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morganv10 's review for:
The Eye of the World
by Robert Jordan
Bloated and a tad derivative, Jordan sows the seeds for the rest of the series, but does little to distinguish the debut volume.
First off - the prologue shocks and awes. Magic, power, madness: The prologue draws us in, throwing terms at us we don't yet understand, promising a long and grand adventure.
After that, the book moves at a tepid pace. We see the same beats of the Fellowship of the Ring, Star Wars, the Belgariad - young boy unaware of his important heritage must flee his small town after the forces of evil come for him. While those other stories have a goal to push towards - Destroying the One Ring, saving Princess Leia - there's little pushing the story forward in EotW. We read through endless scenes of Rand reaching a new town and then running away from Darkfriends - what has been accomplished? The only real story happens in the last tenth of the novel, where the danger suddenly ratchets up to eleven as they rush to Shayol Ghul to prevent the Dark One from escaping his prison. This final section is done well, particularly the descriptions of the Blight and the reveal of Lan's backstory. But one wonders how much of the preceding five hundred pages were necessary.
Though I can understand the character reasons for it - Rand and Mat are naive farmboys who have never been outside of their village, and also have been raised to distrust Aes Sedai - the sheer genre blindness of the characters grates on you throughout the book. Imagine the strife Rand could have avoided by simply telling Moiraine about the dagger immediately when she asked if Mordeth had given them anything... Conflict from poor communication always frustrates me as a reader, and here is no different.
I do have a positive opinion of Ba'alzemon as the antagonist - making the Dark Lord take such an active role in the story rather than just waiting for the heroes to arrive and fight him is a good take on the trope, and his menace and corrupting nature comes across well.
Overall, a lackluster beginning that hopefully will set the groundwork for better books to come.
First off - the prologue shocks and awes. Magic, power, madness: The prologue draws us in, throwing terms at us we don't yet understand, promising a long and grand adventure.
After that, the book moves at a tepid pace. We see the same beats of the Fellowship of the Ring, Star Wars, the Belgariad - young boy unaware of his important heritage must flee his small town after the forces of evil come for him. While those other stories have a goal to push towards - Destroying the One Ring, saving Princess Leia - there's little pushing the story forward in EotW. We read through endless scenes of Rand reaching a new town and then running away from Darkfriends - what has been accomplished? The only real story happens in the last tenth of the novel, where the danger suddenly ratchets up to eleven as they rush to Shayol Ghul to prevent the Dark One from escaping his prison. This final section is done well, particularly the descriptions of the Blight and the reveal of Lan's backstory. But one wonders how much of the preceding five hundred pages were necessary.
Though I can understand the character reasons for it - Rand and Mat are naive farmboys who have never been outside of their village, and also have been raised to distrust Aes Sedai - the sheer genre blindness of the characters grates on you throughout the book. Imagine the strife Rand could have avoided by simply telling Moiraine about the dagger immediately when she asked if Mordeth had given them anything... Conflict from poor communication always frustrates me as a reader, and here is no different.
I do have a positive opinion of Ba'alzemon as the antagonist - making the Dark Lord take such an active role in the story rather than just waiting for the heroes to arrive and fight him is a good take on the trope, and his menace and corrupting nature comes across well.
Overall, a lackluster beginning that hopefully will set the groundwork for better books to come.