Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

A lot of people emailed me with alternate formats of Warbreaker, which I really appreciate. Here are just a few of them. A lot of you have also sent me proofreading errors and the like, which I intend to input sometime soon. For now, here is 6.1 in several formats. (I'm posting two of each just in case one doesn't work for you for some reason.

PDF Versions:
Warbreaker 6.1 PDF (Thanks Eric!)
Warbreaker 6.1 PDF (Thanks Fritz!)

MobiPocket (Prc) Versions:
Warbreaker 6.1 prc (Thanks Kevin!)
Warbreaker 6.1 Prc (Thanks David!)

There were others who sent me versions as well, but these were the ones that happened to be at the top of my inbox when I did this. Thank you to everyone who took the trouble to convert the document for me!

With the announcement of the movie deal for the Wheel of Time, I had a lot of emails asking me for more of my thoughts on the matter. Specifically, do I think that the Wheel of Time books can be made into good movies?

Well, the answer is no. But I do think that a good movie can be made from the Wheel of Time books. Let me explain the distinction.

I think that books can make excellent inspirations for movies—but the best movies, particularly in fantasy, that come from books are the ones that adapt the work, rather than just trying to film it scene-by-scene. The Lord of the Rings movies are an excellent example. It would have been a miss-fire if Jackson had tried to turn the books into movies; instead, he used the books for material to make great movies.

The formats are very different. If this were a TV mini-series, then I could see The Eye of the World being adapted straight across. In a feature length film, however, there would have to be adaptation. I look at the Harry Potter movies as another example. The first film was only okay, but the third film was great. Why? Because the third film's director adapted the story, choosing the parts that were the most cinematic, and didn't just try to film the book—he tried to make a great movie, taking elements from the books.

Maybe this is blasphemy, but it's the only way I see a good movie coming from The Eye of the World. There is just too much going on, too many characters, too much weight of history, to make it into a two hour movie. However, there are stories in The Eye of the World which—if adapted—could make an excellent movie.

In the end, however, if it gets more people to read the books, then the movie has at least accomplished something. That's why I sold movie rights to Alcatraz, even though I knew that Hollywood has a good track record of making terrible movies from adapted sources. (Fortunately, I've got a lot of confidence in the team working on Alcatraz over at Dreamworks.) But if the movie ends up getting even one more person into my books, then I feel that I'm ahead.

Who knows where the Wheel of Time movies will go in the future. Maybe they'll get made. Maybe the option will just sit there gathering dust. Maybe they will turn out to be terrible, like some other recent fantasy book adaptations. Or maybe we'll get lucky, and they'll get a director who understands the books and can bring out the same FEEL of the novels while still adapting them in a way that suits the film medium.

The thing is, you never know which of those you're going to get until you try. And so, I repeat my congratulations to Harriet. Let's all keep our fingers crossed.