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The Eye of the World | Rating | |
| A | |||
| Robert Jordan | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| The Wheel of Time | The World of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, New Spring, The Eye of the World, The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, The Shadow Rising, The Fires of Heaven, Lord of Chaos, A Crown of Thorns, The Path of Daggers, Winter's Heart, Crossroads of Twilight, Knife of Dreams | ||
The Wheel of Time series is one of the great fantasy tales of modern times. There are people who hate the series, and they have very good points. It's extremely long, and it's not even done. It's also very, very complicated, with a dozen major threads running through the world, each of them important to the battle between good and evil, Light and Dark, so it's hard to keep track - especially in the two to three years between each book.
But this book, the first book of the series, doesn't have those problems. It actually moves quite quickly, once the action starts. And anyone who can't take a mere fifty pages to set up the characters and world before the action starts in a 650-page hardcover is really, really impatient. If they're that bored here, it's a good thing they drop out now, because it does slow down in later books.
But like I said, this is about this book. The Eye of the World is about Rand al'Thor, Perrin Aybara, and Mat Cauthon. Mainly about them, at any rate - there are hints of the plot splits to come, if you know to look for them. The peace of their sheperds' town is shattered when Trollocs invade, beastial half-animals that hail back to the war with the Shadow, three thousand years ago. The three discover themselves at the center of a whirlpool of events, with the Dark One after them personally. For what reason, they do not know. But it would be a bad idea to get caught in his net. So they, and others, flee the village.
Upon rereading the book, I was somewhat surprised by how many elements were introduced so early. Clearly Jordan was working on a different schedule early on than he is these days. The book moves pretty darn fast, really, and there's plenty of action. The characters seem real, the magic has decent metaphysics behind it, and the pressure is always on. You're never allowed to forget for a moment that these are three country boys completely out of their depth as they are chased by creatures from legend. They have help, at times, but by and large they're just trying to do the best they can not to be killed - or worse, caught. It's easy to empathise with them.
I really, really recommend this book, this series, for people who like fantasy at all. Yes, it's long. Yes, it's not done, as of this writing. Yes, at least one of the books sucks. But it's not this one. It's a fine start to a series that, in my opinion, not only rivals but surpasses Tolkien.
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