The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time

Rating:
Summary: I could cry in frustration
Review: I just can't understand why they can't use artwork that is accurate with what is in the books. Is it so hard? For almost fifty dollars things like artword and spelling do matter, and well, they should. This was absolutely horrible and disappointing, and as far as the text of the book goes, there is nothing new (at least nothing new that is well written). Horrible horrible horrible.

Rating:
Summary: Not as bad as it seems.
Review: First things first, the drawings are very amateurish but they look better than sweet's cover. Sweet's cover may look "professional" but they are downright ugly and is a sacrilege to the series. These drawings at least look like they were done by a fan who tried. The book also includes quite a bit of background information that simply couldn't be inferred from the series. At the very least, you have to admit it put to rest a lot of wild speculation. All in all, this is a must have for the fans who simply have to know everything and for those who notice every little discrepancy, well, forget it.

Rating:
Summary: No sir, I'm not gonna do it..
Review: To start out, I got this book as a gift. Thank every diety under the sun, stars, and moon, that I didn't have to spend my own. I'm not going to get up on a soapbox, but I'd like to point out a few things. First, a good author doesn't ask questions in a book that is supposed to be informative, as there are several of those in this one. Second, I've seen better artwork from the fans of WoT on the Web. I thought Lan looked like some sideshow freak and well, Aviendha might as well be a lizard or some other reptile for how far apart her eyes are. The artist should have just put them on the side of her head, they already made it look like a Picaso. Loial, sweet mother of god, did he get hit by a Mack Truck on his way to the publisher? I didn't think a nose could be spread so wide across ones face. I think it's great that we have some idea of what lies beyond the boundries of the Waste and the Aryth Ocean, but I think the descriptions of such would have been a little better. I am still left with several unanswered questions. Almost more than I began with. But that's just my opinion..

Rating:
Summary: Gods green Earth
Review: What on Gods green Earth would have R.J. approve of such horrible art work? I am not convinced in the least, that the artist/s even read the WoT series. To qualify myself, I am an avid fan of RJ's work and have read the entire series 4 times now, I am sure I now know what the characters are supposed to look like. Within the covers of this illustrated guide, is perhaps the worst depiction of character resemblance I have ever SEEN!!! It turns my stomach. As an example, Lanfear is described in the series repeatedly as possibly one of the most beautiful women ever... In the Guide, she looks like a pigs behind!! Due to the poor quality of the art, I find it very difficult to even read the contents. I guess I will just have to keep waiting for Path of Daggers!! If you want to see excellant drawings based on the the Wheel of Time series, I suggest checking out the work of Richard Boye and/or Dragonluv on the web... at least they read the series. -Kinslayer

Rating:
Summary: Still waiting for book 8
Review: I really must add my voice to this only because I am a loyal fan who was very disappointed that this book was published. I only flipped through the book before I ran away in fear. I must say that we as loyal fans should not be dogging out Mr. Jordan. After all, we really don't know whether or not he just put his name on it or if he did have something to do with this travesty. Loyal fans stay away from this book and please urge Mr. Jordan to finish book 8 and the series.

Rating:
Summary: Not the Greatest
Review: I must say I would have been fine waiting a little longer for the 8th book rather than having to get this as a Wheel of Time fix. I have always been a bit disappointed by the illustrations on the covers of the books, but the illustrations in this book are just not enjoyable. I was consistently disappointed by the writing. Though there was info I was happy to read about, the writing style left a lot to be desired. i just gave up and haven't finished reading it, it's not worth anymore time to me. I dearly love this group of characters, but I can't finish this book. Sorry.

Rating:
Summary: Gack....
Review: My, oh MY. I've read all of the books. In fact, I've read most of them upwards of six times. I love the series THAT much. What certain people (cough) failed to recognize was that this loyalty is earned through the quality of the books, NOT their name. If RJ ripped out the pages from a phone book and slapped it in another mistake-ridden Sweet cover, I'd no sooner buy it than a one-way ticket into Baghdad. Come to think of it, he practically DID rip out a phone book...or the glossary, anyways. Good idea, there...put what's in the glossary that people already own, beef it up by creating an incomprehensible history about post AoL instead of making a nice reference guide on the cultures of the nations or something....yeah, real good. Oh, and with typos! Don't think too many phone books have those! Can you tell I'm NOT HAPPY? I got it for an X-Mas present, so it wasn't MY money that was wasted...no, it was someone else's. Yay. As for the art...I'm a high school student. I've never had formal training outside the public school system. And after seeing the "portrait" of Lanfear in the Guide, I sat down and drew a better one in ten minutes. That says nothing about my art, but EVERYTHING about the Guide's. We shall not deal with Rand the flat-faced goon, Berelain the elf, Aviendha the brunette, the spaceship-like White Tower or black-haired Seanchan. No, we shall not deal with them. Because it's late and I'm tired. I'll just read Chapter 10: Rise and Fall of the Ten Nations. That'll put put me right to sleep. In case you missed the caustic sarcasm above: DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!

Rating:
Summary: Severely Dissapointed!!!
Review: I am twelve years old and an avid reader of Robert Jordan's WOT series, but I have to say that I was VERY dissapointed when I waisted 40 bucks on this so-called encyclopedia for the WOT. There were numerous typos, and only little tidbits added on to what most WOT fans already know. And some of those pictures scare me! Lan was startling, to be polite, and when I saw that picture of Loial I almost screamed in horror! I thought that the person who was illustrating would have the characters at least SOMETHING like what I imagined. Guess not! When I first saw this book, I thought it was going to be great because of the very good summary of The Age of Legends, but then when I bought the book I saw that there was hardly anything that I didn't know already. This book is only good for people who haven't read The Eye of the World. I NEVER say anything bad about RJ's books, but this one really let down my expectations.

Rating:
Summary: WOT - Waste of Time
Review: I do not think that I have ever had my expectations so high only to have them crushed this badly. I consider everything about the first 7 wheel of time books to be nothing less than excellent. Then I finally see this new WOT book on the shelf.......I was really excited...........until I opened it up. I flipped through it - thank god - before buying it. Of course, just like most people in the review previously stated, I put it back. It was HORRIBLE! I expected to see some of the really beautiful women that are described in RJ's books. But the only thing that I found was a bunch of lizards........that is really the only way that I can describe them. Not to mention most small children have better spelling and punctuation. Book 8 better be good and on the shelves soon!

Rating:
Summary: Perhaps some light on the subject?
Review: I think that perhaps the apparent slipshod construction of this "guidebook to the WOT" is somewhat misleading. From What I understand, Mr. Jordan had over a 1000 pages of notes. I would imagine that it may be rather difficult after 10 years to keep it all straight. I think that maybe he had some help trying to compile the notes, and then published them. It was probably just as much for his benefit as ours. Whether or not it is tightly knit narrative, or loosely bound claptrap due to some spelling errors, typos, etc.; it should really serve if nothing else as a good mnemomic for readers of the series, and perhaps for Mr. Jordan himself. So take it with a grain of salt and enjoy it for the fact that it means that he hasn't forgotten about his readers.