The Wheel of Time: The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
December 15, 2002

Genre: Fantasy

     Robert Jordan’s The Eye of the World is about the endangered lives of Rand, Mat and Perrin who are being sought after by the Dark One.  None of them know what particular importance they have to the Dark One.  So they are whisked away by the Aes Sedai Moirane and her Wardener, Lan, from their comforts of their home, the Two Rivers, and set off on a perilous journey.  They are relentlessly tracked by the Dark One’s servants; Trollocs, Myrrdral and Dark Friends, which they must overcome.

     What I enjoyed most about The Eye of the World was the different conflicts each of the three boys face.  Although Rand, Mat and Perrin are facing a conflict with evil, all of them face their own inner struggles for very different reasons.  At the point where the company is separated from each other, I love how Jordan was able to successfully transfer from one character’s perspective to another, without causing the reader to be utterly lost in the storyline.  Also, chapter after chapter, the accounts of all the characters occur almost in a perfectly chronological timeline.  Thus, the narrating would be of one character, and then the net chapter would be of another character; occurring just after the last events.  (Did that make any sense?)  

     Further, Jordan has been hailed as the ‘Tolkien of Today’.  Though his style of writing is definitely not the same, nor the depth of his work cannot even scratch the surface of Tolkien’s, he creates a new and beautiful world of which his loyal fans can explore that can rightly deserve to be called: great.  However, there does seem to be a few obscure similarities between The Wheel of Time and The Lord of the Rings, such as the quaint setting of the Two Rivers can be somewhat of a parallel to the Shire.

     I suppose there is not much more to say about the Eye of the World, other than more praise; but if you do seem to be even mildly interested in this book, beware.  The Eye of the World is the first of The Wheel of Time series; which consists, so far, of nine novels of 600-800 pages in length, with a few more books on the way.  Also, The Eye of the World ends rather abruptly, leaving a huge cliffhanger and hundreds of unanswered questions.  Hence, you must have both an enduring and dedicated attitude to fully enjoy Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series.  But I can assure you, that you will not be disappointed if you enjoy reading fantasy, and besides, it is a great way to pass the time waiting for the next The Lord of the Rings movie to come out! ;)  Oh, and another thing, these books do tend to get fairly dark and frightening, so, just a little caution for the fearful!

 - Bobo 

Rating: