The Eye of The World: Pre-Review Comments

First of all, I feel I should say I must have had way more time on my hands in college than I remember because it's taking me much longer to read this book than I remember it taking 10 years ago. Of course, since it was kind of a graduation present, I guess I wasn't reading it when I should have been studying or practicing. I had a whole summer of just working and doing practically nothing but reading and partying.

I'm about 150 pages from the end and the only reason I'm that far is because I was so sick for three days I hardly got out of bed. In fact, I had to go to Walgreens and I didn't even bother to get out of pajamas. I just threw my coat over top. Yes, I was THAT person. I was sick, I don't care. So, when I wasn't sleeping (which I did A LOT) I got to read. And this is what I've discovered:

I remember again why I got so hooked on this series. Jordan IS a good writer. I had forgotten that! He also seems to have had a plan, which is suddenly more apparent on a second read through than it ever was the first time through. There are things in the book I overlooked the first time through because they simply did not make sense not knowing what he was referencing. It's all well and good to give some foreshadowing but if your audience doesn't know wtf those things mean then they'll forget you said that! Reading it a second time I'm seeing all kinds of references to things that aren't even mentioned until several books later. On my original reading, as I got further into the story I got more and more frustrated by the apparent randomness of some of the storylines that kept popping up. I'm not going to completely absolve him of this though, I still think he went a-rambling in the last couple of books, but to know there was a plan to begin with and he laid the groundwork for that plan in book one as a good writer should makes me respect him again as a writer.

An interesting point I noted along this thought-line. There is a speach Moiraine gives the Emond's Fielders after they're reuinted in Caemlyn in which she states:

You three did not choose; you were chosen by the Pattern. And you are here, where the danger is known. You can step aside, and perhaps doom the world. Running, hiding, will not save you from the weaving of the Pattern. Or you can try. You can go to the Eye of the World, three ta'veren, three centerpoints of the web, placed where the danger lies.

Now obviously she is attempting to get the boys to see they need to act on one specific danger but as I read the sentence "Running, hiding, will not save you form the weaving of the Pattern," I realize maybe this IS what is happening in the books that appear to be a bunch of random nothingness. If I want to give Jordan that much credit, I would say that maybe he is showing what would happen if they did try to run from their duties as ta'veren. Maybe.