"The Eye of the World" Final Thoughts *Spoilers Untagged*

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Ha! Yes, a nice, long series to while away the hours would be perfect then!

I definitely think that time and place matter. The Belgariad is not...a great series. But I l-o-v-e-d it when I was a kid and it still makes me happy today. If I'd picked it up today for the first time, I'd likely loathe it, not just because the times are different, but because I've recently been spoiled by books that make me so very happy. Reading a regressive fantasy book after all that would make me that much angrier.

[Rachel]

Yes I think that’s exactly my problem with the Amber series. Hard to go from something like Broken earth to...well anything else!

I also found it hard to get through The Diamond Age which was clearly brilliant but technology has come so far now...

These te-reads if old favorites make me nervous and I have t yet joined in - what if I don’t love WoT or Dragonriders anymore? 💔

Anyway sorry didn’t mean to hijack the thread! I’ll go back to creepily lurking

[Bobby]

@Anthony, there's nothing wrong with not liking a series everyone else seems to hold in high regard. I was just captivated by it from the moment I started reading it. It helps that I hadn't read LoTR at that point, so I had no idea it was derivative. Although I will say that I've read many books that others have called derivative and I have no problem with it.

I know I'm going to sound like a broken record, but you are getting a small piece of the story and characters right now. These characters and the new ones you meet in later books grow so much from the book they are introduced to the final book. You've seen a fraction of the world and its history at this point.

After saying all that, I'm not advocating that you keep reading the series, but it's just hard to hold it in when a lot of the things you didn't like are much different in later books. However, there are still things you didn't like that will be in the whole series, so there's no reason for you to waste your time reading that many books when there's a good chance you won't like it.

[Anthony]

@Bobby I appreciate your response very much. If these books weren’t so damn long I would consider continuing. Because there were glimmers of possibility sprinkled throughout that kept me thinking maybe it would really start cooking. But having to slog through hundreds of pages to get to those nuggets just winds up feeling kind of soul crushing at the end. In some ways it would be easier to feel like I could thoroughly dismiss this book and throw it in a trash heap, but I would never do that. Its potential somehow made it harder to read than if it had just been awful, if that makes any sense...

[Michele]

Anthony wrote: "I also still don’t know — and maybe we will find out? — why Perrin is so very freaked out by the idea of being able to communicate with wolves. "

Maybe it's like being a Parselmouth lol

[Michele]

Rachel wrote: "So you’re saying I should pick up the first Shanarra book that’s been sitting in my shelf for years ."

Oh god no please don't. Pick up The Summer Tree or Lord Foul's Bane or The Dragonbone Chair instead.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Lol Rachel! I didn't see your thing about Shannara! I actually have it and haven't read it either, though Michele's comment is less than encouraging haha!

One day, I'll at least try it.

Okay, I've finished this mammoth. I agree with Anthony. I'm so disappointed. I wanted to love it, truly, I gave it something like 5 tries to catch me.

The only thing irking me is that I do want to know the story. Is there an abridged edition that limits the number of inns referenced? I think if we take out the descriptions of those and the horses alone, we're at, like, what, 160 fewer pages?

[Anthony]

You’d also have to cut down references to grinning, to bile rising in the throat, to color appearing high in girls’ cheeks, to leathery-faced farmers, to similar dreams, to info dumps, etc etc etc

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Anthony wrote: "You’d also have to cut down references to grinning, to bile rising in the throat, to color appearing high in girls’ cheeks, to leathery-faced farmers, to similar dreams, to info dumps, etc etc etc"

Right, good point. With all that gone my calculation is this is a 250 page book. That would have been great!

[Michele]

Anthony wrote: "You’d also have to cut down references to grinning, to bile rising in the throat, to color appearing high in girls’ cheeks, to leathery-faced farmers, to similar dreams, to info dumps, etc etc etc"

Also the braid-tugging. Cut that and I think the page count for the whole series would drop by about 10%

[CBRetriever]

Michele wrote: "Rachel wrote: "So you’re saying I should pick up the first Shanarra book that’s been sitting in my shelf for years ."

Oh god no please don't. Pick up The Summer Tree or [book:Lord Fo..."

That's hands down the most derivative LotR book I've ever read (Shanarra book)

[Michele]

CBRetriever wrote: "That's hands down the most derivative LotR book I've ever read (Shanarra book)"

Yep. I mean, I think Wheel of Time is fairly derivative too, but at least Jordan takes the time to make up his own mythology to back up this story and has a whole bunch of strong female characters. Shanarra is basically just a scene-by-scene retelling of LOTR with a few cosmetic alterations :P

[Bobby]

I put off reading this after having it on my bookshelf for a long time. I really liked it. It wasn't perfect, but was a pretty good fantasy book. I probably liked the Witcher books better though they are a little more adult. This book was very clean and there were 5 teenagers. But the boys and girls never so much as kissed. I didn't really see any connection to Lord of the Rings. It reminded me a little of The Black Company although tamer. I don't know if I will continue with it. I ripped through the Witcher books without any prompting. I guess this book is a little too kidlike if that makes sense.