The Eye of the World: Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE: AN EMPTY ROAD

Before I get into this chapter, I think I should probably make my position clear on what sort of fantasy I'm used to reading. My favorite fantasy book is The Lies of Locke Lamora, because it's just fun. The premise of a gang of vulgar urban con artists pulling the wool over the eyes of complacent nobles Ocean's Eleven style is pulled off with aplomb, causing a riveting, endearing, action-packed story that made me want to read through the whole book in one go. Last year I tried to make a blog like this about that book, having picked it up on a lark for that project, but I decided that I didn't want to stop reading every chapter to write a blog post when I could just keep reading.

Doesn't seem reassuring that I don't seem to have that problem with Eye of the World, does it?

The point I'm trying to make is that Locke Lamora isn't what most people refer to as "high fantasy," the classic fantasy sub-genre about epic quests of save the world from an objectively evil cosmic power that's as old as time itself. Just imagine the basic plot line of Lord of the Rings (I wonder how many times I'm going to reference that series?), along with archaic dialogue, portentous, sweeping storylines (often with omens and prophecies) and the general lack of self-awareness or irony and you'll get the idea. And honestly, it kind of pisses me off when people assume that this is the only sort of story that the fantasy genre is capable of. Maybe these other people just have a view of the fantasy genre that's only narrow enough to contain this one story, but in my opinion, as long as there's magic involved, it counts as fantasy.

So far the Wheel of Time looks like it has its heels planted squarely in high fantasy territory, and I have to admit that I might not be the best person to read this sort of story. But I'm not the worst person either; I haven't come across anything annoying or offensive yet, and I'm willing to accept this series with an open mind. So without further ado, let's meet Rand al'Thor!

(Oh yes, and there is a map between the prologue and the first chapter that shows two mountain ranges meeting at a ninety-degree angle. I know Limyaael beat me to it, but that can't actually happen. Also, the left side of the map is dominated by an ocean, which for some reason seems to show up all the time in fantasy maps. I guess some writers aren't much for geography.)

• The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.

Yet again I see a weird similarity between this and the Lord of the Rings movies. Did the screenwriter get the idea for the "legends becoming myth" phrase from Robert Jordan? Or is this just a coincidence based on recurring themes within high fantasy? The idea of history literally repeating itself kind of intrigues me, though. I'll have to see where Jordan's going with it.

We first see Rand taking a cart to the town of Elmond's Field with his father Tam. On the way there, he looks behind him and sees a black rider on a black horse staring daggers at him. When Rand points it out, Tam doesn't see the rider, and they continue on their way.

The atmosphere in this chapter is low-key, with just a hint of trouble on the horizon. Elmond's Field is preparing for the festival of Bel Tine (not to be confused with Bilbo Baggins' birthday), and several other characters are established in rapid succession.

First there's Nynaeve al'Meara, the town's Wisdom (which I assume to be a seer of some sort). She's regarded as too young for the position by a few of the town's men, but since "the Wisdom is women's business," they're restricted to grumbling about it in private. The idea of gender-specific magic was hinted at in the prologue, and I see a few ways where this concept can end up turning out offensive or at least annoying. We'll see.

• The Wagon Bridge marked where the North Road, coming down from Taren Ferry and Watch Hill, became the Old Road, leading to Deven Ride. Outsiders sometimes found it funny that the road had one name to the north and another to the south, but that was the way it had always been, as far as anyone in Elmond's Field knew, and that was that.

Huh. There's a couple roads like that around where I live. Oh right, the characters.

We also meet jolly innkeeper Bran al'Vere and pessimistic old curmudgeon Cenn Buie (a name I'm not sure how to pronounce), and also hear about the mayor's daughter Egwene, who has a crush on Rand that he doesn't reciprocate. I don't know why Rand wants to avoid her so much, but it kind of gives me a bad feeling for when we'll finally meet her. Most importantly, there's Rand's friend Mat Cauthon, a childish prankster who plans to let loose a badger on the village girls. Then Rand finds out that he saw the black rider, too.

• "All he did was sit on his horse looking at me, just outside the village, but I've never been so frightened in my life. Well, I looked away, just for a moment - it wasn't easy, mind you - then when I looked back he'd vanished. Blood and ashes! Three days, it's been, and I can hardly stop thinking about him. I keep looking over my shoulder."

They speculate about which mythical dark figure it could be and muse on how to prove that the rider was real before agreeing to drop the subject. We close out the chapter with this little tidbit:

• "You young fellows think for a minute. Everyone's excited bout the fireworks, true, and that's only at a rumor. Think how they'll be if the peddler doesn't get here in time, after all their anticipating. And with the weather the way it is, who knows when he will come. They'd be fifty times as excited about a gleeman."
• "And feel fifty times as bad if he hadn't come," Rand said slowly. "Even Bel Tine might not do much for people's spirits after that."

I just know that this is some sort of foreshadowing. I'm going to assume that this situation will come into play later, except replace "fireworks" with "Dragon Reborn" (which I assume is the messiah figure of this fantasy world).

Most of the other chapter is just villagers talking shop, and this may seem like a nitpick, but I think I prefer urban settings, which high fantasy doesn't. The whole festival thing going on reminds me of the opening of Neverwinter Nights 2, where the festival games were a pretext for a tutorial on the mechanics of the game. And just like that game, I fully expect the bad guys to come along and burn the village to the ground. It's just something that happens in this sort of story.

As for Rand himself, well, nothing about him really stands out. He just seems like your typical reluctant hero, with not much to distinguish him from the crowd. Mat seems like a more interesting character (I would love to see an angry badger chasing girls around too), but there's potential for him to be an annoying comic relief later in the story, just as there's potential for Rand to grow more interesting.

NEXT TIME: More character introductions!