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The Wheel of Time

The Wheel of TimeAmazon’s Amazon-produced adaptation of Robert Jordan’s fantasy book series is not a success. It often plays like an inferior version of HBO. Game of ThronesThis version has more magic, but less drama and more monsters, but more suspense.

The show’s mythological world building manages to keep the complex stories of the series in perspective. A portion of this world-building focuses on mysticism. But, most of it is about the self-organized faith communities that work together or against one another.

Similar Game of Thrones, The Wheel of Time is most interesting when it’s a story about not-quite-official governance enforced by various communal organizations—witch orders and witch hunters, dark and light followers, and even just local barrooms and bards. It’s a story about social control and governance in an absence of modern governmental institutions, much like high fantasy.