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A review by violetspiderwitch
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
3.0
3.6 Stars
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan is a classic, that much at least is clear. The Wheel of Time paved the way for the sprawling series and intricate magic systems we see today, and though the series has always been widely praised, there has also long been considerable backlash to it (so much so that its most liked Goodreads review is one star). But the Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, and the massive fourteen book series along with its devoted fanbase continue to draw newcomers. This year, I was among them, but having finished its first novel am of two minds about it. See, The Eye of the World is certainly a classic, but it also exemplifies the issue with such books.
The first and most glaring critique I have of The Eye of the World is in regards to its pacing. The book starts after an intriguing prologue followed by around sixty pages before the inciting incident happens, which is a slog to get through. The rest of the book doesn’t fare much better as it continually drags its feet while the main cast slowly work their way from medieval village to medieval village. There is rarely any delineation between scenes and the large majority of the story is spent with the characters walking across similar landscapes in between infodumps and brief low stakes action sequences. The prose makes this all the more unbearable, with adverbs after every dialogue tag and every thought the characters have taking up at least a paragraph. These issues make the book much longer than it needs to be with the manuscript clocking in at a blustering 300,000 words, when it could easily be told in 200,000.
The pacing might not be so bad but for the second major issue I have which is the characters. Rand Al’Thor is the main viewpoint character and ostensibly the protagonist, but he is frustratingly bland. His main motivation through the majority of the book is that he wants to protect the people he cares about, but there’s not much more to his character. His backstory consists of sixteen years in a secluded farming town, and he doesn’t have any ideals, he just opposes whatever he’s been told not to like by the people he grew up around. Those prejudices don’t go opposed by the plot either; the morality of the larger world is pretty black and white, and what is evil nearly always aligns with what Rand already doesn’t like. The other characters are slightly better but not by a lot, each filling an established fantasy trope near perfectly, with one even being a dark brooding ranger who is second in command to a wise wizard and was supposed to be a king. One thing I did appreciate was the fact that female characters actually existed in the world as opposed to most 20th century fantasy where they mostly appear as unimportant side characters, or objects for the men to ogle at. The book is far from feminist, with not a huge amount of thought having gone into gender roles and most major characters being men, but it’s still notable for 1990.
I didn’t dislike the whole book: the lore is meticulous, the magic system intriguing, the world grand, and the pace even picks up near the end. The Eye of the World is far from a bad book, it’s a classic for a reason. But there is an issue with classics: when so many of the books that came after a book were inspired by it, the original becomes less interesting. Almost every contemporary fantasy novel has a magic system and fleshed out female characters, so seeing them here isn’t unique to me. But in 1990 it was rare, and The Eye of the World was able to safely question the genre convention by using established tropes, which though not the only reason it is so beloved, helped it stand out when it was otherwise a very generic epic fantasy novel.
That’s not the end for the Wheel of Time, though. Even at the end of The Eye of the World the plot, characters, and setting became a lot more interesting very quickly, and there are thirteen more novels in the series. I don’t think I’ll be reading The Great Hunt very soon, if only due to the volume of books I have on my to-be-read list, but I doubt it will be my last book in The Wheel of Time. Overall, The Eye of the World was a mix of good and bad that became better as it went on, though rarely sucked me in. It is a classic, in all that entails, and though in my opinion it is overshadowed by its contemporaries, it still holds merit.
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan is a classic, that much at least is clear. The Wheel of Time paved the way for the sprawling series and intricate magic systems we see today, and though the series has always been widely praised, there has also long been considerable backlash to it (so much so that its most liked Goodreads review is one star). But the Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, and the massive fourteen book series along with its devoted fanbase continue to draw newcomers. This year, I was among them, but having finished its first novel am of two minds about it. See, The Eye of the World is certainly a classic, but it also exemplifies the issue with such books.
The first and most glaring critique I have of The Eye of the World is in regards to its pacing. The book starts after an intriguing prologue followed by around sixty pages before the inciting incident happens, which is a slog to get through. The rest of the book doesn’t fare much better as it continually drags its feet while the main cast slowly work their way from medieval village to medieval village. There is rarely any delineation between scenes and the large majority of the story is spent with the characters walking across similar landscapes in between infodumps and brief low stakes action sequences. The prose makes this all the more unbearable, with adverbs after every dialogue tag and every thought the characters have taking up at least a paragraph. These issues make the book much longer than it needs to be with the manuscript clocking in at a blustering 300,000 words, when it could easily be told in 200,000.
The pacing might not be so bad but for the second major issue I have which is the characters. Rand Al’Thor is the main viewpoint character and ostensibly the protagonist, but he is frustratingly bland. His main motivation through the majority of the book is that he wants to protect the people he cares about, but there’s not much more to his character. His backstory consists of sixteen years in a secluded farming town, and he doesn’t have any ideals, he just opposes whatever he’s been told not to like by the people he grew up around. Those prejudices don’t go opposed by the plot either; the morality of the larger world is pretty black and white, and what is evil nearly always aligns with what Rand already doesn’t like. The other characters are slightly better but not by a lot, each filling an established fantasy trope near perfectly, with one even being a dark brooding ranger who is second in command to a wise wizard and was supposed to be a king. One thing I did appreciate was the fact that female characters actually existed in the world as opposed to most 20th century fantasy where they mostly appear as unimportant side characters, or objects for the men to ogle at. The book is far from feminist, with not a huge amount of thought having gone into gender roles and most major characters being men, but it’s still notable for 1990.
I didn’t dislike the whole book: the lore is meticulous, the magic system intriguing, the world grand, and the pace even picks up near the end. The Eye of the World is far from a bad book, it’s a classic for a reason. But there is an issue with classics: when so many of the books that came after a book were inspired by it, the original becomes less interesting. Almost every contemporary fantasy novel has a magic system and fleshed out female characters, so seeing them here isn’t unique to me. But in 1990 it was rare, and The Eye of the World was able to safely question the genre convention by using established tropes, which though not the only reason it is so beloved, helped it stand out when it was otherwise a very generic epic fantasy novel.
That’s not the end for the Wheel of Time, though. Even at the end of The Eye of the World the plot, characters, and setting became a lot more interesting very quickly, and there are thirteen more novels in the series. I don’t think I’ll be reading The Great Hunt very soon, if only due to the volume of books I have on my to-be-read list, but I doubt it will be my last book in The Wheel of Time. Overall, The Eye of the World was a mix of good and bad that became better as it went on, though rarely sucked me in. It is a classic, in all that entails, and though in my opinion it is overshadowed by its contemporaries, it still holds merit.