THE BAD:

SUMMARY:
The Wheel of Time is quite possibly the most epic series ever written by an author of modern times. But the adventure that spans an unbelievable 12 books has to start somewhere, and The Eye of the World sets up the story, setting and characters in wonderfully written, but still easy to understand, language. The epicness of the series is made clear to the reader from the get go as Jordan spends the initial stages of the book portraying the simple, and almost mundane, lives of the series’ main characters.

The first part of the book focuses on Rand Al’thor, Egwene Alvere, Perrin and Matt Cauthon as they go about their simple untroubled young lives in the Two Rivers. When a mysterious woman appears their fates are turned on their heads and their lives changed forever. Moiraine Damodred, an Aes Sedai, whisks the children away from their childhood homes as the truth about their destinies are slowly revealed.

Each of the four have futures of awesome power and responsibility ahead of them; and under the guidance of Moiraine the fates of their lives, to be told over the span of the entire Wheel of Time series, are set into motion.

Throughout the story Robert Jordan works his masterful skill to develop each character; and to weave into the reader a true sense of knowing and connection to each of the wonderfully constructed individuals. The major flaw that arises from the superb character development is that Jordan almost provides too much information for a reader to digest. While all readers would unanimously ask for as much detail as possible, The Wheel of Time series shows that there may just be a limit to how much detail and character development a novel can actually contain.

No matter the amount of detail the book conveys, Jordan manages to keep readers interested and reading the whole way through. His masterful writing style has created one of those books you just can’t put down. At the end of every chapter you think, “Just one more,” and then before you know it you’ve finished half the book in one sitting and your whole afternoon has disappeared.

Essentially The Eye of the World is the perfect base novel for the epic series, The Wheel of Time. By providing wonderfully detailed character development and setting portrayal in masterfully written prose Jordan has created a true masterpiece of fiction. I would personally recommend this book to all fantasy fans as it will introduce to you a world to rival that of Middle Earth. Even those readers who tend away from fantasy take a look at The Eye of the World and the rest of The Wheel of Time simply to appreciate the master craft of Robert Jordan.