I’m personally a huge fan of Lord of Chaos. It’s always a high point when I re-read the series. I really like all of the subtle foreshadowing of what’s coming up, all of the careful politics and groundwork that RJ laid for the latter half of the series, and then of course Dumai’s Wells is such an incredible moment in the series.
@Landrin201 Ultimately, I have to say A Memory of Light is my favorite. Followed closely by Lord of Chaos.
A Memory of Light was just the final payoff of the whole series, and a story that had been with me for nearly 20 years. While I’ve only read this one twice, it definitely had the biggest emotional impact.
Lord of Chaos just had so much happen in it, it’s really easy to see why it’s a common fan favorite.
I think I’m camp TGH/TDR, personally. Not sure why, but there’s something about the innocence of those novels that make them stand out on each reread.
Moiraine sent me.
People think I’m insane for this, but I usually recommend new readers start on TDR rather than EOTW. It’s where I started- way back in middle school my mom and I would listen to audiobooks in the car, and she picked TDR up for us not realizing it was part of a series. We didn’t really notice that it was book 3; it picks up in a really solid place, summarizes everything that happened before, and introduces everyone pretty well.
My big reason for it is that, IMO, book 3 has a big tone shift and a lot of character changes from book 2. For example, Perrin’s whole arc in book 2 is about accepting leadership and accepting the wolves at the same time, and by the end he has pretty well accepted the wolves- he has spent a lot of time communicating with them, and has been open with another person about his ability. Then, in book 3, suddenly he hates the wolves, and wants nothing to do with them. I know why that happened (IMO because Jordan was setting up longer-term plotlines after fully committing to more than 3 books) but it’s still noticeable.
I think starting at book 3 gets a new reader in with the characters as they will be written for the rest of the series, and gets them into the writing style Jordan uses in the other books. Then, go back and read 1 and 2, and you’ll have the characters as established in 3 in your head the whole time- so Mat suddenly becoming a compulsive gambler makes more sense, and Perrin’s later reluctance with the wolves makes you want to read him as reluctant about it in all of book 2.
I think that’s fair… kinda. I do think readers miss out on a ton of context in TGH. And the problem with skipping tEotW is that what impact you’d get from it is just gone.
I’m gonna let you finish, but Mat Cauthon at Cairhein had the best arc of the series.
Lord of Chaos, 100%. AMoL is a close second. 10 years ago, I would have said that Crossroads of Twilight was my least favorite, but I thoroughly enjoyed it in my last reread.
