Rating: 
Summary: The First of a Magnificent Series
Review: "The Eye of the World" is the first book in an epic series of twelve fantasy novels by Robert Jordan, who, frankly, must be deranged to think of a twelve-part series with an average book 900 pages. Madness. But the result is spectacular.
Unlike "The Lord of the Rings", EOTW and the whole series through is very thought out, and gives the impression that the author knows all twelve books by heart before writing the first book's final draft. All sorts of little hints are scattered about that might indicate what happens later on. RJ seems to have faith in his readers to keep going with the books, as answers to this book's questions might well come four books later. For example . . . nah. Just because evil, horrid people did that to me doesn't seem to be a good enough reason to torture other innocents.
The book is very well-written, very well organized, until the last 50 or so pages. After reading 700 pages without a complaint, the last 60 or 70 pages seem rushed and none too serious, even though it is the climax. The rest of the books don't fall into that trap again. Even this little patch has its moments, though.
Many times has WOT been compared to LOTR, and I guess a lot of RJ's inspiration comes from Tolkien. Three young lads living in a village at the back end of forever, before a person out of a fairytale whisks them away on a grand adventure. But that's where it ends, story-wise at least. Fine, Lan is exactly like Aragorn, and Moiraine in some ways similar to Arwin, and Nynaeve kinda like Eowyn. Rand is at times Frodo-like and Mat seems a blend of Merry and Pippin. But that IS where it ends. A single WOT book is about as big as all of LOTR combined. The story is so vast, and pans out so differently, that all ties with Tolkien are severed. Before I have hired assassins trying to slit my throat, let me make it PERFECTLY CLEAR that LOTR is indeed very well though out. I wasn't having a dig at Tolkien, dude. It's just very well known that he simply started from the beginning and kept writing, not knowing where the book will go. WOT seems to have been written completely before the final draft of the first.
One of the most fantastic things about the books are the way all the paths of all the characters pulled around our three ta'veren meet at the end of each book, very well handled in this book, better in the next, and absolutely magnificent and unbelievable in "The Dragon Reborn."
I'm on the fourth book right now, just starting, page 39. Keep reading, folks, but I'm wary now, because people seem to think that after "The Shadow Rising" it goes downhill. Well, I suppose I'll find out. Meanwhile, though, keep reading and don't worry about the future. Perhaps the least of the first four, but genius nevertheless. RJ is the Amyrlin of the genre.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, but kind of juveneile.
Review: After receiving mixed reviews from my friends, I had postponed starting this series. I only really started it because whenever I met someone who read fantasy, they were always like "Have you ever read The Wheel of Time??".
I have read up to the 5th so far, and I read them relatively quickly, and they were entertaining, but I wouldn't recommend them. There are so many better books to read (George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series for example).
The basic plot itself would be amazing, but there are some common themes throughout the series that kind of kills it.
All of the girls are horrible to read about. They are very annoying, and everyone has a very hackneyed idea of marriage (i.e. the woman controls absolutely everything even though they technically have no rights by law). Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne, and almost all the other main female characters bicker like children constantly while becoming increasingly arrogant and confident in their ability to control men and everything around them. As a girl, I can honestly say that Jordan doesn't seem to have any idea about how women actually think and behave, and based all his characters around the same model. All of the women starts getting on the reader's nerves, and because of the bad characterization, the book starts getting on your nerves as well as Jordan.
He also has this juvenile fascination with odd, ill placed, and unnecessary female nudity. For no real reason (and with no real description) the female characters find themselves without clothes or with revealing/transparent clothing at weird parts of the story that makes it seem very out of place.
You find yourself really into the plot, until one of the female characters talk about the overall stupidity of men in general or they generalize about all women or all men, at which point you just get disappointed and wish that Robert Jordan had kept those ideas to itself.
[...]It has most of the classics, and I highly recommend almost everything on the list.
Rating:
Summary: HAVING MY LITTLE SAY
Review: Goodness, everyone has an opinion on this book and this series. I think I will give a short review on each book as I get to it and pass my own judgement on each individual book, rather than the whole series. Like another reviewer, I have certainly read my share of this genre over the past 45 years and I must admit this book, "The Dragon Reborn," is one of the better ones I have read. It certainly is not my favorite, but I nevertheless enjoyed every page. The author introduces many characters and you do indeed have to pay attention to what you read, and as another reviewer pointed out, I agree that for those who want instant gratification, they should probably go elsewhere. The plot is very complicated, but very, very interesting. I do have to admire the author's story telling ability. The task of writing a major work such as this must have been daunting. Recommend this to anyone interested in the type of fiction. Read it and enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: I haven't read the books and don't plan to.
Review: Here's why. One day, I was bored, having bled my library dry, and I was staring at my bookshelf in woe. Then I saw on my shelf an untouched book! It was The Eye of the World, which I'd bought at Chapters years ago. It had been suggested to me by one of their staff. I was doubtful, and had been told by my friend that I should NEVER read the books. Of COURSE I bought it. Being my normal self, I read the first sentence and decided I didn't like it (believe it or not, I think I've got ADD) and I threw it on my 'crappy books', bookshelf.
I was wracked by indecision as I stared at the funny looking girl sitting on a chubby pony on the cover. I knew that I often lost a lot of good books due to my patience deficiency, but then again. . .I turned to my good friend, Amazon.com.
I was not disappointed. I say, chuck the books and just read the reviews. They're FANTASTIC! They've got plot and character developpment and EVERYTHING! Here's how the story goes.
Once upon a time. . .fifteen years ago to be exact, everyone got hooked on Robert Jordan's astoundingly deep stories.
Seven years later. . . Robert Jordan is still writing and readers are still reading, astounded that Robert Jordan can keep up so many storylines and make them all interesting. A fresh batch of people join the Robert Jordan fan club.
Now. . . More readers than ever are still reading, but Robert Jordan ain't writing. He's only regurgitating up the same words he's written a million times. Especially scenes where the women grit their teeth and smooth their bloody skirts (for the twentieth time) And the once time fans, who once had their teeth firmly in their mouths and didn't have to eat more pills than cereal for breakfast are P-I-S-S-E-D. I've never read more scathing reviews. Whew! To quote a few of them and their titles.
'At least I won't need to buy toilet paper for awhile.'
'Why, Lord? Why?'
'THE PLOT IS CONSTIPATED AND NEEDS AN ENEMA!'
'IT'S A WHOLE DAMN BOOK OF NINNIES! ROBERT JORDAN IS PROBABLY A NINNY OR ASSOCIATES HIMSELF WITH NINNIES. STAY AWAY BEFORE YOU BECOME NINNIED AS WELL!.'
'Urgh is not a good reaction'
However, some still hold on steadfastly, trustingly hoping that RJ is just setting up for the grande finale. I can't help but feel sorry for them.
Well anyhow, I'm sorry for the spoiler, for all of those who are going to read the reviews. I do believe I shall call the series of collected works, LAUGHING AT OTHER PEOPLES' MISERY Bwahahahaha! Robert Jordan, you have inadvertantly and quite by accident, made a masterpiece. Thank you for that.
All I can say to those of you who are going to read this series, maybe you should start trusting good old Amazon.com. (the last book got an average of 1 ½ stars)
So, I give 5 stars to LAUGHING AT OTHER PEOPLES' MISERY, and hope that even if you don't listen to me, you'll listen to the 2220 people on the customer reviews of Crossroads of Twilight, and then you give me a good review for saving you years of misery (and me laughing at you)
Rating:
Summary: Worth a read, but with a warning on the rest of the series
Review: I first read The Eye of the World when it was first published about 15 years ago and have since read it several times. As other reviews here, mine starts with a warning. The last several books have dropped drastically in quality, plot, and narrative, and not only that, the series is not finished yet so be warned. To put it into context, when I read book 1, I was a sophomore in high school. By my estimates (if the series goes 12 books - 10 published so far, only 2 left to write), I'll be approximately 33 when I finish the last book. That's a long time to read one story. Anyway, unlike other reviewers, I won't let the lower quality of later books affect my review for The Eye of the World. Sadly, there are way too many 1 and 2 star reviews for this great novel based on the later books.
The book begins (as most other fantasy novels do) in a very Tolkien-esque fashion. A group of village boys are thrust outside of their village, the only world they know, through powers they cannot yet fathom, but they eventually learn they have to fight. Sounds very familiar and to the point of banality, I know, but after the first quarter of the book is done, it takes drastic detours from Tolkien's storyline. Save Tolkien's Middle-Earth, the world these characters run through in the series is perhaps the most fleshed out and detailed world in all of fantasy writing. In fact, a few aspects of the world imagined by Jordan actually surpass Tolkien's creation.
I gave The Eye of the World 5 stars and place it among the top fantasy novels every written, and I recommend this book to anyone that enjoys them, but always with the caveat placed on the later books. Sadly, Jordan has either begun milking his story line for more books and money, or he has created so many loose-ends and characters that he's unsure where to go with it. By Book 10, the handful of main characters from Book 1 have multiplied into literally a hundred that you almost have a difficult time keeping track of. But again, the series started off so fantastically that I still occasionally reread the first 3-4 books. Book 5 is the pivot that marks the downfall for me. You can actually read the first 3 books and they stand alone very well and can feel like a complete trilogy. Book 4 is better than the first three, but it doesn't give you the apparent resolution that book 3 gives so it's not a good book to stop on. Yet, if you're daring, you can move on, but it'll probably be to your own disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: You can pass this one safely
Review: I got about halfway through the book, when I just couldn't get on. Why? It is unoriginal. Gob'lin please no. Writing shows no special style. If you want to read fantasy, go get George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire. Or even Goodkind's Sword of Truth, brutal though it is, Goodkind at least has a gripping plot unlike this bad copy of Tolkien. If you have read any of those two authors you will be dissapointed with Jordan.I can't imagine anyone reading volume after volume of stuff like this.
Rating:
Summary: Patience is a virtue
Review: I have read all of the WOT books, including the Prequel, and have found that this avid reader's need for detail, complex characters, plot lines and emotional involvement have been fully satisfied. I believe that each time I re-read the books I find something new that I have missed, something that I have forgotten or something that I find delightful to revisit. The WOT series is not for the easily bored, with each book, and the amount of time between the publication of each book, there is a necessary amount of "rehashing" of previous storylines to refresh the minds of those who do not enjoy going back and re-reading the work before the publication of each new book. Many people find this tedious others are grateful, it doesn't really matter, what matters is whether or not Jordan delivers the goods when you pick up that book. His books are like bricks, personally I like that, instead of knocking back one of his books in a day or two it takes me about three to four. Personally I like large portions, once again each person will have their own opinion of the book's size but I care not for the size as much as I do about whether it interests me. Jordan delivers with this series, he commands a cast of hundreds, keeping up with who is who and what they are doing is often a job for pencil and paper, but can be tracked through various fan sites on the web. The plot line is complex but is supported and manipulated by various intricate subplot lines as characters maneuver, manipulate and coerce their way through the stories. This is not an action movie, don't go into the series thinking that it is, instead you will find a book with drama and suspense that leaves you with feelings of "what is going to happen next" and "what will happen if". If you are looking for fight scenes I think that you will need to look elsewhere, like most good leaders Rand goes into his plans to unify his world and defeat his enemies with a hope for minimal bloodshed and loss of life, unlike his nemesis who's whole goal is to conquer through decimation. There are battles, but not battles like you will find in the movies special effects and all. While the final battle sounds like it will be a real knockdown struggle, like in most wars it takes behind the scenes work to bring the two armies to the field. These books are about the drawing up to the final conflict and if you only want to read the final battle scene for "battle gratification" then read the last book and leave it at that. But if you want to see how those lines are drawn in the sand as the combatants take the field and understand how and why the battle was fought and won or lost then invest your time and a little patience in the series and you will not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: An HONEST fantasy lover's review
Review: I have to admit that Robert Jordan has become an icon for the entire fantasy genre. His intimately detailed images ranging from the various settings and landscapes, to the actions and ranges of emotions portrayed in the enormous character list. He currently has ten books in the series (eleven if you count the prequel novel) and I have enjoyed every one of them. That being said, I would be remiss if I didn't address some things that I have read in other reviews of this series.
1. "RJ's books are too dry and repetitive from book 7 on." The day you actually create a story this in-depth and have your characters go through so much, is the day you can complain about the story getting dry. So the wasn't a battle or someone dying every four pages. Wah, Wah, Wah. As people like our heroes grow and have more experience, the enemy has to continuously think or more complex and in-depth ways of coercion/ killing or what have you. I'll leave it at that.
2. "The books are too long" Ahhhhhhhhh do we actually have to read something longer than a maxim? Are mad that there are no pictures? Tough. If you don't like it, put this book down and pick up a Maxim, or go back to your religious following of 30 minute sitcom watching acolytes.
3. As for the reviewer James Taylor...Are you out of you F***ing mind!? I guarantee I've read more fantasy than you could hope to achieve in your lifetime and almost all of them (as you stated) starts to devolve into the verbal tripe. Where this series differs is the minimal verbal tripe where as Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series repeats at least forty line form the first book throughout the rest of the series. And if you had read and PAID ATTENTION in the fourth book was one of the biggest series shockers thus far with what Rand found out about the whole civilization. In fact I'm just going to stop here and say that you don't know what you are talking about.
Believe me folks when I say that I know what I'm talking about you could pretty much name every fantasy author over the past 25 years and I've read their work. Jordan is one of the top ten.
Rating:
Summary: more like 2 and a half...but I'll finish the series
Review: I made it through the fifth book by sheer force of will. I'm trying to listen to them over again on audio to get back into the story, but I just can't seem to care about these characters. The world is vivid and detailed, colorful, and even original, but the characters are shallow, the women are annoying, (if Nynaeve pulls her braid one more time, I'll scream), and the men, with few exceptions, are complete door mats. My real issue, though, is all of the detail with no real impact on the story. If you want tedious detail that actually enriches a story, read A Song of Ice and Fire, by GRRM. Jordan's details, while impressive in scope, are pointless most of the time, and the characters act like children, most of the time. I find myself just not caring. I will finish the series eventually, and maybe there will be payoff. The prequel was interesting, and the final battle should be good. Beware new readers, it's thick, drawn out, muddled with useless details, but if you can wade through it, or you're a teen, this is a good book to cut your teeth on. If you've read George R.R. Martin already, you'll be disappointed in Jordan.
Rating:
Summary: How to begin.....
Review: I started this series when it first came out and enjoyed it a great deal. The story was good. The writing was okay. I looked forward to each book as it came out. Maybe it's because I'm 13 years older and more mature, but I'm just reading to find out what happens at this point.I can't be the only person out there who is appalled by most of the characters. I'm tired of hearing their thoughts as they lie to themselves...'I only did that because I wanted to......certainly not because this other person wanted me/coerced me/tricked me into doing it....certainly not!' I'm tired of their arrogance and overbearing pride. It seems that during every exchange one character is trying to abusively prove their superiority over another. How many times can we endure Nynaeve having to swallow her pride and yank her braid? Or endure her terrible treatment of her 'friends'? Or the seafolk insulting everyone with impunity until someone finds a way to do the same to them? Are these characters so stupid that they can't realize that they can walk away from the abuse and refuse to deal with those that treat them poorly? What is Jordan's fetish with this type of character interaction? Does he actually believe that this is how people behave or is he operating under the misconception that we enjoy it? Would anyone really be upset to see Nynaeve killed at this point? Or Elaine? Or Logain? Or the Ashaman? Or Cadsuane? Or the Wave Mistresses? Or all of the Aes Sedai? Rand, Perrin, Mat, Min and Lan are about the only ones I have any caring about at all. The rest have such irritating arrogance that a horrible, painful death would be a relief. I beg you, Mr. Jordan. I want to enjoy the rest of your series. Make us care about your characters again....have them grow and show some common courtesy and respect for each other. Tie up some loose ends. Advance your plotlines. Come to an ending.
|
