The Sibling Sidequest

Who would sup with the mighty must...distrust everyone around them, apparently.

After 2,000 pages of searching, the Bowl of the Winds finally gets used, and now it's winter. Congratulations, everyone.

In The Path of Daggers, Rand is becoming genuinely terrifying, Perrin is the only reasonable person in the room, Egwene outmaneuvers the rebel Aes Sedai, and Mat has apparently been deleted from the series for now.

We dig into the spectacularly underwhelming Bowl of the Winds, the Aes Sedai's  limitations, Rand's dangerous paranoia, and whether Robert Jordan actually intends to move this plot forward.

Plus: Lee has had enough of Manic Pixie Dream Min, thinks Mazrim Taim is full of shit, and is beginning to lose faith in the concept of narrative payoff altogether.

We’ve officially reached the halfway point of The Wheel of Time, and stopping after every book to examine it closely may have been a tactical error.

In A Crown of Swords, Rand is increasingly unstable, but he won't let that stop him from taking over the world. Mat continues to be the most useful person in the party while everyone treats him terribly. Nynaeve and Elayne finally find the stupid Bowl of the Winds. And Robert Jordan introduces 8,000 more women with nearly identical names.

We dig into Rand’s compelling descent into madness, Cadsuane’s Indiana Jones energy, the deeply mishandled Mat/Tylin sexual assault plot, and one of the most anticlimactic endings so far.

Plus: Lee has a Moridin theory, refuses to believe Moiraine is dead, and would like the record to show that after all these pages, the Bowl had better do something impressive.

Let the Lord of Chaos rule...and let us spend over a month trapped in Salidar regretting the choices that led us here.

Rand al'Thor cannot sit still. Aes Sedai keep tracking him down with bad intentions and even worse boundaries. The most recent False Dragon is building an army. And the solution for every problem seems to be "portal to a different building and yap about it."

We complain about the pacing. We gush about the Aiel. We decide that instead of hating Nynaeve al'Meara specifically, we hate all Aes Sedai universally. Mostly, we talk about why this book was such a stinker, and the handful of moments that saved it.

Full spoilers through Lord of Chaos, nothing past it.

The fires of heaven purge the earth...and one seriously scary woman tries to murder everyone over some guy.

Rand's life has basically become the "This is Fine" meme. The Dark One's henchmen are plotting his destruction. Someone's doing war crimes in his name. A group of overprotective women won't stop bringing him soup. 

We're discussing Rand's hostile takeover/liberation of two major cities, Mat's rise to accidental general despite his protests, and Nynaeve and Elayne's need for an immediate time out.

We complain about the circus. We fall in love with Mat. We rave about one of the best endings in fantasy, ever. And you can come along.

Full spoilers through The Fires of Heaven, nothing past it.

The Shadow Rising is the fourth book in The Wheel of Time, and we're here to report that it's also the best one so far. Lee has opinions about this. Strong ones. Loudly.

In this episode, Rand al'Thor runs out of excuses and into the Aiel Waste. Perrin goes home, which ends up being significantly more complicated than going home usually is. Mat gets hanged from a tree, receives the memories of a bunch of dead soldiers, and comes out the other side speaking a new language. Nynaeve and Elayne go to Tanchico, fight a Forsaken, and somehow survive. Also, a coup happens at the White Tower and we're not thrilled.

We also get into Rhuidean and why it might be the best piece of world-building Robert Jordan ever put on paper. Plus: why all the women in this series are angry in exactly the same way, and whether that's a feature or a bug.

Full spoilers for The Shadow Rising. No spoilers beyond it.

And it was written that no hand but his should wield the sword held in the stone... and Lee should discover that the titular Dragon Reborn is present for like four scenes of his own book.

In Episode Three of The Sibling Sidequest, we dig into The Dragon Reborn, Book Three of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Rand was super mature about his destiny and immediately fled into the wilderness alone, which means Mat, Perrin, Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne have to carry the entire novel. Turns out they can do it. Also turns out Mat is finally good now and we're all relieved.

We talk about Mat's full glow-up, why the Aes Sedai's "trust me, I'm mysterious" policy has never worked once in three books, and the Egwene/Nynaeve/Elayne plotline, which starts as a genuinely competent covert investigation and then requires them to get rescued. Again. We're sensing a pattern.

Also: the Stone of Tear has fallen, Callandor has been claimed, Bel'al goes down in about three seconds (Lance has a theory), and the thing Rand just killed may or may not have been the Dark One. 

This is the last book Lee has previously read, and the first one in the series she really liked. Lance was smug about it. The Shadow Rising cannot come soon enough.

This is a spoiler-heavy discussion of The Dragon Reborn, but we only spoil up to Book Three. If you're looking for a Wheel of Time podcast with strong opinions, you're in the right place.

And it shall come to pass that what men made shall be shattered... and Lee shall spend three and a half weeks reading a 700-page book that Lance considers a footnote.

In Episode Two of The Sibling Sidequest, we dig into The Great Hunt, Book Two of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. The Horn of Valere has been stolen, the Seanchan have arrived and they brought collars, Rand is still deeply opposed to being the Dragon Reborn, and Robert Jordan has apparently decided it's time to introduce every faction, magic system, and political structure he's been sitting on.

We talk about the tonal whiplash between Books One and Two, why the portal stone chapter is genuinely one of the coolest things in this series, and why the Ingtar reveal felt like a sucker punch to the heart. We also discuss the Egwene storyline, which was upsetting in exactly the ways it was supposed to be, and the Nynaeve/Lan romance, which...seriously??

Also: Mat is still on thin ice, Min deserves everything good in this world, and Padan Fain has become a whole separate problem and we love him for it.

This is a spoiler-heavy discussion of The Great Hunt, but we only spoil up to Book Two. If you're looking for a Wheel of Time podcast with strong opinions and questionable reading habits, welcome back to the sidequest.

The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, and it's willed us straight into The Eye of the World.

In Episode One of The Sibling Sidequest, our fantasy book podcast, we dive headfirst into book one of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.

One of us has quit the series three times. One of us has read it all more times than is probably healthy. Together, we break down this massive fantasy epic, from unambitious farm boys and nightmare road trips to why Shadar Logoth is the scariest part of the book.

We also air our (many) grievances, including our shared burning hatred of Nynaeve al’Maera and that wild ending where Rand suddenly does a bunch of unexplained magical shit and we're all just supposed to roll with it.

This is a spoiler-heavy discussion of The Eye of the World, but we only spoil up to Book One. If you’re looking for a Wheel of Time book podcast with sibling banter and strong opinions, you've found it. Welcome to the sidequest.

Every great adventure story needs a prologue, so here’s ours.

Episode 0 of The Sibling Sidequest is an introduction to our fantasy book podcast: who we are, how we read, and why The Wheel of Time is our first big quest. One of us is a first-time reader, one is a longtime rereader, and both of us have opinions.

From our different reading tastes to our shared nostalgia, we’re laying the groundwork for monthly deep dives, spoiler-heavy discussions, and plenty of sibling chaos along the way.

If you’re looking for a Wheel of Time podcast or a fantasy book discussion podcast, this is the place to start.