The Wheel of Time Companion: The People, Places, and History of the Bestselling Series

If you are a WoT superfan, you should feel free to get this book. It's basically a glossary of the entire series, plus useful back story that never made its way into the books. It should be a good cheat sheet when you need it during rereads. If you aren't a superfan, this book is certainly not necessary for your understanding. (And if you're on your first read, definitely don't touch this: entries largely cover the entire series arc of their topic.) Much of this book retreads what is actually in the books. But there are also a considerable number of fresh nuggets not previously known. Some new information is of a more systematic nature. Entries on channelers usually give quantified measures of their strengths. (Albeit, with a measure of uncertainty -- deriving as these measures are from sometimes-inconsistent authorial notes.) Aes Sedai entries tend to include year of birth and duration of time as novice and Accepted (presumably because Jordan had to nail these things down to write consistent with the Aes Sedai pecking order). The Old Tongue entry contains several pages of definitions and some discussion of language modifiers. There's an entry completely devoted to Lini's sayings. Other new information appears incidental to the topic at hand. Cadsuane's entry describes in detail every one of her hair ornaments, as well as the actual (brief) truth behind the legend of numerous rumors about her career. The entry on the Chair of Remorse reveals its true nature and purpose. And more beyond -- I've spent at this point a few hours somewhat aimlessly flipping through to see what I find, and to follow up on topics with potential lingering questions that might be answered (and to answer questions I didn't always know I had), and I'm sure I haven't found all the fascinating details yet. This book is not narrative. Aside from character entries, there is little storytelling in this. Presumably someone will carefully read this start to finish, but it's hard for me to imagine doing it. (And I've invested enough time in the books to have read the series multiple times, spent hours on Internet forums, and flown to the final book's release party in Provo.) Do not pick this up if you're just looking for a good story to read. "Companion" is almost certainly the more marketable name, but I think "Reference" would have been the better term. It probably isn't something you're going to get "friendly" with, the way the name "companion" likely implies. This book is worth five stars if you like getting into details and lore of the entire Wheel of Time -- as long as you're aware that you're getting a fairly clinical treatment of everything, in encyclopedic non-narrative form. If that's not your thing, you will probably be disappointed.

The Wheel of Time books have been a part of my life since I read The Eye of the World while I was in Junior High. I've read each of the books several times over the years, but reading the entire series with my copy of The Wheel of Time Companion handy was an entirely new and rich reading experience. I believe that Harriet McDougal and the rest of the group that worked on this book succeeded in their effort to provide a reference book that is useful to WoT fans in a number of ways. Personally, I enjoyed how this reference helped to connect the dots on certain topics, how I could refer to it as I read to help recognize some of the foreshadowing in the series, how the astounding breadth of Robert Jordan’s world-building is highlighted by the contents of this book, and how the new artwork enhanced my mental images of the characters and places in the series. The detailed explanation of some topics that had previously been left to the reader to figure out is a wonderful provision, while at the same time Robert Jordan's desire for some things to still be left up to the reader to decide for themselves is supported by the fact that not everything has been given away, wrapped up, or fully explained. This book is a must have for any true fan of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. It is worth its weight in Andoran Gold Crowns :-)

Very nice asset to have with the series of books. However, a word of caution. The book does reveal information on characters that happens in books you may have not yet read. It’s good to have with all the different characters, especially those that go by several names. But watch how far you read into a character lest you end up reading spoilers about something that happens in a book you haven’t read yet.

I don't really like cliffhangers and long waits for closure. Thus, I tend to try and avoid series' of any kind (book, TV, movie, etc.) while they're still ongoing, with the occasional comic series being the exception (though even then I tend to consume mini story runs in trade paperback form, but I digress). So, with the WoT series completed, a prequel released, and a TV series rumored, I decided it was finally time for me to dive into this behemoth of a fantasy world. With 14 installments, each hovering around the 700-900 page range, the Wheel of Time series is a massive time sink in not just the reading, but the comprehending and following along with locations, characters, plots, and of course a variety of cultures. I am definitely of the type that likes to not only read, but completely dive into these fantasy worlds. I love maps, artwork, bios, backstory, etc. The wealth of information available is one of the things that drew me to the LOTR franchise and what has made the WoT franchise such an attractive prospect. That's where the companion guide comes in. It compresses a ton of information that I would otherwise be cataloging myself as I read. Yes, like many times before, absent this guide I would be sketching maps (complete with plotted routes of various characters and story arcs), creating flow charts of plots, and character trees with small bios. But, thanks to this guide, I don't have to. The guide itself is quite comprehensive and provides a ton of information pulled straight from the source material. The most useful of which is the battle maps and character bios. That said, there are a few areas that I feel this guide is lacking in (and, to be fair, perhaps with the current length of the guide, adding all of this would require a second volume). The first, and most glaring, is a lack of pronunciations associated with each entry. This is particularly interesting because these pronunciations already exist at the back of each of the books so I found it odd that it would be excluded from this guide. Secondly, I would have liked it if the maps were given their own specific section in the book as opposed to being scattered about as they were. It's fine if you remember the name of the particular city or battle associated with each map, but if you don't then it's a bit of a scavenger hunt (albeit a shorter one). Additionally, WoT is a world full of quite diverse cultures which can sometimes be difficult to keep track of and I would have liked to see some sort of guide or identification chart included in this book to aid in keeping track of which culture was which. Finally, there is a bit of a concern of spoilers and, while it is an issue, admittedly I don't know what could be done to avoid this. To their credit, the Authors do warn of this in the Introduction section at the beginning, and as such I didn't dock any stars over it, just something for the reader to be aware of. Continuing on the subject of the Author's honesty, I must again credit them for being completely genuine out the gate about what this book is and is not. They make no bones about the possibility of errors, inaccuracies, and even offer alternative sources of information available at the time of publishing. In all, it's an incredibly well written piece containing an indispensable wealth of information collected in a single volume. Whether you're just starting your journey down the Wheel of Time rabbit hole or are a seasoned veteran of the franchise, I highly encourage you to pick up a copy of this companion guide. TL;DR: A must have if you intend to take on the WoT series (which I whole heartedly encourage you to do)

Just what I need to keep the oodles of info straight!

There are too many characters in this great book series. While some irrelevant topics are overly described in the text, some important ones are overlooked initially, and expanded much later. However, the connections between characters and locations are sometimes lost in the story. Furthermore, with 14 books, 15 if you consider the “New Spring” prequel, you may forget some important points. This the critical book linking everything, while describing people, culture, and locations.

I am on the last book of the series. I have enjoyed all 20,000pp. But the plot is complicated with lots of important characters who interact with many others and come back to each other in many ways. I don't have a photographic memory and found I used the Companion to refresh my memory and even learn new things about characters that weren't in the books. The bad part is that the entries contain spoilers for many of the characters and plot. I have to make sure I stop reading about a character if I have not gotten to the part described in the remaining story. I found out that one of the most important characters dies in the last book. That doesn't ruin it but the suspense is a good thing to keep. This is a worthwhile addition to the set if you are really in to the series.

Admittedly, I didn't read the description at all before I bought it. I saw that there was a Wheel of Time Companion book that I didn't have, and I bought it. So, it is a HUGE book (far larger than I was expecting), rivaling the main series books in length. I wasn't expecting that. Also, it is literally a glossary of every person and place in the series. Unlike the "The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time Series" book, which seemed to be more a narrative of different subjects in the series, introducing different places or objects or points of history and providing more details than the series had, this book starts at A and goes to Z and just lists people and places, etc. and describes them. I was a little disappointed at first, that it wasn't categorized or more narrative or something (I was expecting an updated version of the "World of" book), but I think if it had been, I would also have been disappointed that there wasn't a complete glossary of everything. Many of the glossary entries provide pages of detail about their subjects, so the information is there, but you have to know what you're looking for because there is no real context. As the title ("Companion") suggests, it is likely best suited to having beside you while you read to remind you who people are or what has happened. Without any context for each entry, it would be a struggle to read it straight through from cover to cover like a regular book. If I tried to just read it, I would find that I had no idea when the more minor characters had appeared or what their role in the story was at the time they appeared, and so the information would be useless without the context of the series. As a side note, the cover of the book I received was a little worn just down one line of an edge, so I think moving around in the box in shipping caused that. A little disappointing, but nothing I wanted to return it and have it replaced for... dust jackets get worn over time anyway, and I want the book to actually use it and read it, not to look pretty and pristine on a shelf.