It's been almost a month since the season 3 finale of The Wheel of Time aired on Amazon's streaming service Prime Video, and despite glowing reviews and solid viewership, we still don't know whether the show will be renewed, much to our chagrin.
These decisions are made way over our heads, but we're always happy to provide Amazon and Sony with another reason to renew this show through to the end of the story. The Wheel of Time is based on Robert Jordan's 14-book series of epic fantasy novels, and we want to see them adapted in full.
Speaking of the books, before it became the all-purpose online retailer it is today, Amazon used to be a bookseller. Is The Wheel of Time show driving sales of the original books? If so, that would give Amazon a reason to be happy, right? Don't they love money over there?
We don't have hard data on this question, but there are plenty of anecdotes out there. Daniel Greene, a popular YouTuber who talks a lot about fantasy, told a story about visiting some used book stores. "I asked the guy if they had any Wheel of Time in stock...they said they couldn't keep it in stock since the show has come out, which made my heart warm. I love the idea of more people getting into Robert Jordan." The second store he visited only had one copy available.
Over on Reddit, one user stopped by a big box bookstore and was surprised to find The Wheel of Time books in stock and prominently displayed, which wasn't the case before. "They said sales of the WoT books have been up this month." Another user down the same thread talked about logging onto Libby, an app that helps people access ebooks from libraries, and noticed there was "a months long wait" to get a copy of the ebook and audiobook for The Eye of the World, the first book in the series.
All of these anecdotes came in over the past few weeks, in the wake of the season 3 finale. Is this hard proof that The Wheel of Time show is driving people towards the books, putting money in the pockets of anyone who sells them, like Amazon? No, these are just anecdotes, but they're pretty easy to believe. Of course a TV show would drive people towards the source material, especially if that TV was as good as The Wheel of Time in its third season. Now all there is to do is wait for Amazon and Sony to make the right decision.
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