The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordon
Book Review - The Eye of the World By Robert Jordon
As the first book of Robert Jordan’s massive and bestselling fantasy epic The Wheel of Time, the Eye of the World sets the precedent for the entire series. However, whether or not this is a good thing is definitely more debatable than the sales may have you think.
As much as I enjoyed the book, I cannot deny the Eye of the World is nothing spectacular. In fact, I would say I probably enjoyed it because of the feeling of familiarity it gives as a run-of-the -mill fantasy tale, rather than because it introduced anything new to the genre. The plot is typical, the characters fill standard roles and the ‘twists’ are evident far in advance – nothing is fresh or surprising. In fact, at points the story becomes tedious in its monotony; good guys run, bad guys catch up, there’s a near escape and it’s back to the running away again. This isn’t done in a novel way either; Jordon essentially takes Tolkien and renames the characters! Frodo’s character is diluted to become the dreary Rand al’Thor who, along with his country-bumpkin friends, is chased across the world by ‘The Dark One’ (urg) and his army of bestial warriors, led by riders dressed in black cloaks, riding black steeds…sound familiar?
I can’t deny I enjoyed reading the Eye of the World; the number of times I missed my stop on the train because I was engrossed would have cost me a fortune if it weren’t for my Oyster card! However, there is almost certainly nothing in this book that hasn’t been done before and been done better. Jordon has written a great book and a wonderful series, but he certainly does not come to dominate the world Tolkien created, as the reviewers claim.
