The Eye of the World

Rating 4 of 5

The Eye of the World is the first book in Robert Jordans famous Wheel of Time book series.

I decided to read the Wheel of time after Amazon Studios cancelled the Wheel of Time TV series, sadly after it finally improved to something that was fun to watch.

The Eye of the world is MUCH better then its TV counter part. The first season of Wheel of Time TV series is mediocre to bad. The Mat character is cast all wrong and Perrin murdering his wife that didn’t exist in the books at all, SMH.

Its a long book. Probably its strongest point is all the character building. Its weakest point is the reasons they go into the ways and then the confrontation with the two forsaken at the Eye of the World.

Probably best to review the wikipedia article on the book for a plot summary.

I struggled with giving the book a 4 or 3 of 5, because the beginning and the ending just seem a bit forced. Kind of staged events to start and end the book, rather then natural parts of the story. In retrospect this is sort of ok because you learn the characters in the story exist purely to advance the plot of the wheel of time universe. But still its just too many “special things”.

I’m not sure if its a knock on the book but the Wheel of Time is sort of odd in that the characters experience a lot of intense violence but there’s basically no sex in the books. People are “in love” and sometimes kiss but its very PG. Sometimes this contrasts a bit with the intense violence that happens where people are hacked apart by axes.

Eye is one of those books where you’re kind of disappointed by the beginning and the ending but really enjoy the middle. Since its really a setup book for a massive fantasy series of 14(!) books I’ll give it a pass as it does set the series up rather well.