The Eye of the World - Review
The Eye of the World (Book 1) is a thrilling and adventurous
book filled with suspenseful moments, intriguing mysteries, phenomenal
world-building/history, and an interesting magic system. I really
enjoyed this book much more than I expected to. This review has light
spoilers and will be covered in 5 sections. Characters, Plot,
Setting/World-Building, Pacing, & Prose/Readability.
The main POV character in this book is Rand al’Thor but there’s a handful of chapters from other POV’s around the halfway point (Perrin and Nynaeve). Rand is a very relatable and likeable character. It’s implied that he is the chosen one and there are a lot of important events that revolve around him, but he’s never portrayed as a flawless or perfect protagonist (aka Gary Stu/Mary Sue). He does a lot of dumb things, he has poor self-awareness and is perhaps the worst secret keeper in the history of the fantasy genre, but making those mistakes and being so relatable is why I like him so much. It’s easy to sympathize with him because he just wants to live a normal life while all this craziness is surrounding him and he’s also questioning his entire life after overhearing his “dad” Tam’s ramblings from his fever dream. It’s kind of crazy to think about how much he’s been through since the 1st chapter of this book and there’s still 13 more books to go in this series.
Although Rand is the main protagonist, my hands-down favorite character in this book is Perrin. You’re made to think that he’s a slow-witted guy at first, but once you get to his POV chapters, you realize he’s actually a smart guy who likes to think things through before making decisions. It’s just Rand and Mat who make decisions way too quickly, so you see why those 2 are always getting in trouble. There are many interesting revelations about Perrin and I wanted more chapters from his POV in this book.
Egwene is a really adorable character. She reminds me a little of Arya Stark from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire series. She’s hilariously stubborn and doesn’t put up with anybody. I’m not going to judge Mat as a character yet because he wasn’t really himself in this book, and that is purposely done due to the story. Lan is a stoic badass. He doesn’t really speak much so when he says something or is surprised/worried about something, it carries so much more importance. He’s such an interesting character because you don’t get to know much about him but near the end of the book, his backstory is revealed and it adds so much more layers to his character. I like Moiraine on the surface but her character is so vague and shrouded in mystery. She seems like a good person, but she’s definitely hiding something and it feels like she has an ulterior motive. Nynaeve was annoying in the beginning, but then I started enjoying her being snappy at everyone and giving an attitude. Her confrontations with Lan and Moiraine were hilarious.
As for some of the side characters, my favorite in that bunch would be Thom Merrilin. He was so much more than he appeared to be. I thought he was just going to be a minor character in the background, but he has an emotional backstory which explains his furtive behaviour towards Aes Sedai and it gives his character a lot of depth. Tam al’Thor is Rand’s father but I would still group him as a side character in terms of page time. He has a very mysterious backstory and I really hope he gets back into the picture because I want to learn more about him. Elyas Machera is a lone wanderer that Perrin and Egwene meet. It turns out that he has a special connection with wolves and he literally travels and hunts with an entire wolf pack which is so badass. Loial is a friendly gentle giant who’s really into his books and history. He’s such a charming character because he’s always hilariously interrupting Moiraine or other characters in important moments and he's always apologizing to people because he thinks almost everything he says/does is offensive to humans when it’s not. Elyas and Loial are both awesome and I hope they play a bigger part in future books as well.
The beginning of the book was a little slow because there was a lot of setup and exposition going on but I enjoyed the explanations of the magic system, the detailed world-building/history, and there were also some great moments in the 1st half of the book such as Tam’s revelations, the story about the Battle of Manetheren, & the Trolloc/Myrddraal battle where Moiraine shows her true power. This book really was a thrilling adventure. There were so many moments filled with tension where I felt like I couldn’t breathe because I wanted to know how the group as a whole or specific characters would get out of a certain situation.
This book was at its best when the whole group was together on their adventure. I only liked it when they split up mainly because that was when the Perrin POV was introduced and him going on his separate adventure with Egwene was great, but Mat and Rand’s separate journey was pretty slow and boring at some parts. On the other hand, the group splitting up also gave us the comedic gold of Nynaeve’s petty arguments with Moiraine and Lan, so that’s good. The plot really kicked into high gear once everyone started converging in Caemlyn. The whole chapter where Rand meets Elayne and Gawyn was awesome and everything after that (Traveling through the Ways, going to Fal Dara, arriving at the Eye of the World, & the confrontation with the Forsaken) was really good.
The plot gets a good amount of comparisons to The Fellowship of the Ring but I thought it had a lot of unique and interesting elements to the story. The way this entire world works is fascinating, how time is an ever-weaving pattern and events/places are pretty much the same in every age but after each new age, the previous one becomes a myth and all the places take on different names and the people living in the current age embody people from a past age, sort of like reincarnations.
I also really enjoyed the concept of having 2 aspects to the magic system for male and female users. The male half of it is corrupted so there's an organization of entirely female magic channelers (Aes Sedai) which is the norm and it’s considered really dangerous for a male to channel the One Power in this world. It’s such an interesting role-reversal and it creates a lot of conflict with several characters in the story. The Aes Sedai are heavily mistrusted and feared by the common folk. Most people believe they are the puppet masters who make Kings and Queens dance to their strings and meddle in the affairs of every nation. There’s a lot of mystery and misconceptions around the Aes Sedai so I’m excited to learn more about them in the next book. On a side note, the dream sequences were done very well. They were very trippy and creepy but it was also really important to the plot and has a lot of future ramifications. Now that all of the Lord of the Rings references/homages are out of the way, I’m excited to see where this story is truly headed.
The setting of this book takes place in various locations, which speaks to the good pacing this book has and how grand an adventure it felt like. In just 1 book, the characters went from Emond’s Field (a village in the Two Rivers), to the city of Baerlon, to the city of Caemlyn, then went through a damn magical transportation pathway to the city of Fal Dara, and much more. Not to mention crossing several rivers, villages, and inns. Again, all in the span of 1 book. This book did a really good job of also fleshing out other locations in this world that weren’t visited such as Illian, Tear, the Sea of Storms, the Aiel Waste, etc.
I never thought I would find world-building as awesome and epic as George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire series but Robert Jordan is on par with him. He has really fleshed out this world, with all the different nations, cities, groups, creatures etc. It’s kind of crazy to think about how many different groups were introduced/mentioned in this 1 book such as Aes Sedai, Darkfriends, the Forsaken, Tuatha’an, Aielman, the Children of the Light, etc. There is so much amazing backstory to this world and such descriptive past events that I wouldn’t mind reading a book that compiled all the history and lore of this world that Jordan has created. It is really fascinating. My 3 favorite pieces of history were the Aiel War (which might be a hint at Rand's origins), the retelling of the Battle of Manetheren and Lan’s entire backstory/origins.
Image: Padan Fain escorted by Shienaran soldiers.
[Pacing]:
The pacing of this book is pretty good. Not a lot of action going on in the book as it’s mainly an adventure with characters running around from place to place, but there are plenty of suspenseful moments that make the story go at a good pace and there’s still a few action sequences that were pretty cool. There was one section of the book (3-4 chapters) where Rand & Mat travel from an Inn, to a farm, to another Inn etc. That part was pretty slow but other than that, I had no issues with the pacing.
The prose was really good. It felt similar to George R.R. Martin’s style, which is a good thing. I heard a lot of people mention their frustration about how long Robert Jordan spends on describing clothing such as the specific amount of buttons on a shirt or giving painfully-detailed descriptions of skirts but for this 1st book at least, I didn’t have a problem with it.
[Characters]:
The main POV character in this book is Rand al’Thor but there’s a handful of chapters from other POV’s around the halfway point (Perrin and Nynaeve). Rand is a very relatable and likeable character. It’s implied that he is the chosen one and there are a lot of important events that revolve around him, but he’s never portrayed as a flawless or perfect protagonist (aka Gary Stu/Mary Sue). He does a lot of dumb things, he has poor self-awareness and is perhaps the worst secret keeper in the history of the fantasy genre, but making those mistakes and being so relatable is why I like him so much. It’s easy to sympathize with him because he just wants to live a normal life while all this craziness is surrounding him and he’s also questioning his entire life after overhearing his “dad” Tam’s ramblings from his fever dream. It’s kind of crazy to think about how much he’s been through since the 1st chapter of this book and there’s still 13 more books to go in this series.
Although Rand is the main protagonist, my hands-down favorite character in this book is Perrin. You’re made to think that he’s a slow-witted guy at first, but once you get to his POV chapters, you realize he’s actually a smart guy who likes to think things through before making decisions. It’s just Rand and Mat who make decisions way too quickly, so you see why those 2 are always getting in trouble. There are many interesting revelations about Perrin and I wanted more chapters from his POV in this book.
Egwene is a really adorable character. She reminds me a little of Arya Stark from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire series. She’s hilariously stubborn and doesn’t put up with anybody. I’m not going to judge Mat as a character yet because he wasn’t really himself in this book, and that is purposely done due to the story. Lan is a stoic badass. He doesn’t really speak much so when he says something or is surprised/worried about something, it carries so much more importance. He’s such an interesting character because you don’t get to know much about him but near the end of the book, his backstory is revealed and it adds so much more layers to his character. I like Moiraine on the surface but her character is so vague and shrouded in mystery. She seems like a good person, but she’s definitely hiding something and it feels like she has an ulterior motive. Nynaeve was annoying in the beginning, but then I started enjoying her being snappy at everyone and giving an attitude. Her confrontations with Lan and Moiraine were hilarious.
As for some of the side characters, my favorite in that bunch would be Thom Merrilin. He was so much more than he appeared to be. I thought he was just going to be a minor character in the background, but he has an emotional backstory which explains his furtive behaviour towards Aes Sedai and it gives his character a lot of depth. Tam al’Thor is Rand’s father but I would still group him as a side character in terms of page time. He has a very mysterious backstory and I really hope he gets back into the picture because I want to learn more about him. Elyas Machera is a lone wanderer that Perrin and Egwene meet. It turns out that he has a special connection with wolves and he literally travels and hunts with an entire wolf pack which is so badass. Loial is a friendly gentle giant who’s really into his books and history. He’s such a charming character because he’s always hilariously interrupting Moiraine or other characters in important moments and he's always apologizing to people because he thinks almost everything he says/does is offensive to humans when it’s not. Elyas and Loial are both awesome and I hope they play a bigger part in future books as well.
Favorite Characters – Perrin, Rand, Lan, Thom, & Egwene.
Image: Rand & Tam hiding from Trollocs.
[Plot]:
Image: Rand & Tam hiding from Trollocs.
[Plot]:
The beginning of the book was a little slow because there was a lot of setup and exposition going on but I enjoyed the explanations of the magic system, the detailed world-building/history, and there were also some great moments in the 1st half of the book such as Tam’s revelations, the story about the Battle of Manetheren, & the Trolloc/Myrddraal battle where Moiraine shows her true power. This book really was a thrilling adventure. There were so many moments filled with tension where I felt like I couldn’t breathe because I wanted to know how the group as a whole or specific characters would get out of a certain situation.
This book was at its best when the whole group was together on their adventure. I only liked it when they split up mainly because that was when the Perrin POV was introduced and him going on his separate adventure with Egwene was great, but Mat and Rand’s separate journey was pretty slow and boring at some parts. On the other hand, the group splitting up also gave us the comedic gold of Nynaeve’s petty arguments with Moiraine and Lan, so that’s good. The plot really kicked into high gear once everyone started converging in Caemlyn. The whole chapter where Rand meets Elayne and Gawyn was awesome and everything after that (Traveling through the Ways, going to Fal Dara, arriving at the Eye of the World, & the confrontation with the Forsaken) was really good.
The plot gets a good amount of comparisons to The Fellowship of the Ring but I thought it had a lot of unique and interesting elements to the story. The way this entire world works is fascinating, how time is an ever-weaving pattern and events/places are pretty much the same in every age but after each new age, the previous one becomes a myth and all the places take on different names and the people living in the current age embody people from a past age, sort of like reincarnations.
I also really enjoyed the concept of having 2 aspects to the magic system for male and female users. The male half of it is corrupted so there's an organization of entirely female magic channelers (Aes Sedai) which is the norm and it’s considered really dangerous for a male to channel the One Power in this world. It’s such an interesting role-reversal and it creates a lot of conflict with several characters in the story. The Aes Sedai are heavily mistrusted and feared by the common folk. Most people believe they are the puppet masters who make Kings and Queens dance to their strings and meddle in the affairs of every nation. There’s a lot of mystery and misconceptions around the Aes Sedai so I’m excited to learn more about them in the next book. On a side note, the dream sequences were done very well. They were very trippy and creepy but it was also really important to the plot and has a lot of future ramifications. Now that all of the Lord of the Rings references/homages are out of the way, I’m excited to see where this story is truly headed.
Image: The Eye of the World.
[Setting/World-Building]:
[Setting/World-Building]:
The setting of this book takes place in various locations, which speaks to the good pacing this book has and how grand an adventure it felt like. In just 1 book, the characters went from Emond’s Field (a village in the Two Rivers), to the city of Baerlon, to the city of Caemlyn, then went through a damn magical transportation pathway to the city of Fal Dara, and much more. Not to mention crossing several rivers, villages, and inns. Again, all in the span of 1 book. This book did a really good job of also fleshing out other locations in this world that weren’t visited such as Illian, Tear, the Sea of Storms, the Aiel Waste, etc.
I never thought I would find world-building as awesome and epic as George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire series but Robert Jordan is on par with him. He has really fleshed out this world, with all the different nations, cities, groups, creatures etc. It’s kind of crazy to think about how many different groups were introduced/mentioned in this 1 book such as Aes Sedai, Darkfriends, the Forsaken, Tuatha’an, Aielman, the Children of the Light, etc. There is so much amazing backstory to this world and such descriptive past events that I wouldn’t mind reading a book that compiled all the history and lore of this world that Jordan has created. It is really fascinating. My 3 favorite pieces of history were the Aiel War (which might be a hint at Rand's origins), the retelling of the Battle of Manetheren and Lan’s entire backstory/origins.
Image: Padan Fain escorted by Shienaran soldiers.
[Pacing]:
The pacing of this book is pretty good. Not a lot of action going on in the book as it’s mainly an adventure with characters running around from place to place, but there are plenty of suspenseful moments that make the story go at a good pace and there’s still a few action sequences that were pretty cool. There was one section of the book (3-4 chapters) where Rand & Mat travel from an Inn, to a farm, to another Inn etc. That part was pretty slow but other than that, I had no issues with the pacing.
[Prose/Readability]:
The prose was really good. It felt similar to George R.R. Martin’s style, which is a good thing. I heard a lot of people mention their frustration about how long Robert Jordan spends on describing clothing such as the specific amount of buttons on a shirt or giving painfully-detailed descriptions of skirts but for this 1st book at least, I didn’t have a problem with it.
The readability is on a pretty simple level, nothing
too complex. I’m pretty sure it gets more complex as the series goes on
but for this book, new characters were introduced sparsely, the
world-building and magic system explanations never felt long or drawn
out, and a lot of the in-world terms/words used in the book were
explained well. There was one weird sequence throughout the book
(Chapters 31-34) where the chronology of Rand & Mat’s adventure was
all scrambled. There’s also a flashback-within-a-flashback sequence in
these chapters where it was super confusing to the point where I thought
there was a printing error in my copy of the book. I checked some other
forums and it turns out a lot of people thought this was an error too,
but Robert Jordan wrote this sequence on purpose and it just wasn't
executed properly. Other than that one tiny nitpick, the readability
factor was pretty straightforward.
Image: Rand vs. Aginor.
[Final Thoughts & Rating]:
[Final Thoughts & Rating]:
A thrilling 1st book to kick off The Wheel of Time series. The amazing
world-building and history/lore hooked me right away and there were
plenty of great characters which made the journey that much more fun and
suspenseful. There were a lot of mysteries set up, so I’m excited to
get those answers and I can’t wait to see where the main group of
characters go from here.
Rating: 7.5/10
*My Rating System*
5 Stars (9-10): Amazing
5 Stars (9-10): Amazing
4 Stars (7-9): Really Good to Great
3 Stars (5-7): Average to Good
2 Stars (3-5): Bad to Mediocre
2 Stars (3-5): Bad to Mediocre
1 Star (1-3): Terrible
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