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    Wheel of the Infinite
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    Wheel of the Infinite
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    Wheel of the Infinite
    Ebook419 pages7 hours

    Wheel of the Infinite

    By Martha Wells

    4.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

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    About this ebook

    A black storm is spreading across the Wheel of the Infinite. Every night the Voices of the Ancestors--the Wheel's constructors and caretakers--brush the darkness away and repair the damage with brightly colored sands and potent magic. Each morning the storm reappears, bigger and darker than before, unraveling the beautiful and orderly patterns.

    With chaos in the wind, a woman with a shadowy past has returned to Duvalpore. A murderer and traitor--an exile disgraced, hated, and feared, and haunted by her own guilty conscience--Maskelle has been summoned back to help put the world right. Once she was the most enigmatic of the Voices, until cursed by her own actions. Now, in the company of Rian--a skilled and dangerously alluring swordsman--she must confront dread enemies old and new, and a cold, stalking malevolence unlike any she has ever encountered. For if Maskelle cannot unearth the cause of the Wheel's accelerating disintegration--if she cannot free herself from the ghosts of the past and focus on the catastrophe to come--the world will plunge headlong into the terrifying abyss toward which it is recklessly hurtling. And all that is, ever was, and will be will end.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMartha Wells
    Release dateNov 16, 2014
    ISBN9781502212894
    Author

    Martha Wells

    Martha Wells is the author of five previous novels: The Wizard Hunters, the first book of the Fall of Ile-Rien, The Element of Fire, City of Bones, Wheel of the Infinite, and The Death of the Necromancer, which was nominated for the Nebula Award. She lives in College Station, Texas, with her husband.

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    Reviews for Wheel of the Infinite

    4.5/5

    26 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Wheel of the Infinite is a stand alone fantasy novel. Every year the Wheel of the Infinite is created. The Wheel of the Infinite is one with the world – it represents the world but it also is the world. A change to the Wheel will change the world. And this year, a black storm of destruction has appeared on the surface of the Wheel, and nothing the priests do can remove it. To find the answer before the final ceremony must take place and the changes made permanent, the exiled priestess Maskelle is summoned back to the city of her birth.Soon into the book, Maskelle meets Rian, a barbarian swordsman, and the story switches between their POVs. In a lot of ways, The Wheel of the Infinite is a mystery story. While the book may alternate POVs, Maskelle is undeniably the main character. If this were a straight up mystery novel, Rian would be the Watson to her Holmes. The two of them get together fairly quickly, and there’s pretty much no angst to their romance.As I’ve come to expect from Wells, the setting is vivid and imaginative. There’s a distinctly non-European cast to it, and something about it reminds me of Southeast Asia. There’s carved stone buildings, canals, and towering, mountain like temples.Something I really liked about The Wheel of the Infinite was the heroine, Maskelle. She’s older than your typical fantasy heroines, at least in her forties. She’s got a history, and not all of it’s good. She’s powerful, strong willed and intelligent.While Maskelle was the most stand out character for me, I appreciated the others as well. I wonder about Rian’s life in his home country, which doesn’t sound pleasant. I also loved the humor provided by the presence of a group of entertainers that Maskelle’s traveling with.If you are interested in The Wheel of the Infinite, the first chapter is available for free on the author’s website. I found it a solid, well written fantasy novel that I would recommend, particularly if you’re looking for a powerful and older female lead.Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
    • 4/5
      The protagonist hooked me right away. Maskelle is a powerful middle-aged woman who gets respect the moment she steps into a room and never hesitates to use her authority. This made me so happy. The setting sucked me in, too. I kept wanting to know more about Maskelle's religion and her place in it.The ending wasn't at all what I expected, and yet it made perfect sense considering everything that came earlier.
    • 4/5
      The Wheel of the Infinite is a round image of the world that represents reality; a change to the wheel will change the world.Maskelle, a middle-aged high religious functionary of the Infinite, is called back to the capital for the rite that remakes the wheel each year; this time, something keeps going wrong. Maskelle has been traveling with a group of itinerant actors, and in the course of their journey she meets Rian, a swordsman who, albeit younger, becomes both Maskelle’s protector and lover.The world-building is complicated as is the plot, but both are impressively rich if not always readily understandable. But there is enough mystery and danger to keep readers turning the pages.
    • 4/5
      Intermittently interfering gods and a 100year ritual really complicate life, as disgraced Voice of the Adversary makes her way back to the center of worship only to find the problems aren't just hers but threaten the entire reality. But she picks up a sarcastic hunk who has her back, so that's cool. A rare middleaged protagonist with attitude and angst who just keeps dealing with what's in front of her. Also a wicked puppet.
    • 3/5
      That was a whirlwind of an ending. Very strange pacing: The first 50% go by very slowly, with lots of time in the protagonists' heads, and then the pace accelerates and keeps accelerating until the very end. It's like all the plot happens then, and all the character work happens in the front. I don't often say this, but I think I would have liked it better as a trilogy with more time to unpack all the relationships and ideas.
    • 3/5
      An exiled nun (of a religion very like Buddhism) travels with her mysterious sword-wielding bodyguard to discover how and why the Wheel of the Infinite (a model of the world done in sand that recreates the world every year) is being destroyed. Along the way she must battle a demon-puppet, court intrigues, the Celestial Throne itself, and her past mistakes. Wells sidesteps clichéd plots and melodramatic moments neatly.
    • 5/5
      I really wish I had the time to write this one up fully, but it’s awesome! The worldbuilding is incredible (oh, wait, I just said that…). It’s also a mystery with a great main character. In short, it’s one of those books that made me wish I could write this well. Bonus: beautiful cover. Dobble bonus: multicultural sff, where everyone is treated respectfully and comes across as real people!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Sword-and-Sorcery of a superior ilk. Wells is widely praised for her original world-building and that is skill is on display here. The central plot concerns a highly detailed religion with vague hints of eastern spirituality which anchors the magic into the nature of this world. The well-developed (as a character, not like at the gym), middle-aged female protagonist is refreshing in a fantasy work. The plot gets a little more convoluted than might be necessary. And there's a bit of back-story that, when it's finally explained, doesn't quiet live up to the buildup. But those are not major flaws. A definite cut above the usual mark for the genre.

      1 person found this helpful