Picture Harry Potter on steroids. That's the simplest way to explain why you should read Robert Jordan's fantasy series, The Wheel of Time (TWoT).

Like other fantasy sagas, TWoT must be started from the beginning or readers will find themselves miserably lost in the later books. This is because TWoT is not a series of adventures loosely linked together from book to book, but rather one immensely long, involved story building up to one gigantic climax. To put it in other terms, the first chapter of book two is merely the next chapter after the last chapter of book one.

The engaging storyline started back in 1990 with the release of The Eye of the World(TEotW). At nearly 800 pages in length (about the average length of each book in the saga), TEotW flows surprisingly fast despite adding up to little more than a prologue for the rest of the series.

We are introduced to the protagonist, Rand, a naïve young man from the small village of Emond's Field. When the villagers take in strangers one night and are later attacked by a band of dark creatures known as Trollocs (TWoT's version of orcs), the bad luck is not blamed on coincidence. The tension builds as the strangers reveal that the evil forces were after Rand and his two best friends, Mat and Perrin.

The reason why these three have become hunted is what sets the story into motion, not only for the first book, but essentially the entire series. Over the course of the novels, Rand discovers that he is not who he thinks he is, but rather a reincarnated hero of time who can wield magic, reborn to save the world from impending doom.

As trite as the above may sound, no words in this brief review can do the complicated plot an ounce of justice. The intricacies and complexities are unlike anything the fantasy genre has ever seen. It's no wonder why every book is 500 to 1,000 pages in length.

Readers will find some world elements and characters reminiscent of those found in The Lord of the Rings (LotR) series, for better or for worse, but let's face it, this is characteristic of almost all fantasy today. Despite LotR's epic status, it pales in comparison to the magnitude and scope of TWoT.

Of course, this very fact also hurts the book as well. If a reader peruses a couple of the books and then takes a break, they may have trouble remembering the plethora of characters and plot elements upon returning to the series.

TWoT has developed a cult following over the course of its history. On top of being a bestseller, it has spawned a computer game and countless fan sites that analyze the story's mythologies, predict where the series is headed and host fan-written stories about the world of TWoT.

Those partway through the novels will be frustrated to know that the series has not even been completed. Jordan has released ten books over the course of the past 13 years and the author plans to wrap up the series in the next two to three novels. Unfortunately with almost two years between novels recently, old fans have a while to wait. On the flip side, this is great news for new fans, who have plenty of time to catch up on what they've been missing.