The Eye of the World

Book One of The Wheel of Time

De: Robert Jordan

Narrado por: Kate Reading, Michael Kramer

"These veteran narrators keep the plot moving and the narration fresh" (AudioFile Magazine)

This program is read by Audie Award-winning narrators Michael Kramer and Kate Reading, and includes a bonus interview with the author.

Now an original series starring Rosamund Pike as Moiraine!

The first novel in Robert Jordan's #1 New York Times bestselling epic fantasy series, The Wheel of Time®.

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 returns again. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

Moiraine Damodred arrives in Emond’s Field on a quest to find the one prophesized to stand against The Dark One, a malicious entity sowing the seeds of chaos and destruction. When a vicious band of half-men, half beasts invade the village seeking their master’s enemy, Moiraine persuades Rand al’Thor and his friends to leave their home and enter a larger unimaginable world filled with dangers waiting in the shadows and in the light.

Since its debut in 1990, The Wheel of Time® has captivated millions of readers around the globe with its scope, originality, and compelling characters.

The Wheel of Time®
New Spring: The Novel
#1 The Eye of the World
#2 The Great Hunt
#3 The Dragon Reborn
#4 The Shadow Rising
#5 The Fires of Heaven
#6 Lord of Chaos
#7 A Crown of Swords
#8 The Path of Daggers
#9 Winter's Heart
#10 Crossroads of Twilight
#11 Knife of Dreams

By Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
#12 The Gathering Storm
#13 Towers of Midnight
#14 A Memory of Light

By Robert Jordan and Teresa Patterson
The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time

By Robert Jordan, Harriet McDougal, Alan Romanczuk, and Maria Simons
The Wheel of Time Companion

By Robert Jordan and Amy Romanczuk
Patterns of the Wheel: Coloring Art Based on Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time

©1990 Robert Jordan; (P)1996 Books on Tape, Inc.; Published by Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Jordan has come to dominate the world that Tolkien began to reveal." (The New York Times)

Your first step down a very long and winding road.

The Eye of the World kicks off Robert Jordan's epic fantasy series and it is a step that should not be taken lightly. This first book is excellent and will likely have you listening to the next book in the journey before you know it. This is a long series (13+ books) and each book so far is between 23-41 hours of listening in unabridged format.

Some things you should know before you start:

1) Robert Jordan did not live long enough to finish the story, but he did pass along his vision for the conclusion to Brandon Sanderson who is writing the final books. Brandon Sanderson is an awesome Fantasy writer so the conclusion of the series is in good hands.

2) Robert Jordan can tend to be wordy at times and some of the books along the way feel a little bloated, but each one does advance the story.

3) The narration is done by 2 excellent narrators: Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. Each chapter will be read by one or the other depending on the chapter's main character. If the main character is female then Kate will read the entire chapter including the male voices. Michael will handle the chapters where the main character is male and he will do the female voices. This means that you must get accustomed to 2 voices for each character. This put me off at first but I quickly became accustomed to it and now I really enjoy the format.

4) After a few books the narrators change the way they pronounce certain character names and this can throw you off until you realize that it is just a pronunciation change and not a different character. Just be prepared for it.

I am glad I started this long journey and I feel that audio is one of the best ways to experience Jordan's work. I had read The Eye of the World years ago but it didn't inspire me to keep going forward in the series, where the audiobook left me wanting more!

Give it a chance

My kids and I love fantasy books and were excited about starting a long series that we had heard a lot about. I'm not really sure where everyone gets that Michael Kramer is a great narrator unless they have stuck it out and listened to more books in this series. Frankly, he starts out AWFUL. We almost stopped listening just because of him. His cadence is so predictable and completely got on my nerves for the first 2/3 of the book. The first part that Kate Reading read seriously saved this book for us and we kept listening.

... and then about 2/3 of the way through it get SO much better. We are now almost finished with the 2nd book in the series and it is wonderful. Yes, this book has a slow start. But as you continue with the story you understand why - it NEEDS a slow start. I'm rating it pretty high even though I never thought I would get through it. Give it a chance and you will have a great start on an epic series.

Wonderfully detailed fantasy adventure story

This book is a great fantasy adventure, but be prepared to have a desire to listen to them all. I started out by reading my son's copy of volume two and was so intrigued I decided to listen to volume one while I read volume three (confusing, but worth it to catch up).

I have to say that I really enjoyed the narrator's voice characterizations. The range and diversity of voices for the various characters helped pull me into the story. I found it difficult to put away my Otis audio player after transits to/from work.

The story itself is very richly detailed. It is not difficult to imagine yourself being there and seeing the grandeur of the country, the hustle and bustle of towns and cities, the customs of differing contries or even towns, hearing histories of people and places, the shock and sometimes fear of seeing different races for the first time, and the tension of living during hard times.

The only detraction I fealt was the occaisional parallel references I would draw to other SciFi works such as Dune, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars. These didn't occur often, but when they did, it was like ripping you out of one world and into another (particularly the Dune / Star Wars parallels). Usually, it was just when encountering, for the first time, names of people or places that sounded familiar.

All in all, it's a good book almost on par with Tolkein.

Well written, with a couple slight gripes.

Overall the book was very good, with ever present dangers of imaginative varieties and a slight uncertainty over who exactly they were after. The characters were well written as well as the environments and I found myself actually feeling the occasional emotion. Now, occasional emotion might not be considered that great, but I feel I'm not a very empathetic / sympathetic person so something pulling any form of emotional response, to me at least, is noticeable. The emotions ran from excitement, to annoyance (with characters meant to draw such a response) to curiosity.

Now, I consider myself an honest person (sometimes brutally so) and therefore I have the following things to say about the book.

Pros:
Well Written
Great Characters
Imaginative Creatures and Fantasy

Cons:
Sort of Weak Ending
Female Narrator

Now, you will notice that I mentioned the female narrator for this audiobook. There are a few things with this. At first when purchasing the audiobook I had thought the female narrator would be doing the female voices and the male narrator the male voices. This is not the case. The female narrator only chimes in a spare few chapters. My mistake, I misunderstood and I will admit as such.

However, out of personal tastes, I did not enjoy the female narrator at all. She didn't seem to grasp the male voice all that well. Also, when her few chapters did come up, it felt too abrupt. It was almost jarring and took me out of the book noticeably. Now, they did her chapters at certain moments, so I can understand their thinking behind it. I just feel that it took away from the book in a small way. (I will continue listening to more of the series. It is that good for me.)

Also noted above is I felt the ending was a bit anti-climactic, this however is balanced out with the set up of future books. I will relay what other friends who have read the books in the past have told me and which I hope is the truth. The endings and battles just get better and better, so keep with it. I did not need further push to keep going with the books however, as I already enjoyed it, but what the assured me is very good to hear.

TL;DR:
Very good audiobook with (in my opinion) an unnecessary second narrator (the female) and an "ok" ending. Everything before and leading up to the "ok" ending is more than worth checking this book out and keeping up with it if you do enjoy it.

entertaining enough to stick with

not fantastic, but entertaining.............i listen while i exercise usully, sooooo it's gotta be entertaining. it was a little hard to follow and remember all the details at times, but all in all worth the credit.