Trevor Fenn read the majority of the fourteen-book series “The Wheel of Time” during his junior year in high school; now, during his junior year of college, the final book will be released.
This year several new books will hit the shelves; Fenn and other BYU students have recommended the best books to read during 2013.
Fenn, a junior from Corona, Calif., suggested students pick up the fourteen-book series “The Wheel of Time.” The series was originally written by Robert Jordan. When Fenn was in high school, he read the first eleven books. Fenn said he knew there were plans to make the book a twelve-book series.
“I read them all and I thought, ‘Cool, when does the next one come out?'” Fenn said. “I looked it up. The author was dead. I was so mad.”
Fenn later found out that after the author’s death, Brandon Sanderson, who is currently a BYU professor, obtained notes left by Robert Jordan on how to finish the series. Sanderson decided to split the final book into three separate books. The first two were released in 2009 and 2010. The final book is called “A Memory of Light” and has an anticipated release date of January 8.
Fenn said students who want to read the final book have to read the whole series in order to understand the book.
“It’s a good series,” Fenn said. “It will take a long time. It took most of my junior year of high school to read the first twelve.”
Chani Boyce, a junior studying English, recommended the series “The Heroes of Olympus.” The fourth book of the series, “The House of Hades,” will be released in October 2013.
“In the book, Greek mythology is mixed into the current world,” Boyce said. “It’s a world of demi-gods that fits into a more modern world.”
Boyce also suggested keeping an eye out for the fourth book in “The Earthsoul Prophecies” series by local author Greg Park.
“It’s a mythological fantasy series,” Boyce said. “I imagine it would be pretty popular with BYU students. It is filled with Book of Mormon allusions and Japanese culture. It’s really cool, and it’s very well-written.”
Shauna McAllister, a junior majoring in food science, suggested that those who enjoyed seeing the first of the three “The Hobbit” movies should read the book by J.R.R. Tolkien before the other two parts of the movie come out. The second movie is set to debut in December 2013.
“I think (“The Hobbit”) is a well-written book,” McAllister said. “It’s a little bit of a different style than the ‘Lord of the Rings’ books, but it’s a good story.”
McAllister said that those who had seen the movie could find more depth to the story than what was portrayed in the film.
“They’re a little bit different than the movies, but it makes the movies more complete so I definitely would stress reading them,” McAllister said. “Tolkien really developed Middle Earth, so if you want to get the full back story you have to read some of his books.”
