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Summary: THE AMERICAN TOLKIEN
Review: Never since Tolkien has a fantasy book had such impact. Check out the number of praise reports on the first few pages of this book. Actually, I started the WOT series with book 3, then I FINALLY found a copy of book one. Although I still prefer book three--I guess it has to do with first impressions--The Eye of the World is The Dragon Reborn's equal. Unlike some fantasy books, the prologue is truly amazing--a presumably good man walking through a wasted palace and dead bodies, one of which is a dead woman. As it turns out, the good man is the one who did this! I won't tell you the rest of the prologue, but if it doesn't grab your attention for some reason just skip it and go to the first chapter. In the first paragraph of EVERY chapter of a WOT book, RJ starts with the EXACT same paragraph--except The Great Hunt, where the wording is slightly different. That first paragraph is truly memorable. A real classic. "The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass . . ." Robert Jordan uses the TOLKIEN FORMULA, which I explain in one of my other reviews (THE SWORD OF SHANNARA). The first hundred pages of the book take place in Emond's Field, developing characters slowly, getting a feel for the world, the customs, etc. But it is a FAST hundred pages. Then the characters get swept off on a grand adventure being chased by evil creatures. But unlike lots of fantasy book that I've read, the chase actually seems INTERESTING. The bad guys are scary and believable. RJ gets inside the characters' dreams, which is really original. One thing that I applaud RJ for is that he proves that--like Tolkien--you can still write a clean, sex-sceneless, wholesome fantasy novel and still have a shot at number one on the bestseller list. But just because it lacks sex-scenes, don't think this series is just for kids. Far from it! Anyway, when you go to a different land, you KNOW you're in a different land because he describes the customs, dialects, clothing, terrain layout, etc. VERY DETAILED, but not like 2 page cloud-descriptions. A TRUE PAGE-TURNER! I actually froze when I got to the chapter on the Blight because RJ really made it sound SO MENACING AND EVIL! The ending is OUTSTANDING. THERE'S NOT ENOUGHT BOLD TYPE TO PRAISE THIS BOOK, BUT YOU HAVE TO READ IT TO APPRECIATE IT. I've read it THREE times and I KNOW I'll read it again in the near future.
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Summary: The Wheel of Time
Review: Great. The best of the series being the first book. Amazing good versus evil. "The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow." It is a must read for any fantasy lover, I really can't describe it. If you expecting unicorns and vampires though, it isn't the book for you.
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Summary: JORDAN DOESN'T DESERVE THESE BIG SCORING REVIEWS
Review: Let's get one thing straight; I started this series and in some ways I wish I had never done that. You have to keep reading and you have to find out what happens. I actually quite like the story (in very general terms). I like the ideas, the intelllectual development of this series, its definetly enough to keep you reading. There is plenty of character development and I can empathise with many of the characters (not the women ... see below). But it is TOO LONG!!! I don't know whether Jordan just decided he would write 10 billion words to get lots of money, or whether publishers told him to do it, but the whole thing is written inefficiently. I once read somewhere that there were three different 'shots' (to use a film metaphor' that should be used in writing ... long distance (summing up), middle distance (some detail, but don't get carried away) and in your face close up (what they are thinking and doing. Everything!) This is the only thing Jordan can write. You get to know everything, what they are thinking, who they are angry about, who they are in love with (this week, and strangely the women just all fall in love out of the blue and then hate each other about it). I suppose this isn't too bad in some ways, you get to know the characters. But Jordan does it with every single character and he has about 50,000 of them. He'll run by the most intimate thoughts of some woman who then promptly disappears out of the story and you never read about again. If it was a movie, she would be an extra, but Jordan tells you that her elder brother died when she was six years old. As a result of all this over the top explaining of the characters the story doesn't flow and it takes too long to get anywhere. Reading Jordan is like watching the earth develop; after a few million years you're happy you did it, but in the mean time you are bored. This has a lot to distinguish it from other fantasy. The ideas are great; a dead hero being reborn, women using power that men can't (most of the time) to level the playing field, lost kingdoms, new kingdoms, orders of zealots, etc. Its got some merits. But it is too long (I think it should have been a trilogy, five at the most, and I'm not just suggesting that each book should have been bigger). One other thing; by the time you get to about book eight or so, you can't remember what happened in the first couple of books and its doesn't make any difference anyway. One last thing (going back to what I said above) about the way he writes his female characters ... it is infuriating. I have encountered less arrogant females in 20 years of life than in five minutes of reading Jordan. I said before that I could not emphasise with them; I think that if I met those women I would seriously contemplate murder. And I am moderately of women. If this the kind of women Jordan has met and interacted with, I pity the man, and I begin to understand why he writes about men using magic and going insane; its exactly what's already happened to him. Minus the magic.
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Summary: Finally found a match for Lord of the RIngs.
Review: Before a friend told me to try reading "The Wheel of Time" I had been totally convinced that Tolkien would be the Grand Master of Fantasy for all time. The extreme detail seen of the characters and scenary in the LoTR has finally been equalled or maybe even surpassed. Robert Jordan takes one on a mind-thrilling adventure with everything a grand story needs. Politics as well as mighty magic can be found in this Epic. Make sure that you have the next book waiting next to you so that you never need to wait a bit before continuing the Wheel of Time. All books so far have shown themselvs to be of equal quality.
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Summary: Great Book
Review: This book was awsome. I did give up on it for a little after the first trolloc attack but it kept on bugging me so i read it. now im starting the fourth and im goin strong. i have to take these big week long breaks before i read the next or i will get confused. Still i really recomend this book to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Summary: How it comes out>>>>>>
Review: This book combines the best of Tolkien and the realism of Crichton. If you are looking for a book that will take you to a world were everything is just as real as this one but also just as different, READ THIS BOOK!!!
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Summary: Great books!
Review: There have been some people that have said "The Wheel of Time" is better than "The Lord of the Rings" and some people that have said the oppisite. Jorden's Books were the first Epic Fantasy's i've read. (I have read all 9 of them). And I loved them. After finishing I started reading Tolkien's Books. The styles of writing are diffrent, so I can't speak to everyone as everyone will perfer one style over the other. But I can say that after reading Jorden's description hevey pages it just feels like something was missing every time I finshed a chapter in "The Fellowship of the Ring". A lot of reviewer's complain that these books are boring and slow. But thats why I love them so much. Because you know exactly what happens, you know what expressions are on peoples faces and can invision the rings on their fingers. Before Jorden the longest book I had read was no more than 250 pages. A huge jump to a book like this. I wasn't at all prepared for the amount of description, but I still loved the books. And I have learned to love reading because of them.Their are flaws of course, it's not perfect, but nothing is. I would recommend these books to anyone, I would recommend Tolkien's books to anyone. But I would first recommend Jorden.
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Summary: Will someone truly praise this book, please.
Review: I read this book at a friend's house. I was just stunned by the twists and turns and the character development in this book. I mean, I was stunned by the blatant commercial orientation of the twists and turns and character development. Was anything in this book done for any reason other than to drag the reader from the start to the end of this volume, and through the whole series, and possibly some role-playing games. That is the point of "twists and turns" that get the reader deep in the story. And any character development seems to hint of... something that will be developed in another volume! Agggh! I see a lot of reviewers praising these aspects because they see it as depth and complexity. IT'S NOT! Tolkien has depth and complexity and insights into behavior (and a story that finally comes to an end). THIS DOES NOT! You've been given the literary equivalent of a drug. Look at the favorable reviews for these books. You will find at some level the premise that the book is good because it develops into humongous, intertwining, long, long series. What kind of praise is that? Read it (and then the series) if you want to waste your time.
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Summary: Nice story,terrible characters
Review: The story is sometimes interesting,sometimes boring but the characters (especially the female ones) are annoying! George R.R. Martins "Song of Ice and Fire" for example is MUCH better and also Tad Williams "Memory,Thorn and Sorrow".
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Summary: How did this book get so many good reviews???
Review: I've read a lot of fantasy novels in my 36 years on Earth and maybe the reason I could not "appreciate" this novel is because the standard fantasy formula has become so repetative and sleep inducing. This book is too long winded (like so many other bloated examples of this genre) and, as a result, BORING!!. I had the same problem with Tad Williams's "The Dragonbone Chair". YAWN!! I stopped three quarters of the way through EOTW and started reading "The Anvil of Ice" by Michael Scott Rohan, a much better fantasy (get it thru amazon.co.uk). In closing, life's too short...read books that are intelligently written. Leave the fat, dull revenue raisers on the store shelf.
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