The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, #1) in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Apr 22, 2010 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it it was ok

Shelves: novels, fantasy, fiction, popular-fiction, ultimate-reading-list

This starts the Wheel of Time series. Doorstopper length, maps, a prologue, glossary at the end, told in omniscient with a pseudo Medieval European setting. Epic high fantasy ho!

Mentally I was counting off in the first chapter all the parallels to Lord of the Rings: Rand as Frodo, Mat as Merry, Perrin as Pippin, Emond's Field as the Shire, a party where there will be fireworks--and especially the mysterious and ominous figure robed in black reminiscent of a Ringwraith. I worried this would be a This starts the Wheel of Time series. Doorstopper length, maps, a prologue, glossary at the end, told in omniscient with a pseudo Medieval European setting. Epic high fantasy ho!

Mentally I was counting off in the first chapter all the parallels to Lord of the Rings: Rand as Frodo, Mat as Merry, Perrin as Pippin, Emond's Field as the Shire, a party where there will be fireworks--and especially the mysterious and ominous figure robed in black reminiscent of a Ringwraith. I worried this would be another Tolkien clone. And yes, it is, even if it feels less derivative and more its own book as you go along. Not quite as blatant a ripoff as Brooks' Shannara and better written, but just way too close for my comfort down to the names of places and characters. There are also allusions to the Arthurian legends, which might have felt less intrusive without the Tolkien overtones. It made me wonder if elements I found original in the novel were just lifted from books I don't know.

Social roles and even the system of magic were strictly separated by gender in this novel, but I have to give Jordan credit for giving women a part to play almost as prominent as the men in this novel--quite in contrast to Brooks (and even Tolkien). That and the less painful writing earns it one star higher than Sword of Shannara, but the problem is I still found this novel bloated, tedious, eminently skimmable, and without one character I cared about--particularly the main point of view character, Rand.

I'm not sure why. Omniscient can be distancing, but so much epic high fantasy--like Tolkien--is written that way. None of the characters grow in this story--but do Tolkien's really? Frodo maybe. But yes, even if Tolkien himself based Middle Earth on Norse legend, I didn't read Lord of the Rings feeling as if the characters, plot and world were xeroxed--it felt fresh, it had quotable lines--and a sense of humor and theme. Jordan left me cold--and bored. (Oh, and those dream sequences--the pain, the pain...) Will not be reading more.

Jordan recently died and the last two volumes of the series are being completed by Brandon Sanderson from Jordan's partial manuscript and outline, which will bring the series of doorstopper books to a baker's dozen. ...more

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May 11, 2014 Joel Judge rated it liked it

The Eye of the World was an enjoyable yarn squarely in the epic fantasy genre. While I found the story line extremely similar to Lord of the Rings, a group of unworldly youths are torn from their safe uncomplicated lives and must begin a quest to save the world, etc, etc, etc... this fact alone was not enough to turn me off the book. Although far from original, I found the story had enough twists and turns to maintain my interest. With eleven more books in the series, I'm not sure I'll have the ...more

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Jun 12, 2009 Michael rated it liked it

This is a Wheel of Time review, not Eye of the World.

When I first read WoT, it was amazing--it was my introduction to modern fantasy after reading Tolkien and the children's fantasy series "Redwood". WoT is a lot of fun, and epic.

That being said, WoT is pretty trite (Tokien derivitive with hero-quest, dark lord, etc.), the characters are two-dimensional, and the story really starts to lag as the series progresses. Writing/prose, as with much of SFF, is fair to poor.

I'd recommend this for young ...more

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