Wheel of Time

I haven't read the books but know the basic gist of the first 3. As a tolkien fan and a reader of asoiaf, which this will inevitably be compared to despite pre dating Martin's work to start with, it's not fair to compare to either.

Tolkien is basically a fantasy genre unto himself although filming wise stylistically i'd say this is closer to middle earth (tar valon feeling very elvish) than it is to asoiaf.

I know this is 14 books whether they will cover all of them or give up once Amazon's Tolkien project is up and running I don't know, but I hope they give it a chance because it's very good.

The first couple of episodes i wasn't a fan of it did feel very derivative of LOTR, well LOTR if Dr Strange was somehow added into the fellowship. But it has grown on me and despite this being a vast world that really is going to need several series for those of us not completely familiar with the books to really come to grips with, concentrating on a handful of key characters has made it more accessible and it's gone from strength to strength.

Deliberately not putting any spoilers in you can search out the basic premise of the first series and decide for yourself. The show looks incredible, the dialogue is good, Rosamund Pike is scene stealer every time she appears and most importantly apart from the odd nod here and there to lotr (which game of thrones did the endless "there nothing to forgive" nod to legolas and aragorn in the two towers as an example) it feels like it's own thing and not some tribute act to more popular fantasy series.

As with GoT i feel for WOT fans in regard to i am already reading some discontent at changes from the books to the show all I can say is most everything after series 4 in Game of Thrones is garbage i do not remotely expect to see in the books and even though Jordan did die before these books were completed...they were completed. I think I might be the dragon reborn by the time the winds of winter is finished...even so give it a go it's got some very unfair sniffy reviews from critics who seem to forget just how diabolical thrones was from series 5 on and I guess since Peter Jackson's LOTR is the benchmark....this isn't bad.

carp