Warrior of the Altaii by: Robert Jordan

The fourteen-book epic fantasy The Wheel of Time was published from 1990 to 2013 and written by Robert Jordan (real name James Oliver Rigney Jr).  Jordan’s career as a published author, however, began in 1980 with Tor Books under the pen name Reagan O’Neal with a trilogy of historical fiction novels and initially rose to prominence with a series of novels based on Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, but it wouldn’t be until October 2019, over a decade after his passing, that his first novel would be published.  Warrior of the Altaii was written between 1977-1978, before Jordan had done any work on what would become his magnum opus.  Unlike many books that do not receive publication, Warrior of the Altaii was not rejected because it was bad, it was rejected due to issues in contracts, or just by making bad decisions.  Publishing the book in 2019 with Jordan’s widow and editor, Heather McDougal, in charge of the release of the novel through Jordan’s publisher Tor Books.  Going into Warrior of the Altaii, readers shouldn’t be expecting the next great epic from Robert Jordan.  The book is only 346 pages long, shorter than all but one installment in The Wheel of Time (New Spring is shorter) and takes place in a completely different world to the rest of Jordan’s work.



Warrior of the Altaii is an incredibly interesting novel to read after being familiar with The Wheel of Time as this novel has several precursors to Jordan’s magnum opus.  There’s a sisterhood of magic users, the world is dichotomized by gender, women in the role of power while men are the warriors, and even a precursor to the ta’veren concept.  There’s the attention to detail in the history of the world, though nowhere near as deep as Jordan of a world as Jordan is famous for.  There never really was a feeling of what this magic system could do, or if men could even use the magic at all.  There is a lot of development on one city in this world, but the rest is left pretty blank to be honest.  The villainous queen sisters Eilinn and Elana reminded me of quite a few plot points used in The Great Hunt, readers of that novel will know which ones I’m thinking of.  The novel ends with a battle that only Jordan could write, as he wrote so excellently in The Wheel of Time and honestly Warrior of the Altaii feels like this may have been a point of being the first installment in a series that never was.



Warrior of the Altaii is through and through a novel from 1978 and an example of barbarian fantasy which was popular at the time.  Wulfgar, the protagonist of this novel, refers to himself and is referred to as a barbarian at several points through the novel.  He is the example of the strong leader in peak physical condition and laughs in the face of danger, with plenty of women bowing at his feat.  Yes, this book hasn’t been edited for publishing in 2019, and is presented faithfully with all of its little blemishes, but luckily Jordan manages to write something that is able to overcome much of the releases at the time.  There are still the hints of the strong female representation and what Jordan would do so well, but Warrior of the Altaii is one of those novels that is intrinsically linked with pulp fiction.  I will also admit that this may be because barbarian fantasy is not a genre I typically read, so if you are a fan of this genre you may get more out of this.  As it stands, Warrior of the Altaii is an interesting read that as a first novel is definitely a good novel, better than many other first attempts, and is of interest for fans of The Wheel of Time in particular to see how Jordan’s style evolved.  It is a great novel, if flawed by falling into certain traps many first-time novels fall into.  And yes I will review The Wheel of Time one day.  8/10.