The Eye of the World - Robert Jordan

This book is a very popular and entertaining book to read. It starts off in a town called Edmonds field with a boy named Rand. One day an Aes Sedai (a women who has magic powers) shows up out of nowhere. Later in the night Trollocs attack the village causing Rand and his friends (Mat, Perrin, Nyueve, and Egwene) to follow the Aes Sedai. During their journy they encounter The Forsaken, trollocs, ogres and much more. As they go on, Rand comes to learn he is the Dragon Reborn (A prophicied man able to perform spells that will rid the world of evil). When his friends come to learn of this they all start to pull away from him leaving him to struggle with his prophisied future.

Zak Simpson

The Wheel of Time series is by Robert Jordan (his real name is James Oliver Rigney Jr.) and currently consists of 11 books and a prequel. Do not be daunted by the length of this epic however, this series is extremely interesting to read and consists of numerous twists in the plot. Once you are past the first book, you will be caught up in the whirlwind of events experienced by the engaging characters. Similar to epics like the Lord of the Rings, this series draws influence from a wide variety of sources including ancient Asian culture and classic fantasy magic.

"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. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose.... The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning."

--- The beginning of every book in the Wheel of Time series.

At the moment of creation, the Creator sealed the Dark One into his prison. However, more than three thousand years ago, Aes Sedai, men and women who can channel the One Power (magic), unknowingly bore a hole into the prison. Though the Dark One was able to touch the world only slightly before the hole was sealed again, the backlash from the sealing settled the Dark One's taint on saidin, the male half of the Power. The Dragon and his Hundred Companions, a major force behind the defeat of the Dark One, all went mad and died. Since that time, every male who is able to channel has faced the inevitable fate of going mad. Women Aes Sedai seek to find every man who can channel and cut them off from the power before they can go mad. However, the power is now starting to breed out of the race as the men are cut off from the power (and die as they lose the desire to live) and much of the ancient knowledge used to defeat the dark one has been lost. However, the time has come when the Dark One is starting to break free from his prison again and the Prophecies states that the only hope for the world is the coming of the Dragon Reborn, a man destined to unite the world against the Dark One and yet break it. So begins a quest to find the Dragon Reborn. Some wish to control him, others wish to kill him, and still others fear that he will destroy them all with the One Power. But the Dragon Reborn must live and be sane when he faces the Dark One.

Robert Jordan takes us from the very beginning to the end (which has not yet been written), weaving characters complex and full of personality into a world filled with politics and strife. Read this series and you will find yourself in a world as real as the one we live in now with different cultures, different races, and a struggle for survival and control that rivals even the hope for the savior of the world.

Jing Guo

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