I will be brief about this book: I hated it. (See Robert Jordan- that’s how to be succinct!) The only positive thing I can say about it was the prologue was decent- but it was downhill from there. It would be generous to say that reading this book felt like watching paint dry, because at least then I might have felt like I’d achieved something. Instead, I felt like I’d wasted my time reading a rehashed, dull version of every single fantasy book I’ve ever read. I swear there wasn’t anything new or different or even interesting about it.
Obviously just by virtue of it being fantasy, it’s marketed as the next Tolkien. But it has about as much in common with Tolkien as a cheap knock off “designer” bag in Camden has with a genuine Prada- because there is absolutely nothing special about the plot, the characters, or even the way-too-thought-out setting. It’s a walking cliché. If you don’t believe me, try doing “The Fantasy Novelist Exam” with Robert Jordan in mind http://www.rinkworks.com/fnovel/ (I may have made this blog just to share this quiz, because it’s awesome). There is no way Robert Jordan could have passed this test- I mean he loses a point at 33 just for being Robert Jordan. Which is fair.
And, as I’ve already mentioned, it was boring to boot. I read an excellent blog yesterday by Matthew Wright about info dumps and it instantly reminded me of Jordan, because there are info dumps galore here. I couldn’t move three pages without more exposition. It felt like Robert Jordan had written an entire saga of backstory and he was just desperate to show it off- whether it enhanced the plot or not (which it did not). It’s a never ending stream of tangents that drags on for 800 pages! 800 pages!!! One day they may use his book as an example of how not to write. Then again, I can’t imagine professors being cruel enough to set this book to their students.
Evidently, I won’t be continuing on with this series- even if Brandon Sanderson did write the end (I love Sanderson, but I won’t suffer through god-knows-how-many Jordan books- even for him).
Rating: 1/5 bananas (cos I need some ammunition to throw at Robert Jordan’s head if he ever comes back from the dead!)
the orang-utan librarian 
Reblogged this on BibbityBobbityBlogger.
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Haha! I was so excited to see rant there. Read the first sentence and got even more excited. Gosh, yes! He is long-winded. Ok, I’ll continue reading.
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Haha thanks! Had a lot of fun with this one 🙂
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Just read it and I agree with almost everything you said though I enjoyed this first book. I think the only think I didn’t agree with is that it’s boring. Actually, I found the first part boring and then enjoyed it as it progressed. And I like how he mixed in some myths and pieces of Christian religion in it but I agree with you, totally unoriginal.
Yea, if you hated this one, don’t even bother with the other books. I keep wishes that he’d noticed that he tends to overwrite and when he did so, he wrote about things that aren’t very important to the story. But since I’ve read book 5, I’ve decided to continue with book 6, though I’ve started to lose interest and am debating whether to bother reading it.
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Fair enough, I know a lot of people said it got better as it went on, but I just found myself groaning at how predictable it was. I felt like he was dropping hints for what was gonna happen 5 books down the line and I just didn’t care. (Incidentally when I finished I knew I wasn’t gonna read on and googled some of things I thought were gonna happen and they were all right).
I was also bored with all the tangents. I remember a very vividly a specific incident at the start of the book when Egwene goes on a diversion for ages about the history of the people at Elrond’s field- and just thinking “get to the point!”
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Lol, yea. I’m not a fan of the tangents either and because there are so many of them, I think the prequel book, New Spring, was unnecessary.
I actually gave Eye of the World five stars, I think, on Goodreads and gave each following book one star less. I see no reason why the series needs to be 13 books long.
Anyways, I enjoy reading your rants. 🙂
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13 books! And a prequel! Unbelievable! I knew it was long- but now I know why he included all that padding.
Thank you so much! 🙂
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Lol yea. That crazy old Jordan.
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Reblogged this on messymess.
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