What are your top 3 favorite Wheel of Time Books and Why? *possible spoilers*

[Eric]

I figured that I'd toss this topic up for some friendly sharing now that the final book in the series has been out long enough to be absorbed by most people who have read the series.

What I miss most about the Wheel of Time is the discussion among fans while waiting for the next book. The formulating and debating of theories. There used to be so many websites and forums devoted to just that, but now, there's really no need for them anymore, and the discussion has pretty well dropped off. So I thought I'd toss out the question of what your top three favorite Wheel of Time books are, and why you feel they're the best that the series has to offer.

As for my picks:

1.) The Shadow Rising.
There is just so much great stuff that happens in this book. Perrin in the Two Rivers. Nyneave and Elayne in Tanchico. Rand and Mat in the Aiel Waste. I love the parts in the waste, because they show these people that everyone assumes to be savages as having a very rich and deep culture, with their own laws and customs. And the visions Rand has about the history of the Aiel are so great, showing how pacifists that don't even understand the concept of violence became the unequaled warriors that they are today. It does so much to expand and broaden not just the characters, but the world in which the story is taking place, giving it more depth and history, while also telling a very good and action packed story.

2.) The Gathering Storm
This book is not without its problems that have been discussed to death among fans, so I won't go into them except to say that Brandon Sanderson was given an impossible task, and given the situation he found himself in, and the pressures of that situation, he produced the best book possible under the circumstances. Why I like this book so much is the narrowing of focus down to the struggles of Rand and Egwene. Both of them are beaten down and brought to their lowest points in the series, and both of them finally find triumph and redemption in the end. It's such a beautifully told story, and had so many things in it that I'd been waiting literally decades to see happen. Rand overcoming the darkness and insanity threatening to swallow him up. Egwene uniting the White Tower. The Seanchan attack. I think that the chapter about Rand atop Dragonmount just figuring out what it's all for is probably my favorite chapter in the entire series.

3.) The Path of Daggers
Usually when I say this book is in my top three, I get responses like, "wait. What?" And I will admit that when it first came out, I absolutely hated it. It's right in the middle of the chunk of the series where nothing really seems to be happening, and the overall story of the series doesn't really seem to progress in this book at first glance. But over the years I've taken a much deeper look at this book, and found it to be one of the more brilliantly written books of the series. The two real stand out moments to me in this book are Egwene finally standing up for herself and saying that she was the Amyrlin and it was time people started treating her like it. And Rand's campaign against the Seanchan. Setting aside the huge holy crap moment when Rand whips out Callendor, this campain is probably one of the more brilliant parts of the entire series. Not for being a cool collection of battles, but for what it does to Rand as a character, and how Robert Jordan leave it to the reader to figure out for themselves how this is affecting Rand in later books. He never comes out and says Rand lost, not because of the enemy, but because of the taint's insanity twisting his mind, and this is what drives Rand to set out on his quest to cleanse Saidin in the next book, but it's there in the subtext if you look for it. He's come to the point that he can no longer trust his own mind, and he sets off to do something about it before it can get any worse all because he lost a battle, due to his own insanity. And his failure is compounded when, just afterward, the Asha'man turn on him, and try to kill him. This group of men that he collected for the good of the world, to be guardians against the Shadow, have been corrupted by the very thing he meant for them to fight, and the only person he can blame for it is himself for leaving them to their own devices for so long. It's a really brilliant way of shaping Rand's motivations for the next few books, and now that I've had fifteen or twenty years to think on it, I've really come to appreciate this book as one of the better in the series.

So those are my top three for Wheel of Time books. What are yours?

[Cindy]

The first book, Wheel of Time is my favorite, then the Path of Daggers is my next favorite. It has been so, so long since I have read this series! I was just thinking of re-reading them and have the Wheel of Time out to start again!

[Mike]

Honestly, ages ago I read the first three & liked them. I don't remember how many more I got through, but I quit because it seemed to me that the basic plot just kept repeating ad infinitum, like the author had a formula that I just got bored with & stopped caring about the franchise.....

[Daniel]

I don't like to choose favorites, normally. I don't have a favorite food or a even a favorite color--no favorite band or movie. I do have long lists of favorites, but I can't really rank them, generally.

However, I think that I probably can choose a top three for The Wheel of Time. 2 and 3 are interchangeable: they are A Memory of Light and The Eye of the World--the first book and the last. It's impossible to say whether I like the beginning of the saga better than its epic finale, but both have their merits.

However, my favorite is definitely The Shadow Rising. Why? Because this is where the series really becomes what it is. All of the really great stuff starts here, from insights into what the Age of Legends was really was like and Rand learning how to channel properly, to Perrin becoming Lord of the Two Rivers and the Wolf King, to Mat becoming Son of Battles... And so much more. You've got Egwene and the Wise Ones, Nynaeve and Elayne showing their mettle, the rebel Aes Sedai--so much. The Shadow Rising is when The Wheel of Time came into itself, and it's great.