Wheel of Time: The Eye of the World
(yes the image is rather crappy my apologies)
So, how long overdue is this post? Shit, how long overdue is me not just finishing this book, but fricken reading the book, too? I’m a rather belated person, but that goes for everything. Books, movies, games, shit, even school. But I digress. Let’s get on with the review.
So, The Eye of the World. My friend gave me his brother’s copy forever ago (a little longer than two years ago, if I have to be specific) and I finally just finished it…well, a few months ago. (Like I said, I’m a belated person. Book reviews are included when it comes to tardiness.) Anyways, I’m sure everybody has heard of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, so I’m not gonna get too specific about it, but I will say this:
This picture basically sums up my reaction.
The book is a prologue and fifty-three chapters long and seven hundred and eighty-two pages long and the only part where I wasn’t actually staring at the pages in pure and utter confusion was the last…God, I don’t even know how many chapters. Basically, after the entire traveling party regroups and sets off again (I’m sorry for spoiling an “intense” part of the story that was rather…well, I don’t know, predictable.), and even then, I was still thinking, “Huh? They said what now?”
I often had to go back and re-read chunks of the chapters, because often it would drone on and on in a rather exasperating and monotone way. There was also a shitload of infodump of…God, stuff I can’t even remember right now. More often than not, I was checking to see how many pages I had left until the end of the chapter.
The characters were nothing special. I mean, they weren’t godawful or even bad, they just…weren’t anything amazing. I never once feared for their lives, I always knew that they were gonna make it out, I don’t know what exactly gave it up, it could be the fact that I realized there was a shitload of books to follow this one, but y’know, still. I never feared for anybody, not even the one guy who did die. (Nine times out of ten, they end up coming back Only Partly Dead or…well, some sort of zombiefied beast of necromancy. And no, that’s not a TV Trope I just used; I wouldn’t be surprised if there is such a TV Trope, though.) Along with that, I just didn’t relate to the characters. The one time I thought a character was actually showing development, it turns out, no, it’s not out of all the crazy shit that’s been happening to them and the worry of people betraying them, it was an evil dagger TAINTING HIS SOUL. ONOEZ. Blaaah. I rolled my eyes, to say the least. To say the most, I bashed my head into the wall.
To give the book some credit, though, the ending was pretty good. I was actually expecting more of a cliffhanger than a relatively-resolved ending, but it was still a pretty decent ending. It wasn’t entirely anti-climatic (although, to be honest, I would’ve preferred a more open ending, considering all the godforsaken sequels this book has spawned), but it wasn’t phenominal. The ending…um, mind…dream, battle thing was pretty fucking cool, though.
To sum up my thoughts, this wasn’t a fantastic book. It wasn’t a bad book, either. I probably would’ve liked it more, though, if there weren’t so many damned-long paragraphs and convoluted backstory and dialogue that I barely managed to keep up with after the seventh time reading them. The book lost my interest on several different occasions and all over the pages were Capitalized Words of Importance that I definitely could not keep up with no matter how many times I reread them. The ending was definitely good, though, despite the basic “And they all lived happily ever after. Well, sorta. The end.” final chapter.
But here comes the worst part of it. Now that I’ve read the first book, I’m stuck with this series for…thirteen more books. Goddangit.
My Final Rating
***
~Liv
Listening To: Instrumental music.
No comments:
Post a Comment