Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

BOOK: Eye of the World, book one
of the Wheel of Time series

AUTHOR: Robert Jordan

RATING: 4 out of 5 toe socks

FIRST PARAGRAPH: The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.

REVIEW: The best thing about this book was how the fantasy world was not romanticized. At all. Robert Jordan gives all of the dirty bits and pieces from uncomfortable hay stacks to the smell of manure in the streets. I enjoy the smell of manure in the streets. To me it means that the author has not forgotten the little details that puts the reader in the story, instead of just having them admire a nice picture of an obvious fantasy land that you have created in hopes of getting it made into a major motion picture.

It is definitely a first book in regards to character growth. At some point I plan on continuing to read the series and hope to see how much more these characters grow. After eight hundred and fourteen pages, I still felt like I was at the beginning of the book. So much had happened, there was a beginning and an end; yet so many questions left unanswered.

Jordan successfully set up a world of his own in the first book to the Wheel of Time series. It was not rushed and long, drawn-out stories and backgrounds were almost non-existant, unless it helped to further the plot. In all of the book there was only one overly drawn out story and it's telling served a purpose. Writing a cohesive novel is much like pruning a rose bush, you have to cut back all of the distracting bullshit in order to let your story grow.

~C