I’m of the age where the internet was something few people had, and you actually placed your telephone receiver onto a modem, and dialed a number to connect. You think current dial-up is slow now ? It took forty minutes to load a picture that was buried in snow on a mountain both ways . . . Anyway, as most people around my age and older, know word of mouth is how you heard about the really cool things about to explode on popular culture or become a cult phenomena. You hear whispers of something really cool, and a friend of a friend might be able to get there hands on the object for you to check out. Led Zepplin’s first album was 
passed from one smoke addled garage to the next until their popularity soared. Evil Dead was played at college theaters and largely unknown.
There have been quite a few things that I would have never heard about unless passed on from word of mouth of other friends. Monty Python’s Holy Grail was one such occasion where a friend had a copy of copy that he brought for a group of us to check out. I laughed so hard the first time through that many of the jokes I missed.
In 1995 (thereinabout), my geekness was made ironclad when a friend passed a rough looking copy of Robert Jordan’s Eye of the World, the first book of the Wheel of Time series. I had already read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, but for one reason or another was enraptured by Jordan’s series. I carried around these huge tomes in high school, and try to pretend I was reading the text book in class or listening to the teacher, but I was really reading The Wheel of Time. Below is a picture of all my Wheel of Time books.
By the time I was reading the series the sixth book was the latest one out. You can see in my picture it is around the eight book that I started purchasing on the day of release. You can see that Crossroads of Twilight, book eight, is a British edition- I was back packing Europe at the time of release and purchased it a couple of days later in Ipswich (they had a tavern that was first built in around 1516 that I wanted to have a pint inside).
I remember when I saw the headline of Robert Jordan passing away. I knew this to be a possibility, but hoped that he would finish the series before his death. Madlaugher and Cracker (read about section for reference to whom they are) both letting me know it happened with a touch a derision for good measure at my upended saga. Yet, a glimmer of hope was found, and I have been patiently waiting for Brandon Sanderson to add meat and sinew to the skeleton that Robert Jordan had thoroughly outlined for his last Wheel of Time novel.
So fifteen years later, on my doorstep was my pre-ordered copy of book twelve, The Gathering of Storms. The series overall has had its ups and downs. Some books better than others, some story lines more convoluted than others. However, I was giddy as ever about seeing it, and insanely excited about finally reading the end of this true odyssey. However, Robert Jordan’s outlined concept was so huge in scope that it is now being released in three volumes. . .
I swear if I have to wait another decade. . . then I’ll wait because Mr. Jordan you have me by the balls even in death- you devilishly talented writer you.
The connection to mead will become more apparent in a future post, but this is more or less a fanboy tripping down memory lane in all his geeked/nerded out glory.
Posted by admin on October 28th, 2009 :: Filed under
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