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The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book 1)

The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book 1)

List Price: $15.30
Your Price: $10.40
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A masterpiece!
Review: This book is the first of many that capture the imagination as well as heart. As intoxicating as it is hard to put down, The Eye of the World is a masterpiece. Though beware, if you do not have the time to read it cover to cover, you will be plagued with an insatiable need to finish and go on to the next in this magical series.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Book
Review: I'm new to fantasy. I have to say, this is great! As much adventure as any adventure series, and more thrill than any thriller. As a reader of psychological thrillers, I was afraid fantasy just wouldn't give me the rush I'm looking for in a story. Was I wrong! Robert Jordan really tells a wonderful story with strong characters. I can't wait to see what kind of mischief follows Rand from book to book. You can bet the rest of this series is on my wish list.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Tremendous Start, But Beware
Review: The Wheel of Time is probably the best-known and most widely read fantasy series other than The Lord of the Rings.
When this book was published in 1988 or 1989, it created a sensation -- a tremendous first volume that had the usual good-evil battle and tons of action but also was filled with magic, history, politics, sociology, cultural background and realistic characters. When I re-read the first five books, I was amazed at the details of history and politics that Jordan provided in his world. Jordan also has numerous protagonists, not just one or two primary ones like many other fantasy writers.

Moreover, Eye of the World features strong men and, through their magical abilities and powerful personalities, stronger women. Jordan has been rightly lauded for the prominent and powerful roles he created for the female characters.

The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, The Shadow Rising and The Fires of Heaven followed and created a tremendous series such that The New York Times noted that Jordan had come to dominate the genre that Tolkien made famous.

In Eye of the World, the writing is smooth, the various characters and their motivations work well, and there's action aplenty. The sense of innocence and mystery that correspond to the heroes' relative lack of knowledge of their surroundings and the world at large is palpable and realistic.

Unfortunately, starting with Lord of Chaos (book 6), Jordan's creation became unwieldy. Instead of concentrating on following the themes and story-threads of books 1-5 (which combined are more than 3500 pages, hardcover), he created new storylines, bogged down the narrative and halted the pace of the epic. Book 8 in particular is an unmitigated disaster -- 650 pages (hardcover) of wheel-spinning (pardon the pun) with almost no progress to the story. Book 9 began to jump-start the narrative once again.

The series is at 10 books (the tenth will be published in about two months from now) and growing (13 total possible -- it's a common numerical theme in the books), thus the last volume will be published in 2006, at the earliest.

The Eye of the World is great, as are the next four in the series. They are, however, addictive, so know what you're getting into.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WOW
Review: Id have to say that this is probably the best fantasy book(s) i ever read..... And that it deserves more than a meager 5 stars
Robert Jordan keep up the work

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Have you every tried to each an entire pizza?
Review: When you're hungry the first piece is great. You still enjoy the second and third slices. You eat the next few pieces because they are there. By the time you finish the pizza, you're digusted and definitely not interested in eating any more pizza.

I'm definitely full. I have re-read this book for the third time and all of the other first nine books in the Wheel of time two-three times in an effort to prepare myself for Book 10. The first several books were awesome. However, reading these books has become work - and I'm beginning to doubt if I'm every going to get a payoff worth all the time I've invested.

If you haven't started readining this series yet, I would advise you to wait until Robert Jordan finally finishes it (if he ever does). The plot is tremendously complex and you're unlikely to remember enough of the obscure characters by the time the next book comes out. Worse, no one every dies - they just come back in an identity that guarantees you'll forgot who they are and were in previous books.

My recommendation - wait awhile until Robert Jordan is finally done and you're snowbound or on vacation or somewhere where you have a lot of time to kill. Then read the entire series straight. It's the only way it will make sense and it won't be as frustrating.

Eye of the World is great. The Great Hunt and the Dragon reborn are great. The next couple books are good and then it's been downhill for a while. The ending of book nine was promising, so it it endly strongly - and I'm optimistic that the series may recover.

However, if you jump in now - you're likely to end up like the rest of the Robert Jordan fans: digusted.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A creative and original fantasy epic
Review: The Eye of the World is a truly original conception, displaying none of the Tolkien-esque elements present in a good deal of fantasy stories. Robert Jordan presents readers with a unique, richly detailed world in which the savior of humanity, and of time itself, is feared and loathed by the whole of humanity. Because of the ancient taint that lies on Saidin, the source from which certain men can draw magical energies, every one of these cursed men is fated to be driven mad and die, but not before unleashing his terrible power on those around him. This terrible madness that seizes men has led the populace to hate and fear them, but none more than their prophesied hero, the Dragon Reborn, who is not only a man who can channel, but also the most powerful wielder of Saidin to ever walk the earth. Into this hateful, but enchanting world Jordan's three young heroes, Rand al'Thor, Mat Cauthon, and Perrin Aybara are cast. Equally incredible creatures of darkness pursue the protagonists, and a plethora of companions, who are as interesting and richly detailed as the world they inhabit. Any fantasy reader who picks up this book is in for a very enjoyable adventure, and best of all, not only is the Wheel of Time series a superb story, it's extremely long as well, providing readers with months and months of adventure and excitement.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: Short and simple: This is a good book in a good series

Why?

Robert Jordan succeeds in establishing an extensive base for all of the characters' personalities. (My personal favorite characters are Perrin Aybara and Nynaeve Al'Meara) With a decent plot behind the story Jordan manages to quirk the reader's attention with new information and other surprising events and characters. True, this is a lllooonnnggg series but it is a good read one time through. The way I see it is, if a book can make me laugh until my sides hurt, want to burn it at that moment, and even want to strangle some of the character's throats at times, then this is a good book and series to read.

I would drone on more, but then I might spoil the fun. Enjoy...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good Book
Review: Enjoyable read, probably one of the best in this series. The second and third books aren't bad either but from there this series just goes strait to hell! Read the first three and enjoy but after that please just give up. Trust me, it's for your own good. If you want long well written books to read I recomend Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series and Melanie Rawn's Exiles series.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: 5 Stars for Eye of the World. As for Wheel of Time.....
Review: I Promise: I'm going to be spoiler free.

This is the first book in the Wheel of Time (WOT) series. All of the tenants of excellent fantasy are there. Jordan is a great writer who builds an incredible world with a compelling history. His characters are incredible; some are excellent studies in military leadership and political power--two different things, of course.

Eye of the World is a great book, but be warned: as of this writing Jordan hasn't finished WOT. As a book, Eye of the World ALMOST stands alone, but none of the rest of the books in the series do. Each has some kind of cliffhanger ending. My guess is the end of this series isn't going to happen until 2006 (I believe there are going to be 12 books, but I don't think there's an official word).

Is it going to be worth it? I don't think so. WOT has gotten very complicated and is becoming turgid. Sometime around Book 6, the action began to crawl. Book 8 (the last one I read) was almost 700 pages and took place over three days!

I've read the first five books twice now beacuse it is too difficult to wait a year between reading books. (And he's coming out with them once every other year at this point).

My advice: Wait until Jordan's finished them all. It's best to read them one after another. By then we'll know if it was worth the wait.

You've been warned!

My grade for the series:
1. Wheel of Time: A-
2. Great Hunt: A
3. Dragon Reborn: A+
4. Shadow Rising: A+
5. Fires of Heaven: A
6. Lord of Chaos: B
7. Crown of Swords: C+
8. Path of Daggars: C
9. Winter's Heart (haven't read, waiting for Jordon to finish)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Strong beginning for a lengthy series
Review: A naive village boy named Rand flees pursuit by the minions of Darkness in the company of a powerful sorceress, her guardian, and an assortment of fellow villagers, unaware of the reasons for the pursuit and of his true significance in the world. The world that author Robert Jordan has created for them to travel through is richly detailed, perhaps to a fault. For all the book's great length, surprisingly little actually occurs over the course of the story as page after page are given over to explanations of the world's history and the details of daily life. Still, I'm not complaining. The stage he has set is worthy of a great epic; although all of the familiar trapping of heroic fantasy are present, rarely are they realized so fully. The individual characters are well-drawn; their innocence, bewilderment, and growing fear as they realize the scope of the forces arrayed against them are excellently portrayed. I also enjoyed the way that men and women each have their own kinds of magic.

One quibble: a story of this type really benefits from detailed maps of the world in which it takes place. I found the map in this book too scanty and hope that this is rectified in later books of the series.


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