Publisher: Tor Books (mine by Orbit)
Age Group: Adult
Pages: 800
Format: Paperback
Source: Bought
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.
Let me
just say it right away: I loved it! I read this with so much pleasure and
hunger for more. This is just my cup of tea. The Eye of the World is the
beginning of a journey intricately described throughout no less than 14 books
and I can’t wait to devour every single one of them.
I really
liked the edition of the book I picked up. It was published in 2006 by Orbit
(16 years after it was first published by Tor Books), it’s got a fairly simple
cover but lots of tidbits inside. Every chapter has its own symbol (I’m a big
fan of a bit of decoration in a book, like the really old ones where the first
letter of a chapter was actually a little painting). Along the way there are 2
or 3 maps, so you can easily follow where the characters are at the moment and
where they’re headed.
The
Wheel of Time has all the ingredients of an epic Fantasy saga: a great cast of
characters, an intricately described world, adventure, tension, mystery, some
creepy moments, magic and lots of new creatures (dark ones, as well as good
ones).
The
action and tension in this book are wonderfully interwoven with intensive
worldbuilding. We get to know a whole new, wonderfully found, complicated world
full of mystery and power. The strength of this book is mostly build on the
powerful worldbuilding, not as much on the characters. Although I could make a
connection with Rand, who we seem to be focusing on most of the time, there
wasn’t that much characterbuilding going on. This was solved by the separations
of the characters somewhere around the middle of the book. While they were all
in small groups, we got to know a little more about some of the others (Perrin,
Nynaeve) and their train of thoughts.
The
writing style is very captivating and doesn’t let you put down the book easily.
This is a book to get lost in on a long, relaxing day outside under a tree in
summer or inside on the couch before a crackling hearth. The descriptions are
so rich and extensive without being the least bit tedious.
There
seems to be happening a lot in this book (at 800 pages, that’s not a surprise)
but there’s still so much that needs to be answered, it seems not that much has
happened at all, which makes sense since there are 13 more books where the
story is continued.
Sometimes
it takes a long time before some things are explained (for example: The Eye of
the World, we don’t know what it is, or where it is or anything ‘till right at
the end of the book). But if you keep reading, all the waiting certainly pays
off.
The Eye
of the World is a very long book and I’ve rarely read such an elaborate story told
with so much detail, but I’d recommend it to anyone who likes long Fantasy sagas.
Rating:
No comments:
Post a Comment