Rating: 
Summary: The Wheel of Time Begins to Turn
Review: This excellent book by Robert Jordan is set in a world where two kinds of magic exist; male and female. Rand al'Thor is the hero of the series and he begins his journey from his home in the Two Rivers in this volume. He is sent on an epic journey to unite the people of his world against the evil forces of the Dark One, who has sought out Rand and his friends Mat and Perrin for his own use. Rand's quest leads him far away from home and to places he's only heard about. Will Rand succeed in his quest or will his world be destroyed?This is the second epic fantasy series I've become involved with, the other being Terry Brooks' Shannara series, and Jordan compares favorably to Brooks in terms of character development and storytelling. I was hooked as soon as I started reading this book, and it got better as I went further along. Although the pace slows somewhat toward the middle, it still held my attention throughout the entire book. After reading this book, I'll now read the others in the Wheel of Time series. I'm sure fantasy fiction fans like me will enjoy this book. I'm eagerly anticipating reading more about Rand and his companions in upcoming volumes.
Rating: 
Summary: Has Tolkien's Estate sued this guy yet?
Review: There was not an original character in this book. The languages looked like goobley-gook, and the plot was taken straight from the Lord of the Rings with some Arthurian Legend mixed in. Even the names were similiar! Don't waste your time and Read GRR Martin instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Simply the best Fantasy series to date.
Review: The eye of the world is the crucial first step to enjoying Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" series. His writing is flawlessly complete and precise. Enthralling descriptions coupled with deeply-involved plot and character development has left me without breath for going on 6 books now. Simply the most influential fantasy series ever written. The list of flaws is short, including a few minor annoyances (Nynaeve's endless braid-tugging and obnoxiously stubborn attitude, love interests that seemingly develop without foreshadow), but the list of credits is overwhelming. I cannot set this series down. I am a fan of R.A> Salvatore, or WAS a fan until I purchased the WoT series. It is a must read for any fantasy lover. A classic story of good country boys and girls who suddenly find out they may be much more, along with a deadly chase which pits simple good against simple evil. In books to come, neither side embraces simplicity.
Rating: 
Summary: You guys, I am so sorry...
Review: I heard this guy was a fabulous author, so I went out and bought the first book in the Wheel of Time. I started it and couldn't get past the first hundred pages...so I took a break...I started it again, to no avail..this, in its own cyclical sense, happened several times...I was IN PAIN during parts. This is long, boring, and when it tries to be exciting it is cheesy and drawn out. I'm sorry, guys. I had to state my case here on Amazon.com. I don't have the patience or the interest to finish this book. It's pretty bad when I'd rather be reading winded old treaties on art rather than a fantasy novel! These characters are cardboard cut-outs of humans and the plot is pretty yawwwwwnnn. My boyfriend saw me reading it and heard me groaning. He said, "Why don't you just put it down". I explained that I had paid for the book and intended to finish it. He shrugged and said "Better to waste time then, than money, eh?" I gave up after that. I've decided there are 2 kinds of fantasy readers in the world: those who love Jordan, and those who would rather sit through a 3 hour lecture on Hegel or bake bread all weekend with Martha Stewart then have to read even one Wheel of Time book. I belong to the latter group.
Rating: 
Summary: The Wheel turns....and turns, and turns, and turns
Review: 1) Bring Tolkien back to life. 2) Tell him he has to rewrite his books - the same story, only longer, with different names and some juggling of details. 3) Take away his knowledge of human behavior. 4) Chain him to his typewriter, so even when the story is over, he can't stop writing. That seems to be a reasonable approximation of what happened here. Don't get me wrong, some of these books are good. The classics can be retold a hundred different ways and still be great stories. With the first three books of Wheel of Time, Jordan found a beautiful piece of old furniture, sanded it, and repolished it. It looks good, it looks different, and I'm sure he put a lot of work into it, but he didn't build it, and he didn't really add anything. I give the first three books a 3.5-4: solid, but nothing to get worked up about. The real problem with Wheel of Time begins with the fourth book. Evidently, nobody told Mr Jordan that Tolkien's series is only three books long. I have read up to book nine, and I cannot conceive of there ever being an end to the series. I want to like these extra books, I want to believe that someone standing on the shoulders of giants can see far. There are a few interesting kernels scattered in books 4+, but we have to poke through a lot of pages to get to them. So many unnecessary minor characters and direntionless plot twists geyser forth from Jordan's pen that it makes me wonder if there is any degree of intelligent design behind it any more. He was great in the opening rounds, but you have to outbox the other guy, you can't just keep swinging wildly. Here's hoping Jordan takes a break, a nap, a Prozac, a vacation, whatever he needs to get back on some kind of track. More than that, here's hoping he finds it in himself to bring his floundering epic to a spectacular close.
Rating:
Summary: Huh?!
Review: I gave this book 5 stars because i couldn't give it six. Honestly, i don't understand how people can possibly not like this book. The later books may bog down the series, but this is my favourite in the whole series! (Well, next to the Dragon Reborn) Admittedly, mat's paranoia is a little annoying, but he's much better ibn Book 3. On my first reading I didn't like the end part, because it left too much unexplained, such as, why would the Creator (I think), help Rand in that battle, and whether or not that actually was some kind of manifestation of the Dark One Rand defeats, but since then I've read most of the other books, and I understand this more. Basically, you need to read the whole series to completely understand any of it, but I still like it.
Rating:
Summary: Blah
Review: Not that I disliked it intently, it was an easy and occasionally fun read, but literature this ain't. This is my first fantasy novel in nearly 20 years and it may be my last for another 20. There is nearly nothing challenging or thought-provoking here. I commend the author on his obvious attention to detail and commitment to character, but these details and characters are just blunt objects smacking the reader on the head as opposed to the finely honed instruments through which ideas and observations are communicated. No depth of conflict or complex resolution between them. And it's not like he didn't have enough time and/or space to build that depth - 700+ pages? Come on. I guess it's a gift to be able to fill that much printed paper without really saying anything. But that gift is lost on me. I'll stick with the writers who give their readers insight into themselves with characters who could easily be someone you know (whether you want to or not), and do so with uplifting, sobering, or just plain fun prose. I'll be leaving the next 7,000 (?) pages of this guy's work for someone else, so if you really love this type of book, don't worry, I'll never beat you to the last copy.
Rating:
Summary: Gaze into the Eye of the World and you'll regret it later...
Review: Here's the start of something insane. A quiet village is visited by a magician, Moiraine (Gandalf?)with a lost-king-outcast-warrior, Lan (Aragorn?). They drag out Rand, Mat and Perrin (Frodo, Merry and Pippin?) onto a journey to their destinies. And then there's a Dark One (we've all heard this) somewhere in the Pit of Doom (Mount Doom?). Stereotyped, generic, trite.... call it what you want. This is the fantasy genre. What do you expect? This entire series is an insult to the genre though. It goes wrong in so many ways. The good thing about this book and the next 2 books is the fact that there is action around the corner, when we are hoping for it. The other 7 books on the other hand....are the biggest disasters ever. If only Jordan ended at 3. This book is well written. Which is why I give it a 2. As a stand alone novel, it maybe deserves a 3 or 4. But the whole series is a wreck. The characters are the worst part of this whole series. Rand, Mat and Perrin always complain about misunderstanding women, when they're all mature and aged enough deal with it (I think they're adolescents, maybe 16 or 17). One complains that the other two would "know what to do" with women. Women misunderstand men just as much and treat them like trash. He praises women too much. It's like a bunch of feminists decided to write their fantasies. All the women decided to become men and the men became women. Not only that, ALL the characters are the same. Immature, unrealistic, boring, and incredibly stupid. Does Jordan even understand people? It shames me to say that I actually read the whole series. Fantasy is about unreal worlds and places, not unreal characters and behavior. The story had promise. An interesting history. But throughout the whole series, the history of the world is completely disregarded. All cultures of different nations are the same, except the Aiel maybe. Trust me. All the events that happen during the first 3 books, like the Horn of Valere, the Eye of the World and other stuff are COMPLETELY forgotten in the other books. Get "A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE" by George R.R. Martin. A true epic. The best since Tolkien. The characters are realistic and magic isn't always around to save everyone. They live through a rich but more realistic history and great events happen. He's an award winning author of SHORT STORIES (yet his series is already 3 fat novels with more to come) and he's worked at Hollywood. He's better than Jordan and probably all the Terrys in the genre and even other great authors in fiction. It appeals to those who could care less about fantasy. Forget Wheel of Time. This book was decent. So read it, if you really want. But you've been warned. When things roll downhill, they go faster. The Wheel of Time rolls downhill, but more slowly with each book. Oh, the irony.
Rating:
Summary: Read "Dune" instead....same thing
Review: Just read "Dune" instead. It's pretty much the same thing, and MUCH shorter.
Fremen = Aiel
Bene Geserit = Aes Sedai
Muad'Dib = Dragon Reborn
.....and so on.
Rating:
Summary: Good enough for 5000+ more pages?
Review: My son loves The Wheel of Time series, and finally talked me into reading the first book, "The Eye of the World." I am a sci-fi/fantasy fan, having grown up with Tolkien: Stephen Donaldson, Vernor Vinge, and Jack McDevitt weigh in with Tolkien as some of my all-time favorites. Recently I've read GRR Martin's first 3 volumes of "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, which is very good. Even so, I allowed the ten+ volumes in The Wheel of Time series to put me off. I kept asking myself how the author could possibly be good enough to spend the time required to read through his huge series? After finishing "The Eye of the World," that question remains very much in doubt. "The Eye of the World" appears to be a standard, fairly unimaginative fantasy novel, even if placed into a large setting. The main characters, three young men (Rand, Mat and Perrin) are from a small, isolated farming village. Their village and homes are attacked one evening by minions of the Dark One, and off they go on a quest, to remove the danger they appear to put their home village into, and to discover how they fit into the upcoming battle with Ba'alzamon (another name for the Dark One). Rand's long-time girlfriend, Egwene, follows along, as does the village Wisdom (a woman healer and leader), Nynaeve. The group is lead by a powerful female magician, Moirgaine, and her male Warder (protector/companion), Lan. The group is attacked and hunted by part human, part animal, rather Troll-like, Trollocs. The Trollocs are lead by Myrddraals (or Fades), eyeless creatures of the Dark One. Both groups are assisted by human Darkfriends. If the names appear to be more than a bit pedestrian, perhaps that's because they are. Jordan also uses one of the worst sentences ever for a fantasy novel, "The Wheel Weaves as the Wheel Wills." I shudder every time I read this, and have to imagine someone actually saying it. Doesn't quite match up to "... and one ring to bind them." The group is eventually joined by an Ogier named Loial, who is young and hasty (and, one supposes, loyal). Ogier love trees, and are hairy, but friendly, giants. They have assisted in the building of cities in Jordan's world, and are clearly a mix of Ent (Tolkien) and Giant (Donaldson). It seems unlikely that Jordan will come close to matching the inventiveness of Tolkien or Donaldson. Inventiveness is very important to my enjoyment of fantasy, so I find this apparent lacking in Jordan quite disappointing. Other readers may look for different aspects in fantasy, however. Jordan does have strong women characters, and some cultural politics, unlike Tolkien. Jordan's writing flows better, and has deeper characterizations than Donaldson. There is action in "The Eye of the World," but the pace is slow and somewhat tedious. For all the characters and detailed descriptions, we really do not learn much about any of the characters. Trollocs stay trollish, we are given no clue what Fades are or how they came to be. We learn very little about Moirgaine, and her Aes Sedai sisters, except that they are somewhat sinister and powerful. We do learn a bit about Lan toward the end of the book, but his motivations for becoming a Warder and toward Nynaeve are left open. More happens with Rand, Mat and Perrin, and this part of the story suggests better what might follow in future volumes. All three characters seem to be headed in very different directions, physically, mentally and emotionally, but we know that they are tied together somehow. It should be interesting to see how Jordan will handle this subplot. Egwene and Nynaeve appear to be headed in yet another direction, adding to the mystery. Even so, I found "The Eye of the World" unrewarding, especially with the weird ending. I have had many friends complain to me that they don't like fantasy because magic comes to the rescue whenever the author gets his characters into a jam. I never felt that was justified with Tolkien or Donaldson, but I think it is, at least in this volume, of Jordan. He may do better with later volumes, perhaps even enough to have this book make sense. But I am very much left with the question of whether to simply stop here and read other authors, or stay with Jordan for another volume. OK. I have read a bit into the second volume, and it is quite good so far. Donaldson was very tough to get through in his first volume, as was (to a lesser extent) Tolkien. I'll give Jordan the benefit of the doubt, and try another volume.
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