Yesterday evening, I finished the Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson fantasy novel Memories of Light, the 14th and final volume of the Wheel of Time. Jordan published the first volume of this series in 1990; I began to read them in about 1992. While I cannot commend these novels as fine literature, and even hard core fans complained about how some of the volumes dragged, the series has given me a great deal of pleasure for the twenty years I've been reading them.
In case you're curious, the series involves a farm boy named Rand Al'Thor from a quiet town in the hinterlands. He lives in a world with magic; an order of female witches known as the Aes Sedai protects and serves the world. Rand and several of his friends are rescued from an attack of Shadowspawn creatures by certain Aes Sedai, and eventually Rand learns that he is the "Dragon Reborn," a supreme male user of magic prophesied to confront the Dark One at the Last Battle. Unfortunately, the male side of magic is tainted (due to events long ago) and any male who can use magic will gradually become insane. As the series progresses, Rand plans for the Last Battle that is finally fought in the last volume of the series, and along the way, various intricately detailed cultures and a vast number of interesting characters are introduced and developed.
The original author of the series was Robert Jordan, but sadly, he died in 2007 and the final three volumes were very ably completed by Brandon Sanderson (a popular fantasy novelist who teaches writing at Brigham Young University), based on notes by Jordan and with help from Harriett, Jordan's widow. One upshot of this is that out of respect of Jordan, there will be no sequels. I was disappointed to read that today. I will miss the series and the characters and world in it.