My First Fantasy Series

As I was looking over my bookshelves recently, trying to find space for a new haul from the used book store, I lingered over my Wheel of Time collection . I have them in well-loved paperbacks and pristine hardbacks. Signed hardbacks mind you. You see, I used to be sort of obsessed. WoT was the first fantasy series I read.  Oddly enough, it was introduced to me by my first boyfriend.  Sure, I'd devoured a Wrinkle in Time, Animal Farm, and The Giver among others. But WoT opened a whole new world to me.

I remember diving into The Eye of the World with skeptical glee. The complicated names and terms captured my imagination.  I flipped to the glossary what felt like every other paragraph in an overeager attempt to understand it all. And the pronunciations! I tested the names and places out loud until I'm sure my parents thought I was learning odd spells. It felt daunting, and no reading experience prior to that moment had quite evoked that feeling.

I was incredibly proud on the day I could say Aes Sedai with the best of them.

Five books were published when I started WoT. I was expecting seven or eight books in the whole series, so every time a new title was released (every two or so years by that point) I celebrated by starting from the beginning. I went to signings and book by book got most of my collection signed by Robert Jordan. I lived on the message boards of wotmania.com (they closed their doors in 2009) and obsessed over theories.

And then the books kept stretching out. I could no longer keep track of the millions of side plots without complicated notes. I stopped reading from the beginning when a new book came out, instead maybe reading some of the book before it. Those feelings of first love faded, and I had to let go. Then the unthinkable happened. Robert Jordan passed away. His series is being finished by another, and when it is finally done I will pick the books up. It won't be the same though. Nothing compares to those first feelings of falling in love. Me and the Wheel of Time just weren't meant to last, but it will always have a special place in my heart.  Obviously, I mean, the collection does take up two shelves. 

I did learn a lesson, as one does with heartbreak or letting go.  I avoid unfinished series whenever I can; I'm just too damn impatient.

Which fantasy or sci-fi series did you pick up first? Do you still read it?  Feel free to comment here or over at my Facebook page.