A review by willowbiblio
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

5.0

"Violence harms the one who does it as much as the one who receives it."
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Jordan was clearly heavily influenced by Tolkien's "The Fellowship of the Ring" for the general outline of this novel. It felt a lot like another version of that classic. It didn't bother me so much, but it did feel slightly lazy. However, Jordan absolutely made up for it with the depth of lore and history in this world. After reading this I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface. I saw the Prime adaptation first and it definitely wasn't as good as at least the first book.

I liked that most "good" societies, apart from the Two Rivers, were predicated on matriarchal structures. Conversely, cruel groups like the Children of the Light were male-led and dominated. The characters grew quite a lot throughout the narrative, especially Rand and Perrin. I felt like the female characters were sometimes unrealistically headstrong and didn't seem to develop as much.

The introduction of different kinds of "magic"- The Source/One Power, wolfbrothers, and Ogiers- created the sense of a deep history and vast world to explore. Very excited to continue this series!