With The Shadow Rising the series has really hit its stride. Now we’re through the initial “trilogy”, as I discussed in my last post, we’re able to get into the story proper.

I got this book as my Secret Santa gift at work last year. It was a successful purchase.

I think The Dragon Reborn is where The Wheel of Time really starts to get good. The premise is set, we know the main characters, and have a grasp of the world as a whole. The foundation is in place, and we're ready to really open things up.

This story grabbed me from the start. We follow the characters Claire and Duncan, a couple whose marriage has been dead for years, in two separate time periods: Before and After. You find yourself immediately trying to work out the event between them, but Draper masterfully keeps you guessing.

I was pleasantly surprised by The Great Hunt. For some reason, I recalled this one being one of the weaker books in the series. Looking at it now, I think I thought this was because, in many ways, the plot is a reflection of the first book. But this time around, I found a lot better than I remembered it.

So, last year my film of the year was Ari Aster’s debut Hereditary. This year I’ve chosen his follow up. I think I might be a bit of a fan.

I didn’t get to read many books this year. But even if I’d had a large pool of books to select from, I can’t imagine another one pulling me in as deeply as The Night Circus.

2020, and things that are to come

So here we are in the roaring twenties. What are we expecting in the next twelve months?

I first read The Eye of the World by the pool in a hotel in Spain, having picked it up on a whim from the airport bookshop. If I remember correctly, the quote on the front cover said something along the lines of it being better than Tolkien. So I figured, if I were to be able to properly mock such a boastful claim, I needed to have read the book in question. When I got home, I immediately ordered Book Two.

New Spring is a slight oddity. It’s a prequel. A prequel that annoyed a lot of fans who wanted Jordan to focus on completing the main story. Because while seeing how a couple of the main characters met and began their journey at the time of publication, what we wanted was the next chapter in the main story!