The Eye of the World: Book One of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Tor Books. 750 pages.
I’ll have to admit that this isn’t the first time that I started to read this series. Reading a series of this size–twelve books, each of roughly 750 pages–is a major commitment, and I balked at it after the first couple of chapters.
And just as in The Hobbit, the beginning is just a bit slow. Even this time around, I struggled for the first couple of chapters as the characters were getting developed and the setting was getting established. But soon it took off.
The series has been compared, and rightly so, to The Lord of the Rings. I say, rightly so, because it immense in scope, maybe even bigger than Middle Earth. That’s probably the best thing I can say about this series. It’s easy to get lost in this world, which is what you really want in a fantasy series. And the thing that challenged me in the beginning–its length–is the thing that now appeals to me.
This is a phenomenal world, filled with a massive struggle between Good and Evil. But the lines between each side are not drawn up clearly, and the person next to you could be an agent for the other side. There are hideous monsters, each more terrible than the last. And the writing is masterful.
If you like fantasy, if you loved The Lord of the Rings, I can’t recommend this series enough.
I give it five stars out of five.
The Great Adventure 