The Eye of the World

by Robert Jordan

670 pages

English language

Published May 17, 1991 by Orbit.

ISBN:: 978-0-7474-0817-8
OCLC Number:: 59890007

(208 reviews)

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

21 editions

dvdgc13@bookrastinating.com reviewed The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #1)

Fantasy in a segregated society

4 stars

I started this book after I heard about its TV show, and learnt that this is one of the longest fantasy series. I haven't read much fantasy either. I enjoyed this first book, the adventures of a group of friends from a village that they need to escape their home town. Robert Jordan gives a very good detail of every thing that happens during their journey, and how the society are structured. I found that society structure quite puzzling. Women and men have different roles and duties on their everyday lives. They are not shown as one lower than the other, but it uses many stereotypes of our real society. The woman takes care of the kitchen while the man attends the business - this was a bit annoying (I suppose as our society). However, there done stats¹ that seems to indicate that the following books will get more gender …

acidman reviewed The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #1)

Review of 'The Eye of the World' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I enjoyed this one. Its a chosen one. Its a farm boys. Its a dark lord. Its witches and prophecies. Noble noblefolk and surprising-not-really back stories. Secret ancestry and stuff. There's Mary Sues. There's plot armor. It's the end of the world, mister! It's all things, it's everything you'd expect from the generic epic fantasy in your head. Well, all that's true. But it's more true about the series than it is about this book. This book's all about running. Running away from the bad guys. Running across a whole damn continent. Country bumpkins at that. This sets a tension, setting and pace for a solid and enjoyable introduction to a big world and conflict.

Now, do I like what was on display? Will I be sampling more? Was it worth my time? I was definitely scratching for something like this, let's just say that. Haven't decided if I'd be …

k1dokuu reviewed The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

Review of 'The Eye of the World' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Damn, I am blown away!

I was a little afraid at first, but The Eye of the World has such accessible writing, everyone can (and should) enjoy it at some point.

The worldbuilding is sublime, the characters are flawed but great and the plot was slow at first but picked up fairly quickly.
The mix of breathtakingly-fast action sequences, clever put in lore bits and pieces and the more lighthearted passages were super enjoyable.

And this was just the beginning...

Strakul reviewed The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #1)

Review of 'The Eye of the World' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This book is where it all starts. Even at the onset, you can tell it's going to be a long ride. This book has it all, a fast-paced engaging plot that hints at a grander adventure to come; a unique cast of characters that grow and develop within the book, and for the rest of the series, too; and a setting that captures the imagination, whether it is of the magic, the cultures, or the legends of thousands of years past.

For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2021/09/book-review-eye-of-world-by-robert.html

li reviewed Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time (1))

It is long and occupied my attention for the amount of time it took to read

No rating

I started reading the first book of the Wheel of Time series back when I was an internet teen with an internet crush on an internet guy with the username Lews Therin Telemon on internet forums and I thought it would be cool to like the same things he liked, or something. After several months of a global pandemic and general disaster I thought it'd be fun to get back into them as a goof or something, but joke's on me because a month and a half later, I'm still with it.

Anyway, what am I going to say about this ~NYT #1 bestselling epic fantasy whatever~ that hasn't already been said? There's a lot of neat stuff in the WoT mythology, and also a lot of eyerolly cisheteronormative stuff, and all the baby teen characters in this book are very annoying and bad at communicating with one another, but like, whatever. There is little enough excitement in my life hiding out from a respiratory virus and everything else that I am ready to gobble up these innocent little babies' adventures running from and fighting Trollocs and Myrddraal and Darkfriends, even though a whole lot of their choices are extremely SMDFH. (Like, all that shit they went through in Shadar Logoth??? Totally unnecessary but the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills I guess!!!)

Look, the truth is I finished this book several weeks ago at this point and I'm on Lord of Chaos now and it hasn't all started to blur together quite yet but I don't have much to say about this other than that my trash goblib self was apparently ready to tear through it again after not thinking about it for over a decade. I'm not saying anyone else should read it and I probably would have 0 interest if it were new to me at this point, but for someone who made it to Book 9 or something in the long-ago past, it's been some mighty decent comfort food. Stay tuned for more "reviews" where I don't remember what happens in the books but do complain about the main characters a lot!

Tavish reviewed The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #1)

Review of 'The Eye of the World' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

(for the audiobook) I liked it, it feels like it is a setup for what's to come in the sequels. It seems to be a formulaic chosen farmboy fantasy novel, but I guess that was intentional, and it had enough deviations from the formula, and interesting characters and world-building, that I was interested in them and their story.

Curtis reviewed The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan ([The wheel of time ;)

Review of 'The Eye of the World' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Figured I should start the series before the show comes out. Honestly, liked it better than I was expecting, given how long it's been out and the expectations that have been built up over the years. There are a lot of books left though…

wzhkevin reviewed The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #1)

Review of 'The Eye of the World' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Did not enjoy this one. Read like a teenage boy’s fantasy. Couldn’t identify with the characters. Felt like the entire book they were just being swept along, lacking will or motivation or agency. World didn’t engage me. Magic didn’t engage me. Huge lore dumps, lots of random fantasy names that meant nothing. This series is meant to be a huge deal in fantasy fiction, right? For that reason alone I might give the second book a chance one day, but not anytime soon I think.

laggytoast reviewed The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #1)

Review of 'The Eye of the World' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Great fantasy series, some books can be quite long but its drags you into the wonderfully crafted world

ike reviewed The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #1)

Review of 'The Eye of the World' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Entertaining, vivid world. Good beach read.

Melisondra [bookish] reviewed The Eye Of The World by Robert Jordan

Review of 'The Eye Of The World' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Posted Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Actual Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

Originally posted on Reviews from a Self Proclaimed Bibliophile.

This read-through has been a long time coming, but it has finally begun and I have to admit that I couldn't be happier with this book – an excellent introduction into the world of The Wheel of Time. The story follows the lives of three young men from the village of Two Rivers in Emond’s Field, an area which is regarded as farm country, who become entangled in the fate of their entire world. They come to be known as ta’veren – people around whom the Wheel of Time specifically weaves the Pattern with all surrounding life-threads. While I understand the focus on Rand, Mat, and Perrin as the ta’veren, I didn’t feel as if the other characters suffered or were forgotten or came across as less important. I felt as if the majority of the secondary characters were just as developed as the three primary ones even without knowing their entire back stories. Jordan was able to create a feeling of substance to these secondary characters ,mainly through their interactions with the primary characters (i.e. Moiraine and Lan), then we learn more of their history (in this case Lan’s) from meetings with other characters along the way. We learn more of Egwene and Nynaeve through their history with the ta’veren, growing up in Emond’s Field or serving as the village Wisdom. Each character has substance, each has a part to play – “The Wheel weaves as The Wheel wills, and we are only the thread of the Pattern.”

My favorite character is Nynaeve, her care for Rand, Mat, Perrin, and Egwene was genuine and she was willing to speak her mind against Moiraine Sedai to protect them – something that many would fear given the distrust and fear which surrounds Aes Sedai. Nynaeve is an incredibly strong woman, yet underneath her outer toughness is a certain softness which shines through in her interactions with Lan. There were hints of her attraction towards him in the early chapters, but towards the end it is more than just an attraction and has evolved into something more. Possible spoiler alert, I cried for them at the end of Chapter 48…I feel as if their destinies are much like how Min described the love between Rand and Egwene, that while they may love each other they are not meant for each other. Granted, this is entirely speculation at this point yet I still hurt for them. Lan truly does think fondly of Nynaeve as she does him.

I know the love stories aren't the entire point of this book, getting 14 books out of them would likely become quite boring, but this just lends evidence to the success of Jordan’s writing. Jordan was able to weave in so many different facets to his story that lend to the foundation and substance of his characters without straying from the focal point of the overall novel and that is a beautiful thing.

TL;DR Review: This is by far one of the best introductory novels for a series that I have read. Jordan ends the story in a way which leaves you satisfied, yet curious for what comes next. The ending isn't just some outright cliff-hanger, it is more subtle than that and I can appreciate this subtlety. The majority of books which have been written in recent years have created this idea that stories should end on these major cliff-hangers in order to garner reader interest for the next book. The subtlety of Jordan at the end of this book appears to be somewhat of a lost art. Overall, I am incredibly pleased with this novel and my introduction to The Wheel of Time world and I look forward to continuing my adventure with The Great Hunt.

LemmiSchmoeker reviewed The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #1)

Review of 'The Eye of the World' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

Mostly as I remembered it from having read it in the mid-90s: sloppily (though competently) written, with interminable ramblings about why men/women are different from women/men, and characters constantly complaining about their destiny. However, Jordan builds up a wonderful atmosphere, and has a gift for describing long-gone times. The story seems complex and refined, and while many elements are stolen from other books or films, he manages to make them fully his own.

Sean Gursky reviewed The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #1)

Review of 'The Eye of the World' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Epic. The Wheel of Time series kicks off with a great book. The world and characters are slowly introduced as the stage is set for the series.

Graham Downs reviewed The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #1)

Review of 'The Eye of the World' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

You know, the problem with epic fantasy is that it's a huge time commitment. And this one was a huge commitment indeed, taking me over a month and a half to read.

It was worth it, though. The characters are rich and vibrant, the descriptions are incredible, and the story is pretty good. I've read a few books which people have said are derivative of The Eye of the World, but I didn't believe them at the time. In this story, though, I see so many concepts which I've read before, which is a pity because I read them in books published well after this little gem.

I'll definitely be reading the rest of the series, but maybe not any more this year!

Fulminata reviewed The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #1)

Review of 'The Eye of the World' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I'm breaking my normal rule to go ahead and review this book. Normally I don't review books I haven't read recently. The last time I read this was around the time the third or fourth book in the series was published, but I feel I can give it an honest review.

I rag on this series a lot, but this first book was actually a somewhat enjoyable read. The characters were engaging and the concepts introduced were interesting. If it had been the first in a trilogy rather than an introduction to an interminably long "epic" it would have been decent.

Unfortunately, it wasn't, and by the time I got to the 6th book in the series my patience with the story was exhausted. The characters and concepts that I'd found interesting in the first book, I now just found annoying to the point that I no longer cared what …