The Eye of the World
Book One of the Wheel of Time
by Robert Jordan · first published 1990
42% recommend58% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Engaging, well-written epic fantasy that opens a long series. Its storytelling holds attention, and it suits fans of big fantasy worlds who want a series to settle into.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.
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I can narrow it down to a top 4, if that's permissible. * The Man Who Was Thursday, by GK Chesterton * The Oresteia, by Aeschylus * Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand * The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan
on “Ask HN: What is the best book you read in 2020?” ↗The Martian Ready Player One Project Hail Mary Name of the Wind Dresden Files Eye of the World (Wheel of Time) We Are Legion (We Are Bob) The Blade Itself (First Law Trilogy) Dungeon Crawler Carl The History of Ancient Egypt (Bob Brier lecture) Food: A Cultural Culinary History (Ken Albala…
on “Ask HN: Favorite audio book for long drives?” ↗If you like fantasy, "The Eye of the World" by Robert Jordan. A new narration by Rosamund Pike was recently released corresponding to Amazon's release of their live-action series of this series. Overall, it's a well written, engaging story…
on “Ask HN: Favorite audio book for long drives?” ↗https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9723074-you-want-stories-th... --- “You want stories?" Thom Merrilin declaimed. "I have stories, and I will give them to you. I will make them come alive before your eyes.” Robert Jordan, The Eye of the World.
on “Ask HN: What is your favorite quote from a book?” ↗I really enjoyed The Eye of the World. I can't wait to start book 2. I have heard the series slows down considerably later on.But so far I love it.
on “Ask HN: Great nontech book that you read recently?” ↗I just bought that book and will be starting it tomorrow. I am finishing up The Eye of the World - Robert Jordan today. My wife loved it (she reads a lot faster than me).
on “Ask HN: Great nontech book that you read recently?” ↗…Chase trilogy) - Patrick Lee Deep Sky (Book three of the Travis Chase trilogy) - Patrick Lee Runner - Patrick Lee Signal - Patrick Lee Dark Matter - Blake Crouch The Atlantis Gene - A.G. Riddle The Eye of the World (Book one of The Wheel of Time) - Robert Jordan The Great Hunt (Book two of The Wheel of Time) - Robert Jordan The Dragon Reborn (Book three of The Wheel of Time) - Robert Jordan The Shadow Rising…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗I was thinking that as I read it.. I wonder if Jordan was influenced at all by this speech? (Eye of the world came out in 1990) Jordan was definitely trying to play with gender politics through his work. From the only female magic users (at the start of the story at least), to the Queens of Andor and entire…
on “Terry Prachett: Why Gandalf Never Married (1985)” ↗I read through the first three books of the Wheel of Time, but couldn't make it further. I may try again at some point. Did you also love Eye of the World?
on “Ask HN: Great nontech book that you read recently?” ↗I'm fairly sure it was well mapped out for him. I'll go and re-read the lot a couple of months before I do. TIL today, there is a comic book for The Eye of the World.
on “Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011” ↗…school WoT books were kind of a status symbol simply because they were absolutely enormous tomes of work, weighing in at 550, 600, 700 pages. Every other book that kids were reading were 250 to 300 pages. Eye of the World really catches your eye when you see someone casually thumbing through that 700 page monster.
on “Netflix Has Created a Self-Fulfilling Cancelation Loop with Its New Shows” ↗…consider Wheel of Time the best fantasy series I've ever read. As for books vs show, in my opinion it's way too early to tell. Both me and him agree that the first season was significantly better than Eye Of The World, but because the later books are much better than EOTW I think the show will need to increase in quality significantly to be better than those later books - I'm excited for season 2, but in season 3 they're…
on “Llama 2 – Meta AI” ↗…still treated as fundamentally different. Adding a couple other people to the candidate pool for TDR didn't change much except leave new viewers guessing who TDR was for the first season whereas in The Eye of the World it was very obvious from the start
on “Amazon has canceled its Wheel of Time series,despite 97% Rotten Tomatoes rating” ↗