It Is Getting Darker, And More Twisted

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

While The Eye of the World has a lot of likeness to Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings', in this second installment of 'The Wheel of Time' Robert Jordan takes a left turn, and makes 'The Wheel of Time' more and more his own, veering away from the storylines familiar from 'The Lord of the Rings'. We get a deeper (and darker) view of the main characters. Side characters start to emerge, deepening the storylines, giving the reader something to consider. In this way a lot of layers are added to the story and it is often up to the reader to determine who is supporting the Light and who is supporting the Shadow. And no character is entirely Light or Shadow.

The series has all the elements a great Epic Fantasy needs: high stakes, high rewards. But also friendships, hard times and darkness, betrayal, conspiracy, joy, progression, bravery, honour and all the other emotions that life give. In the series Robert Jordan put a lot of philosophical ideas from different nations: Imperial China, Roman and Japanese among them. Although it does not always feel like it, the setting for the series is Renaissance France and not mediaeval, which is found more in Epic Fantasy. The differences are subtle but there, and come more to the foreground in the later novels. It is also one of the few Epic Fantasy series that has a closed end.

Robert Jordan described almost everything in detail, specifically persons, because he believed strongly that the clothes people wear say something about who and what that person is. Almost every character you encounter has a name, even when that character only appears once. This makes it sometimes hard to distinguish between the different side characters. The descriptions carry you through the book and the characters are lifelike in what they do and know.

To immerse the reader further Robert Jordan created a lot of self explanatory expressions his characters use, that are related to the time period he describes, and get better and easier understood the further the reader is along "The Wheel of Time".

The chapters in these books are long and of differing length. Some of the prologues are 100 pages long! Luckily that usually also entails a prologue that has multiple character points of view, and there are breaks between these views.

I will be rereading the novels in the order they were published, which is also the order in which Robert Jordan recommended you read the books. I will remark on that when I review A New Spring, on why I agree with that, although that will also be a spoiler, so beware.

The practice of using mental imagery for swordfights is being fortified in The Great Hunt. Robert Jordan doesn't use slash or lunge, but rather sentences like: parting the waves, or cat dances on hot sand. By describing it in this way, the details are for the reader to imagine, while the overall picture for everyone stays the same. A really clever way to describe sword fights.

The Magic System
In "The Wheel of Time" magic comes from The One Power which draws from the essence of the universe or the True Power, symbolised as a vast, ever-turning wheel, which in turn spins the life treads of every living being into a great tapestry. People who can wield the One Power are called Aes Sedai. The One Power is divided into two parts: Saidin, the male half, and Saidar, the female half. However, when Lews Therin Telemon, the first Dragon from the Age of Legends, imprisoned the Dark One in The Bore, the Dark One lashed out and the male half of the One Power, Saidin, was tainted. Every male Aes Sedai wielding Saidin, slowly became mad. Some tried to stop wielding the One Power altogether, but not wielding Saidin was like not living.
There are five threads coming from the One Power: Fire, Earth, Water, Air (sometimes called Wind) and Spirit. A wielder usually has better grasp of one of these threads, some with two, but three would already be very rare. Even in the Age of Legends having a grasp of all five of the threads was considered extremely rare.
Although the power to wield the One Power lies with women, gathered in Tar Valon, the women who can wield it are dwindling for decades. Not only the numbers are dwindling also the amount of power they can wield with the One Power is dwindling. And because the Aes Sedai meddle in the affairs of all the people - and are feared by a lot - they are mistrusted.

After the happenings at The Eye of the World the characters are resting in Fal Dara. But rest is not long come by. Darkfriends attack the city's keep, freeing Fain, taking the Horn of Valere and Mat's dagger, the dagger Mat in turn took from Shadar Logoth. The Aes Sedai partly healed him from the dagger's influence, but he cannot be seperated from it just yet. Without the dagger Mat only has a few months to live. They have to find the Horn and the dagger, and Mat, being the only one that can 'safely' handle the dagger, needs to come, although he is weak from the healing.



The Wheel of Time:
The Eye of the World - Book 1: https://www.hebban.nl/recensie/ericwijnen-over-the-eye-of-the-world

Supporting Blogs:
Robert Jordan and the Wheel of Time (WOT): https://www.hebban.nl/blogs/robert-jordan-and-the-wheel-of-time-wot
WOT: The One Power: https://www.hebban.nl/blogs/wot-the-one-power
WOT: The Dark One: https://www.hebban.nl/blogs/wot-the-dark-one
WOT: Aes Sedai: https://www.hebban.nl/blogs/wot-aes-sedai
WOT: Shadowspawn: https://www.hebban.nl/blogs/wot-shadowspawn
WOT: Shadar Logoth: https://www.hebban.nl/blogs/wot-shadar-logoth
WOT: The Children of the Light: https://www.hebban.nl/blogs/wot-children-of-the-light
WOT: Ogier: https://www.hebban.nl/blogs/wot-ogier

***** SPOILERS AHEAD !!! *****

***** START SUMMARY FOR THE EYE OF THE WORLD *****

The village Emond's Field, where Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene and Nynaeve live gets attacked by Trollocs just before Bell Tine. Rand's father, Tam, is mortally wounded and Rand asks Morraine Sedai to heal him. She does so, and convinces Rand, Mat and Perrin to leave the village behind, because one of them is the Dragon Reborn and this is the only way to save the village.

Followed by Trollocs, the Myrdraal and a Draghkar they leave for Tar Valon where they should be safe. Thom and Egwene have joined their party just before leaving. While travelling, Lan teaches Rand and Perrin how to handle their respective weapons. Morraine tells Egwene she is able to wield the One Power. When they reach Bearlon Rand and Perrin dream about a man with flames for eyes and mouth. There they also meet Min, who claims she can see aura's around people. At night they are discovered by a Myrdraal and leave. Nynaeve who has just arrived to take them home, joins the party.

The Myrdraal and his Trollocs push them into Shadar Logoth, where Rand and Mat discover Mordeth who asks for their help. As easy as they discovered Mordeth, just as easy they find no more trace of him. At night the party is seperated by Mashadar, the Black Wind.

Perrin and Egwene find each other at the other end of the river. They find Elyas - who claims he can talk to wolves - and that Perrin can do so too. They have been drifting before finding Elyas, but he agrees to take them south. They encounter a group of Tinkers or Tuatha'an and travell with them. They tell them a story about a maiden of the spear who has a message: Leafblighter means to blind The Eye of the World. They stay a while with the Tinkers, and Perrin dreams of Ba'alzamon.

Rand, Mat and Thom end up in the boat from Bayle Domon, where they pretend to be apprentices to Thom. He learns them to juggle and play the flute. Rand dreams of Ba'alzamon again and discovers Mat has taken a dagger from Shadar Logoth. In Whitebridge they learn about the false Dragon Logain, a man who can channel. When they leave for Caemlyn, they are intercepted and Thom takes on the Fade, while Rand and Mat flee.

Nynaeve, Morraine and Lan arrive in Whitebridge and see the chaos sown by the Fade, when looking for Rand, Mat and Thom. They leave for Caemlyn.

After seperating from the Tinkers to go to Caemlyn, Perrin starts to sense the wolves more and more. They are followed by ravens, eyes of the Dark One, and flee into a stedding. They are discovered by a group of Children of the Light, who capture them, but not without Perrin killing two of them.

Rand and Mat travel the road to Caemlyn and survive by juggling and playing the flute in inns they find along the way. In Four Kings they are besieged by Darkfriends and the innkeeper. When locked in a room a lightning bolt blasts into the wall creating a hole they can escape through. On the road again Rand becomes ill and when resting dreams of Ba'alzamon trouble him. Ba'alzamon tells him the Eye of the World will never serve him. Upon reaching The Queen's Blessing, the inn Thom told them about, Mat leaves for their room and Rand meets Loial, a travelling Ogier. He tells Rand he is a ta'veren: A person whose thread the Pattern weaeves the thread of others around.

Morraine, Lan and Nynaeve have followed Perrin and Egwene and free them from the clutches of the Children of the Light.

Rand climbs a wall to see Logain on display, but falls down into the castle garden and passes out. When he gets to he is tended by Elayne, the daughter-heir of Andor. They are led before Queen Morgase, where Elaida Sedai has a Foretelling about Rand being in the center of turmoil. Rand gets escorted to the door and when he reaches the inn, he gets reunited with Morraine, Lan and Nynaeve. She immidietely recognises that Mat is tainted by the dagger from Shadar Logoth and tells them Darkfriends will sense the evil in him. The evil from Shadar Logoth will kill him if he is not treated soon. Lan already noticed Trollocs and Fades surrounding Caemlyn. They must leave quickly. While Morraine helps Mat, Rand introduces Loial to the others. When Morraine joins the party again, Loial tells her a story about a man coming to the stedding and saying that The Dark One is trying to blind the Eye of the World. That triggers Rand, Mat and Perrin, who now tell that in their dreams Ba'alzamon also mentioned The Eye of the World. Eventhough the Ways are haunted en perilous, Loial is convinced to help them moving to the Blight - in just a few days, instead of months - by using the Ways.

Just before sunrise they leave through the Waygate in Caemlyn. The Ways are dark and oppressive. Everything seems eroded and in a state of decay. They can see no more then ten steps before them with the use of the light from a lantern. They have to sleep in the Ways for as far as you can sleep in that place. Lan also finds signs that someone is following them. Just before they leave the Ways they are noticed by Machin Shin - the black wind - and barely escape.

When the group is with Lord Agelmar, they are interrupted and told that Fain has been taken into custody. He seems clearly mad and a Darkfriend, and Morraine wants to interrogate him. Fain has been hunting for the boys since three years, when he was summoned to Shayol Ghul to receive his instructions from Ba'alzamon. Fain found them in the Two Rivers and led the Trollocs to Emond's Field. He was following them all the time. She gropes in the darkness as to why machin shin let him go. They are to leave for the Blight early next morning.

They cross the Blight and - fighting off shadowpawn - reach the home of The Green Man. When asked the Green Man takes them to The Eye of the World. The Eye of the World is a part of the Dark One's prison and is an untainted well of Saidin. When they enter the place two Forsaken; Aginor and Balthamel come to the fore. A battle ensues where the Green Man attacks Balthamel and both perrish. Morraine attacks Aginor and the rest flee. Aginor finds Rand. Rand sees a glowing rope connecting him with something distant. Off a sudden Rand also has a finger thick strand reach him and suddenly he seems to be in Tarwin's Gap, where the forces of Lord Agelmar are battling shadowspawn. When the Shadowspawn are destroyed by fire, Rand hears a voice and sees rising steps. At the end of the steps he finds Ba'alzamon in front of a fireplace. He also has a cord, but black. Rand cuts the cord and is thrown back through darkness. When Rand comes back to The Eye of the World, he finds the group along with Lews Therin's Dragon banner, the Horn of Valere and a broken disk made of cuendillar, that shouldn't be able to break, and was one of the seals for the prison of the Dark One.

***** END SUMMARY FOR THE EYE OF THE WORLD *****

The Great Hunt focusses on Rand, who has been told and sees signs of him being The Dragon Reborn, and Rand wants to get seperated from his friends, at all costs. He feels he is dangerous to be around, a man who can channel. Only he can't channel, not really. Every time he did so, he didn't really know what he did. He only knows if he does it more, he will go mad, and hurt his friends in the process. He is still affraid of the Aes Sedai, even the Amyrlin Seat knows, and tells him, he is The Dragon Reborn, but won't take any action against him. To top this off, the Aes Sedai are still manipulating Rand, burning all his former clothes, and replacing it with finer clothes, fit for a lord. Even his friends think he is acting like a lord. But when Fain is freed, the Horn of Valere stolen, and Mat's dagger with it. He needs to help his friend Mat, and so he joins the group that will hunt for the Horn and the dagger. Throughout the book Rand struggles with this, wanting to help his friends but thinking it is impossible without hurting them in some way, and at the same time still not wanting to believe he is The Dragon Reborn.

The story gets darker and darker and one way to tell that, is the character Fain. Fain is a Darkfriend, touched by the Dark One himself to act as his hound in locating the Dragon Reborn. Infiltrated by Mashadar of Shadar Logoth, and corrupted by Machin Shin of the Ways. And that corruption and twisting comes out when he is set free. He nails a Fade to a door and put spikes in his eyeholes. A Mydraal or Fade is a leader of a fist of Trollocs, supressing them into doing his bidding. He has an aura of fear around him. Now I say again: He nails a Fade to a door and put spikes in his eyeholes. How dark and twisted can you get?