The Eye of the World is the first of many novels in Robert Jordan's mega-epic Wheel of Time series. It weighs in at nearly 800 pages and includes an index for the reader to keep up with all the new terms introduced in this series. Jordan has created a massive fantasy world and this series will take you on a major vacation from reality if you invest the time into reading it.

I have noticed that with these 'fantasy epics' the first novel is often a little boring. Such is unfortunately the case with this novel. Even the other reviews on this site have pointed out the often boring nature of this book. If I didn't already know there were so many novels following this one, I probably would not have put the time into reading it. I recently read the first novel in the Sword of Shannara series by Terry Brooks and I felt the same way about that one, too.

The story starts like many fantasy stories. A peaceful village sits in a quiet area of the forest and everything is hunky dory until monsters attack and ruin everyone's day. In this book, the monsters are called Trollocs and they sort of resemble a werewolf only they are about as smart as one of Tolkien's orcs from the Lord of the Rings books. A terrible darkness is spreading over the land and so a group of unlikely heroes (you know, like hobbits) team up with a female wizard (like Gandalf) called an Aes Sedai and some mighty warrior types (like Strider) to go on a huge cross country trek in search of help. Along the way they run into all kinds of different people and creatures as the story slowly (very slowly) unfolds. The basic setup of the plot is nothing new, although the characters and destinations are something unique.

Despite all the dead time in between events, what makes this book so interesting is the way that Jordan slowly develops the world for the reader. When you read all about the details of a fictitious culture, it isn't always going to be exciting, but it is necessary to the story. Most interesting are the wizards called Aes Sedai. With their philosophies and wisdom, they reminded me of the Jedi. Of particular interest was the concept of the Wheel of Time. It speaks of how every person's life will fit into the tread of the great Wheel and how only a few people are meant for larger parts and how others can only vary so much in their path. It hints at pre-destiny, which is a concept I've never believed in, but the way it is used in this story is interesting.

I struggled to read this entire book because it has so much extraneous material that I found myself bored and out of focus. In many parts I literally began to yawn and nod off even though I was fully awake. There are about 150 pages in the middle of the story that I read through and don't remember a thing. It wasn't until the last third of the book that the story regained momentum and my interest was peaked enough to get through the rest. I am hoping the future books will be much better than this one or else I may give up on the series. There were several occasions where I was almost to the point where I wanted to throw the book across the room and yell, "Get on with it!"

Robert Jordan and his editor should have trimmed this book down. Jordan has a very clear writing style where you can follow every action without any need for pause and interpretation, but he tends to get so caught up in mundane details that it drags the story down. I am a big fan of R.A. Salvatore's series with Drizzt and Wulfgar, and I think Salvatore handles the long running story much better by delivering far more action and less world building. Forest for the trees, Mr. Jordan.

As an introductory novel to kick off an epic series, this books succeeds in setting up what I hope to be a great story. As a standalone novel, this book fails to catch the reader like it should. Unless you really want to delve into an extraordinarily long-winded fantasy series, you might want to spend your time reading something else.

Recommended: Yes