With all the rage being Game of Thrones (aka A Song of Ice and Fire), one must remember there are other great fantasy series out there that without the HBO treatment don’t get as much attention. The Wheel of Time, of which The Eye of the World is the first book, is supposed to be one of those series.
I originally read this book decades ago and then stopped reading the series. Not because I didn’t enjoy the book the first time, but because the series wasn’t complete and after Stephen King was hit by a van before completing The Darktower series, I had this fear of starting a series before its completion for fear of never knowing the ending, so I vowed to not read any incomplete series (yes, that means I have not read Song of Ice and Fire). Sadly this appeared to be the fate for Wheel of Time when the author Robert Jordan passed away before finishing this series, already bloated at 11 books. Luckily though, as the story goes, on his deathbed, he and his wife went through the entire story with author Brandon Sanderson, turning over the story to him for completion at a whopping 14 books!
Once complete, I still avoided reading it only because 14 books (and we’re talking books that can be 800+ pages each), is a huge endeavor. But Chris kept saying though the series lagged in the middle, it has one of the best endings ever, so I decided to give it another go.
The story centers on Rand Al’Thor, a teen from a small remote village and four of his friends as they get jettisoned into the world at large under the competing guidance of Moraine (a weilder of the one power central to the story), her guardian, Lan, and Thom Merlinn (a master entertainer and storyteller). It’s not long before the group is in peril as we learn more about this epic story that will pit good against evil in what has been and always will be a neverending story driven by the Wheel of Time.
This is a story that’s incredibly intricate and involved with many perspectives and side stories. It’s not at all like Game of Thrones which feels more medieval and even realistic with its backstabbing, sex and fights and more like Tolkien, where the enemies of men, for the most part, are creatures of evil. It’s also a world where magic, in the form of the One Power, plays a more prominent role. Overall, I enjoyed this book enough to continue with the next book in the series, The Great Hunt (review to follow shortly).