Despite the fact that I’m pretty well loaded down with, well, life, lately, I need to take my escapism where I can. One of the most convenient escapes is reading, as I’m sure it is for many of you dear readers as well. For the last few months, I’m plunging through my backlog of pulp sci-fi magazine subscriptions (I subscribe to both Analog and Asimov’s at the moment, and haven’t been getting to them) that I’ve had piling up. Taking my fiction in the small does short stories and novellas provide has been nice – I can knock out a story over my lunch break, for example, which is a nice way of doing things.

However, working through my pile, as enjoyable as much of it is, is starting to feel more like work than anything else. I believe a break from that is in order. That said, I’m still sort of itching for a project of sorts. Last year, I worked through the existing Song of Ice and Fire series, spurred on by how good the Game of Thrones TV series (as much as I’ve seen of it, anyway) is, as well as a couple of personal recommendations.

However, since GRRM isn’t writing any faster than usual, I need something else. Interestingly, the universe seemed to notice, and threw me something worth looking at.

This weekend on NPR, I heard a piece about this week’s release of the final volume of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. Haunting bookstores and libraries like I do, I’ve always seen this one out there, but the sheer immensity and (until recently) it’s incompleteness have intimidated me. Plus, there were always other things out there to fill the void. Jordan’s death a few years ago put me off of it further; as much a fan of orphaned 13-and-out TV series as I seem to be, I didn’t want to invest my time without a payoff. Of course, a while back, Jordan’s chosen successor picked up the baton – Brandon Sanderson. I adored Sanderson’s Mistborn series, which was a masterful piece of worldbuilding, and his ability to stage an action scene impressed me greatly. Sanderson’s now finished WoT based on Jordan’s notes, so if I start this business, I’ll at least eventually come to an ending.

That, along with nrlymrtl’s mention of the series this week (including a giveway of the audiobook of The Eye of the World, the first any one book in the series, save the last one!), and current read-along she’s got going on, amounted to too many incidents to ignore: I went ahead and ordered a box set of the first three paperback volumes, which ought to deliver by the end of the week.

So, it seems that despite all the other stuff I’ve got going on, I’ve just invested in another giant doorstopper epic fantasy series. Am I nuts?