The Eye of the World

Evil dark bad guy bent on destroying/enslaving everything. Farmer boy is The One and must save the world. Finally does so by saying “no” to the bad guy when he visits in a dream? I dunno, I couldn't finish it (about 2h left on the 30h audiobook). A rambling mess with heaps of irrelevant (though interesting) worldbuilding and an uninspired storyline.

The first time I've ever not finished a book.

This started as a five star read. It was so refreshing after the bunch of grim dark novels with Malazan leading the way. Heartwarming even in its traditionality. I didn't mind the LOTR aspects as the story overall was more mature. I'm not a fan of Tolkien because LOTR is fairy tail for kids up to 12yo and no more. The genre has moved on but fans don't seem to.

This book appealed to me in that it has the same or similar tropes, hero's journey, high fantasy feeling but it's not afraid to go a bit darker (but not too dark) and down to earth.

But then came the middle part where the characters just keep traveling and traveling and it gets boring after a while. So one star down for that, I struggled until they met Loial.

And then there's the ending. I hated the TV show and its ending sucked. But it's what made me want to finally read the books. I intend to continue reading but it's a coin toss deciding which ending was worse. And I think the book looses.

Behavior of Perrin and Mat at the end didn't make sense. They just accepted vague absurd explanation of how the climax went without a second thought. Those two Dark One minions appeared out of nowhere and immediately were defeated despite being Dark One's closest servants? That's not how you write a novel! This was stupid and anticlimactic. Especially everything that Rand did (except teleporting and saving Fal Dara's army, that was cool). Another star down.

Okay,so I know a large faction of fantasy fans practically worship this series...However, I just don't see it. I liked this book but I didn't get that natural high you sometimes get when you've just read a really good book. For instance Rand is supposed to be the most important of the trio. Yet personally I much prefer Perrin. Over all a good book I just don't understand the hype.

Just like every other epic fantasy novel on the market. Beginning starts with a mysterious cloaked figure entering town. The (soon to be revealed) main character lives a small life, but is now the only person who can wield a magical tool/has a magical ability. It's predictable and rather boring. Stopped after 2 hours in the audiobook.

“Nog meer dan dertienduizend bladzijden”, was mijn eerste gedacht, toen ik aan The Eye of the World begon, het eerste van de veertien boeken in de Wheel of Time-serie.

En met elke pagina van dat eerste boek vroeg ik me meer en meer af hoe dit ooit een bestseller, laat staan een klassieker geworden is.

Geef zelf toe: het speelt zich af in “the Third Age”, het begint in een vreedzaam dorpje ver weg van alles, drie jonge kerels zijn in eerste instantie hoofdpersonages, er zijn “trollocs” (half-mensachtige dingen) en “fades” (een soort, euh, tja, Nazgûl), de drie kerels gaan verder weg dan ze ooit geweest zijn, komen in een herberg terecht, worden daar ontdekt door de slechteriken en moeten vluchten, geraken nét op tijd over een grote rivier die de slechteriken niet kunnen kruisen, geraken opgesplitst, komen in een ruïne van een ver verleden waar één van de drie onder de invloed van een vervloekt wapen raakt (een dolk die hij meeneemt uit Shadar Logoth, geen zwaard in zijn schouder op Weathertop), er is een tovenaresachtig personage met een “warder” met de naam Lan Mandragoran, die blijkt de laatste koning van een verdwenen koninkrijk te zijn, ze komen een jonge Ogier van 90 jaar tegen, een lid van een oud ras dat kan spreken met de bomen, die voor zijn soort wel erg impulsief is en die bijvoorbeeld de vergadering van Ogiers had verlaten toen ze nog maar een jaar bezig was, de slechterik was in een vorig tijdperk verslagen en “gebonden” in een gevangenis waar hij nu beetje bij beetje lijkt uit te ontsnappen, op een bepaald moment nemen ze een verkorte weg die al jaren niet meer gebruikt wordt en die afgesloten is met een deur die geen deur is en waar een meer met een monster met tentakels voor ligt, etc., etc., etc.

Bij meer dan veel momenten is het niet veel meer dan een zwak doorslagje van een Reader's Digestversie van Tolkien.

Maar hier en daar zitten er glimpsen van wat zou mogelijk zijn, en zelfs van in het begin is de wereld absoluut niet zwartwit. Er is bijvoorbeeld uiteraard de schlechte schlechterik, Shai'tan, maar zowel de Aes Sedai  als de Children of the Light vechten er tegen, en allebei zijn geïnfiltreerd, en geen van beiden zijn een monolitisch blok.

Ik herinner me dat ik de boeken gekocht heb toen ze uitkwamen en dat ik ze na een tijd niet verkeerd vond, maar ik vrees dat ik ergens na boek 7 of 8 gestopt ben met ze te lezen. Dat was denk ik na anderhalf boek waar er praktisch niets gebeurd was.



Ik ben ze wel blijven kopen, met de bedoeling ze dan eens allemaal te herlezen als de reeks klaar zou zijn, en ik heb ze staan tot boek 11, Knife of Dreams (2005). En dan is Robert Jordan gestorven en zag ik het helemaal niet meer zitten.

Maar! Brandon Sanderson heeft de fakkel overgenomen, en heeft hij er met de notities van Jordan een – hoor ik van overal – mooi einde aan geschreven. Op nauwelijks drie boeken.

En voilà, nu heb ik de reeks helemaal, alle veertien boeken, en dus dacht ik: lezen die handel.

Het eerste boek trekt eerlijk gezegd niet op bijzonder veel, maar ik herinner me we dat het beter werd voor het nog slechter werd, dus ik zie het voorlopig wel nog zitten. :)

When I was a teenager, the Wheel of Time was one of those series of books that really helped deepen my love of reading. I devoured the first six or eight books in a summer or two I think, but then I fell off of it and never completed the series. I've always wanted to try to get back into it, but it's a pretty daunting task with the length of it all. I initially considered trying to figure out where I left off and jump back in there, but my memories of it are so vague that I decided the best thing to do would be to start over and listen to the audiobooks.

It was really fun to revisit this. The world and ideas in this story just get to me. It's strange having a hazy recollection of things that come later, because it feels like so much less is revealed in this first book than I expected, but there's still so many hints of things to come.

At first I thought it was a lot faster paced than I was worried it would be, but I was definitely feeling the length of the book in the later half of it, even though a lot of interesting things still happens. I feel like there's an amazing 600 page book in here instead of a really good 800 page one.

I'm looking forward to making my way through this whole series, but I plan on taking my time with it and listening to it alongside other reading. I'm glad it has held up for me though!

If you read thus book, you step into a very long series. I think some of the substitutes are better than others, but you will come to love the characters. As a huge Tolkien fan, I don't understand the comparison. Sure, Jordan creates another world, with fantastic creatures, but the mythology is far different than that of Tolkien.

I really liked this book, and I hope that I will love The Wheel of Time. (Also, big fan of BookTuber Daniel Green :).)

It starts off very Tolkien-esque, which Robert Jordan admits was intentionally–him wanting to pursue a more “realistic” take on Tolkien. However, Jordan deviates from the Tolkien after the first third, going into more unique ideas (at least to my eyes, it has been a long time since I last read this).

I love the book, because of the characters and world (I'm not really a plot guy).

There are criticisms of course, the pacing feels a bit off for me. It's not a huge problem for me, but I felt it got too slow at some parts, and then quickened. For private reasons, I was not able to have a consistent reading schedule (and for the past few days I was too lazy to read at all), and I think that this might be the cause of this particular criticism, but I feel it to be true.

Secondly, though I haven't ventured far enough into Jordan to fully experience it, but Jordan sure loves his descriptions and info dumps. It isn't a big problem for me, yet (as I love info-dumps, and am quite forgiving of them)–I have a feeling that after 13 more books, or however many I decide to read, I will tire out.

4 stars because of enjoyment and the fact that I would recommend this (to be given at least a chance).

I'm a sucker for fantasy, so this was overall a good book, many similarities with LoTR. However, it felt too much like an introduction for the latter books in the series. There were too many characters introduced with minor participation in the story.

Too much time was spent describing mundane tasks and uninteresting events. The more interesting aspects lacked description such as the way magic worked and how the different factions played along with each other. Three factions were presented, and they all seemed evil.

Another problem for me was the main characters. They were naive, stubborn country boys and as such, they did a lot of stupid things. I don't empathize with such characters and I would like to have seen a more complex story.

I was a bit wary of this because of its popularity, but it surprised me. It's heavily indebted to Lord of the Rings (intentionally, from what I read), but it's more complex and layered than the Amazon Prime series. There's some actual character development and the differences from the show are all in the book's favour. I will continue with this series and see how it goes. Surprisingly good and very readable.

The first book in the Wheel of Time series. I've heard numerous people say to skip this one - and I can understand why. It was extremely slow, and monotonous at times. For a series that I always hear touted as one of the most amazing, must read tales, I was completely underwhelmed by it. I can see how the bigger world is being built up, but this story was more about a call to action without much else (besides some running around). I didn't feel attached to the characters or care too much about the weight on their shoulders. Ironically, I did feel that way for the Sword of Truth series – which was released after Wheel of Time and shares a VERY similar narrative. I'm not sure if I'll have the dedication to complete this series, but still aim to try a few more.

In my brain, I have been envisaging a fantasy novel for a while. It's not Lord of the Rings, but a basic high fantasy romp that is thrilling but still has slow world-building. This is kind of the best example I can think of of that baseline fantasy novel that has always existed in my brain. It is not the most exciting, well-written, nor most inventive fantasy but it certainly scratches the itch for a basic, fat, fantasy. It's a big blanket of inoffensive world building and compelling enough characters and mythology. It's fine! I would never tell someone they need to read it but for people like me who want to suck on a fantasy pacifier, this does the trick.

Listen, I definitely know that this series is intimidating because of the whole “oh my gosh, there are literally 14 books and each one is like over 500 pages, Ahhh”.  But hey, Lord of the Rings is also slightly intimidating and there are only 3 books. I think it comes down to how much the story captures your interest and attention as well as the time you can set aside to read the 3 (or 14) books and other factors. I am listening to The Hobbit audiobook (which is fantastic and I have almost finished it) but then again, there is a difference between The Hobbit being literally a Middle Grade and Lord of the Rings being adult fantasy (with a more descriptive and...dense, for lack of better word, writing style that takes quite a bit to get into. From personal experience).


Either way, let's get onto the review for the book and leave Tolkien and the World of Middle-Earth for another post :)


First off, a lot of plot points are probably very reminiscent of LOTR and The Hobbit. We follow ordinary characters (farmers and shepherds specifically) named Rand, Matt and Perrin (a.k.a my fave so far)  who live in a very detached place called The Two Rivers (very reminiscent of The Shire) and inevitably get attacked after a celebration (Bel Tine for EoTW and Bilbo's birthday party for LOTR). There are other aspects (keep in mind that the LOTR aspects I am taking from the generally known plot as well as from the movies. Horrible I know but I will read LOTR one day, hopefully) that I will not get into because I don't want to put out spoilers but I highly recommend trying out Eye of the World if Fellowship of the Ring seems intimidating. 


Continuing on...


Second off, the world-building. One thing that is so, so great about this book is the glossary! Honestly, all big fantasy books need glossaries, especially if they use made-up words. Seriously. I would be reading, see a word and be confused then go to the glossary at the back and bam! word has been found and I could continue with the story. The good thing is that the glossary does not spoil any part of the book which is always nice. I do, however, have to hold myself back from searching characters up on Google in fear of spoilers because I truly do want to continue reading the series knowing the littlest amount of information possible. I really like how much importance women are given and how they are the powerful beings rather than men which isn't something I really expected since so many powerful, magical characters are often men (an example being Gandalf. I do realize Galadriel is incredibly powerful as well but she is outnumbered by the likes of Elrond, Saruman and Gandalf.)


Third off, the characters! My favourite, as I have finished the first book is definitely Perrin. I am also a huge fan of Rand (as most farmer girls are apparently because I do live...around farms and honestly, if I were to say what the Amazon show did right, I would say it was the casting of Rand al'Thor that they did right. But then again, I can't form much of an opinion because I did only watch like the first 20 min of the show. MOVING on). I am genuinely feeling quite neutral about Nynaeve and Egwene. At first I didn't really like Nynaeve but liked Egwene but now I just feel more neutral about them both. I can see that they're definitely good characters and there is definitely room for more character development! I am really excited to get to the second book (not to mention the other 12 after...what a fun adventure THAT is going to be)


Well, this was a really fun read, much to my pleasant surprise and of course, my first 5 star of the year! 

Not having read a whole bunch of fantasy (save for Harry Potter and Narnia) I am not sure I can say this but I will: I thought the book original. The story as well as the cast of fantasy characters.
There were creatures I had never thought or heard of: Wolfbrothers and Ogier are my favourite.

It was fun to read through it and I didn't feel that the descriptions of the landscape or the characters was tedious or extremely lengthy (as I've heard Tolkien can be). But I did feel that the story wasn't intended to be this long. It felt like the first Harry Potter in the first 200 pages. A story that started to take on its own life as the author was writing it.

Around page 400 the characters caravan was split up around the river the Arinelle and the story started to fork from the one narrative into 3. Following Nynaeve, Perrin and Rand together with the other cast with which surrounded them at the time.

In terms of character development, I'd say there is hardly any. However it is not really a problem in this story. The story just meanders on through the world Robert Jordan created and is interesting enough to follow. It might not really be high literature or anything. But it sure is an entertaining story and a good read.

Some words that caught my attention (lot's of equestrian terms):
lather (noun): sweat on a horse's neck
discomfit :to make uneasy or perplexed
rictus: the expanse of an open mouth / gaping grimace
ostler: a person employed at an inn
tart: having a sharp or pungent taste
acerbic: sour or bitter tasting
rote: memorizing process using routine
hackamore: a rope or rawhide that can be lowered over a horse's eyes
slipshod: marked by carelesness
gelding: castrated horse
murk: total or partial darkness
mastiff: an ancient breed of dogs
resplendent: splendid or dazzling in appearance
querulous: given to complaining
inchmeal: little by little, gradually
temerity: foolhardy disregard of danger
unctuous: characterized by insincere or exaggerated earnestness
torrid: parched with the sun's heat
fetor: offensive odor or stench (a fetid smell: fetor).

Obsessed already

This is my new favourite fantasy series without a doubt. This first book brings you into such a fully-realised that you could almost believe it's based in some truth. The character could do with a little more personality but you definitely learn to love and dislike them. But as I said, the world, cultures and civilisations is where this book excels. Making you feel like everything is tied and has its own space in this vast land that Robert Jordan has created. If I could give this six stars, I genuinely think I would...

The wheel weaves as the wheel wills.

The Tolkien influence on this book is obvious, but the Wheel of Time still stands on its own with the depth and breadth of its world and lore. What an amazing introduction to a glittering new fantasy world that I can't wait to dive into and find out more about. 4.5 stars from me.

The story starts off introducing us to Rand al'Thor, a regular farmer's son from the small cozy village of Emond's Field in the Two Rivers. The village is all excited for their festival, Bel Tine, when they are suddenly overrun by Trollocs. Rand is put on the run with two of his best friends, Perrin Albara and Matrim Cauthon, along with a mysterious lady stranger and her stoic bodyguard. They set off on a long, long journey that brings them face to face with all the stuff of legends.

There is no doubt that Robert Jordan did an absolutely stunning job at creating this world. Unlike most high fantasy novels where the world is usually a flat backdrop for the plot in the foreground, you can tell that the world in the Wheel of Time is vast. There are passing references to other cultures or bygone eras which has no direct impact on the plot but just serves to flesh out a real three-dimensional world that feels way beyond whatever we are able to see in this one book.

The plot in itself is fairly straightforward, but also compelling. A group of people go off on a long journey, first to escape evil but then to confront it. A lot of questions are set up in this book that are probably deliberately not answered - this is, after all, a 14-book series - but yet the book in itself is wrapped up in an overall satisfying way. You end off feeling satisfied but still wanting more.

The main cast of characters are compelling in their own way as well, though some more so than others. For a good majority of the book, our three teenage boys behave impulsively and make poor af decisions. I am only thankful that none of them go off on a “Why me?” tortured-Chosen-One tirade. We have a good mix of female characters in the cast as well, each powerful or with great potential in her own way. My favourite character, however, has to be Loial the Ogier, who is a cinnamon roll, doesn't care about much, and is just along for the ride. Good ol' Loial, may the Light illumine him forever.

Highly recommended for anyone who loves fantasy and intricate world-building, especially those who love high fantasy and Lord of the Rings.