Eye of the World (Book 1): Jordan, Robert
Jordan’s Wheel of Time series is known as one of the greatest fantasy series of all time. Yet, I must admit, I haven’t had much interest in starting this massive epic until recently when a friend insisted I read it. So, I picked up Book 1 and began.
Eye of the World starts very slowly and as cliche fantasy – so much so that I nearly put it down several times. The village of Two Rivers is attacked by evil creatures sent by the Dark One. Three boys are targeted, but fortunately, two powerful beings just happen to be there and scare the minions away. With their village in ruins and fearing another attack, these three Chosen Ones must leave with the Powerful Two and journey to a far away land where they might learn why the Dark One is after them… and perhaps thwart him.
If you can make it through the first 250 pages, the story does pick up as our Chosen Ones are split up and each party ventures onward hoping that all is not lost, the others still live, and somehow they can stop the Dark One, or at least stop his followers from pursuing them.
Jordan also takes quite a bit from Tolkien. There are numerous similarities between the stories. Both have reluctant heroes (Rand/Frodo) who must fight against a force of evil (Dark One/Sauron) to save the world. Both have a loyal party that travels with them composed of faithful companions (Mat and Perrin/Pippin and Merry), a guide (Moiraine, Gandolf), and a warrior (Lan, Strider). Even the baddies share similarities (Myrddraal/ Nazgul and Trollocs/Orcs).
Yet despite his similarities to Tolkien, Jordan’s strength lies in his world’s creation, and he describes everything in vivid (sometimes painstaking) detail. Much of the story revolves around our characters journeying from town to town, interacting with different people and getting a taste of culture outside their rural town.
Surprisingly, Jordan gives women a prominent role as magic users, guides, and even warriors rather than the traditional role as wives, child bearers, and homemakers. In WOT, women seem equal to men in status, something quite uncommon in most medieval fantasy settings.
His creation concept is also interesting. The Creator, whom we know nothing about, made the world. Rather than stick around to manage it, the Creator created the True Source to maintain it. The True Source is divided into halves, the male half (saidin) and the female half (saidar), similar to the yin/yang principle of the Tao. Its job is to turn the Wheel of Time, a wheel with seven spokes, each representing an Age. As the Wheel turns, time goes by and a Pattern is weaved around the spokes. Human lives are the thread, and as their lives are weaved into the Pattern, events happen.
Yet all is not fated. We are told that there is wiggle room – people can change little things in the Pattern. There are also those that play a greater role – the ta’veren – whom the Wheel weaves all surrounding life-threads. Of course, our three Chosen Ones are ta’veren.
There is also a heavily dualistic concept with the Dark One fighting to take over the Light. At the time of creation, the Dark One, representing chaos rather than pure evil, was imprisoned. Since that time, he has struggled to break out. Whenever he succeeds, the Wheel of Time adjusts the Pattern to create a Dragon to fight and reseal him.
This belief system is a bit confusing, as characters constantly refer to the Light as we’d petition God for things. They say things like Light, protect me or Light burn him (rather than God damn him because in this world, if you refer to the Dark One at all, he gains power.) Yet, the Light is more abstract than God. It’s almost as if they are appealing to a concept like the Big Bang – an event not a deity. In fact, a god like we’d define one – the all powerful, benevolent deity – doesn’t seem to exist in this world.
Which leads me to ask, what is the purpose of the Dark One? The Dragon vs. Dark One concept is almost like Christ vs. Antichrist. Yet neither the Light, the True Source, nor the Wheel of Time exhibits any type of will. The True Source is more like a force or nature than an entity with something at stake. And the Wheel just carries out what it was programmed to do at creation – automatically correct any imbalances.
So where did the Dark One come from? Why does he seem to have a will of his own – enough so that he can recruit people onto his side in exchange for power? And why is he so darn mad with the world that he wants to destroy it?
There is also no (or at least very little) morality involved. The Light hasn’t commanded people to adhere to a strict set of rules outlining behaviors it considers good or prohibiting behaviors it considers evil. It doesn’t order people to worship it. Yet everyone is born as a child of the Light and can only switch sides by making a pact with the Dark One or his minions. Given such circumstances, it’s curious why the Light remains such an integral part of this world.
The Eye of the World does its job in setting up a number of subplots to pursue in subsequent books. There are numerous characters to build, places to see, things to do, and villains to fight to last upwards of 11 books, so unless you absolutely hate this book and quit now, you’re in for a long ride ahead.
On another note, Jordan is not the most prolific writer I’ve read. His sentence structure is awkward at times. He has lengthy run-on sentences, uses virtually every adverb imaginable (including uncommon ones like jerkily and wetly), and waste words repeating details. This 650+ book could have easily been 400 pages if he composed tighter sentences and ditched the meaningless adverbs.
My verdict is still out on whether this series is worth reading. I was turned off by the writing style and dull, whiney characters, but I’m told that Jordan gets better and the next two books are superb. The world concept has potential, and I love a good apocalyptic tale, so I’m game to continue reading.
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