World Famous Comics: The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book 1)
The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book 1)
By: Robert Jordan Publisher: Tor Fantasy Average Rating: Binding: Mass Market Paperback Label: Tor Fantasy Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 832 Publication Date: November 15, 1990
The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.
CAUTION! PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU BUY! First off, let me start by saying I loved this book. And most of the ones that came after it. But there are two reasons you should think very hard before you start this series.
First, the books get more and more drawn out until, as in the 10th book, 700 pages basically covers the amount of plot development that 50 pages of the first book accomplished. Part of the problem is that the list of characters continues to grow book after book. This means you have 30 characters or so and you jump from character to character, each allotted a significant amount of pages. This is not an exaggeration. Look at the reviews for the 10th book if you think I am joking. There are over 1500 One-Star reviews for this reason alone.
Second, as many of you probably know, Robert Jordan is dead. At the time of his death he had NOT completed this series. In my opinion that means this series was left unfinished. There are plans to release a 12th book to be written by Brandon Sanderson based on Robert Jordan's NOTES! Sanderson's ability aside, this is a far cry from actually having a 9,000 page series naturally concluded by the original author.
These are big issues and anyone interested in the Wheel of Time should really consider them before investing so much time into a series.
The Will of the Wheel is Good The Eye of the world lays the foundation for the Wheel of Time series, and introduces us to the colorful worlds of false Dragons, Darkfriends, Trollocs, Aes Sedai, Ogier, gleemen and more. It's a classic take on good and evil, with a twist. Edmonds Field is a small village that is suddendly attacked by evil creatures called Trollocs, who serve the Dark One. The main characters, Rand, Mat and Perin are then caught up in an ongoing adventure as they travel to Tar Valon for safety. The book spends a lot of time painting a picture of each place visited and how the people lived, but it didn't bore me. I've read fast-paced novels before, and Eye of the World is not one of those novels. However it makes up for this in substance. There are some things that should not be rushed. In the book, magic comes from the True Source, but only the feminine side is safe. Men who are born with magic inside them eventually go dangerously mad and die. So the only organized groups of magic-users are women(Aes Sedai, the male magic users are ruthless hunted down and "gentled" to prevent them from using magic. If you are looking for battle scenes on every other page, you won't find it here, but if you are looking for a well written epic and gradually draws you into its world until you are hooked, then Eye of the World is the book for you.
If you haven't read this series, read it!! I won't really go into the plot summary of this book, as I think it will be virtually impossible for me to keep this review reasonably short.=) It would be hard for me to give that summary and not want to add spoilers from later books, because things that occur in The Eye of the World you encounter later on and doesn't get expanded upon until later. So how could I explain without spoiling?
It would also be difficult because I'd inevitably refer to words, phrases, or characters that the newbie to Robert Jordan would have no clue what I'm talking about, leading me to have to explain...and well, you get the point!LOL I will instead give some of my opinions and thoughts about this book, The Eye of the World, and the series as a whole.
In anticipation of the 12th and final book to be released next fall, A Memory of Light, I decided to re-read this series. For those who don't know, Robert Jordan passed away last year in the fall of 2007, and died before he could complete the series. But, the final book will still be published and released with new fantasy author, Brandon Sanderson, to finish the series.
Okay, what did I think of this book? The first time I read this book, it was a bit hard going as I had to familiarize myself with the world Jordan created, and it wasn't until I read it a second or third time that I noticed aspects of the story I had missed the first time around. But even at the first time reading of the Eye of the World, I instinctively grasped knew this was a beginning of a *great* epic fantasy series.
Anyways, that can be a hinderance, it takes time to get to know this fictional world, and all the details in characters, countries, cultures, etc can be overwhelming to one new to the Wheel of Time world. Trust me, it may take more than one read of the books, but it's definitely worth it. I feel that the Wheel of Time series is one of the best epic fantasy books out there, and I've read my share. I am still in awe that Jordan could have created such an incredibly rich, detailed, and complex world populated with characters you get to know so well (yes, love 'em and hate 'em!) that you feel like you know them personally.
Another sticking point for some people is Jordan was the kind of writer that loved details, the more the better in his eyes. Being a details person myself, I love details, I didn't find this detracting from the story. I felt it helped me picture the story in my mind's eye more effectively, as I said before, this world is incredibly complex so I felt his detailed explanations of scenery, clothing, culture, etc was very helpful in seeing this world more clearly.
A lot of people notice this particular book borrows heavily from Tolkien and it is true, the flight of Rand (the main character) and his friends from their small village, The Two Rivers, with a person of magical* abilities (in this book they aren't called sorcerors or sorceress, but Aes Sedai, I'll say more on this later*) fleeing the minions of a big, bad evil guy. Very similar to LOTR. That is the only tribute, or rip-off (depending on the person you're asking.heh) to Tolkien because as you find out in later books in the series Jordan had pretty much gone in his own direction. He has even taken from our own real world mythological stories, such as the King Arthur legend and incorporated into this fictional world and changed them to suit his purpose. I'm pretty sure he incorporated other elements of real world mythological stories and characters into his series, but as I'm not familiar with all of them, I can't say for sure exactly which.
*It's later.LOL. Okay, I wince and cringe to refer to the powers (called One Power) in this book as "magic", it's never referred to in this fashion and neither are the practitioners called wizards, witches (okay, take that back the Aes Sedai are sometimes referred as "that Aes Sedai witch" in a negative connotation.heh.), sorceress, and the like. Jordan completely described these wielders of the One Power and what the One Power is in such a way that you don't think of it as magic, or I didn't anyways. It's too simple to just say, "it's magic".
One thing I never noticed my first time reading the series, but I eventually grasped, is he teases you with glimpses of small descriptions of the "Age before the Age of Legends", and these descriptions have led some to believe (myself included) that Jordan was alluding to our own real world. In other words, this Age was the modern day Earth we live in today (note, in this series, the time period is referred to by "Ages"...so, for instance, "Age of Legends" refers to a time period of wonder undreamed of by the present cast of characters in the Eye of the World). This is but one example of what I meant by the fact it may take you more than one or two readings to truly comprehend this world, Jordan uses a lot of symbolism in these books.
What I found fascinating and just incredible was how Jordan was able to weave all these elements together and spin out a fantastical story found in the Wheel of Time series. He makes you believe that, maybe what if...this Wheel of Time world really used to be our world only it has changed and now has such wonders?
Some view Jordan as a mediocre fantasy author, nothing great about him or his Wheel of Time series, others view him in the same light as Tolkien in his contribution to epic fantasy.
So, what should you do? You hear that the beginning books are great and they get bad around the later books. I've heard it differently depending who you ask....some people think only the first 3 books are great, the rest are horrible. Some think the book starts going downhill around Book 6, Lord of Chaos, and others Book 8, the Path of Daggers.
My suggestion to those of you who are curious about whether to start this huge series (yes, this is a big investment, a total of 11 books published now, soon a 12th which is expected to be the biggest book!) is to read with an open mind. Forget what others told you about what they expected from this book, and the disappointment they found when it didn't meet their expectations, just throw it out the window.
Read it because you want to read it, and if you are very curious don't let someone else sway you into not reading it. Be prepared to enter a wonderful, captivating, fictional world!
Best series in the world I have read this book several times. This is the first time that I decided to listen to the story. As much as I like the books, I love the audiobooks! If you don't have time to read the series, listening to the series is a great option.
Great Story This is the first book in a twelve volume series that will test the patience of its readers. having said that, and having read all eleven published works, the journey is well worth the effort. It took me about 4 months to read the first ten books, and have been waiting for three years for the last edition to come out. To all of the reviewers that say the series is not very good, i would like to know one thing. if the story wasn't any good, why did you keep reading even though the story slowed down? because you had to know how the story ended just like the rest of us. i have encounter many readers who said they made it to book 7 or 8 then quit because it was boring or slow or whatever. i don't know what kind of person will read roughly 7,000 pages of a story then give up when there are 3,000 left to go. You want a cheap pleasure. you are going to wait for the twelfth book to come out then get on the internet to find out how it ends so you don't have to put the work in. I wish that all the dedicated readers would not tell how the story ends on the internet. If the lazy readers want to know how it ends they should man up( or woman up) and read the books, don's be critical of the story without having read the whole thing.
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