New Spring: A Wheel of Time Prequel (Now a major TV series)

This was an excellent read and a great lead up too the rest of the series!

Lots of detail, very enjoyable

I really enjoy the story.

Printing and binding is very good. As for the content, I loved it!! Totally regret that R J died before completing the prequel series.

NOTE: My review follows this note, which I hope will avoid any misunderstandings you may get from the review. On 5-5-13 I discontinued my reading of THE WHEEL OF TIME series. Though I was pleased with the prequel and the first three books in the series proper, I gave up during the fourth book, THE SHADOW RISING. Why? I think it is sufficient to say that variety is the spice of life and that THE SHADOW RISING did not offer enough fresh material to sustain my attention.As I write, 3-21-13, this perfectly good fantasy novel has almost as many one-star reviews (97) as five-star reviews (117). Before I offer an explanation for that in my postscript, here is my review per se:NEW SPRING: THE NOVEL is a prequel to Robert Jordan's fourteen-volume series THE WHEEL OF TIME (the last three volumes were completed by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan died). Though not nearly as long as any of the volumes in the series proper, the prequel is a powerful inducement to read at least the first volume in the series. It was for me, anyway, but be aware that I do not read fantasy exclusively, nor have I previously read any of Jordan's books. So I have not become surfeited by either fantasy or Robert Jordan. (Note: I did read THE EYE OF THE WORLD about twenty years ago, but considering what I remember of it, I have practically not read it.)As with Tolkien's Middle Earth, the land of NEW SPRING is threatened by an encroachment of evil. Other than that--at least in this prequel--Jordan's world is not Tolkien's. For one thing, NEW SPRING allocates a much heavier role for women. Men play roles too; indeed the best action sequence features the lightning-quick professional swordplay of the chief male character. But the plot progresses via two young women working hard to graduate from the academy of Aes Sedai (female channelers of the Power).Jordan's characters are likeable, the protocols of magic usage are interesting, and the plot ascends to an arousing climax. With a few forgivable errors of diction and syntax, without any obscenities or explicit sex, his prose is easy and unostentatious but not juvenile. Some reviewers condemn Jordan's background detail as boring. I disagree. It was enough to immerse me into the architecture and culture of the world, and I welcomed it.P.S. Why so many one-star reviews? I scrolled down through four pages of them here at amazon.com, and I did not find a single one written after 2005. Yet only five of the forty NEWEST reviews--extending back to March of 2012--had three stars, while the rest had four or five stars. Since the tenth volume in the series was published in 2003, and NEW SPRING was published in 2004, after looking at some of those one-star reviews I conclude that many readers became tired of THE WHEEL OF TIME. After the tenth volume, they wanted Jordan to end the series. Instead he wrote a prequel, NEW SPRING, leaving no end in sight. That annoyed some readers so much that regardless of the goodness of NEW SPRING, they were determined to blast it with a low rating. They were punishing Jordan for not ending the series.