The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time Series #1)

a great start to the best fantasy series

even if you do not read another book in the wheel of time series, the eye of the world is quite satisfying as a self contained masterpiece as well. that being said, read the whole series! you will not regret it. the sweeping scope, masterful writing style, and epic story are unrivaled. from the first paragraph you will find yourself drawn in, and the fleshed out characters will keep you hooked. robert jordan takes a genre that is often not taken seriously and gives it literary credibility. though he pays homage to his predecessors, like tolkien, in some of the imagery used, jordan not only makes the world of fantasy his own, but sets a new standard and quality at which it can be enjoyed. get it.

19 out of 19 people found this review helpful.

I looooove this world.

This series of books is one of my all-time go-to regular reads. What I really like about this world Robert Jordan (may the Light illumine him :) made is the women. Usually, fantasy books and hero journeys are Brave Young Men with ancillary women who nurture them, tempt them or occasionally heal and clean up after them. In this series, the women are heroines with equally thrilling arcs and journeys, too. Perfect series to start on vacation or snowbound weekend. Those of you who are re-readers like me, this series, beginning with this book, is a great addition to your stash. The cover art is silly, and I encourage you to ignore it.

9 out of 10 people found this review helpful.

Slow, Poor Plot, Poor Writing

You may have seen "the first 100 pages are slow" in another review. The first 1550 pages of the 1847-page eBook are slow.

Nothing really happens, it's really a basic tale of a journey from here to there with people chasing you. Further, there was no rhythm to the story. By that I mean there weren't exciting, nail-biting parts in between the slow parts. I kept waiting for something to happen. The last 150 pages completely changed pace and too rapidly (for the pace of the other ~1600 pages) completed the book. It was like the author thought, "well, I've written a lot, now I need to end this book."

I didn't really identify with any of the characters, a rarity for me when reading fantasy, until probably 2/3 of the way through the book, when the nature of a character changed (but not the protagonist). The characters are fairly well-developed, but for me at least, uninteresting, thus I wasn't "rooting" for any of them.

Finally, it's really important in the fantasy genre for the author to be able to paint scenes with words, so the reader has a clear image. The author failed miserably in that regard. Often, I was left wondering, "where did that come from?" Also, many of the sentences are awkwardly-formed, with strange placement for dependent clauses.

And at least in the eBook, the dialog isn't split into separate paragraphs (and at the same time intermixed among multiple characters and narrative), so it is sometimes difficult to tell who's speaking.

Oh, and the first 100 pages...almost all narrative.

7 out of 46 people found this review helpful.

Force your way through the first 100 pages...It is so very worth it!

The first 100 pages or so are incredibly boring.

That being said, there are over 8,000 pages in this incredible epic. You know the saying "Be prepared for late nights"

Well, once you fall into this incredibly complex world, this will be your state for at least a couple of months.

7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

Great Book

When I first picked up this book, it didn't look thrilling or anything like the type of book I would enjoy reading. When I first began reading, it dragged a bit at the start but as the story progressed, so did my enthusiasm to read.

Some parts of this novel are slow and seem to drag on, but it is still a worthwhile read. I am now on the 3rd book in this series and it seems to be getting better and better as the series goes on.

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Amazing series all the way through!

The eye of the world is the beginning of a 12 book series that will end with one last book. The author died before finishing the last one, but gave extensive notes and verbal recordings of the plots and characters for the author who was to finish the series. Another fantasy autor, Brandon Sanderson, will complete this amazing saga. This first book, (not counting the prequel) starts out small, compared to the levels the others reach. That said, it is still a must read for any true fantasy fan. The scope of the characters and plot is enormous throughout the entire story. You will find yourself pulled into the story and wanting to finish all of the wheel of time books.

5 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

Scooter's Opinion!

The world starts out in full color. Every detail in character and environment is taken into consideration. It's hard not to be able to visualize anything that Jordan writes. He's very graphic in scenery, character, and thankfully emotion. He spares no detail. The plot is straightforward in this one. Kinda like just being put on a path that has no forseen ending. (Hopefully by book 15!) If you like any of the Tolkien or other fantasy writer books, then I urge you to take a good, long look at this here book. I can almost guarantee that you'll be buying the Great Hunt in no time! And thanks for reading Scooter's Opinion! :)

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Why torture children?

I was enjoying the story until I read a thousand pages dedicated to terrifying and torturing children. I have read 2400 pages of the e-book and they are still being tortured. I think I will skip to the end. There are wonderful characters in the story like Moraine and the Warder and Thom and many others. Just too much time and emphasis on terrifying the youngsters for my taste.

2 out of 12 people found this review helpful.

Some have criticized the late, great Robert Jordan for being ove

Some have criticized the late, great Robert Jordan for being overly detailed, unrealistic, and Tolkienesque. The raging popularity of George R.R. Martin has swayed fantasy fans and critics in favor of concision, gritty realism, and complexity. Clearly, that has worked for Martin, and props to him, but there are still a significant amount of us who enjoy a good dose of, well, fun in our fantasy novels. Yes, there is quite a bit of traveling. Yes, there are detailed descriptions of places and events, and detailed, somewhat repetitive descriptions of characters. Yes, a hefty chunk of this novel mirrors LOTR (which was Mr. Jordan's intention). But as one critic smartly put it, Tolkien's influence on fantasy literature (or LOTRature, as I like to call it, hee hee(: ) is so powerful that it is next to impossible to escape the foundations and rudimentary conventions that he laid down. In fact, one runs the risk of looking ridiculous if they really strain themselves trying to avoid following in Tolkien's well-traced footsteps. Robert Jordan, in full awareness, took Tolkien's model, beefed it up, and ran away with it over the course of the eleven novels that he lived to produce. The aspects of WOT that bug some people are utterly delightful to a different group of people (i.e. true fans and fantasy buffs, and not stuffy critics or champions of Martinesque realism).

Now to the book. This is a long, absorbing, charming read. Rand al-Thor, who calls to memory Luke Skywalker, even if he is not nearly as revolutionary or distinctive, is an acceptable hero, as one honestly desires to watch him grow and mature as the story progresses. Characters like Mat, Perrin, Moiraine, Lan, Egwene, Nynaeve, and Loial all have agendas of their own, and so they are equally fascinating to watch. The story is simple, but charmingly told, and wonderfully evocative, so occasional long, slow stretches are not too terribly distracting. Finishing this book, and seeing the size and number of the other books gives one the wonderful feeling of being in for a long, cozy, and thrilling ride. The writing is great, and anyone who says otherwise is either nitpicking, or lamenting the absence of gratuitous sex scenes, bastards, tyrannical midgets, and graphic, gory battle sequences. Instead, one gets romance (real romance?? Imagine that!!), dashing heroes, dastardly villains, and exciting battles and skirmishes. If you cherish those things, then pick up this book and get lost in this world.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Eye of the world

Why ramble. The best book i have ever read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

There are two parts to this review, the quality as an audio book

There are two parts to this review, the quality as an audio book and the quality as a novel. Luckily both are great. The audio is well recorded and acted. There are two narrators, a male and a female. This works out great because the point of view flips from male to female across chapters.

This brings up one of the great aspects of this story, great characters. Most stories tend to revolve around a single character, all other characters simply orbiting the main character. There is a main character in Eye of the World, but the other characters have such well developed personalities and goals, you can forget they aren’t the main character.

The story could be boiled down to a basic prophesied hero story, but due to the characters it is so much more. It is hard to talk about this book with giving anything away. Each event is an integral weave in the entire pattern of the story. I can say that when the characters are in danger I felt tense and when they laugh, I smiled along. Every obstacle I found myself cheering the characters on while at the same time fearing the worst for them.

It is a rather epic story. It is the first volume in a series of 14. I really can’t wait to dive into the rest of the series.
Reviewed by Chris for Book Sake.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Just go buy it, you'll never find it's better!

I am quite a picky fantasy-fiction reader, and this book (and the whole series) has worsened that condition tremendously. I’ve read Tolkien, and for people to call Jordan Tolkienesque is an insult to Tolkien as Jordan blows his work out of the water. He didn’t carry on Tolkien’s work, he created a new and invigorating work which is unparalleled. (for you Tolkien fans out there, sorry for the extreme sacrilege :)
I have read this book every year for the past 10 years and it still hasn’t gotten old. It’s the only book I’ve been able to do that with as I can’t seem to forget things I read. However, knowing exactly what will take place barely denigrates the book as it is a master work from a master of fiction…The Master of Fiction: Robert {freaking} Jordan!
Get the book…seriously…stop what you’re doing and buy it…NOW!
…I’ll be watching to make sure you do so…
…

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Book Review

This book is exactly the kind of thing I'm into. The plot, the action, the dark, mysterious-ness of it. I just love it all! I can never put the book down once I start reading it and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the series all summer!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Amazing story

This is an amazing series. The characters are dynamic and well developed. The story is captivating. Some of the female characters parts are kind of boring to me, but that is the only negative thing about this series. Blows game of thrones out of the water.

This is an amazing series

The storyline and characters are amazing.

Epic

Best fantasy series I have read!

Must read!

Wonderful characters, amazing plot, adventure and very exciting. Great writing, makes you feel there...

This series is amazing! Sometimes I will admit that the author does go off on a tagent but the series gets better later on. Just stick with it!

This is one of my favorite series! It is very long, and the next books are even longer. The author goes into a lot of detail and back story. His grasp of the female mind and lack of female heroines gets way, way better in the later books. It can be hard to keep all of the characters and special words strait but there is a dictionary in the back for that.

Good charters and plot

This adventure has a good flow through the meetIngs of the various characters and events. I look forward to more.

Great

Good story

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.