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Is Eye Of The World boring?


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Hi everyone!! You’ve probably seen this  question a million times but I’m midway through the first book in the WoT series and this far only the prologue has been good. I’m a huge fan of all Brandon Sanderson books out there especially in the cosmere. I started reading the book and expected pretty much from it, and the prologue definitely stood up to my expectations! But after that nothing really exciting happened in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong I really like the characters but the story isn’t going anywhere. Will the whole book be like this with nothing happening? I’m a big sucker for big epic fights and mind-blowing  plot twists, so will the series deliver that? Does Eye of the world get better? I would appreciate if you left spoilers out of this thread thank you! 

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19 minutes ago, Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamon said:

Hi everyone!! You’ve probably seen this  question a million times but I’m midway through the first book in the WoT series and this far only the prologue has been good. I’m a huge fan of all Brandon Sanderson books out there especially in the cosmere. I started reading the book and expected pretty much from it, and the prologue definitely stood up to my expectations! But after that nothing really exciting happened in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong I really like the characters but the story isn’t going anywhere. Will the whole book be like this with nothing happening? I’m a big sucker for big epic fights and mind-blowing  plot twists, so will the series deliver that? Does Eye of the world get better? I would appreciate if you left spoilers out of this thread thank you!

 

As a Series, Mind-blowing Twist and Awesome action definitely happen.  But if you are looking for it to be in the Sanderson style in any particular way, it just plain won't be.  Robert Jordan's writing, while I liked it, is a different thing than Sanderson's. Even the three Sanderson wrote to complete the series were written to be loyal to the Jordan's intent and style rather than injecting his own.  

As far as Wheel of Time itself:  Yes Eye of the World gets better (in my opinion), much like LotR, things start off kinda slow in the first half of the first book, but soon get rolling.  Eventually it does slow WAAAAY down as the character and storylines diverge, to the point where you may go multiple books without seeing some of the original Main Characters (this is probably my biggest complaint about the series).  But even then, it's a wild ride with tons of twists and turns, major developments and crushing defeats and all the things you can hope for in Epic Fantasy.  

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3 hours ago, Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamon said:

 I’m midway through the first book in the WoT series and this far only the prologue has been good. I’m a huge fan of all Brandon Sanderson books out there especially in the cosmere. I started reading the book and expected pretty much from it, and the prologue definitely stood up to my expectations!

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strange. when i read it the first time, the prologue was utter nonsense to me. no sooner than book 4 i could make full sense of it.

anyway yes, you get epic fights and big plot twists in the wot, but it's pretty slow. it's slow to start, the more the main characters will become badass, the more epic fights you will see.

there is one such climatic fight near the end, and while i didn't like it because it felt pulled out of nowhere (again, after rereading and knowing what is actually happening, i can appreciate it better), but if you liked the prologue, you should also like the end. if you manage to reach so far without putting down the book.

also, there is a lot of political intrigue too. in fact, there will be long stretches where nobody is fighting and everyone is politicking.

 

anyway, you can do much worse than wheel of time with slow. i was gifted a book where the main character spends 30 pages making a phone call with her mother, where absolutely no plot relevant information is discussed. in the beginning, the book starts with an inspection in an informatic network after an alarm triggered, and nothing was found out of place. it took 50 pages.

in wot you may not be interested in some of the subplots, but at least stuff does keep happening.

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By the time I got to the end of The Wheel of Time, I was reading them about a book a day. Eye of the World sat in my backpack for about two months as I periodically opened it up and read it. It's still a good book, but it can definitely be slow, especially if you aren't yet invested in the series.

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  • 3 months later...

I adored Eye of the World honestly.  I actually started reading it out loud to my fiancé last night.  The series has a LOT of awesome moments.  The first half of eye of the world is definitely slower, but you'll come to have nostalgia for it too lol.  I skipped reading her the prologue cause it's 100% nonsense until you get further in to the series.  I know I found it grating to read when I first jumped in lol.

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Most fans consider 1-4 to be Jordan’s best works. I’m talking about overall quality because his books that come afterwards have great moments, but a lot of slogging to get there. The fact that you are struggling with Eye does not bode well...

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Well, in fact,  I have finished the sixth book now and the ranking for me (from worst to best is:

6. Eye of the world

5.The great hunt 

4. The dragon reborn

3.Shadows Rising

2. Fires of heaven

1. Lord of chaos

(You may see the pattern) 

I’m aware of the slog that is coming now and I will just push through it even though I don’t think the seventh book is going to be as bad as people say. Like my favorite SA book is Oathbringer and that one is considered the worst one. Overall WoT is AMAZING and I can’t wait to continue on!!

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On 2/6/2020 at 3:45 PM, Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamon said:

Hi everyone!! You’ve probably seen this  question a million times but I’m midway through the first book in the WoT series and this far only the prologue has been good. I’m a huge fan of all Brandon Sanderson books out there especially in the cosmere. I started reading the book and expected pretty much from it, and the prologue definitely stood up to my expectations! But after that nothing really exciting happened in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong I really like the characters but the story isn’t going anywhere. Will the whole book be like this with nothing happening? I’m a big sucker for big epic fights and mind-blowing  plot twists, so will the series deliver that? Does Eye of the world get better? I would appreciate if you left spoilers out of this thread thank you! 

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I remember picking up The Eye of the World multiple times when I was a teenager and I just couldn't get into it. I tried it again a couple of times when I was an adult and I had the same problem, though I did get further into it than when I was younger. I finally gave up on the series as a whole and decided that it just wasn't for me. Then I joined Audible and I listened to my first audio book (something I had been resistant to for a long time). I decided to start with something that I had already read and so I listened to The Way of Kings, narrated by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. 

I quickly fell in love with audiobooks and now occasionally will switch between reading on my Kindle and listening to an audiobook. When I found out that the same narrators read the audio versions of Jordan's series, I decided to give it a try. This time, I managed to get through the entire book and even the next two (up to The Dragon Reborn, I believe). While listening to the narrative talents of Kramer and Reading made the story so much more enjoyable, I think I've finally resigned myself to the fact that the Wheel of Time just isn't for me. 

I'm a guy who really enjoys slow-paced plots filled with plenty of philosophical conundrums and political intrigue (probably another reason why I love Oathbringer so much), but I just find myself continually bored by Jordan's characters. That's not to say that I don't think there are any redeeming qualities to it, just not enough for me to want to stick around. I think my biggest beef with it is that I find myself most bored by the main character, Rand al'Thor. He feels like a hollow, insert-reader-here, cardboard character who, over the course of three rather lengthy novels, hasn't developed much past the boy we meet in the first novel. In fact, I've found that nearly every single character who accompanies him are by far more interesting to read about.

It's certainly possible that I'll return to the series in the future (the narration is just so easy to listen to), but I just can't bring myself to recommend it to other people. With that being said, I'd recommend at least finishing the first novel before forming your own opinion of it. I finished the first three because I really wanted to like it and while I don't regret giving it that much of a chance, I'm just not captivated by it like so many others are. If you like classic fantasy, it will probably eventually hook you and if you are having a hard time actually reading the book, I'd recommend giving the audio book a try.

 

On 5/28/2020 at 0:56 AM, Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamon said:

Well, in fact,  I have finished the sixth book now and the ranking for me (from worst to best is:

6. Eye of the world

5.The great hunt 

4. The dragon reborn

3.Shadows Rising

2. Fires of heaven

1. Lord of chaos

(You may see the pattern) 

I’m aware of the slog that is coming now and I will just push through it even though I don’t think the seventh book is going to be as bad as people say. Like my favorite SA book is Oathbringer and that one is considered the worst one. Overall WoT is AMAZING and I can’t wait to continue on!!

I really should read the last few posts in a thread before I make a comment. I realized after writing my post above that you're now on the sixth book. I'm glad you're enjoying the series! It blows my mind that so many people consider Oathbringer to be the weakest of the Stormlight series so far but I understand why. Compared to the two that came before it, it does have a slower pace and focuses a bit more heavily on politicking. In a way, it reminds me a lot of The Well of Ascension in how it focuses more on character growth outside of dynamic action scenes. I just started on The Hero of Ages and quite honestly, I find myself less impressed with the action scenes in Mistborn than I am in Stormlight. Maybe that's just because I want my own Shardblade. ^_^

Edited by ShawnMC
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I just finished The Eye of the World and found it maddening. The worldbuilding is fantastic, but the plot's episodic, with no real stakes. The Dark One repeatedly rants about how doomed Rand is but never manages to harm him in any specific way.

HOWEVER

The Great Hunt gets off to an explosive start. Much, much better. The Eye of the World feels like backstory to the rest of the series. If I were to start over, I'd skip the first book entirely, maybe read a summary. But if the rest of the series is as interesting as the first 100 pages of The Great Hunt, Jordan has my attention.

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