The Eye of the World

I was introduced to WoT by the TV show. A lot of my visuals for main characters comes from it. I didn't read it with expectations of it following the books too closely though. In fact the very beginning of the book followed it much closer than I thought possible. The longer the book goes on the further the two diverge. Though you can see the essences the show was trying to bring. This is my first Robert Jordan book. Upon starting his verbosity was concerning to me. I had the quip the Dowager Countess on Downton Abbey used once going through my mind, "He never uses one word when ten will do." Even though his verbosity didn't abate his writing does have a good readable flow about. I found the book to be a very engaging read. Like with almost any work of fiction there are some eye rolling pieces of the book. They were few and far enough between to not detract from the overall piece. Based on how the book wraps up you can tell that he wrote this book expecting to write many more in this series. I'm looking forward to starting the second book in the near future.

The Eye of the World is not a particularly gripping book at first - pretty much nothing of major note occurs for the first 500-600 pages, but instead spends its time having the characters travel through the world to introduce the reader to all the many factions and groups that populate the world.

The prose is very detailed, perhaps a little too much, but makes it easy to imagine you're there seeing and feeling what the characters do. I didn't realise how attached to the characters I felt even early on, but the writing is fantastic.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would - staying up until 1am to finish it off without realising - and will definitely be reading the rest of the series! The payoff towards the end leaves a lot of room for whatever will happen next and will make you want to get the next book.