The Eye of the World
Uploaded by carey_sherry on Mar 25, 2000
Setting:
The setting of this story is a fantasy world, with your basic medieval background. It has magic, swordplay, large-scale armies on grassy plains, and a touch of technology. There is the ‘big evil power’ off to the north somewhere that will apparently figure into the series five books down the road, and various evil creatures that battle the good guys. The ‘big good power’ can’t interfere, so it lets the meager humans handle things. Men and women are each clearly defined, with each sex even having different kinds of magic. The guys go insane from theirs, and the women use their power to hunt down those men.
Character:
There are countless characters in this story, ranging from one-shot guards who die in obscurity, to the Really Big Monsters. All of them are chock full of personality and character, no matter their roles and life span. The main characters, those that live long enough to be considered such, are as follows. There is Rand, a youth from a village who discovers he has strange powers that will one day drive him insane. Egwene, from the same village, also has this power, but apparently the women don’t go insane, and she will have to kill Rand. Naturally, there is a relationship between the two, one that will be put to the test. There are also Moiraine, a sort of elder witch, Lan, the big brawny swordsman, and a whole slew of others that split up and go their separate ways in other books in the series.
Plot:
The plot follows several different people at once, jumping back and forth when you least expect it. The basic plot is this; an evil entity, namely the antithesis of all that is good and pure, is trying to destroy the world and remake it in his own image. The Creator, a sort of god, has bound him away for all eternity, but a hole is bored into his prison. The Creator uses several young people as his unwitting avatars in the struggle between good and evil. They run away from hideous monsters that chase them through this world, such as a trolloc, a sort of man-beast, and various others. They make their beleaguered way north, until a path is found to a source of ultimate power. In the end, this power is used for good, and the Evil darkness is bound away. Until the next book in...