Rating: Summary: Captivating!!! Review: By far the best saga I have ever read. The description and detail is phenominal. Robert Jordan takes you to an epic fantasy world where anything could happen. I feel that Jordan picked up where Tolken had just begun because these books just keep you coming back for more.
Rating: Summary: Real Fantasy Review: I can say a lot of things about this book, and the seires so far, but the best thing I can say about it is that Robert Jordan has created a real world. If you don't think about it too hard, all the things in the books, Aes Sedai, Ogier, the Dark One, are just like second nature. Once you read the Eye of the Word, you'll be pulled into Rand al'Thor's world as if it were your own, and there isn't anything better you can say about any book.
Rating: Summary: Prepare for a very long journey Review: I love this book and the entire WofT series. The plot can be a little slow as characters are developed, but the tradeoff is well worth it. If you read this, you might as well buy all of the other books in the series, because its a very hard read to put down.
Rating: Summary: excellent Review: Well written and captivating. Imaginative characters and an incredible and complex world. You won't be able to put it down and if you do, you will not shake it from your mind.
Rating: Summary: Original? I don't think so. Review: Lots of people kept raving about this series.. so I ventured... and quickly ran away! This book was so cliche I had to laugh. It was so typical 'main character is secretly (especially from himself) an amazing powerful something or other'. The writing was juvenile.. same phrase on every woman's lips, same emotions written the same way on every man's face. You want beautiful writing? Go read Tolkien (of course), Guy Kay, or George Martin.
Rating: Summary: NO ONE is better than Robert Jordan Review: I first saw Robert Jordan's books displayed at Meijer in the book section in 1993. Being 11 years old and a collector of books (I didn't really read much at the time just collected because they looked cool) I bought the first four then later book five when it came out in paperback. Unfortunately, I didn't really pick the first one up until six years later and when I began to read tEotW, I was amazed by the detail and vocabulary, pacing, visualization, originality and complexity of the story. It was like a movie inside my head and I felt that I could see everything the way the author wanted me to see it. By the end, I realized I had never read a better novel in my life and had already decided that RJ could not out-do this. My, was I surprised by the next book. I'm through book eight (because he takes two years to write a book and I like to space it out a bit; I'll probably read WH when the title of book 10 is announced). I can tell you that each book is better than the last (except for an eleven page span in book eight that is almost unbearably boring). I have read more than one series in my life and let me tell you, most had a slow place far sooner than this series. I can honestly say this: NO ONE is better than Robert Jordan and it is hard to believe that there will be a better author any time soon.
Rating: Summary: It's gotta start somewhere Review: I love The Wheel of Time. I am now on the fourth book and I can tell you I will definetely finish the series. When I finished TEoTW I thought it was the best, yet when I continued I found that the books keep getting better and better. Therefore you have to start somewhere. Perhaps the reason TEoTW isn't as good as the other books is because of the insane character development that manifests in the others. Jordan writes with more attention to detail than any other author I've encountered. His young characters face hilariously awkward moments, and we learn that courage and believing in yourself conquer all. Pick up this book, because by the time you get to the fourth or fifth, you'll be extremely happy.
Rating: Summary: worthless bore Review: I read this because I had heard good things about it but it is one of the worst novels I have ever read. It is full of boring characters an uncompelling storyline and witless turgid prose.Totally inept on all levels!
Rating: Summary: A very well done Fantasy re-hash but still a re-hash Review: For those of you are very intersted in Fantasy books, such as me, Eye of the World is a must. Jordan deserves great credit for superb characterization (Nynaeve is one of the most complex and interesting characters I have ever met in a fantasy series) something usually lost in most Fantasy books. He also manages to create a truly massive world revealing it to us one step at a time. Also, most of the books have excellent subplots and flow together pretty smoothly. Now the bad part. The biggest flaw of the series is it's lack of originality. At it's core, it is still Lord of the Rings and thus has a very Black vs. White, Good vs. Evil feeling that is prevelant throughout the entire series making it just another Fantasy re-hash. A perfect example is the main character Rand. Despite what I said before about Jordan's great characterization, he fails completley to apply it to his main character making him your typical slightly hesitant hero with an inescapable destiny. I found myself hating this whiny loser who was embarassed to talk to girls. A true shame. Also, one of the series' strong points, it's huge world, also leads to its degeneration in later books. Jordan begins to slip as the series continues as his world simply becomes too big for its own good. The reader is expected to remember minute details from previous books, and instead of concentrating on a core group Jordan begins to diverge covering far too many characters. I have just finished the eight book in the series but have no intention on reading anymore because honestly, Jordan has let it get out of hand. Still, no true fantasy enthusiast can pass up reading this book (which I consider the best in the series) but don't expect originality, just the same Fantasy cliche novel done extremely well. If you are looking for originality in your Fantasy books I would suggest reading Glen Cook's Black Company series which leaves the Good vs. Evil Fantasy cliche and never looks back.
Rating: Summary: A Fantasy Original Review: Fantasy Fiction is, I think, a dangerous genre to get caught up in. The genre itself is so rife with cliche, with character archtypes, races, the history of mythology and umpteen fantasy series that have come before. I find that it is an insurmountable task to create truely original fantasy fiction in the mode of swords and sorcery. That said, Jordan, more or less, proves me wrong. Yes, the critics are correct to criticize Jordan for some of his borrowings. The Aes Sedai are remarkably similar to Frank Herbert's Bene Geserit. Our hero is a modest farmboy suddenly embroiled in worldwide and cosmic conflicts. Even the geography of Jordan's world (the placement of the mountains, the perimeter of perilous ranges, etc.) seems to be a mutation of Middle Earth. But the complexity of the political climate, the mythological background, and the eventual fleshing out of the characters makes this work, while grounded or inspired by literary predecessors, a wholly original history. If you want to enjoy the series, you really ought to begin with this first book (although, to a degree, each novel is self-contained). And, as another reviewer noted, this first book is not the best in the series. This book is somewhat stilted and herky-jerky, and it wears it's borrowings as plainly as the patches on a gleeman's cloak. But as you read further in the series, as the history of this world develops, as the characters continue to surprise you. As you discover new realms, lands, peoples, monsters, villains, the series as a whole moves further from what you already know of the fantasy genre. Start here if you are a fan of the fantasy genre, and you will feel that other practictioners (Salvatore, Feist, Eddings, etc.) are awfully dependant on the dull, overused conventions of the genre. Start here with a more than tolerable book, an enjoyable book, but continue with the series if you want to see how good, how original Jordan can get.
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