Book Review - The Eye of the World

I'm certainly late to the party on this one. The Eye of the World sat on my shelf unread for over two decades before I finally cracked the cover and it was already old and well beloved by the time I purchased a copy. Now that I've finally dipped my tip into the monumental work that is Jordan's Wheel of Time series, I can understand the appeal. 

The prologue quickly set up some tension and intriguing insights into the overarching storyline and mythos. It also left the reader with plenty of questions, just the thing to keep pages turning.

The book does a great job of introducing us to a wealth of characters, locations and stories. I was pleased that most of the characters quickly felt distinct with their own characteristics and voice. Their actions and reactions felt fairly believable given the circumstances and the nature of each character. We didn't get a ton of depth into the characters from the prologue but moving into the first chapter, the author methodically puts characters into our path and drops details to us in a slow but increasingly steady pace. 

The worldbuilding was also interesting. The physical structure of the world felt familiar enough as it stretched across the landscape similar to many other fantasy books. The social structure and nature of magic and religion was quickly identified as something unique to this world and something to keep an eye on. The first few chapters also quickly identified the mystical threats lurking on the fringes of the page, ready to send the characters and the plot into action. As the plot revealed itself, it also felt familiar enough to be a comfortable Hero's Journey tale while also being unique enough to be compelling. 

As our band of heroes set off on their adventure, I was excited to discover each obstacle and misadventure they were sure to encounter. Naturally each step of their journey allowed for moments of exposition to allow the reader more insight into the backstory of the world and the motivations of each character. Without going into spoilers, I did enjoy the mystery surrounding our heroes and their own particular relevance to the plot and it was fun to see different revelations slowly unfold.

My main gripe with the book was that the story, plot and pacing sometimes felt muddied by the writing and structure. I wholeheartedly appreciated the wonderful details peppered throughout the pages to enhance the plot and provide suspense and intrigue but there were other chunks of text that felt descriptive and wordy merely to take up space. It felt like foreshadowing of problems I had heard from people who say the series had moments where it really bogged down and lost momentum. Even from this single book I felt that there was a fair amount of content that could have been trimmed in order to streamline the pacing and flow of the story.

Still, The Eye of the World sets up what is sure to be a sprawling, epic adventure. I am not yet wholly invested in the characters and the plot but I am entertained enough that I will likely seek out the second book at some point. I don't yet feel like I can invest to read the entire massive series but I'm willing to try out the next one and see if it hooks me enough to want to continue on.

 

3 out of 5 stars