The Eye of the World
Wheel of time book 1
By: Robert Jordan
Published: 15 January 1990
My Rating: 4 Stars
A classic fantasy book people in a small village minding
their own business when a disturbance happens to the quite village. When
mysterious figures come to the normally quite village. The town is attack by Trollocs this sets the
story in motion. The witch Moiraine, tells the villagers Rand, Perrin and Mat
that they were ones the trollocs were after. They are joined by two other
villages Egwene and Nynaeve. The book is of their fleet as they flee from all
that they have known it the wider world. We learn a lot of the world Jordon has
created. we are given a dark world where they are hoping for the dragon reborn
to save them from the Dark lord. Our heroes learn of (some) his plan and go to
stop him. It is hinted that one of the three boy the story is the dragon reborn,
the one to stop the Dark Lord.
Reading reviews of the book I was hesitant to read this book
and have been putting it off for years. The reviews were either good or it was
“just a rip off of Lord of the Rings”. Reading the story, I did notice some similarities
but not enough to say it was a rip off. (I actually had a look as to what
people were saying the similarities were they are mostly tropes. There were
some I would say were closer to being a rip then the tropes are (but I will
make another post on this later).
It may have been that I went in with low expectation that I
really enjoyed the book. I found the pacing is slow at times. the story was
slow to start up with a bit of the mystery vibe with the fade appearing to only
some people the get the town spooked. The story starts to pick up when the
group runs from Trollocs. The pacing slows down again after the group are
separated at Shadar Logoth and have their own adventures; for a what felt like
most of the book. These adventures didn’t feel like they added to the overall
story just felt like it was adding length to the story. Some of the events in
Perrin and Egwene story feels like they will have bigger implication. Rands and
Mats adventure felt like it was to add in characters it’s not until they get to
the city of Caemlyn they their story picks up. We meet Loial and learn about
the false dragons that are plaguing the Westlands. But once everyone meets up
again, they learn of the Dark Lords plan to go and stop where the story picks
up again.
The ending was good we learnt he dark One has gained some
power and is prison is breaking. Overall,
the Book feel like its setting up a big world with history and prophecy of the
dragon reborn and the end world.
