The Path of Daggers

This post first published October 9, 2011.

Author: Robert Jordan
Published: October 1998
Publisher: Tor Fantasy
Series: The Wheel of Time #8
672 pages (mass market paperback) 
 
Been a while since I read another WoT book. I’m still determined to finish the series, but I admit, the series is progressing in such a way that it’s been difficult to find the motivation to read it sometimes. I was already starting to see plot progression slow down a few books back, and in The Path of Daggers, it’s really starting to grind to a halt. I literally cannot pinpoint what was the overall plot of this book.

From what I can remember, this is what generally happens to the characters in the book: Egwene deals with people treating her like a puppet Amyrlin, but she’s determined to rise above them. Perrin is on some sort of mission for Rand but gets sidetracked by his crazy wife wanting Perrin to be more bossy (WTF?). Elayne, Nynavae and Aviendha are … I don’t know, actually. They were trying to right the weather with the Bowl of Winds, but I can’t remember what the heck happened after that, just that Elayne eventually ends up taking back the Lion Throne (which, by the way, her return to the throne was rather anti-climatic). And Rand. Ohhh Rand. I don’t even know. I think I started skimming some of his chapters, they just bored me to death. There was a lot of fighting going on, he’s conquering cities, he’s trying to fight back the Seanchan, he tries to use Callandor and all hell breaks loose, he’s trying not to be crazy … I don’t know. I have a feeling there were too many pages spent trying to describe what Rand was doing when in reality you only needed maybe ten, and as a result, I ended up confused.

To me, very little plot occurs in this book. I think it tried to pass itself off as an in-between book — you know, those books that happen in the middle of the series that aren’t as great as the beginning or end books of a series, but has to exist just to progress the story. That’s this book. Except I’m pretty sure you can put all the important things that happened in this book in the next book and it would still have been fine. So much of this book was just long and boring descriptions. I know, I know — descriptions are important in books. I’m not saying get rid of all of them, but there is a limit to how much description a reader wants to take in. I do not need to know every little detail about every body’s clothes or rooms or whatever, especially if they are nothing more than some barmaid or innkeeper or whatever.

Robert Jordan provides even more evidence that he does not really know how to write love relationships in this book. Some past examples include Egwene and Rand *suddenly* realizing they don’t love each other romantically, Perrin’s dislike for Faile and then *suddenly* she’s the love of his life, Lan and his ambiguity towards Nynavae (sure, Jordan says Lan loves Nynavae, but Lan has said or done nothing to convince me of this). Siuan’s one of my favourite characters, but she just got butchered in this book. Essentially, Siuan’s become Nynavae — she has completely taken her personality and her attitude and is Nynavae. And for some reason, Siuan’s in love with what’s-his-face but, like Nynavae, treats him really bad and pretends she hates him when really she secretly loves him. WHAT IS THIS, KINDERGARTEN?

Then there’s Faile and her desire to have Perrin dominate her, so to speak. She wants him to be assertive and boss her around, which, in her mind, will show that Perrin believes her to be a strong enough wife to put up with his shenanigans. I actually can be okay with this bizarre logic if it was only Faile, but it turns out every woman who is Saldean (like Faile) thinks like this. What kind of bizarre culture do Saldean women have? It’s actually kind of almost offensive. The weird thing is, in Robert Jordan’s books, there are never any exceptions. If you are a female from Saldean, you want a dominating husband so you can play the who-has-the-power-in-the-relationship game. I can’t think of more examples right now, but it’s the same with characters from X, Y, or Z places. If you come from such-and-such a place, you are automatically like this or that. So weird.

Okay, so if you can’t tell by now, I didn’t really enjoy The Path of Daggers. It was difficult for me to get through, as the majority of it is just fluff. Honestly you could probably skip this book in the series and continue without it — that’s how unimportant the “plot” was in this book to the overall story. I do look forward to Winter’s Heart, the next book, because I was tipped off (accidentally) what happens in it and it sounds exciting …

My Rating: 1.5/5

A Crown Of Swords

This post first published September 17, 2011.

Author: Robert Jordan
Published: May 1996
Publisher: Tor Fantasy
Series: The Wheel Of Time #7
880 pages
 
Seven down, seven more to go. (Okay, six more to go really, because the last one isn’t published yet). I am going to warn you right now this ‘review’ is more of a collection of thoughts, and is a bit all over the place.
A Crown of Swords begins pretty much right after the final events of the previous book, Lord of Chaos. To be honest, I don’t feel a whole lot actually happens in this book, and what did happen certainly did not require 880 pages to tell. Rand is trying to keep control and stability in Cairhein, and also tries to convince the Sea Folk that he is the Coramoor of their Prophecies. It’s all very political and all the discussing and arguing occurs at a snail’s pace; frankly, not very interesting to me. Egwene sends Nynavae and Elayne off to find the Bowl of the Winds, and doesn’t really pop up after that. Nynavae and Elayne’s chapters were fairly interesting, but their search progresses so slowly. And then there’s like a couple chapters regarding Morgase and whatever’s up with her, and her chapters inched by as well. I guess what I’m trying to say is, the entire plot moved very, very slow.

Then suddenly at the end, it’s like the entire story realized it was moving at a slow speed and it decided to fast forward the last handful of scenes! (Spoiler, highlight to read: The reason it feels this way is that all of a sudden, Rand just pops up in Illian and takes down Sammael. Seriously. It happened so freaking fast, I was like, “Isn’t Sammael supposed to be super strong or something? How did Rand kill him so easily?” Then again, Rand is not 100% sure he killed Sammael … ) So I was not very satisfied with the ending. It was too sudden and abrupt.

Character-wise, I’d say everyone is pretty much the same, though there is a few developments. Like Nynavae.  Spoiler: She marries Lan and now, suddenly, she’s trying to be all nice and perfect. It’s a bit weird. I never really cared about Nynavae — she’s actually my least favourite character, because I find her way too bitchy and angry, but I guess such events change women … maybe …

Also, there is a surprising amount of sex in this book. Not that I have a problem with reading sex (and it’s always off-camera and/or suggested, so it’s not like anything was described in detail), it’s just that the previous books had none, or very little, and then suddenly in this book, everyone’s hooking up! Okay, not everyone, but it sure feels like it. It’s not really a complaint, more of an observation.
Speaking of which: Min and Rand. Min has always been a practical, down to earth kind of girl but around Rand, she’s become this huge flirt. It’s weird! I mean, I know this isn’t unusual behaviour, for girls to act a bit more flirty and girly around the guy she likes, but it feels like almost too big of a personality shift. Then again, I don’t think Min really ever had a solid, concrete personality like Nynavae.

There’s also a new character introduced in this book, Cadsuane. She is a very old, highly respected Aes Sedai and it sort of feels like she’s come in to take Moiraine’s place. Certainly she is trying to “teach him manners”. I am not sure how I feel about her yet. Her role in the story is not really defined at all, I don’t really know why she suddenly decided to appear. All it was said was that she finds such events like the Dragon Reborn interesting. Regardless, I am a little intrigued by her presence and I have a hunch she’ll have a much larger role in future books, but I really hope she wasn’t written in to be the new Moiraine. Moiraine is my favourite character, no one can take her place!

Not going to complain about the lengthy clothing descriptions or Jordan’s female character I’ve been over that. It’s still present in the series.

Overall, I think I have mixed feelings towards this book. It was slow, but the events that did happen were fairly interesting and I enjoyed reading the book when the plot decided to actually progress, though not all plot progressions were satisfying. I am a little wary of the books to follow in the series, because I have been warned by several friends that the plot continues to slow down more and more — possibly to milk the series — so we shall see.

My Rating: 3/5

Lord Of Chaos

This post first published September 5, 2011.

Author: Robert Jordan
Published: October 1994
Publisher: Tor Books
Series: The Wheel of Time #6
1011 pages (mass market paperback)
 
I give this book a 4, but I think it’s really more like a 3.7 or 3.8 … However, I’m not going to get into decimals, heh, so I rounded.
Continuing on with The Wheel of Time series, I finally finished reading book six! This one was quite long, hence the lack of updates around the blog while I was trying to get though this phonebook-sized novel …

So what happens in book six? Well, truth to be told, I cannot remember much that happened in the first 500 pages or so — it felt like nothing much was going on and it was difficult to get through. I just didn’t care about Rand’s problems, or Morgase, or even Mat in this book. And I usually love Mat! I think it’s because those characters’ parts of the stories are becoming increasingly political, which normally isn’t really my cup of tea. But the last half of the book was amazing to read, and I was so hooked. Especially all the Aes Sedai stuff. I love the concept of Aes Sedai in this story, it’s one of my favourite things about the series. There are a lot of very important plot points that happen in Lord Of Chaos, events that I am sure are going to play very large roles in future installments.

It’s very difficult to write synopsis for books in a series without spoiling what happens in previous books (so skip this paragraph if you’re worried). The White Tower, as established in the previous book, has split, which is not a good thing at all. The White Tower (or, Elaida, the Amyrlin who usurped Siuan) sends emissaries to Rand, the Dragon Reborn, at the same time as the Hall of the Tower (the Aes Sedai in Salidar). Rand is basically confronted with two schools of Aes Sedai, each wanting him to be on their side — but the truth is, the Aes Sedai need Rand more than Rand needs them. Not to mention the fact that Rand feels he can’t trust any Aes Sedai anymore. That’s the major plotline of this book, I believe. There are lots of other very important events though, such as Rand founding his school (the “Black Tower”, the students affectionately call it, haha, I love it!) and Egwene, Nynavae and Elayne and their becoming Aes Sedai. Egwene, in particular, has something tremendously exciting happen to her that I don’t want to spoil, but I was quite shocked when it happened!

The ending was really great too, it reminded me of the endings from books one and two, where something large and profound happens that forever changes the story world. Definitely makes me want to start book seven right away.

I get the impression that as the series goes on, each individual book becomes hit-or-miss for many readers. I totally understand;  for me, this book was mainly a hit, though a belated one. Like I said before, the first half of this book was quite long and boring, and it really felt it could have been pared down considerably. It’s just that, nothing much happens in the first half. I can’t even remember what I read in the first half. The prologue alone used up 70 pages! I would not be surprised to hear that people just give up this book in the middle … which would be a real shame, because the last half is so not worth missing out on.

Also there is a lot of repetition in the series which I am sure readers (who are not die hard fans, and thus, less likely to overlook) may be sick of. I’m a little sick of it myself, but I guess since I am what you would call a fan of the series, I am more willing to forgive it. You know, the constant description of everyone‘s clothes (really?); certain phrases like ‘good Two Rivers woolens'; necklines on dresses and, if they are low, how their boobs are popping out; Rand, Mat and Perrin constantly thinking each other are expert on women; the women constantly thinking men are all ‘woolheaded'; the men constantly thinking women are all confusing; Nynavae and her damn braid-tugging … If you’ve read books in this series, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

But like I said — I do like this series and I am determined to finish it. And as much as I complain about the occasional lack of plot or repetition, I’m fan enough of the series to ignore it. I do completely understand readers who cannot finish the book (or any other book in this series) because of said cons though. I do agree that this book felt stretched out. In fact, some of the previous books felt that way as well. However, there is something about the series that still has me hooked onto it. It simply hasn’t failed in delivering epic-ness yet. Granted, it’s not a continous or even distribution of epic-ness, but I am still loving this series, and this book’s last half was truly fun and amazing to read — so much that I think it makes up for the beginning half’s lack of story.

My Rating: 4/5

The Fires Of Heaven

This post first published August 3, 2011.

Author: Robert Jordan
Published: October 15, 1993
Publisher: Tor Fantasy
Series: The Wheel of Time #5
989 pages (mass market paperback)
 
I don’t normally write spoilers, but since this book has been out for over ten years, I’m not going to hold back on the spoilers too much. Besides, it’s kind of hard talking about the fifth book in the series without revealing things anyway. You have been warned!

Ummmmm … WOW. I really, really enjoyed this one. This book was what I needed to rekindle my interest in the series (because if you have noticed, my ratings for the previous installments of this series have been steadily declining, heh). It took me 4 weeks to finish this, only because this was my commuting book, so I only read it on the bus, to and from campus. Despite reading it in small doses at a time, I was hooked into the story world each time I opened it up. Yeah, there were a few sluggish parts — for example, some of the scenes near the end involving Rand and the war. Those were kind of too political-ish for me and I’ve never really been a fan of reading war scenes — but overall, I think this is one of the better ones in the series.

In The Fires Of Heaven, a lot of things happen to everyone, and pretty much all of it is going to be spoilers because, well, that’s the nature of the series. Each book doesn’t seem to have a very cohesive plot, but the entire series as a whole has a cohesive plot … if that makes any sense at all.

Almost everyone was doing something interesting in this book. The book begins with Min, Siuan and those people trying to find the secret gathering of Aes Sedai who have broken off from the White Tower, while at the same time, being chased by a Lord for burning down a barn. This was interesting because Siuan is no longer the Amyrlin Seat — no longer an authority that even kings and queens bow to. So reading about how she is adjusting to her very low status now was exciting, particularly because she refuses to remain in such a low status. She wants revenge. I also enjoyed Nynavae and Elayne’s part of the story. They have joined a traveling menagerie … the circus! And they do tricks! That’s always fun and exciting. What’s more is that they find Brigitte in the dream world and she actually comes to life in the real world after a mistake of Nynavae’s. So we have a newish character join our heroes now, and Brigitte is pretty awesome, being a legendary expert marksman (markswoman?) and all. And in Caemlyn, we also have the whole Morgase being smitten by Gaebril plotline, which finally progresses in this book. Morgase finally realizes Gaebril is slowly taking over her kingdom, but it’s a little too late to find out so she has to escape her own kingdom. This sets in motion a whole separate series of events at the end of the book.

The only plotline in this book I wasn’t too crazy about is, as already mentioned, Rand’s. I was a bit mixed with his plotline — sometimes it was great, sometimes I had serious trouble paying attention because it was boring. However … and this is a big spoiler … one part near the end of the book totally caught my attention and I was absolutely stunned. Moiraine died! I couldn’t believe it! She’s one of my favourite characters! In fact, even though all the characters were talking about her dying, and even Lan says he can no longer feel he connection he had with Moiraine and leaves (no, Lan!), I still couldn’t believe it. I refuse to believe it until I read the entire series and Moiraine still hasn’t come back alive. Moiraaaaine!

While I greatly enjoyed the story, and this book has totally got me craving for the next one, I did find the characterization in this book (and probably the previous ones, though I kind of noticed it more here) very one-dimensional. Most of them anyway. Nearly all the female characters can be grouped as one, all stubborn and proud and believing men are fools and women know best. The men have more ‘categories’, but only a few more — those who find women complicated, those who live life as honorably as possible, etc. I hope for more variety, but it is the 5th book, so I have a feeling I will be stuck with these one-dimensional characters for the rest of the series … not neccesarily too bad of a thing for an epic fantasy, since plot has always seemed more important than character development in the genre, but you know — just a wish.

My Rating: 4.5/5

The Shadow Rising

This post first publisjed June 22, 2011.

Author: Robert Jordan
Published: September 1992
Publisher: Tor Fantasy
Series: The Wheel of Time #4
699 pages (hardcover)
 
Four books down now, ten more to go in the series!

In this noticeably lengthier installment of the series, the story begins with more or less all of the major characters in the city of Tear, after Rand has claimed the sword Callandor, but this does not last for long as all the characters set out on different paths. It’s not exactly safe for all of them to be gathered in one place, especially all three ta’varen, as they create “bubbles” in the Pattern (of time, fates, destiny), causing all sorts of dangerous things to happen to themselves and the people around them. The separation of the characters create roughly three major plotlines in this book. Rand decides to follow the People of the Dragon, or the Aiel, to their homeland and hopefully fulfill their prophecies of uniting the Aiel clans. He is followed by Moiraine, Egwene and Mat.

Perrin, having heard about troubles back in their small village at Two Rivers, travels back in hopes of somehow helping them. He is followed by Faile (who he met from the previous book), Loial and Gaul, an Aiel. He eventually meets up with two Aes Sedai, Verin and Alanna. The group helps the Two Rivers with their war against the Trollocs that are trying to invade, all the while Perrin is trying to keep the Children of the Light away from him, who want to capture him as they believe he is a Darkfriend.

Nynavae and Elayne travel to Tanchico, still hot on the trail of the Black Ajah, still trying to figure out what they’re up to. They are accompanied by Thom and Juilin (from the previous book).
Lastly, Min returns to the White Tower in Tar Valon to deliver Moiraine’s message to the Siuan, the Amyrlin, but ends up having to remain in the White Tower at Siuan’s request. Elaida Sedai senses there is something fishy going on between Siuan, Min, Moiraine and this Dragon Reborn business and more or less causes mutiny. This last plotline is not as prominently focused on as the above-mentioned three, but I thought it was the most interesting and exciting.

Whew. So, what did I think? Overall, it was good, but I just wasn’t as into the book as I was when I read one, two and three. The beginning of the book, about the first 200 pages or so, was rather dull. I had become accustomed to the fast paced action in the first three books, so the beginning of book four felt a bit like running over a high speed bump and having to slow way down. After the first 200 pages, it was alright — the exciting parts seemed to come randomly, in spurts. It wasn’t one consistently exciting story, if you know what I mean.

Sometimes I felt like I was reading more description than story as well. This is a really long book, and I feel that it could have been edited and parred down so that the narrative is “tighter”, if that makes sense. But overall, my thoughts are that this is a good book, but to me, slightly disappointing compared to the first three books of the series.

One thing I noticed, particularly the first 200 pages of the story where nothing much seemed to be happening, was that there was a focus on the romantic aspects of relationships Rand and Perrin had with the ladies. I mean, it’s always been there, but the relationships suddenly changed, and it was surprising to me. Egwene suddenly decides she’s going to stop liking Rand so that her friend Elayne can get with him, for one. And Rand just … goes with it! Elayne and Rand are pretty much described as making out all over the place! That was a bit sudden. Also Faile and Perrin become totally in love in this book, which was odd because last book left off with Perrin finding Faile quite annoying. Oh there were hints, I admit, but I thought they were more like kids with a crush on one another, rather than this undying devotion I witnessed.

This is the first book in the series so far that I have read where all their individual plotlines didn’t join up at the end. I had thought that was the going to be the standard in this series but now that it didn’t happen, I’m wondering what is going to happen next.

Anyway, I will definitely be reading book five. I mean, I can’t expect to find every single book in this series exciting on equal levels. As a whole, the series is very enjoyable.

My Rating: 3/5

The Dragon Reborn

This post first published May 2, 2011.

Author: Robert Jordan
Published: 1991
Publisher: Tor Fantasy
Series: The Wheel of Time #3
674 pages (mass market paperback)
 
Long time no update! With final exams and personal life related stuff finally settling done, I found time to continue my reading endeavors, specifically with the Wheel of Time series. It’s been a long time since I read book two, but luckily I seem to have no trouble remembering what happened in previous installments of the series.

In the last book, Rand is proclaimed the Dragon Reborn and has to deal with knowing he is a man who can channel the Power. Men who can channel the Power are often thought to go mad, and Rand becomes pretty unstable in mood and even in personality, because sometimes the Power gets to him, and he is afraid to become mad. Rand eventually starts getting dreams about the sword Callandor which is located in the Stone of Tear. Prophecy says only the Dragon Reborn can hold that sword. Wanting to know if he is truly the Dragon Reborn, or simply a man going mad with the ability to channel, Rand escapes from his party towards Tear, prompting Moiraine, Lan, Perrin and Loial to chase after him.

In the meantime, Egwene, Nynaeve and Elayne travel with the Aes Sedai Verin back to Tar Valon with an extremely weak Mat, who is slowly but surely dying from the cursed dagger he carries with him. The three girls are informed by the Amyrlin that while they were “away”, Liandrin — the Aes Sedai who “sold” them in book two — is actually of the Black Ajah, and has run away along with twelve of their Sisters (who are Black Ajah as well) and a bunch of stolen items. Egwene, Nynaeve and Elayne are then given the task to reveal any more Black Ajah hiding amongst them in Tar Valon. Their mission eventually leads the three girls to Tear as well.

For a book titled “The Dragon Reborn”, Rand has a surprisingly small amount of chapters dedicated to him. Not that I really cared (as Rand is not a favourite character of mine or anything), or that it affected the story badly, but just something interesting to note, since he was the main character in the previous two books and I guess I assumed he would continue to be the main character in later book; however, I can see the series heading in more of the style of A Song of Ice and Fire, where there’s a bunch of main characters each with their own plotlines happening at once. Of course, Rand will always remain the one character whose presence is the most important! Well, we’ll see how it goes.

Oh, by the way, I am so happy that Mat has a bigger role in this book! I didn’t mention it when I was summarizing the plot, but Mat has a little bit of his own separate plotline as well in this book where he travels away from Tar Valon after being Healed by the Aes Sedai and anyway, long story short (because you should read this yourself!) he also ends up in Tear, where the climax of the story takes place. I’m really digging the whole idea of Mat being a gambler with Lady Luck on his side, haha.
Anyway, if you are reading this series, you will most certainly enjoy this book as well. I actually don’t have that much to say about this particular book besides just saying that I really enjoyed it and that I look forward to reading book four and seeing what the characters will do now, considering how this novel ended. I think with series books, it is much easier to talk about a series as a whole than individual books, but that’s just me.

My Rating 4/5

The Great Hunt

This post first published October 28, 2010.

Author: Robert Jordan
Published: November 1990
Publisher: Tor Fantasy
Series: The Wheel of Time #2
681 pages (mass market paperback)
 
If I keep up with this year long interval between reading each book in this series, it’s going to be a decade before I finish, haha. In all honesty though, I just got caught up with a bunch of other books I wanted to read, but I got all those out of the way and now I can focus on reading this series (and the Song of Ice and Fire series as well — love my fantasy books)!

Anyway, this is book two. I couldn’t really remember much that happened in book one because, like I said, it was over a year ago since I read it. I remembered the major characters and the gist of the plot, but a lot of details were lost to me, hence when I began book two, it took me about five chapters or so before I got back into the full swing of things. Once I did though, it was another awesome, thrilling adventure. The thing I love about this series is that each book is such an adventure, and all these adventures make up one bigger, badder, more awesome adventure. The other things I love about this series is the reincarnation concept, the destiny/fate (wheel of time/the pattern) concepts, and the Aes Sedai, who are basically like an organized group of sorceresses (Aes Sedai in general are my favourite characters)!

As the title suggests, the main plot of this book is a great hunt. In book one, Rand and his party found the legendary Horn of Valere. Legend has it that whoever blows the horn will call upon the dead heroes of the past (or their ghosts? Can’t quite remember) and they will fight on behalf of whoever blew the horn. In The Great Hunt, the Horn, as well as Mat’s ruby dagger, is stolen by Fain, a Darkfriend (one who serves the Dark One/bad guy). In a normal situation, Rand, Perrin and Mat wouldn’t accompany the mini-army that is sent out to find the Horn, but because Mat’s dagger is taken too (Mat’s life is linked to that dagger, quite literally, and he’d die without it), Rand decides he has to help Mat get it back. Plot two in the book involves Egwene, Nynavae, Elayne and Min who are at the White Tower (the Aes Sedai headquarters, I think of it) and are training to be Aes Sedai. The two plots cross paths due to a foreign army invading the western coast, and all the characters somehow get involved with it.

That’s my condensed summary. With all fantasy books, not just this series, I find it difficult to summarize a plot without making it sound overly simple or revealing everything. That’s the bare bones of the story above, but there really is a lot more going on, it’s crazy how much can fit in 681 pages, haha. Anyway, if it isn’t obvious by now, I really loved this installment of the series as well. I think I like it even more than the first one, only because this time around, I am not entering a completely new world and learning about it — this time, I am already familiar with the world and I am embarking on another journey inside it, so I don’t have to spend all this time flipping to the glossary at the back, haha. This time, I can read it, uninterrupted, and just enjoy the ride.
Also because I didn’t have to spend so much time remembering who’s who, I feel I became better acquainted with all the characters, and also I think the book in general just does a better job defining each character and his or her role. There are new characters introduced (like Selene, who Rand meets when he accidentally separates himself from the party, and she just touched a nerve! I hated her, haha, such an annoying flirt) and old characters are ‘away’ (like Lan … I love Lan, I was sad he was not really in this book much).

So yes, I really liked this book. I found it easier to read than the first one, though like I said, I think that is largely due to the fact that I am familiar with the world now. The plot has very few slow parts. The characters are always motivated to do something, so there is always something happening, always a destination to head towards. Near the end, last third of the novel, was when things got especially interesting I think, with the foreign army and all. Let’s just say the foreign army has a very strange way of dealing with Aes Sedai … Anyway, this book ended in the same style as the first one; that is, there’s this huge decision or realization that is made that makes everything you read up to now seem almost trivial, and you think, “Oh my goodness, the next book is when the real adventure is going to start!” I thought that exact same thing after finishing the first book, but now that I finished the second, I’m thinking this about the third!! (So, if the pattern holds, after I finish the third, I’ll be thinking the same thing about the fourth, haha). The endings of these books have incredible power to keep you reading, and that’s exactly what I will be doing!

My Rating:4.5/5

The Eye of the World

This post originally published December 30, 2009.

Author: Robert Jordan
Published: 1990
Publisher: Tor Books
Series: The Wheel of Time #1
814 pages (mass market paperback)
 
Summary: Rand al’Thor is a young sheepherder living with his only family, his father, on a farm on the outskirts of the town of Two Rivers. The night before Bel Tine, a festival to celebrate the coming of spring, Rand — along with his two friends Mat and Perrin — find themselves the targets of an attack by Trollocs, large beast like creatures. Thankfully most of the town is saved thanks to two mysterious strangers, Moiraine, an Aes Sedai, and Lan, her Warder. Moiraine and Lan explain to Rand, Mat and Perrin that they cannot stay in the Two Rivers as it would endanger all the villagers, given that this was a planned and targeted attack. Moiraine insists that they travel with her to the Aes Sedai city of Tar Valon where they can be protected. Moiraine explains that the Dark One wants to use the boys for his own purposes, though why and for what, the boys do not understand.

My Thoughts: Wow, what an adventure it was to read this book! My boyfriend bought this book ages ago upon recommendation by a friend but he never got around to reading it and lent it to me to read. I had zero idea as to what the story was about when I started (‘Oh, a book for me?!’), besides understanding that it’s sort of Lord of the Rings-ish in fantasy level. The story starts off simply, with Rand, Mat (who I love) and Perrin, simple farm boys who don’t know anything about the world beyond their small town. And on the surface, the plot also appears simple — the characters embark on a journey to reach a certain destination. But it is definitely not a simple story at all, far from it. The story twists itself and branches off in several directions, and by the end of the novel, you realize that what felt like a thrilling epic journey was actually just the beginnings of one. It was such a great read and it sort of stuns me that this was just a beginning. There are a total of twelve books in the series (14, if you consider the fact that the last book is split into three volumes).

I’m in awe not just with the book but the whole world it takes place in. It’s unfortunate I can’t divulge more information about the plot because then I’d just be giving too much away. The world is richly described, the characters are great — I am particularly fond of Mat because I like the trouble-maker, funny guy kind of characters, and Lan, because I also happen to like guys with giant swords (hahaha!). I’m just so amazed that a story that started so simple could end so deep and complicated (seriously, I am doing my very best not to blurt out the various twists and “Omg I did not see that coming!”‘s. Gawd, I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out sooner, I’m usually pretty good at predicting plots!) I was completely drawn into the world.

It may be difficult to wrap your head around at first. The writing is beautiful and not overly complicated, so it’s not hard to understand, but there are a lot of terms in the story that aren’t explained, that must be figured out by the reader. Lots of mentions of the Forsaken, Myrrdraal, Ajah, etc. You’ll figure out what all of these mean eventually, but there’s a nice glossary at the back of the book in case you’re simply too curious or forget. The book is quite descriptive, it describes the journey in great detail — and sometimes, this was a bit burdening to the reader, it stirred a little boredom in me from time to time to read long, long paragraphs that describe a particular scene, and parts of the story where the characters’ journey isn’t particularly action-packed or thrilling in any way made me feel as exhausted as the travelers (thankfully, such moments aren’t common).

But overall, this was an amazing book. I could probably continue rambling about it, but I don’t want to give away spoilers. If you are a fan of high fantasy, you definitely must read this series. I will certainly be returning the book to my boyfriend to force him to read it, haha! I found out afterwards, when I finished the book, that they are even planning a movie for 2011! (I, for one, am usually excited about books turning into movies even if they turn out horribly, hahaha). No doubt I am going to hunt down the rest of the series!!

My Rating: 4/5