I was recently devastated to hear that Amazon Prime has cancelled the Wheel of Time TV Show, a fantasy epic based on the novels of Robert Jordan. I recently binge-watched the entire show and found it to improve throughout, with the third and most recent season being the best.

In my grief, I turned to something dark – reading the books instead.

I have recently finished the first book (of 12) and thought I would give my thoughts on the story and the storytelling of Jordan as a concise book review so I can get my final Blopig out of the way.

The Eye of the World covers the journey of Rand al’Thor, his friends Mat, Perrin, Egwene and Nynaeve with a mysterious magician Moraine and her Warden, Lan. They are fleeing the forces of the Dark One whilst also trying to understand why on earth they are being chased. By the end of the book, the male characters get interesting character arcs, no longer the people who left the Two Rivers, but the female characters, less so. This speaks to a problem I found with the book, which is that it is not the most feminist piece of literature ever. Female characters are often described in terms of their looks whilst the men are not, which does become a bit bizarre when many female characters are introduced at once and comparisons are made between them. 

The Eye of the World is an absolute behemoth of a book with 771 pages (I’m told the later books get a lot longer) so is not a quick read. I did find myself racing through it as the storytelling was incredibly engaging at certain points. However, some sections are weirdly paced and I get the impression Robert Jordan got a bit carried away and then realised he had to wrap up the story quite quickly. The middle sections where the characters are split are a bit dry and the reader does have to hang in there. However, the end is incredibly fast-paced and feels a bit rushed. However, I did still enjoy reading it.

How does it compare to the TV show? Well, it is a lot better as obviously it can explore more of the story and detail. The TV show does seem like a more efficient version of the story though and does successfully hit the same plot points but in hindsight was also rushed. 

Final Score
7.5/10