Rating: Summary: The Definition of Filth Review: What a god-awful waste of time (WoT.) This book has been going on for over a decade (read: century.) In Steven King's The Dark Tower, he accomplishes everything Jordan does in half the time, none of the boring repetition, and quite a bit more style. Also, its the greatest rip-off of all time. Think "In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit." Aes Sedai-wizards (istari.) Hobbits-two rivers folk. Aragorn-Lan. Moirane-Gandalf. Sauron-Dark One. The ring-Seals Christ! Can't you see how bad this charlatan is ripping you off?! This story is completely uninventive, as is the setting. Normally, I'd just ignore it, but its so disgusting that some people are pouring their hearts out about this trash. "Better than Shakespeare!" Don't read this, the Sword of Truth series, Shannara, Xanth, or Raymond Feist.
Rating: Summary: The start of something new Review: Ok, it's been said way too many times that THE WHEEL OF TIME is the best fantasy series since LORD OF THE RINGS. That's true. Now let's move on.This book was hard for me to get into initially. It's opens with a prologue that uses a lot of terminology that you are not familiar with until the end of the book. You're not sure who to root for or why. I actually started reading, and then put the book down for about a month before I picked it up again. Although it may hard to get into at first, there's a need for the book to start out the way it does. And once the action starts, it's gripping. Robert Jordan has created a world and characters that are so far beyond the scope of anything else ever imagined in a fantasy seriews (excluding LOTR) that it's really not fair to compare them. Other than the fantasy aspect of it, the characters could be people that you know. Very few of them are "good" or "evil." Like most people, there are countless shades of gray in between. The world and the history of it are described so well that you have to believe that it really exists. For a gripping read and hours of living in another world with friends you didn't know that you had, you owe it to yourself to pick up this book and the series that it launches.
Rating: Summary: Ambitious Review: This novel, the first in the Wheel of Time series, begins an ambitious undertaking in the epic fantasy genre. We are introduced to the heroes, a collection of backwater friends barely old enough to be called adults, and the two strangers who come into their village and change everything they know about their world and themselves.
The story begins with Rand al'Thor, a shepherd and farmer, who feels himself being watched on the road into town. This ill omen is echoed with his two friends, Mat Cauthon and Perrin Aybara. This visitation is the precursor to an attack on the village by creatures long thought to be a legend. The two strangers, the mysterious woman Moiraine (whom we learn is an Aes Sedai, a woman able to tap into a supernatural "One Power" to weave magical effects) and her guardian (called a Warder), Lan, tell them that there is something special about the three young men, and urge them to leave the village with them. Egwene al'Vere, a young woman of their village, joins them as they begin their quest, and they are joined later on by Nynaeve al'Meara, the village "Wisdom" or healing woman. On their way to their destination, they are forced to grow up fast if they hope to survive. They are confronted with adversaries of many forms, human and monster, and learn that the Dark One, an evil power confined millennia ago in a mystic prison, is rising in power and threatens the world once more. And in their travels, they also meet a few people who will become friends, and who make recurring appearances throughout the series.
As quest fantasy goes, it's pretty good. The idea of twelve or more books in the series makes it sound like the pacing would drag, but this is quite vigorous in its pacing. All the groundwork for the rest of the series is being laid down here, in describing the cultures and cosmology of the Wheel of Time universe, but never at the expense of the story. Many have called it a Tolkien rip-off, and in some ways, that's so, but then Tolkien wasn't writing in a vacuum, either. I don't really see how that's necessarily a bad thing. If I like Lord of the Rings, so it stands to reason I would like something similar to it. The well-known fantasy archetypes are used well in the story, and are supported by a defined magic system and world history. Of course you'll find a few fantasy clichés in here, too. They're hard to avoid when writing in this motif. Though it falls into the category of epic quest fantasy, Jordan departs from the Tolkien model far enough that this is as original a series as can be expected in the genre.
Jordan also uses the concept of the Wheel of Time itself to insinuate that our own world is yet another turning of the Wheel. As the book says, "Ages come and pass... Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again." To this end, he alludes to characters and legends analogous to those that you and I in the real world already know of. The names of the Forsaken (an elite group of servants to the Dark One) are taken from various myths and religions. Certain legendary figures in the world history have names strangely similar to those in the real world, such as Artur Pendraeg and Birgitte.
There were a couple of problems I had with the book, that after the six books I've read still are not satisfactorily explained. The setting of the story is a massive continent that seems to be about the size of Europe, or perhaps a mirror image of China. In this entire continent, there are only two languages, and one of them is dead. The "Old Tongue" which has no name other than that, does not seem to be related at all to the modern language, yet at some point in the past, people simply stopped speaking the Old Tongue, and started speaking the new one, seemingly overnight.
Another problem I had was with the personalities of some characters. Most of the women are weakly defined, primarily differentiated only by the degree of their temper, and they all have a temper, and they live and breathe scathing generalizations about men. The character of Mat is also hard to sympathize with, as he spends the beginning of the book being a bratty little kid, and most of the rest of the book being surly and aggressive, as his mind is slowly dominated by an evil relic.
A minor nit to pick is the phrase the Aes Sedai keep kicking around. "The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills." It's a cute little phrase but it sounds like a mixed metaphor to me. Wheels don't weave. Wheels spin or wheels turn. Looms weave. A minor annoyance at best, but it did stick out in my mind as unnecessary repetition.
Getting past all that, I did enjoy the book, and have enjoyed most of the books that have come after it in the series. Rand and Perrin are interesting characters, and the narration from their points of view are enjoyable. Perrin is my favorite character in the series so far, but for the first couple books, Rand is likeable as well. The story moves along, as a lot of the book involves the characters being chased by one set of bad guys or another. This serves to drive the story with a sense of urgency, and the end of the book leaves you with a healthy wonder of what will happen next. I found it enjoyable, and as of book 6, it strikes me as one of the better fantasy series I've read.
Rating: Summary: Great start to a great series Review: This will be short, since the series is long. I read Eye after reading 6 others in the series. My advice: Start here at the start, then you won't be wondering who all these people are and why they are wandering around so much. It is amazing that Jordan foreshadows so much that develops later in the series. It seems to mean that he had the whole thing in mind when he started- the geography, the lore, the nations and their beliefs. Astonishing. Jordan's work is something like Dune: in these books the main character's internal dialogs are available to us. As the scene develops we see what they want, and what they fear or expect will happen, and since no one quite trusts anyone else for various reasons, they fear quite a bit, then suddenly the event happens - and usually it is totally different than anyone expected because none of the characters really understands what the others want or think. I hope that doesn't sound dry. The books are a great read, lots of detail and interest which keeps you turning pages and then buying the next volume.
Rating: Summary: Don't judge a book by it's length! Review: I was not going to read this book at all because of it's length and the fact that there were eleven more books that length in tow. When I finally decided to just try the first chapter, I was amazed that my friend said the first five chapters were boring. They are packed with detail and description. Then, at Winternight, I saw why. The story exploded into a huge adventure, and pulled me in like a stick in a whirlpool. Maybe I am ta'averen, or maybe I just have common sense.
Rating: Summary: great book. Review: great start to a series. Robert Jordan is as talented as Tolkien. couldn't put the book down. finished it in two days. it was that good. hope the next one is as good or better.
Rating: Summary: I LOVE it!!! Review: This book is a classic fantasy tale with adventure, excitement and quick paced. It all begins with Rand, a totally average boy who lives with his loving father Tam, both live as farmers and sheperds in a totally average town where nothing ever happends. But one night night a women comes who is extremly graceful and wears garments of silk. Soon after the town is attacked by Trollocs, magic beings belived to be only a fairy tail. Many houses are burned but only three are attacked and searched, Rand's and his two friends, Maat and Perrin. Luckly no one was hurt but Tam. The women then heals Tam and admits to the boys (Rand, Mat and Perrin) thatshe is a Aes Sedai. She then tells the boys that unless they leave there town will not be free of Trolloc raiding parties because they are after them for some unknown reason. So the boys set out with the Aes Sedai and the wander Lan and a few more compains picked up along the way, so that the dark one does not lay hands on them for whatever reason. Full of adventure this is a good book for any age.
Rating: Summary: Great Fantasy Story Review: The Eye of the World is truly an amazing book, it only starts to unravel this story of epich proportions. The characters and adventures are very well defined, Jordan is generous in providing the reader with many details while maintaining the feeling for the adventure. The momentum never stops building and the story is very entertaining while creating the foundations for the books that follow. Jordan has created a whole world, not just outlined it but filled it with details that let you imagine how everything looks and feels, and even smells. And has managed to megre everything together to give it a sense of reality that is seldom achieved in this type of books. The book is EXCELLENT and I higly recommend it to anyone who can marvel in fantasy and dream of good conquering evil.
Rating: Summary: Great introduction ot Fantasy Review: If you don't read fantasy then you should try this. Male or Female it is a great fantasy book and keeps moving from start to finish. I tend to read good books in a couple of days and finished this one in no time. The down side of this is that you will have to buy the rest of the series and a few in the middle get really long and lose the plot a little. However, the latest (as I write) Winters Heart gets back on track so its worth reading the whole series.
Rating: Summary: I liked it, I think Review: This serries is great. The serries starts off pretty slow and then everything starts to snowball. This first book is has a good introduction to the caracters, with the girth of the book mostly based on character building it is a great introduction to the story. You have to try to view the serries as one book other wise you may get bord. The only down fall with the serries I see is that Jordan likes to repeats him self a lot. When reading through the eye of the world I found a pargraph or two repeated verbaitum as it was two of three chapters before. And Im not talking about vital plot points eather.
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