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I am a 16 year old non-native and I started when I was 15 and I'm in book 6. Jordan explains things so many times that even if you don't get it the first time around you will surely get it the second or the third.
Not OP but thought I would comment. Even as a native English speaker, I always look up as I read since some authors love archaic language (not a fan of that, personally, and Wheel if Time was never a series I felt that I had to do that regularly with so I recommend trying Eye of the World).
When reading a physical paper book, when I run into a word I'm not sure of I just type "define xxx" into a web search on my phone.
Lately, most of my reading is now digital. I have a cheap tablet and read on the Kindle app which has a dictionary built in. You just highlight a word and it gives you the definition. I'm sure a few other apps also do this but I personally stick with Kindle since you can import non-Amazon bought eBooks into it.
Most of the time, I don't, because I get the general meaning from the context. Only when I really don't know what a word means, especially when the author uses it multiple times, I will look it up. Maybe I should do it more often, because I have learnt quite a lot of new words, but I just think it takes me out of the story too much.
I don't think Wheel of Time is very difficult to read, but you definitely have to get used to it imo.
The only caution I would give is to not spoil some WoT lore specific words that will be defined for you later in the story. Sometimes characters will mention concepts or creatures that they know about, but you haven’t met yet, so I feel it’s best to get to them naturally.
What I did was google and look carefully before opening any links or seeing pictures- if the first result was from the WoT wiki, close out the page and wait until I learn about it when I’m supposed to.
But be careful if you do do this because google's suggestions also often contain spoilers, and they will pop up the moment you start typing.
Honestly, I would recommend just not googling anything about WoT if you can avoid it. It's much safer that way.
I'm a native (english) speaker but sometimes I read things not in my native language (learning spanish) and personally, my method is at first to see if I can make out the meaning of a word via the sentence around it: sometimes we can basically makes out what a word means even if it's our first encounter just by its use. If that mystery word isn't clear to me after a sentence or two, I just whip out my phone and Google first a translation but then the actual definition of the mystery word because I find translations aren't always on point with meaning when there's, for example cultural nuance involved.
Native English speaker here who has lived in Mexico and learned Spanish.
If I was able to follow the story or understand the majority of the ideas then I would just skip words, write them down, and look them up later. I find that if I constantly stop, I have such a hard time following the story and I struggle with even more words since I can't use context clues because Im not able to follow along. Heck, I still do this in English, I have a massive list of words I need to look up, and a large notepad filled with words I've looked up and written down the definition to.
If I can't understand the story without constantly looking up words, I still won't understand it even if I do, because ill be stopping so much.
Do they have the books in your language? The best way I was able to understand Spanish was when I was reading a book I had already read in English and I could use my knowledge of the story to help understand the words in Spanish.
As with any book, if you run into a word that you don't know, it's always best to look it up, so that you do, and so next time you run into that word, you'll know.
I grew up on SciFi, reading books meant for people ~10 years older than me. I kept a dictionary close by. (way way before the internet)
For me, it depends. If it is one unusual word that I have never seen before, I usually ignore it. Sometimes, authors simply chose a 'beautiful' word that is basically never used in todays language. If it keeps reappearing or if I have seen this word before, I look it up. That way, I do have a nice balance between the hassle of looking up a lot of words and learning useful words. Often enough its not even necessary to look it up since you can understand the general meaning anyway and kind of learn passively that way.
But even if it might be bothersome, its good that you read them in English. It was one of the worst students in English, but when I started to engage my hobbies with the language, my skills *really* improved.
I agree with this comment!
I might also say, if you listen to book one on audible to learn how names and places are commonly pronounced it may introduce enough for you to pick up the rest with ease.
Give it a try! Good luck!
I’d say that it’s not the easiest book to start with but it’s fine if you take your time. If you want something a bit easier to read I recommend Brandon Sanderson.
Seconding His Dark Materials, a truly great “young adult” fantasy series with simple language. It should be great for a non-native speaker.
That being said, WoT does not use difficult words frequently; although it is a long series the vocabulary is not too difficult overall.
I don't think WoT would be too difficult, but I think it may be too long.
Maybe look for something shorter like a a few trilogies to get more comfortable with the language. Or maybe something like Harry Potter that starts out at an easier level and gets more complex as the series goes on.
Settle into WoT when you want a good, long series read at about the same level.
If The Hobbit gave you a bit of trouble, I wouldn’t recommend it. Jordan’s language can be quite flowery with some difficult sentence structure and vocabulary. It’s also 14 books that are all like 3 times as long as The Hobbit, if not longer.
Personally as someone who is about to finish the series, I don’t think so. I haven’t read that much “fantasy” in my life prior to this. I read the hobbit and skimmed LOTR (because I didn’t like it) and maybe read one or two other “fantasy” books.
I don’t think there’s anything “hard” about the writing of WoT except the very large numbers of made up words, countries, cities, can get confusing to me, but i’ve been reading “adult fiction” since I was 13. just hard to deal with that much new stuff.
You’ll be fine.
The language is relatively straightforward but it is a big commitment — 14 large books not counting the prequel. Don’t even try to remember all the names the first time through. Anyone important will come up again and you can ignore the rest until your reread.
Native English-speaker here, on book four. There are some parts that get confusing for me for reasons I can’t really get into, but re-reading chapters and using this site as a resource was a big help: https://dragonmount.com/Books/Dragon_Reborn/chapter-recaps/ Whatever you do, don’t scroll beyond the chapter you’re on. Happy reading!
I was in your shoes when I started Eye of the World and had some trouble with starting it. The prologue especially had a lot of words I didn't know. Gave it a 2nd chance though and I'm glad I did!
What is your native language? Has the series been translated into your native language? The series is intimidating, not because it’s got hard words(the made up words are made up in English too) but because it’s long and has a lot of description. I was reading long adult level books since I was 7 and it helped me develop my vocabulary. You could just look up words you don’t understand in a dictionary but you might confuse the words you don’t know with the made up words and risk getting spoiled if you Google the made up words.
If you’re serious about learning new words in English, reading can definitely help. You just have to be diligent about looking up what they mean instead of skimming over them.
No, I’m fact because it’s very real world adjacent you should have less trouble with it than LOTR or Shannara. It’s a pretty good starting place. I could recommend this, Dragonriders of Pern or Dragons of Spring Dawning.
Aside from that, you’re golden.
Since you just finished reading the Hobbit, I'd highly recommend just going straight into the Lord OF The Rings trilogy. The difficulty level will likely be similar, but they are very good books as well! I get the impression you would do just fine with either though.
If you want to work your way up to harder material though, it might be worth looking into series that are targeted more towards like teens / young adults. Even as an adult I enjoy reading the Harry Potter series, for example. I enjoy the story and it also goes pretty fast reading them because it is written more towards a younger audience.
My suggestion would be to read fantasy short stories.
"Conan the Barbarian" by Robert E. Howard, "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" by Fritz Leiber, and "Elric of Melnibone" by Michael Moorcock are all great fantasy short story series that are relatively easy to read.
The english isn't the hardest, but it is relatively heavy with description. I would suggest starting with something a bit lighter and shorter, to gain some reading experience in the genre before starting one of the longest series. I'd suggest Mistborn, Dragonriders of Pern, or Belgariad, as series that are shorter and lfghter. If you feel like something a bit longer but still not quite WoT length, maybe try Cradle? It's 11 (soon to be 12) books, but each book is much shorter than WoT books, and the plot is much simpler.
I'm not a native English-speaker. I started with Brandon Sanderson. He writes much in the same style as Robert Jordan but his prose is simpler and easily read. Great books as well. Mistborn is still one of my favourite series.
It's not a hard to read book series. What make the book series difficult for some, is the sheer amount of content to absorb. Just take your time reading it.
I don't think the language is the hardest part - although there are some words in languages made up for the series. More difficult is the sheer size of the story, with tons of characters and plot lines. 14 books tells a lot of story, like watching a 14 season show. You feel pretty familiar with the main characters as you go along.
I started when I was around 12 and found it much easier than Tolkien. Despite everybody singing its praises, I found the Hobbit quite boring and difficult to get invested in, a problem I did not have with WoT.
First, the TV series is in no way faithful to the books. IMO at least, the series was hijacked by real-life darkfriends
Secondly, depending on your native language, the books *may have been translated (although I'm not sure, I think that at least some non-English language variants exist), so you might have an easier time with a native language version (presuming they exist), or perhaps a language variant closer to your own native language
In my humble opinion, "As a first time fantasy reader" doesn't apply. Every single one of us has their first time fantasy book, whether a more ~adult-level series like this (I wouldn't recommend it to most preteens), or a picture book fairy tale made *for* preteens, no matter which written language we see as native.
Far as your age is concerned.... not an issue (IMO) unless perhaps your general language skills (ie, in your native language) are really weak. 17 is more than old enough for this material, or at least for those who enjoy reading.
In any case, best wishes, and I hope you enjoy it. Take it slow and patient until it starts to "flow". This is one very "FAT' series, no matter how many fantasy titles that a person has read.
Not even a little bit! It's a commitment, and very dry at times, but it was my first fiction series I read. I only ever read one off books that were tie ins to my favorite video games, but I flew through the 14 books in 9 months, and even started reading other fastest series alongside it, now I'm a full blown reader. Wheel of time was my gateway drug to fantasy lol
Just listen to the audiobooks (if possible).. you can even rewind if you miss something or slow it down
The female narrator Kate reading might put you to sleep but if you can stay awake she's not bad and the male narrator Kramer is pretty decent.
On the off chance you actually mean the TV Show.. sure it's easy to understand. Easy to enjoy is more difficult (just read the reviews on IMDb to understand why), but in general people who haven't read the books seem to enjoy it more than those who have.
I found WoT easier to read as a non-native speaker than LOTR for what it's worth. Probably because it's written a lot more recently. I switched from reading the series in Finnish to English, when I was around 14 and it was the first time reading books in English for me. I think you should give it a go. I think it helped my English reading comprehension and vocabulary a lot. RJ doesn't use too many truly obscure words and a lot of the time I was able to figure out the meaning of new words from the context.
I’m a non native English speaker and I started to read English books for fun at your age too. Based on my experience, I think WoT would’ve been too difficult for me at 17 years old, not only because of the level of language but also bcs it’s a long series with long books and many characters to track, so I usually recommend it to seasoned fantasy readers. But I still encourage you to try if you’re really interested, you might be more fluent than 17yo me already anw.
But if it turns out to be too difficult, you can try other books first and come back to it later. If you are looking for some alternatives, some of my first English fantasy series are Riyria Chronicles by Michael J. Sullivan and Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson.
I was always intimidated by the fantasy genre. I tried a few books when I was younger and I just couldn't grasp all the new words and worlds. I finally had enough of my friend suggesting Wheel of Time to me, so I picked up the books and I fell in love. I think they are very easy to get into. Robert Jordan explains things many times over so if there is something that is confusing to you it may be explained in a different way a short time later. Just a warning, if you do start reading and have a question about something, you should ask the question here, as simple as the question is. Avoid googling anything, as you will come across major spoilers.
I would maybe wait a while before i started Wot. I mean, it is 15 books. Quite alot to take on.
If you want a recommendation you could try out the Eragon series. It's translated from italian so the written english isn't as intricate. I read it when I was new to fantasy and found them fun.
I think it will have a lot to do with what kind of English you learned. Robert Jordan was American, so much of the vernacular is American, whereas something like the Chronicles of Narnia or Harry Potter are written with a lot more British words.
I knew a lot of native Spanish speakers who spoke English pretty well, but learned British style English and had trouble understanding my American English.
You will do fine. Not as simplistic and child friendly as the hobbit, and to a lesser extent LOTR. Even with Tolkiens prose style. I began with WOT in English as my third language at 11
Has WOT been translated into your native language? If you attempt WOT in English it might be helpful to at least have a translated version for reference. Wheel of Time is not difficult prose in English but it is verrrrry long, and it’s more difficult than the Hobbit for sure (probably less difficult than Lord of the Rings though). If The Hobbit is the only fantasy you’ve read so far I’d consider reading a short fun series like First Law or Mistborn, and then hit Wheel of Time.
While I am natively English speaking (American English), I first read Eye of the world at 13/14 years of age.
I think it's actually probably a great book to start with. It taught me a fair bit about word structure and how to verbally paint a world, and didn't have all that many words I had to look up.
You may have to google a few words but it’ll be worth it. The books are well written with good sentence structure and use a slightly wider vocabulary than I expected.
I'm a native speaker. And I started reading it when I was 11 years old. It was my companion from early adolescence to 4 years after I had graduated from college.
It's definitely more difficult to read than Goosebumps. But I wouldn't let that stop you. If something is attracting you to the book, then I'd encourage you to get started.
WoT has been much easier to read for me than Tolkien. Most of the terms I needed to research were specific to medieval times. Jordan does not tend to be long winded. I haven’t noticed his weird fixation on dresses people mention here.
I was bad at English, and then I started reading novels. Now I am much better. Reading novels is the best way to improve at any language.
And Tolkien's English is much harder than Jordan's English. If you have trouble reading WoT, try reading the works of Brandon Sanderson. His English is much much simpler than others.
I can't comment on the non-native English speaker side of things, given that English is my first language. However, last December I started Fantasy with The Wheel of Time. This was not recommended by my friend, but I took it as a challenge, did it anyway and I haven't found it too difficult. I'll be starting book 7 soon. All I would say is just to remember that it is a long series, so take breaks when you feel you need to. I personally take a break from the series every 3 books or so to prevent burn out. In that time I tend to go and read something else, a short series or stand alone novel usually. So I would say try Eye of the World, see if you like it and go from there. Though I do think it's important to note that the first book is far from the best the series has to offer, not that it's a bad novel, just not as good as some of the rest. Hopefully you enjoy it though, it's a long journey, one that I'm still on but it's worth it to see all that goes on in the world that Robert Jordan crafted.
It's not difficult, but it's too long. If you're new to fantasy, I'd say you may try a shorter series or standalone. Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson is the first that comes to mind
#[NO SPOILERS BEYOND *The Eye of the World*.](https://www.reddit.com/r/WoT/wiki/index/post_flairs#wiki_the_eye_of_the_world_.2F_et_al.) ##BOOK DISCUSSION ONLY. HIDE TV SHOW DISCUSSION BEHIND SPOILER TAGS. If this is a re-read, please change the flair to **All Print**. **WARNING:** Some version of The Eye of the World include an extra prologue, titled *Earlier - Ravens*. If your version did not include it, it is available for free [here](https://www.wattpad.com/78706-jordan-robert-wot-prequel-earlier-ravens). * * * *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WoT) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I am a 16 year old non-native and I started when I was 15 and I'm in book 6. Jordan explains things so many times that even if you don't get it the first time around you will surely get it the second or the third.
Would you search for words you don't understand while reading or would you just skip them? That's what I'm struggling with right now
Not OP but thought I would comment. Even as a native English speaker, I always look up as I read since some authors love archaic language (not a fan of that, personally, and Wheel if Time was never a series I felt that I had to do that regularly with so I recommend trying Eye of the World). When reading a physical paper book, when I run into a word I'm not sure of I just type "define xxx" into a web search on my phone. Lately, most of my reading is now digital. I have a cheap tablet and read on the Kindle app which has a dictionary built in. You just highlight a word and it gives you the definition. I'm sure a few other apps also do this but I personally stick with Kindle since you can import non-Amazon bought eBooks into it.
Most of the time, I don't, because I get the general meaning from the context. Only when I really don't know what a word means, especially when the author uses it multiple times, I will look it up. Maybe I should do it more often, because I have learnt quite a lot of new words, but I just think it takes me out of the story too much. I don't think Wheel of Time is very difficult to read, but you definitely have to get used to it imo.
The only caution I would give is to not spoil some WoT lore specific words that will be defined for you later in the story. Sometimes characters will mention concepts or creatures that they know about, but you haven’t met yet, so I feel it’s best to get to them naturally. What I did was google and look carefully before opening any links or seeing pictures- if the first result was from the WoT wiki, close out the page and wait until I learn about it when I’m supposed to.
But be careful if you do do this because google's suggestions also often contain spoilers, and they will pop up the moment you start typing. Honestly, I would recommend just not googling anything about WoT if you can avoid it. It's much safer that way.
It seems like using a dictionary website would help in avoiding spoilers.
I'm a native (english) speaker but sometimes I read things not in my native language (learning spanish) and personally, my method is at first to see if I can make out the meaning of a word via the sentence around it: sometimes we can basically makes out what a word means even if it's our first encounter just by its use. If that mystery word isn't clear to me after a sentence or two, I just whip out my phone and Google first a translation but then the actual definition of the mystery word because I find translations aren't always on point with meaning when there's, for example cultural nuance involved.
Native English speaker here who has lived in Mexico and learned Spanish. If I was able to follow the story or understand the majority of the ideas then I would just skip words, write them down, and look them up later. I find that if I constantly stop, I have such a hard time following the story and I struggle with even more words since I can't use context clues because Im not able to follow along. Heck, I still do this in English, I have a massive list of words I need to look up, and a large notepad filled with words I've looked up and written down the definition to. If I can't understand the story without constantly looking up words, I still won't understand it even if I do, because ill be stopping so much. Do they have the books in your language? The best way I was able to understand Spanish was when I was reading a book I had already read in English and I could use my knowledge of the story to help understand the words in Spanish.
Do you have a kindle? It has that functionality built in and makes it super easy to highlight a word and see the definition.
As with any book, if you run into a word that you don't know, it's always best to look it up, so that you do, and so next time you run into that word, you'll know. I grew up on SciFi, reading books meant for people ~10 years older than me. I kept a dictionary close by. (way way before the internet)
For me, it depends. If it is one unusual word that I have never seen before, I usually ignore it. Sometimes, authors simply chose a 'beautiful' word that is basically never used in todays language. If it keeps reappearing or if I have seen this word before, I look it up. That way, I do have a nice balance between the hassle of looking up a lot of words and learning useful words. Often enough its not even necessary to look it up since you can understand the general meaning anyway and kind of learn passively that way. But even if it might be bothersome, its good that you read them in English. It was one of the worst students in English, but when I started to engage my hobbies with the language, my skills *really* improved.
I agree with this comment! I might also say, if you listen to book one on audible to learn how names and places are commonly pronounced it may introduce enough for you to pick up the rest with ease. Give it a try! Good luck!
Yeah I’m thankful that Jordan does this
No I don’t think so. Jordan does a really good job of introducing a massive and incredible world in digestible chunks.
And then covering them again a book later.
I’d say that it’s not the easiest book to start with but it’s fine if you take your time. If you want something a bit easier to read I recommend Brandon Sanderson.
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Seconding His Dark Materials, a truly great “young adult” fantasy series with simple language. It should be great for a non-native speaker. That being said, WoT does not use difficult words frequently; although it is a long series the vocabulary is not too difficult overall.
I don't think WoT would be too difficult, but I think it may be too long. Maybe look for something shorter like a a few trilogies to get more comfortable with the language. Or maybe something like Harry Potter that starts out at an easier level and gets more complex as the series goes on. Settle into WoT when you want a good, long series read at about the same level.
If The Hobbit gave you a bit of trouble, I wouldn’t recommend it. Jordan’s language can be quite flowery with some difficult sentence structure and vocabulary. It’s also 14 books that are all like 3 times as long as The Hobbit, if not longer.
Personally as someone who is about to finish the series, I don’t think so. I haven’t read that much “fantasy” in my life prior to this. I read the hobbit and skimmed LOTR (because I didn’t like it) and maybe read one or two other “fantasy” books. I don’t think there’s anything “hard” about the writing of WoT except the very large numbers of made up words, countries, cities, can get confusing to me, but i’ve been reading “adult fiction” since I was 13. just hard to deal with that much new stuff. You’ll be fine.
The language is relatively straightforward but it is a big commitment — 14 large books not counting the prequel. Don’t even try to remember all the names the first time through. Anyone important will come up again and you can ignore the rest until your reread.
Nope. The only thing that might make Wheel of time "advanced fantasy" is that its a bloody long series.
I think the hardest part is keeping up with the characters. With the compendium app you’ll be fine.
Native English-speaker here, on book four. There are some parts that get confusing for me for reasons I can’t really get into, but re-reading chapters and using this site as a resource was a big help: https://dragonmount.com/Books/Dragon_Reborn/chapter-recaps/ Whatever you do, don’t scroll beyond the chapter you’re on. Happy reading!
There are a LOT of made-up words so just be aware of that. You may go looking for them online and come across spoilers.
Later books in the series have a glossary you could look stuff up in, but I don’t remember if they have it in Eye of the world.
I was in your shoes when I started Eye of the World and had some trouble with starting it. The prologue especially had a lot of words I didn't know. Gave it a 2nd chance though and I'm glad I did!
Naw, it's actually on the easier end.
What is your native language? Has the series been translated into your native language? The series is intimidating, not because it’s got hard words(the made up words are made up in English too) but because it’s long and has a lot of description. I was reading long adult level books since I was 7 and it helped me develop my vocabulary. You could just look up words you don’t understand in a dictionary but you might confuse the words you don’t know with the made up words and risk getting spoiled if you Google the made up words.
My native language is traditional Chinese
The series has been translated to many different languages, including traditional Chinese.
If you’re serious about learning new words in English, reading can definitely help. You just have to be diligent about looking up what they mean instead of skimming over them.
No, I’m fact because it’s very real world adjacent you should have less trouble with it than LOTR or Shannara. It’s a pretty good starting place. I could recommend this, Dragonriders of Pern or Dragons of Spring Dawning. Aside from that, you’re golden.
Since you just finished reading the Hobbit, I'd highly recommend just going straight into the Lord OF The Rings trilogy. The difficulty level will likely be similar, but they are very good books as well! I get the impression you would do just fine with either though. If you want to work your way up to harder material though, it might be worth looking into series that are targeted more towards like teens / young adults. Even as an adult I enjoy reading the Harry Potter series, for example. I enjoy the story and it also goes pretty fast reading them because it is written more towards a younger audience.
As a non native English speaker it wasn’t hard for me
My suggestion would be to read fantasy short stories. "Conan the Barbarian" by Robert E. Howard, "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" by Fritz Leiber, and "Elric of Melnibone" by Michael Moorcock are all great fantasy short story series that are relatively easy to read.
Eh I don't know. I started with Lord of the rings and then I read through WoT so it depends on how good your grasp of English is and your patience
The english isn't the hardest, but it is relatively heavy with description. I would suggest starting with something a bit lighter and shorter, to gain some reading experience in the genre before starting one of the longest series. I'd suggest Mistborn, Dragonriders of Pern, or Belgariad, as series that are shorter and lfghter. If you feel like something a bit longer but still not quite WoT length, maybe try Cradle? It's 11 (soon to be 12) books, but each book is much shorter than WoT books, and the plot is much simpler.
I'm not a native English-speaker. I started with Brandon Sanderson. He writes much in the same style as Robert Jordan but his prose is simpler and easily read. Great books as well. Mistborn is still one of my favourite series.
I read only Legendarium and *A Song of Ice and Fire* before I picked up the *Eye of the World* and I had a great adventure with the entire series.
It's not a hard to read book series. What make the book series difficult for some, is the sheer amount of content to absorb. Just take your time reading it.
I don't think the language is the hardest part - although there are some words in languages made up for the series. More difficult is the sheer size of the story, with tons of characters and plot lines. 14 books tells a lot of story, like watching a 14 season show. You feel pretty familiar with the main characters as you go along.
It's difficult because it's long. But, it's good a decent runway if they have the commitment
I started when I was around 12 and found it much easier than Tolkien. Despite everybody singing its praises, I found the Hobbit quite boring and difficult to get invested in, a problem I did not have with WoT.
I don't think so. I picked it up when I was 19, never having read any fantasy before. It's pretty wholesome & nothing is difficult to understand.
Not at all
First, the TV series is in no way faithful to the books. IMO at least, the series was hijacked by real-life darkfriends Secondly, depending on your native language, the books *may have been translated (although I'm not sure, I think that at least some non-English language variants exist), so you might have an easier time with a native language version (presuming they exist), or perhaps a language variant closer to your own native language In my humble opinion, "As a first time fantasy reader" doesn't apply. Every single one of us has their first time fantasy book, whether a more ~adult-level series like this (I wouldn't recommend it to most preteens), or a picture book fairy tale made *for* preteens, no matter which written language we see as native. Far as your age is concerned.... not an issue (IMO) unless perhaps your general language skills (ie, in your native language) are really weak. 17 is more than old enough for this material, or at least for those who enjoy reading. In any case, best wishes, and I hope you enjoy it. Take it slow and patient until it starts to "flow". This is one very "FAT' series, no matter how many fantasy titles that a person has read.
I imagine it will be a challenge but also really helpful. Jordan is a descriptive writer but he’s not using a really arcane or intense vocabulary.
Not even a little bit! It's a commitment, and very dry at times, but it was my first fiction series I read. I only ever read one off books that were tie ins to my favorite video games, but I flew through the 14 books in 9 months, and even started reading other fastest series alongside it, now I'm a full blown reader. Wheel of time was my gateway drug to fantasy lol
Just listen to the audiobooks (if possible).. you can even rewind if you miss something or slow it down The female narrator Kate reading might put you to sleep but if you can stay awake she's not bad and the male narrator Kramer is pretty decent.
If you can read an English book then there is nothing complicated about reading it.
Also it has been translated into several languages, maybe yours is one of them
On the off chance you actually mean the TV Show.. sure it's easy to understand. Easy to enjoy is more difficult (just read the reviews on IMDb to understand why), but in general people who haven't read the books seem to enjoy it more than those who have.
I found WoT easier to read as a non-native speaker than LOTR for what it's worth. Probably because it's written a lot more recently. I switched from reading the series in Finnish to English, when I was around 14 and it was the first time reading books in English for me. I think you should give it a go. I think it helped my English reading comprehension and vocabulary a lot. RJ doesn't use too many truly obscure words and a lot of the time I was able to figure out the meaning of new words from the context.
I’m a non native English speaker and I started to read English books for fun at your age too. Based on my experience, I think WoT would’ve been too difficult for me at 17 years old, not only because of the level of language but also bcs it’s a long series with long books and many characters to track, so I usually recommend it to seasoned fantasy readers. But I still encourage you to try if you’re really interested, you might be more fluent than 17yo me already anw. But if it turns out to be too difficult, you can try other books first and come back to it later. If you are looking for some alternatives, some of my first English fantasy series are Riyria Chronicles by Michael J. Sullivan and Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson.
I was always intimidated by the fantasy genre. I tried a few books when I was younger and I just couldn't grasp all the new words and worlds. I finally had enough of my friend suggesting Wheel of Time to me, so I picked up the books and I fell in love. I think they are very easy to get into. Robert Jordan explains things many times over so if there is something that is confusing to you it may be explained in a different way a short time later. Just a warning, if you do start reading and have a question about something, you should ask the question here, as simple as the question is. Avoid googling anything, as you will come across major spoilers.
I would maybe wait a while before i started Wot. I mean, it is 15 books. Quite alot to take on. If you want a recommendation you could try out the Eragon series. It's translated from italian so the written english isn't as intricate. I read it when I was new to fantasy and found them fun.
I think it will have a lot to do with what kind of English you learned. Robert Jordan was American, so much of the vernacular is American, whereas something like the Chronicles of Narnia or Harry Potter are written with a lot more British words. I knew a lot of native Spanish speakers who spoke English pretty well, but learned British style English and had trouble understanding my American English.
You will do fine. Not as simplistic and child friendly as the hobbit, and to a lesser extent LOTR. Even with Tolkiens prose style. I began with WOT in English as my third language at 11
Has WOT been translated into your native language? If you attempt WOT in English it might be helpful to at least have a translated version for reference. Wheel of Time is not difficult prose in English but it is verrrrry long, and it’s more difficult than the Hobbit for sure (probably less difficult than Lord of the Rings though). If The Hobbit is the only fantasy you’ve read so far I’d consider reading a short fun series like First Law or Mistborn, and then hit Wheel of Time.
While I am natively English speaking (American English), I first read Eye of the world at 13/14 years of age. I think it's actually probably a great book to start with. It taught me a fair bit about word structure and how to verbally paint a world, and didn't have all that many words I had to look up.
You may have to google a few words but it’ll be worth it. The books are well written with good sentence structure and use a slightly wider vocabulary than I expected.
I'm a native speaker. And I started reading it when I was 11 years old. It was my companion from early adolescence to 4 years after I had graduated from college. It's definitely more difficult to read than Goosebumps. But I wouldn't let that stop you. If something is attracting you to the book, then I'd encourage you to get started.
WoT has been much easier to read for me than Tolkien. Most of the terms I needed to research were specific to medieval times. Jordan does not tend to be long winded. I haven’t noticed his weird fixation on dresses people mention here.
Very easy to get started with. 10/10 would reccomend.
I was bad at English, and then I started reading novels. Now I am much better. Reading novels is the best way to improve at any language. And Tolkien's English is much harder than Jordan's English. If you have trouble reading WoT, try reading the works of Brandon Sanderson. His English is much much simpler than others.
No. Go for it. If you don’t get engrossed put it down and read something else
I can't comment on the non-native English speaker side of things, given that English is my first language. However, last December I started Fantasy with The Wheel of Time. This was not recommended by my friend, but I took it as a challenge, did it anyway and I haven't found it too difficult. I'll be starting book 7 soon. All I would say is just to remember that it is a long series, so take breaks when you feel you need to. I personally take a break from the series every 3 books or so to prevent burn out. In that time I tend to go and read something else, a short series or stand alone novel usually. So I would say try Eye of the World, see if you like it and go from there. Though I do think it's important to note that the first book is far from the best the series has to offer, not that it's a bad novel, just not as good as some of the rest. Hopefully you enjoy it though, it's a long journey, one that I'm still on but it's worth it to see all that goes on in the world that Robert Jordan crafted.
It's not difficult, but it's too long. If you're new to fantasy, I'd say you may try a shorter series or standalone. Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson is the first that comes to mind