Eye of the World: Robert Jordan

And yet again I am starting another series when I am in the middle of tens of other incomplete series. Truly speaking I didn’t have any intention to start this one, because I know that this is massive series. For people who don’t know there are around 14 books in the series and it is considered to be one of the largest series written in terms of word count. So, nowhere I was ready for this commitment when I am already in the middle of Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere series.

Then why did I pick this series?

Typical FOMO and the fear of spoiling.

Amazon is releasing this series on Prime on 19th November. And fans of this series are going crazy about it since the trailer is out. Some of the makers are even claiming it to be as grand as Games of Thrones. And if it really turned out to be as awesome as people are claiming it to be then I got want to get spoiled.

Season 1 is said to be loosely based on Book 1, 2, and 3 of the series and hence I will try to finish it before it hits the audience. And after that, it’s up to the story and the author to pull me in for the rest of the series.

Plot Overview

The book closely follows the storyline of The Lords of the Rings, especially the Fellowship of the Ring. There is a dark power that is rising in a faraway world and there is a chosen one from among the country folks, who is meant to fulfill some prophecies. There is a wheel of time that weaves a pattern around the lives of people which no one can control (or can someone?)

My Thoughts

Reading this book was a mixed bag of emotions. The points for which I appraise the book are also the points on which I criticize it.

The fact that the book follows all the known classic tropes made this book a little less enjoyable but the fans of this book promises that after book 4 it breaks all the classic tropes and truly becomes fantastical. But I still doubt whether I will be reaching beyond book 4 or not.

Even though the trope is classic, Robert Jordan has created ample threads on which an amazing different backstory can be weaved. Saying that there are a lot of things going on in the book, probably a lot of foreshadowings for the future books. Many people say book 1 itself is a prologue for the entire series.

But since there wasn’t much explanation as I reader I was completely lost at times. I needed to take help from the Internet till about 50% of the book to actually understand what is happening(A word of caution for all first-time readers, please be careful while reading this book online as the Internet is full of spoilers)

The magic system of this world though sounds intriguing wasn’t explained at all. I understand that it is a long series and it will be explained in future books, but as a reader when you are reading 800+ pages you expect to understand the world better than what you get from this book.

Conclusion

As mentioned I am still going to read books 2 and 3. After that if the book is not appealing to me even after that I am not going to continue with this. Let’s see how this journey goes.