How would you compare this multi-volume spinning-out of a single story with the “Conan” books, where you did a number of individual works that were part of a larger, but rather looser, series?
No comparison. I’ve made an effort to make each book stand by itself, but at the same time, I’ve tried to make each one a real part of the whole “Wheel of Time.” In something like the “Conan” series, the books are really independent; there is no real relationship between them. In this series, while you could read The Shadow Rising first, and enjoy it, I think, you are going to get more out of it if you have read the first three books. You will pick up things that will seem different because of things you know from the first three books, things that are different from what they seem on the surface. There’s a slightly different cast to things that people say and do.
If you are viewing this on github.io, you can see that this site is open source. Please do not try to improve this page. It is auto-generated by a python script. If you have suggestions for improvements, please start a discussion on the github repo or the Discord.