The Prologue (or Prologues?)

[Emily, Nae'Blis]

So the prologue to Eye of the World is somewhat well known. It's definitely one of the things that stick with people when they read the book. My only real memory of reading the Eye of the World for the first time was when I read the prologue, because I spent a whole of time time just thinking "What the fuck is going on?"

That being said, I really do like the prologue and the fact that its doesn't really explain what the fuck is going on. It does so just enough to give you an impression and to let you know the general conflict at hand. I like that it drops an entire world on you and doesn't really take time to explain itself. And I like how it takes itself so seriously and makes everything so dire and puts you in front of characters with god-like powers, then immediately afterward, you're just with a farm boy. The contrast between the prologue and the story that follows is jarring but it works really well to me.

That being said, many people who picked up the book years ago didn't get the Dragonmount scene as their opening, but got the Ravens prologue instead. I've read Ravens and I thinks its cute and I like it, if I do poke fun at it some too. Ravens was added for the Young Adult versions of the book and definitely reads like its aimed at a younger audience. I'm not sure I can imagine reading it as my first introduction to the series though, but maybe it works better on younger people than the Dragonmount prologue.

So what do you guys think of the prologue(s)? And if you were one of the people who had Ravens as your first introduction, what do you think of that?

[Jesse]

I’ve never heard of the ravens actually, but I will agree on the prologue, it really confused me to begin with, but I found myself revisiting it in my mind a lot the rest of the way through the series.

[Sofia]

When my dad first read the book to me it was the one with the alternate prologue (we got it from the library and it was the one that's half of eye of the world...now I can't remember if it had both prologues?), and when he actually bought the books it was the one with the Dragonmount prologue. I remember liking the Ravens prologue when I first read it, but I think I would like it more now knowing the characters. But it was cute and fun, and I was probably like 11 when I heard it so I was closer to the target audience for that. Definitely rereading the book I really enjoyed the Dragonmount opening, especially as like a 13 year old because I thought the characters in the prologue were really interesting, especially knowing nothing about what happened but getting this impression that there's this huge background that you're missing. Like it's pretty obvious that these two characters know each other, and they talk about things that make you interested in what's going to happen next. And I think it carries on this feeling as you keep reading so you're thinking, how was that relevant? Was it actually relevant? Is this ever going to come back up? Because it seems completely disconnected to the first chapter, but you assume it has to relate in some way. I think I like the Dragonmount prologue better because you don't get a resolution to what it was about right away so it feels more mysterious. And it made me want to learn more about the characters since they seemed really interesting.

[Mellifer]

I've never heard of the Ravens prologue either. I'll have to track that down! But I really enjoy the "regular" prologue; in fact, it might be one of my favorite bits of the whole novel. I like that it pretty much dumps a pile of background info onto you with basically no context and then you are allowed to make sense of it slowly as you learn more throughout the story.