Mount Readmore Book Review, 2017 46/100

The Eye of the World By Robert Jordan

Audiobook Edition, Narrated by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer

Finished on 5/10/2017

Goodreads 

Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Kickass Female Protagonist, Quest Fantasy, YA(ish)

The first book of the Most Epic series which ever did Epic! The Wheel of Time: Eye of the World. Do you got a Trolloc problem?! Rand al-Thor has a solution for you!

Spoiler-tastic review

I liked this book, and at times I loved this book. If this book was maybe half (or two thirds) it’s size I would have continued on to read more books in the series. But the simple fact remains that this book is HUGE. I listened to the audiobook of it, and it was 25 CDs. Just dealing with the discs was a hassle.

Here’s what I liked: the multitude of factions, the understandable morality system, the characters (yes, even Naeneve ) and the fact that it’s unprepossessing. The book isn’t trying to be more than it is. This is a competently written quest fantasy, and from what I’ve read it well deserves the accolades it’s received over the decades.

Here’s what I didn’t like: at moments the similarities between this and Lord of the Rings stands  at the forefront. The knife= the Ring. The peddler=Gollum. Lan=Aragorn. I thought that for the most part the story was unique (e.g 3 ‘Chosen Ones’ instead of just one Frodo), so when these obvious copied tropes occurred I was brought out of my immersion. I didn’t like the final confrontation at the end of the book. The two random bad guys which showed up were entirely out of left field. A little foreshadowing goes a long way. Finally I thought the male-female interactions in this book were a little… rough. Egwene constantly taking everything Rand had to say in a negative way out of context made this book read like a YA book to me.

Is this book for everyone? No, not by a long shot. This book. Is. Too. LONG. It took me almost two full weeks of listening to plow through this monster, and that’s with listening to it for an hour or more every day.

Audiobook notes: The audiobook narrators did an excellent job. Fun fact: Michael Kramer and Kate Reading are married!