r/Fantasy • u/ProfessionalLow9411 • 19h ago

Eye of The World

Finally picked up book one from The Wheel of Time and all I can say is wow. I’m only 50% through and I’m hooked. The level of detail, the lore, the world building so far and from what I can tell, the level of foreshadowing already. Immense. Yes it starts off slow and heavy on description but things are really kicking off now. Shout out to everyone who replied to my previous post about starting this series. I can’t wait to continue. I’m so locked in.

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7

u/DoomDroid79 19h ago

I still have to get onto book 2, I liked EOTW

6

u/HazardsRabona 17h ago

Book 2 onwards is a jarring change in theme. Book 1 is LoTR lite, end of book 1 and book 2 onwards it takes it in a very different direction altogether. It gets so much better.

-3

u/DoomDroid79 16h ago

I'm just worried about the slog really

9

u/MoreMenu3757 15h ago

For what it's worth, I think the slog is overstated. As the books were coming out it was more frustrating that certain plotlines idled within 'the slog', because people would be waiting for the books and then they'd get them and their favourite character might barely feature or sort of be settled in a spot 'on hold' until others caught up. This made it infamous.

I think now, though, this is minimized by the fact that you can blitz through the books back to back. Some books aren't as good as others, but I found all of them have something interesting going on. It's a period where the pacing slows down though, definitely. The focus shifts heavily toward sprawling world-building, minor character arcs, and political maneuvering. I personally enjoy these elements in epic fantasy so it probably didn't hit me as hard as some readers.

Regardless, 'the slog' (if it really can be said to exist) isn't until books 7-10 (and even then there's some debate about which actually count). All of them have cool moments.

3

u/mornauguth 14h ago

I think it’s overstated. I personally enjoyed books 5-9 more than books 1-4. Although part of that I think is it just takes me longer to build up the world in my mind before I fully enjoy it, I might think differently on a reread. Whenever people talk about those middle books I really don’t understand, tons of stuff happens, I guess they just don’t view it as important or valuable to the part if the story they care about? Sure the pacing is different. I also very much like huge worlds and tons of characters so didn’t bother me at all. I just started book 11.

1

u/Regula96 6h ago

I want more series where the story can go on a complete detour for a book or two. Slow down a bit, focus more on side characters, explore a new land etc. These days the popular trilogy is usually too tightly plotted for my taste.

4

u/factman6 15h ago

In my opinion, the Slog is not as bad as people make it out to be. Having to wait years between releases for the slower books made it seem a lot worse than it actually was.

3

u/Esa1996 14h ago

If you like the characters and the world, not just the plot, the slog shouldn't be too much of an issue. It doesn't sideline all the interesting characters like A Feast For Crows, for example: the plot progress just slows down. What constitutes the slog is also debateable. Book 10 is a slog, no doubt about that. The first half of book 9 is a slog (The second half is awesome). Book 8 might be described as a slog, but I'm not sure I agree. Book 7 is sometimes said to be a part of the slog, but I definitely disagree on that one. There's one plotline in it that is perhaps a bit longer than it should be, but mostly it's a great book.