The Wheel of Time show is cancelled and it’s likely not coming back. Therefore, how can fans of the show finish the story, or find out what happened next?
The most obvious answer to this is, read the books. However, I understand that not everyone is a recreational reader. I also appreciate that The Wheel of Time is hardly a starter series for a new reader. Fourteen (14) books (15 if you include the prequel) is no easy task and some of them are very large books.
However, as a fan of the series who frequents online forums, there are a number of new fans since the show. One of the most common questions asked by new readers is, where should I start?
Reading
The Wheel of Time show covered roughly the first 4 books of the series. However, for first time reader I would not be starting at Book 5. If you did, you’re going to have a lot of questions and meet many characters not in the show.
Though I think the show was planning to come back to it, they did skip the majority of Book 3. There are some key scenes in that book around the Stone of Tear that just never happened in the show and those are important events. Therefore, if you are thinking of reading the books, I would suggest you just start at Book 1 and go from there. In my opinion, the series really comes to life in Book 4, but I still don’t recommend starting there for the reasons I mentioned above.
The Wheel of Time books are available in print, ebook and audio book format. I find audio books too slow for me compared to my reading pace. However, for those that want that full experience, but dislike reading, this is probably the next best option. Listen on the commute, or whilst doing chores etc and the time flies by (I am told).
Videos
In terms of watching a video that explains the full plot, yes, there’s a good one here I can share. However, bear in mind, this is still a 14 book series, so the video is LONG. Sadly most shorter videos are really just not going to give you a flavour of the character arcs happening.
You can also read book summaries online and again I feel like they are not a good way to experience the story. You’ll get the main plots, but none of the motivations or implications of what is being summarised. Plus, it’s reading whish won’t work for all.
This video below from Daniel Greene is 11 hours long folks. However, if you break that down per book it’s more like 45 minutes a book, give or take. There is also no reason you have to consume this video in on go. You could take it a book at a time. Again, I suggest starting at the start and not skipping to post-show because of the reasons I gave above.
There really is no short way to consume this story and actually get a feel for it.
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I’ll also warn against doing any online searches whilst reading/listening or going through this video. It seems search engines seem to prioritise big spoilers for the likes of character search. There is a Wheel of Time companion app, which can be useful. You tell the app what book you are on and it gives you information you need/ask, without revealing anything ahead of where you are.
The app is unofficial, but though I’ve never used it myself, (experienced reader) I have heard anecdotally of it’s quality. The app can be found on both Android and iOS App Stores.
Will there be any more adaptations?
There is a temptation to wait and hope for a new adaptation. Sadly, I feel like this won’t happen any time soon. I often wondered whether it could be done by an anime studio? However, it it would still be a very tricky task to adapt all 14 books in animation. As for live-action, I think that boat has sailed. Amazon are not interested and there’s probably not enough of an audience to have another platform pick it up, despite the highly rated third season.
As for a continuation, even if someone like Apple or Disney picked this up tomorrow it would be a struggle. The showrunners, writers, producers, and the cast have all moved on to new jobs and getting them all back now would be almost impossible.
No, I think if you want to find out what happened in this unique and very interesting story, you’re going to have to use one of the methods mentioned above.
Post-Series
For those that have caught up by reading, listening or watching videos, what resources are available post-series? Or, for book readers who bare reading this purely out of curiosity, what comes next?
First of all there are two deleted scenes written by Brandon Sanderson that can be found in a compilation book of short stories that was sold for charity (Unfettered). One scene is effectively cannon but was cut from the final book for pacing and surprise reasons, this is called River of Souls. The other is called A Fire in the Ways and is not canon. Again it is a deleted chapter, but it’s excision caused several characters plots to be rewritten so that it no longer fits with the published story timeline. Yet, it does resolve a plot point left in the published books, so is worth reading even if it’s not absolute canon.
There are also some excellent YouTube Channels that do deep dives into several mysteries left open for readers to debate. Some answers were finally revealed by Brandon Sanderson at the approval of Robert Jordan’s estate a few years ago as well. Though, some mysteries will remain as they went with Robert Jordan when he sadly passed away. I would recommend The Dusty Wheel Channel for some real in depth debates and discussions around some of the metaphysics and lore of the series.
However, again, I would stay away from any of these videos until you have finished the story in whichever way you choose.
So, how can fans of the show finish the story of The Wheel of Time? There are many methods listed above, the rest is up to you. Leave any thoughts below and let mw know if I missed any options from this small guide?
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