoC

9. EotW

10. CoT

11. aCoS

12. tGH

13. tPoD

 

But it is a near thing, and I love all thirteen.

[TheBeerPatriot]

My favorite is the Great Hunt. TGH really expanded the scope of this world, from the White Tower, to the portal stones, the expansion of the role of the Shadow. There are some powerful scenes in here, specifically the alternate lives exposed when the portal stones flicker, Egwene being freed from the a'dam, and the redemption of Ingtar.

 

I can see why Shadow Rising is the leading vote getter. For some reason, I struggle with reading some of the scenes in the Aiel Waste (not the Rhuidean scenes, of course). Overall though, this is a powerful book between Perrin's plotline, the division of the White Tower, the Tanchico scenes and of course all that happens in the Aiel Waste.

 

My updated rankings:

The Great Hunt

The Fires of Heaven

Eye of the World

Gathering Storm

Dragon Reborn

Towers of Midnight

Shadow Rising

Lord of Chaos

Knife of Dreams

A Crown of Swords

Winter's Heart

The Path of Daggers

Crossroads of Twilight

[Jak o' the Shadows]

ToM - action packed, Zen-Rand is 1000x better than Emo-Rand, Perrin finally got interesting, all the threads coming together. Finally. And all the Reunions! Mat-Perrin reunion is the best.