Fate, I observe somewhat unoriginally, is a funny thing—in both the strange and the ha-ha flavors. This is just as true in real life as it is in stories, though the dialogue in the stories generally tends to be a bit more polished.
I am continually both amused and bemused, therefore, whenever I think about how there’s a person out there who, by saying two short sentences to me, is ultimately responsible for shaping a huge portion of my life, my friends, my interests, my travels, my experiences, and even my career.
And I have absolutely no idea who this person is. And I never will.
He will forever only be that random guy in the University bookstore on Guadalupe Street in Austin, Texas who, sometime in 1997, paused in the science fiction/fantasy aisle next to an equally random girl staring at the shelves in total indecision, just long enough to point at a thick mass-market paperback with a blue-toned cover and say:
“You should try that one. It’s really good.”
I am, of course, not going to make the claim that The Eye of the World and the series it begins will have nearly as profound an effect on other people as it has on me; I will be the first to admit that my life trajectory vis-à-vis the Wheel of Time has been… unique. (If not quite so unique as some.) But it’s oddly appropriate to contemplate that capricious turn of fortune in my own life concerning this book, because the vagaries of fate is precisely what the story of The Eye of the World is hinged upon. Or perhaps I should say Fate, because the capital letter is definitely warranted in this case.
And as you know, Bob, if there is one thing we like to read about in the genre of epic fantasy, it is Fate.
It’s what we crave from stories, that sense of pattern recognition. We want to find the signal amidst the noise, the synchronicity in the randomness; we want the reassurance that (at least in the story) it all means something, maaaan.
And in that sense, The Eye of the World more than delivers. It would not be too far-fetched to suggest, in fact, that this need for pattern recognition, for the existence of Fate, whether you be accepting of it or railing against it, is the entire point of the novel, and indeed of the entire series.
The author, Robert Jordan, began the story in this novel, as he did in every book following it, with the image of wind. Wind: an invisible but palpable—and inescapable—force, in other words, an unpredictable and ever-varying phenomenon that begins and ends, but at the same time is eternal and unending. There may be more powerful representations of the concept of Fate out there than this, but I’d be hard-pressed to come up with one off the top of my head.
And the story he crafted with that image—a group of seemingly ordinary young men and women, swept without volition into a much vaster and more dangerous world than they could have imagined, to learn how their decidedly extraordinary destinies were tangled with each other and with the world at large—is as quintessentially satisfying as any story that wears the label of “epic fantasy” I’ve ever come across, and a great deal more so than many, in my opinion.
It’s a story that is almost ridiculously simple in premise: what would it be like if Fate tapped you on the shoulder one day and said, Hey, guess what? You get to be the savior of the world! Sucks to be you! Yet this simple premise becomes, in this series, astonishingly complex in execution, built as it is on an intensely satisfying imagined world that is frankly staggering in its depth and attention to detail and internal consistency and sheer volume.
Buy the Book
The Eye of the World
The Eye of the World, in fact, was almost a throwback, when it was originally published, in how directly and unabashedly it fulfilled (and exemplified) the fantasy tropes we all know and love. It is not a deconstruction of fantasy or a post-modern commentary on fantasy, it’s just—fantasy, straight up, no chaser. With all the portent, intrigue, battles, prophecies, magic, fantastic creatures, heroes, villains, cast-of-thousands, good-vs-evil, Fate-of-the-world-itself drama that implies. And that is why it is awesome.
It is awesome for that and many other reasons. Because it is an homage to that great icon of epic fantasy, The Lord of the Rings, without being a ripoff of it. Because it has female characters who are as richly realized and as central to the plot as the male characters. Because it is rife with those wonderful moments of paradigm shift that are my favorite thing in speculative fiction, where the characters are forced to confront something scary/extraordinary/beyond the normal, not just about the world around them but about themselves. Because if you don’t read the last six or so chapters in one sitting, with your heart in your throat the whole time, there may be something wrong with your heart-throat suspense detector thingy.
This is all in my opinion, of course. But I have already proven that sometimes the opinion of a random stranger can be the best thing that ever happened to you, at least when it comes to trying new books.
Ergo, sez me, you could do worse than to listen to me when I stand next to you in this metaphorical bookstore aisle, lean over conspiratorially, and say:
You see this book, The Eye of the World? You should try it. It’s really good.
Originally published in September 2011 and collected in the free ebook Rocket Fuel.
Leigh Butler is a writer, blogger and critic, who feels that humor, weirding of language, and the occasional application of head to desk is the best way to examine the impact of sociocultural issues on popular SF works (and vice versa). She has been a regular columnist for Tor.com since 2009, with three series (so far) to her name: The Wheel of Time Reread, A Read of Ice and Fire, and the Movie Rewatch of Great Nostalgia. She lives in New Orleans, and therefore advises alla y’all to let your good times roll.
Whenever I tell my geeky/SFF loving friends that I haven’t read any Wheel of Time books I always get exasperated stares. So after a great deal of stares from people at Worldcon this year I decided to take the plunge. I’m rocking the audio books because I have a long commute and have too many hardbacks I’m reading at any given time. It has hooked me pretty much from the beginning, I can’t stop thinking about WoT and wanting to listen to just one more chapter. I’m fairly close to finishing The Eye of the World and I’ve already downloaded The Great Hunt and I’m looking forward to making my way through the series. It will probably take me a few years to read/listen to them all, but I’m so looking forward to every second of it.
She’s back! Are you going to be covering the show for Tor? If not may I know who will be so that I can tell them to let you do it instead?
I don’t crave Fate in my fantasy. I crave interesting imaginary creatures. That’s what WoT gave me, in the precise tantalizing dosage to keep me reading the series — even when they vanished for a long while, because I hoped there would eventually be more.
I think your guy in Austin might have been a type of WoT Santa, going around to bookstores in the 90s and encouraging young women to read Robert Jordan. I had EXACTLY the same experience as you, only it was 1994 and in the Waldenbooks in our local mall in East Brunswick, New Jersey. I stared at the fantasy shelves, and this nice man said pretty much exactly the same thing to me, tapping a copy of Eye of the World–“Try this one. It’s really good”. I’m tickled by the idea of this guy just hanging out in bookstores, bringing this special gift of WoT fandom to all of us.
Elijah @@@@@ 2:
Ha, we shall see!
I’m listening to the WoT audio books again for maybe the 10th time, although the first time in 6 or 7 years. It’s like … coming home after being away for a long time.
Wow. I’ve never really thought about that before. My similar story is that a friend of mine loaned me his copy of Wizard’s First Rule over 20 years ago. It’s not that the book itself was necessarily world changing for me, but I can now recognize specific instances in my life today that were monumentally pivotal to me having read that book. It actually almost collapsed my marriage at one point. Again, not because of anything directly related to the book, but because of later events and conversations that never would have occurred had I never read it. What a crazy idea.
@@.-@ – Perhaps you and Leigh are ta’veren. LOL
I discovered the WOT series a few years ago (during college) when my older brother mentioned this series he was reading. His enthusiastic description of the first book’s ending made me decide to try it.
I picked up the Eye of the World at the library and loved it. I read the entire series over a year, as I found copies of the various books at local book sales.
Unfortunately, he dropped the series somewhere in book three. I do hope to persuade him to give it another go eventually.
From the WOT series, I discovered Sanderson, and from both I have discovered some fantastic communities that I hope to become a part of (I will make it to a con eventually!).
@8 I think perhaps WoT Santa is the ta’veren–being in his presence for just a few minutes had a monumental shift in the course of multiple lives!
I loved this series, until the last book, which I hated so much I’ve not touched the series since then when I used to read all the books annually. When I think about the series now, I think about the last book, and I just move on. Ah well.
I discovered WoT on my own, through its translation in 2004 (that was left as the only one for some reason). The cover and introduction caught my eye and I managed to cajole my parents to getting it to my for Christmas, and man, did it open new worlds and new paths to me!
ladyrian @9, From the WOT series, I discovered Sanderson, and from both I have discovered some fantastic communities that I hope to become a part of – hear hear!
WoT opened my eyes to literature in English. Thanks to WoT, I have found new friends, I have found new authors I adore (looking especially at Brandon Sanderson, but there are also others), I have found Tor. I am happy.
I was handed the first four books by the reviewer for the now-defunct Milwaukee Sentinel sometime shortly before book five came out (Yes, he passed on his review copy of Five a bit later).
I must have read those five books 3 times before book 6 came out .And I reread the series in it’s entirety for every new release leading up to Towers of Midnight. I didn’t reread prior to the final volume, but I’m rereading it now for the first time since series completion.
So, yes, I’ve just finished my 1th reading of The Eye of the World and The Great Hunt. They are still amazing, but the best is yet to come.
Happy Birthday Robert Jordan!
Frankly I didn’t enjoy ‘Eye of the World’ at all but I soldiered on through the equally dire ‘Great Hunt’ and finally got some payoff with ‘The Dragon Reborn’.
I’m desperately trying to soldier my way through the dry spell that is ‘the middle books’ of the series, in the hope that I can finally finish it. Life gets in the way, I put it down, and then when the bug bites again, I start over from the beginning. That means I’ve probably read TEOTW 20 times, with the following books in decreasing frequency. MY favorite though, is The Shadow Rising. I love history of any kind, and Rand’s experience in Rhuidean is exactly the kind of stuff that grabs my brain and won’t let go. It’s enough backstory to fill in a lot of blanks, but still leaves you wondering – RJ was DAMN good about that, wasn’t he? Anyway, I’m currently re-reading Leigh’s read through of the books that I’ve previously read, in the hope that I can catch myself up enough to start where I should – where I left off, which is the end of Winter’s Heart. Yes, I know, how could I possibly NOT want to know what happens next – like I said, life gets in the way. Wish me luck, guys….
Great article Leigh. I only wished the WoT got more love on the Great American Read. While it was listed as one of the 100 greatest books, I have yet to see it featured on any episodes of the Great America Read. (Note: an entire series constitutes a single book for the purposes of the GAR. Thus, there is no distinction between any of the different books in the series.)
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
When I was a teen, my brother’s girlfriend got him Crossroads of Twilight as a gift. As I am his carbon copy (as he calls me) I immediately wanted to read it. He, of course, told me that it was book 10 in a series and I needed to start at the beginning. If I was really serious about reading fantasy, he said I needed to start off with lighter stuff and so had me read the Drizzt Do’Urden books. I read through all of those and then went into Dungeons & Dragons (Weis & Hickman). Once he deemed me ready for epic fantasy, I started with Eye of the World. Weird to think that was 15 years ago…
I was given TEOTW around 2001, at age 14, by a friend who hadn’t read it but knew I liked fantasy. I started it multiple times, but didn’t go far past the Prologue. Then I took it with me on a vacation in 2004, reached the debut of Shadowspawn, and was hooked. Took me about two years to read the then-extant books (through COT).
My mother got me Eye of The World for my 16th birthday and that is pretty much what happened to her. Some kid came along in the bookstore, an employee I think and noticed my mother in indecision and walked over and tapped Eye of the world. My mother knew I liked fantasy and so she picked it up. That was in 1995. She got me started with lord of the rings and done when I was young. She read both stories my brother and I. It was no brainer I would grow up to be an avid reader of scifi/fantasy. The whole series is phenomenal and I have read it several times. Pretty much every time a new book came out and a lot in between. Been wanting to see this adapted to tv/film for quite a while. Looking forward to it and hoping they dont fuck it up.
I tried to read them. Boredom hit hard by book 4. I ended up skipping the last 5 and simply skimmed the last one to see how it was officially ended. I found it to be an extremely derivative, poorly written and dully plotted series that might have made a far better 3 book series.
In the end, the kindest thing I can say for them is that at least it wasn’t as bad as the horrifically bad riff on the War of the Roses that is Game of Thrones.
Great story. I found this series in a similarly random circumstance. I was perusing a garage sale and there was an old tattered edition of Eye of The World for 50 cents. The guy came over and simply gave it to me for free when he saw me reading the synopsis. “One of my favorite series,” he said. Couldn’t put the books down after that.
I’m a Jordan newbie–well, I guess new-ish at this point. I started reading because of Sylas’s readthrough here on Tor, and I finished The Great Hunt yesterday (and will now be catching up with Sylas’s posts for a while).
After book 2, I’m saying exactly the same thing I said after book 1: I like this, but I don’t love it; since so many do love it so much, though, I guess I’ll stick with it for another book or two and then decide whether to keep going–but there’ll be some other books in between.
(It isn’t helping that what I read between the first two was a series that did completely suck me in and whipped me through its first three, so Jordan is suffering by comparison.)
The best reason to read WoT, of course, is so you can appreciate the re-read.
Speaking of which, I recall that we had a “how-did-you-discover-wot” thread on tor.com more than once, and on one of those threads a fellow wrote a post in which he suggested that he was probably the man who introduced Auntie Leigh to WoT.
I guess this post from 2011 was re-posted without Leigh actually reading it first.
I was mad for Arthurian fiction as a young reader, but my final year of Primary School was when the reading bug really bit me hard, causing a rash whose itch I just had to scratch.
The book was A Wizard of Earthsea.
The situation was a fearful all-night read, after being threatened with detention earlier in the day, for not having submitted even one book report, as part of our library learning syllabus.
What began as mindless desperation to read enough to bluff my way through that book report, turned into helpless capture, at the mercy of a masterful storyteller & her ability to keep me hooked while terrifying me witless with Ged’s Shadow. By the turn of midnight, I was seeing them everywhere. And from the next day on, going through every book in my teacher’s library like a gall wasp in lemon tree sap.
I was an SFF convert from then on, but lapsed into intermittent engagement as life in high-school got complicated. It wasn’t until 5 years later, that I became a re-dedicated reader. A friend handed me David Gemmell’s first three Drenai books and I fell head over heels for the genre, all over again.
Even so, Wheel of Time was initially an instinctive pity purchase. I was in a second-hand bookstore I’d never been to before, not two days after having seen Robert Jordan on a local morning talkshow here in Australia. He was promoting The Shadow Rising and although the show’s host was legendarily likeable, it was clear he hadn’t read the book, or made even the faintest effort to familiarise himself with it.
If I could sense the disdain through my TV Screen, I can only imagine how Jordan must have felt. The interview was brief, but excruciatingly full of mutual antipathy, as Jordan’s efforts to promote the book hit that wall of indifference.
So there I was in that secondhand bookstore looking at the first 3 volumes of Wheel of Time in paperback, packaged together for a bargain price. The Shadow Rising as described by Robert Jordan on that TV Show had sounded interesting to me – if not that host – so, into my bag they went and off I went to the library to find Book 4.
But i couldn’t find it. All copies at all branches out on loan & reserved by eager readers until sometime shortly before The Second Coming. I hadn’t heard of Jordan before seeing him on that TV Show, but lots of folks certainly seemed to know & like his work. In the end, I ended up deferring my trip to Randland, handing the books I bought over to my friend who introduced me to Gemmell.
I eventually bought Book4, but the first book I bought on its release date in WoT sequence was tFoH. At the insistence of that friend. Even though I still hadn’t read a word of it. Despite his increasingly strident disbelief at my delay.
All these years later, I have that friend to thank for his initial kindness & steadfast determination, for introducing me to some magnificently realised Fantastic Worlds, for showing me the way to one of my favourite journeys in life.
No matter who bought what books when & why.
I’ve only read the first book, twenty years ago, and I don’t expect to return. My perspective on “Wheel of Time” comes down to three things: 1) any series this long requires enormous commitment, especially for slow readers like me, and the reviews of several middle books are discouraging. 2) I did read the first book in the late nineties, and noting its adherence to the typical tropes I thought “there’s nothing special here” (I had the same reaction to Sword of Truth, fyi). 3) I read way too many Tor articles, and have spoiled myself silly since I long ago decided I’ll never read this series. I’m interested in knowing things about it, given its profile, but that’s as far as it goes. So for some us, like me, it is too late. Not a pity party: I’ve had my magical reading experiences through many other paths. I can respect this was a path for many others.
These are always fun threads to read through. For me, I discovered WoT much later than some. Back in either 2007 or 2008…I was in uni at the time and was over at a friend’s house for games and dinner. For some reason, I found myself waiting for the dinner preparation to be complete and I was in the living room, where I saw a big fat fantasy book on the end table. Being rather inclined to fantasy (although not very widely read), I idly picked it up and started reading the prologue. It was Crown of Swords and thus my first POV character was Elaida! I read through halfway of the first chapter and realized I was missing some major backstory (what is a “Dumai’s Wells”…??) but I was already hooked. My friend walked over and saw me reading it and immediately laughed, “You can’t start there!” He went to his room, brought back EotW and told me to take it home and read it. And there you go. =)
PR @15 – Despite some very good parts, I consider EOTW and TGH as lower tier WoT books. My top tier would be 3-6, and 11, with 13 as a strong contender and the best of the Sanderson books. If you are not grabbed by the end of Book 4, this series is not for you.
I’m currently reading through WoT for the first time. Currently halfway through #4, The Shadow Rising. On the whole, I am enjoying them, though I almost didn’t get past Eye of the World. When I first read it, I had such high hopes. But I was bored to tears. It felt so generic. That may have been because there’s been so much similar fantasy over the last 20 years. It may have been more original in its time. It did pick up considerably in the last third, enough for me to finish it. I liked the Blight a lot.
I figured I’d never read the rest of the series, but about six months later I picked up The Great Hunt on a whim and enjoyed it FAR more than EotW. At this point, I do intend to finish the series out.
I have two complaints about the series.
1) The books take a glacial age to get going.
2) I can’t stand how the women think of and speak to the men. I’m no hillbilly rube. I don’t have any kind of problem with smart, capable women, in fiction or in life. But the women of this series think of and treat men as if they are the dumbest, most incompetent beings in existence. If one of the male characters rushed in to save the lives of the women in one scene, the next scene would be the women fuming that the man was reckless, or didn’t ask their permission, or some other such nonsense. It’s very annoying.
I HATE Faile.
And my God, what’s with all the sniffing and braid pulling?
@29, I think the Women’s dismissive attitude towards men is supposed to be annoying and offensive.
I am a old-school science fiction guy. I started when I was 9-10, picking up my mom’s Keith Laumer, Clifford Simak, etc. Discovered Heinlein in junior high, I was off and running with the Grand Masters. I read The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings in high school but I was a much more hard sci-fi dude. Many years later, appox. 2000-2001,a co-worker who knew my reading habits dropped TEOTW AND A Game Of Thrones in my lap and said I might enjoy them. I a no longer just a “hard sci-fi” guy, I really dig a lot of this high fantasy stuff. (Jordon,Erikson, Sanderson, Cook, Rothfus, etc.
@@@@@ 29 I too hate Faile! She is so awful! And I too found the constant disdain irritating. But as @@@@@30 said, it is intentional (well, at least mostly intentional).
I love all the different stories of how everyone found the series!
Like it did for many others, the WOT series really solidified my love for fantasy.
I don’t hate Faile but the Faile/Perrin romance does drag, especially during the PLOD. Yeah, these kids have cultural issues to be worked out – but could we focus a little more on the upcoming End of the World?
@6 That is exactly what WoT is for me every time I come back for an inevitable reread… I’m coming home. I am rereading them (again) now in audio book form and it just feels like old friends getting back together after a long time.
I didn’t have someone recommend it to me. I discovered it when ACOS was in hardback. That book looked interesting so I had to find the first book. I blew through those first 7 books then had to endure the long wait between each book after but man was it worth the wait. It was definitely the highlight of the year when a WoT book was release.
WoT was my first introduction to the world wide web. All those old message boards speculating on every prophesy, dream and viewing. It was really cool seeing people from all over enjoying it the same way I did.
I remember the day I read of Robert Jordan’s passing. There was such a sense of loss that I never expected to feel from something as “trivial” as a book series possibly not getting completed. Then the relief once Brandon Sanderson picked it up and did such an amazing job with it
Now I have equal parts excitement and fear of the new TV show. I’ve wanted to see this on screen for over 20 years but dread the possibility of it getting screwed up.
To all those that haven’t taken the plunge. Just do it. Pick it up and meet your new family and friends They will live with you forever.
That alien life exists on Earth is proven by Jordan being popular. I thought Jordan’s first two doorstops (which I got used) were the most tedious trash I’d ever read. I used my copies as fireplace kindling so they couldn’t go on to hurt anyone else.
Nothing happens except characters looking at each other for thousands of pages. There are brief, mostly second-hand, plot elements recycled from every (much shorter, better-paced) story Jordan ever saw.
Perhaps I’m spoiled by sword & sorcery of the ’80s and earlier, which tended to get to the point and tell a complete story in 200 pages. Poul Anderson’s “Three Hearts & Three Lions” is 191 pages. Michael Moorcock’s “Elric of Melniboné” is 191 pages, coincidentally. Jordan’s “The Eye of the World” was 814 pages in paperback, and can’t tell a quarter of the story with four times the bloviation of either better writer. Pick any other writer, and you get the same result.
I just hope they don’t screw up TWOT like they did Episodes 7,8 and probably 9 of Star Wars or even worse Justice League. As soon as you start deviating from known storylines for anything but logistical or visual aspects you’re essentially not telling the story people want to see. You’re telling your own story because your ego thinks it can do better. And of course you’re all kinds of mistaken about that. If you were truly talented you could tell the story as it is without telling it from some envisioned viewpoint to appease an ongoing sociopolitical movement. That’s asinine. Do the damn story with all of it’s flaws and all of it’s glory.
For me…. I think I picked up Eye of the World and Great Hunt at the same time. I always buy books that way. If there’s a book two I’ll buy both 1 and 2. But not three. .. what if it truly sucks, Yo? Sooo… The Dragon Reborn was in Hardback I think? and shortly after crushing EOTW and GH I splurged (again) on Dragon Reborn…. That was damn near 30 years ago now. Jeebus!
I adore The Wheel of Time, it’s Creator, Harriet McDougal, Brandon Sanderson, you Leigh, and the Community, so very much! The TV show is an opportunity to expand that community and to bring the same joy to so many lives. I can’t wait for it and on the flip side, I am absolutely dreading it.
Death is unacceptable, but inevitable. And as it approaches nearing the end of my middle years I have this acute sense of dread. A sullen iridescence, if you will. That feeling of intense enlightenment followed by a dawning dread of the realization of what is to come. Everytime I think of it. And it is that dread I feel for The Wheel of Time. Now I don’t think about either one particularly often, but it is telling that my feelings about both are near identically intense and so I do hope, …Really really hope, I’m wrong. But I think it will be a hoot either way.
Live to love. Love to Live.
-Z
@17 AndrewHB: I’ve been pretty disappointed overall by the “Great American Read.” It has not done justice to MOST of the books/series it has featured. Mostly it’s a series of one-liners which are limited to shallow and obvious observations. Why could they not do, say, two books per hour, extend the series greatly, and do some IN-DEPTH commentary and analysis a la “Book TV” on weekend C-Span 2?
Oh well . . .
One of the best parts of reading the series in the 90’s was not only starting over and reading every book again before the next one came out, but the forums with discussions and theories. I remember when Leigh took over the WOT FAQ, a resource I used for years to find again and again that my “new and amazing” theory had already been debunked.
My ‘WoT Santa’ was my German teacher in my junior year of high school who began lending me books when she realized I was a reader (she also introduced me to Sharon Shinn and Guy Gavriel Kay) – within that year I had read through all the currently published books (up to Path of Daggers – Winter’s Heart came out my senior year). I found the FAQ at some point and that summer at art/science camp also met somebody else who was into it and we traded theories and got our other friends into it as well :) We even had a campaign of the WoT role playing game. I found the FAQ online and that’s actually how I found Tor – I was checking up on it and they had mentioned Leigh had started a column here. I think that ws in maybe 2008 or 2009 (I think I had just started my current job when this happened).
As for fate, I met my husband because he joined and online group I was on and looked for people with ‘Wheel of Time’ in their interests and found me. We became friends and then years later met in person when we both moved to the same citty and…there you go :) We are celebrating our 10 year anniversary next week!
I think I met your WoT Santa only it was shopping for the last book A Memory of Light. I was at one book store just as they opened, the first day they went on sale, to get my copy but the night crew had not put them out. I was told it was going to take while to get them up. So, after I asked about them, I noticed another guy listening and we both had the same thought “let’s go to another book store.” We raced to the closest book store and he beat me by a few moments. When I walked up to grab my copy of A Memory of Light he was already there and it was then that our WoT Santa handed me one. I was touched because he had made this book I was so excited to own and of this series I was desperate to finish a very special gift. Thanks WoT Santa!
I see a lot of Robert Jordan but not nearly enough Dakota Krout or Benedict Jacka. Slip in more Chaos Seeds and Incryptid too.
Has anybody at TOR read Dodge Tank? I have a headline for you. “If you loved the first Matrix films but didn’t like the second and third ones because of the way the real world was portrayed, you should check out Dodge Tank”
Ironically, I had an experience similar to many of you. I was recommending the Eye of the World by my 6th grade teacher, who’s name I can still recall to this day, Mr. Marki. I was attending a Catholic school at the time and as there wasn’t much that interested me during that period of my life, except reading, I was fairly often in trouble for reading during class. As a method to reduce my lack of attention in class, Mr. Marki told me he would lend me the book, on the condition that I made it through one day of classes without being reprimanded for lack of attention. At the end of the following school day, after a successful wager, he gave me his copy of the book, and told me to enjoy it slowly, as it was a fantastic story. To this day, that’s the fastest I’ve read such a tale. Took me about 12 to 14 hours all told to finish it. I was up all night reading it and when I returned it to my teacher, he was shocked enough that he quizzed me on the plot and the characters. After I passed his mini exam, he said that he would be willing to lend me the next couple books in the series, as I was the youngest student he’d ever had who was capable of reading comprehensively on such a high level in his class. And only the second student he’d ever lent the book to during his tenure, because none others had even come close to the requisite level.
Sadly, I ended up departing that school at the end of the school year, due to some reasons beyond my control and I was unable to read the Great Hunt before my departure. Took me three years to find the series again and it was once more at school, in my high school library. And, again, I was told that I was one of the only students they’d ever had who would read the series. So I made it my mission to try and convince my school’s book club to make it one of our monthly book choices, with no success whatsoever.
To this day, I have been unable to convince anyone of the merits of the story and it’s kinda depressing to be honest. and
I was in the Navy in the 90’s when one of my shipmates kept trying to get me interested in WoT. He kept giving me quotes that sounded cool, like ‘I will not have you swaddled in unawareness’ (probably not a perfect quote and I don’t have excess to the book right now). I hadn’t read any fantasy, I was into SF and techno thrillers, but after a month or two, finally gave in. So glad I did. This series has been the best I’ve ever read. (Have read several different fantasy series now). I tore through the first five books. Had to wait about a month for LoC and have read the entire series whenever a new book came out. Now I listen to the audio books about once a year. Have loved the weekly posts on Tor from Leigh and now Sylas. Looking forward to the TV show and hoping that it does the books at least partial justice.
Sorry to hear that some of you didn’t like the WoT. I know that all things aren’t for all people and hope you have found books that mean to you what WoT means to most of those here. Love hearing about how everyone found the series.
So nice to hear from you the last week, Leigh. Was beginning to wonder if you had moved on from Tor. Look forward to your future posts.
Leigh, I enjoy all you write about WoT.
When I read that you discovered Eye of the World at the University Co-op Bookstore on the Drag in Austin, I got so excited. I worked for that bookstore from 1991 to 2000. It’s so cool that your WoT adventure began there. I can’t claim that the random guy was me, though, because I didn’t start reading WoT until the early 2000s. I’ve done numerous rereads and only Tolkien can claim a higher place in my heart. The story, the characters, and the world are like a second home to me.
After reading this post I spent the next month reading through the entire series and I though it was complete garbage. The only parts that weren’t absolute crap were clearly plagiarized of better authors like Tolien and Herbert.
I though the prose was awful, the characters were juvenile and the magic system was non-sensical. And using Mary-Sues to resolve bad plotting and lazy writing doesn’t make them any less Mary-Sues even if you call them Taverene with some non-sensical apostrophes thrown in.
And rape isn’t funny, even if the perpertrator calls her victim “piglet”.