Looks like I may be buckling up for another epic adventure as I read the first volume in a fourteen volume series (and these books aren’t short). The Eye of the World is the first book in the epic Wheel of Time series.

I was a little dubious as the first half of the novel has some familiar beats that seemed to have been lifted right from The Lord of the Rings. Jordan uses a lot of the same framing devices, but makes the adventure his own, especially once the story gets rolling.

We follow Rand and his friends, Mat, Perrin, Egwene and Nynaeve as they get caught up in an adventure bigger than the little village of Two Rivers that they have spent their entire lives in. Each of them has gifts and are finding themselves sought by The Dark One (even in their dreams), but Moiraine Sedai, and Lan aree determined to guide them to Tar Valon for education and training to fight what may be coming.

The Dark One is free from his hold, and there are Trollocs and Fades walking the land. In a realm filled with a few different types of magic, thee traveling group isn’t going to have an easy journey.

There are chases, allies, and more than a few familiar moments but the further I got into the story, the more I found myself enjoying the story, and getting into the world-building and mythology. There is a cyclical nature to the world going on, something we see in the way the Dark One and Moiraine talk about what is going on. Not to mention how the story opens.

The story ends in a way that if you didn’t enjoy the ride, you can check out of the series here, but there is a lot of set-up done as well. Lots of groundwork is being laid for what is to come, no doubt.

I quite found myself enjoying the world that Jordan created here, especially once the beats of the LOTR were over with. It’s got some nice action sequences, and as the story separates the characters, we get a glimpse of the world and the people who inhabit it. But by tale’s end, they’ll be reunited, at least temporarily.

The world and the mythology around it is big and expansive, and now, having been introduced to the characters, I may very well have to see how the journey plays out as the Wheel of Time turns.

It took me a while to get into the story. I kept seeing the parallels with LOTR, but once that passed I really enjoyed it. So we’ll see what happens when I pick up The Great Hunt.