Tolkien Parallels

First things first, I have finally completed The Eye of the World, part of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. When I started it, the introduction was decent, pretty interesting. Then we move to the place between the two rivers—or basically, the Shire, where we find the hobbits, this world’s equivalent of them. That part was a little slow. I didn’t always find it particularly interesting being introduced to a new book and its world, because oftentimes the author talks about people and places that you have no context for, and you’re just trying to piece it together with nothing to reference. That was a bit challenging, but in a good way. It kind of just drops you into this world, so I had to get used to that.

Eventually, the story picks up when the town gets attacked by some creatures called Trollocs—or this world’s version of orcs. There’s some action there, which was interesting. That event leads to a quest. Long story short, we have this group of people banding together to go on a quest. We have our three people from between the two rivers—basically, our three hobbits from the Shire. Then we have Moraine, our wizard—essentially Gandalf. There’s also this mysterious strong man, a good fighter, who, as you learn more about him later, turns out to be this world’s Aragorn from Lord of the Rings. There are a lot of parallels, and I know other reviewers have mentioned this. I don’t know if the author directly stated it, but it’s not surprising to see Jordan was heavily influenced by Lord of the Rings, which is basically a staple in the genre. Overall, the book was well done.

Now, let’s talk about some interesting aspects of the book. The Dark Lord—or what’s his name? Not Saruman, but… Ba’alzamon? Something like that. Anyway, he can show up in people’s dreams, and that keeps happening. I don’t have much more to say about that right now, but it’s interesting.

The concept of the Wheel of Time is also interesting. The basic idea is that time repeats itself over and over, just in different fashions. That’s the overarching concept of this series. The Dark One wants to destroy the world by stopping the turning of the Wheel. Why does he want to do that? No idea. He just does it because he’s evil, I guess. That might be a weakness in the book, but this series is 11 books long, so who knows? We’ll see how much deeper his motivations go.

The Wheel Weaves as the Wheel Wills

I also saw someone mention that the Wheel of Time concept is based on Hindu philosophy, which I think gives the book more credence. Knowing that it’s based on a well-developed, established philosophy adds a certain depth to the story. Fate is a strong theme—this overarching power directs the happenings in this world. The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, right? But is the Wheel a sentient entity or more like a physical law of nature? I think it’s more of a physical law. When you pull one string, something else gets pulled in another direction. Everything is organized the way it’s supposed to be, and when something messes with that, things go out of whack. But it doesn’t seem like there’s a conscious being actively directing everything. Just something to think about.

As for the characters, we have Rand al’Thor, Matt, and Perrin. Perrin turns out to be a wolfbrother, and Matt is, well, now contaminated. Then there’s Moraine, the older person in the group—the Gandalf figure. One thing about Moraine, though: her magical powers seem a little too convenient. It feels like she has whatever magical power is needed at the moment. Hopefully, in later books, they establish some sort of magic system or limits on her abilities.

Original draft written in May 2020.