Derivative it may be, but the first book of the Wheel of Time series is grande fun. And sets up the universe nicely. ( )

The first widely popular rewrite of Tolkien was The Shannara series, and The Wheel of Time was the next version. Its common for authors to take inspiration from an older work and create their own reimagining, as Virgil did to Homer. Tolkien himself was writing his own interpretation of the Norse Eddas.

When Tolkien and Virgil set out to write their great works, they expanded and changed what came before, and made it their own with a unique voice and vision. Jordan didn't have the knowledge of language, history, or culture to truly copy Tolkien's style. Nor was he able to add any unique spin of his own.

The Eye of The World is a more accessible version of Tolkien, but Tolkien is already a simplified version of the Norse Sagas, meaning that Jordan felt a need to dumb-down the accessible, which doesn't leave his book with much character of its own.

However, unlike other authors who choose a more straightforward take on Fantasy, Jordan kept the plodding length of Tolkien. How he wrote a book both simple and endless is beyond me. Without the strange and engaging details and magic of Tolkien's world, Jordan loses the depth which bolsters a long-winded tale. Instead, he gives us endless characters and plot digressions, losing any sense of drive or urgency the book might have had, were it shorter and streamlined.

In Tolkien, the first hundred pages takes place in Hobbiton. This prelude prepares us for the rest of the book, allowing us to understand the strange world and characters and setting a mood. Then the action takes us away, you don't really want to leave the beauty of Hobbiton, but when we do, the world he builds seems so much grander in comparison.

In Eye of the World, you spend the first hundred and fifty pages in whatever small farming community so that when they finally leave, it will seem like something is happening. Unfortunately, this is only a clever illusion.

The hero is an orphan who looks different, he gets his father's magic sword, he goes on a quest with an old, wily man, gets attacked by evil proto-humans, meets the princess by accident, &c., &c.

Stop me if you've heard this one before. Like a lot of modern fantasy, the plot and characters are old and unremarkable. Every fantasy fan has read this same story again and again from countless authors.

There's no reason for this sort of repetition, a new book should be more than just fanfic of an older book. There are hundreds of different influences out there, even before Tolkien touched pen to paper, there was Lord Dunsany, The Worm Ouroboros, H. P. Lovecraft, H. Rider Haggard, Robert E. Howard, Ariosto, Spenser and E. Nesbit, to name a few.

Contemporary with and after Tolkien there are Mervyn Peake, Michael Moorecock, Fritz Leiber, and Gene Wolfe. There is no reason for writing the same stories over and over when there are so many interesting and new inspirations out there. It is especially inexcusable when an author does this with an endless long-windedness.

Also, like most fantasy authors, Jordan will later reveal an unsettling chauvinism, since any powerful female character will end up subservient to a male character, often through a ritual which involves her public nudity and a spanking. I wish I were joking. Luckily, the first volume of the series avoids this.

UPDATE: one might point to the endless and pointless repetition in modern literature as a sure sign that there is no God, no grand plan, and no purpose to the universe. A benevolent power would surely want to spare us the pain of such unending mediocrity.

However, if there were some deity, and he had a sense of humor, he would allow the uncreative authors to publish, to gain fame, and to write a series the length of an encyclopedia, only to have the author die during the very last book. Since this is exactly what happened, I will have to look again for other signs of this humorous creator, possibly involving banana peels and fright wigs. ( )

Pre09:

I'm only putting the first book on here. If he'd made this a trilogy, I might have added more. I read about 7 of them. Nothing happened past the first couple books. I repeat. NOTHING HAPPENED. It made the series total shit for me.

That's a shame too, I loved the character of Matt. Rand was just a whiny bitch to me. ( )

I just don't read fantasy, but in an effort to be more well rounded, I began the Wheel of Time series with this book. It is easy to see how this book has become so praised and the series so followed. This is an epic story centering on Rand Al'Thor that tries to save the world, punish satan, and deliver from danger a whole cast of characters that you have begun to care about. If you start this book, you may as well buy the next one because you will be hooked. Great read. ( )