14) The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, #1)

Original Title: The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, #1)
Turkish Title: Dünyanın Gözü (Zaman Carkı, #1)
English Title: The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, #1) Author: Robert Jordan
Pages: 800
Rating: 4/5
Applicable Challenges: 50 Books A Year, The 50 Books Challenge, Awesome Author Challenge 2010, Chunkster Reading Challenge, Fantasy Reading Challenge, The Heavy Reading Challenge (>500 Pages)

WHY THIS BOOK?

My sister started reading The Wheel of Time series when she was in high school. (She’ll graduate from university next year). I was wondering the series but I was a bit lazy start. Then, I realized reading the first book of the series would be worth the effort; not only because it’ll give me an idea about the whole series, but also because the book fits in quite a good number of the challenges I’ve participated. I gave it a try at the end.

THE STORY:

A village is attacked by wierd creatures called trollocs (a race of halfmen). The attack is directly for Rand al’thor, a young and simple shepherd, and his friends (Mat, Perrin and Egwene). After the attack Rand sets out on a journey with his friends, Moraine Sedai and Lan. Later on another villager, Nynaeve joins them. Their journey is without action till they reach the town of Baerlon. There Rand, Mat and Perrin simultaneously dream that a man calling himself Ba’alzamon knows who they are and commands them to join him. From that point on, their looong journey is full of action, full of interesting both realistic and fantastic characters till they reach the Blight to save the eye of the world. There, Rand fights against Ba’alzamon. It is then discovered that Rand is the Dragon Reborn.

MY COMMENTS:

“The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades into myth and even myth is long forgotten when the Age gives it birth again.”

I borrowed the book from my sister last August and it’s been sitting on my bookshelf since then. One day I decided to read the first page to see if I was ready to start this long journey. The sentence I quoted above was the first sentence of the book and at that point I knew that it was time to start.

I wanted to read a fantasy book and now I’m glad that I chose this one. It is a quite long read, full of action, wierd creatures and worlds. It was quite satisfactory for me. I actually really liked it but my base for fantasy books is “The Lord of the Rings” and it was one level below it. That is why the number of stars I gave is four. I again couldn’t help myself but compare the authors (J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert Jordan) and the characters of the books. Although there were many things in common, I liked Jordan’s story telling as well and I will go on with the second book of the series a couple of months later.

In the Turkish version I read there wasn’t a map included. I found some maps on the internet but I don’t know if they were included in the original publication of this book. As the main characters of the book keep travelling, at certain times, I felt the need to see their departure and destination points.

Although it was a quite long read, I enjoyed it a lot. I was quite surprised to see that many readers couldn’t stand the book at all.

The challenge for me wasn’t the story or the characters of the book but it was its weight. It was a bit hard for me to carry it with me everyday to wherever I go. It was quite funny to hear people’s guesses about what I was reading. I took the books original paper cover off and only the dark red hardcover was left. A colleague of mine thought I was reading the Quran and another friend asked if I was reading the Civil Code :)