The Eye of the World - Summary

First, a quick thanks to all who are reading this blog! The daily pace is grueling, but I swear I am still good for 6-7 posts a week.

I am writing it for several reasons:

- I want to reread the entire Wheel of Time before A Memory of Light comes out.

- I am an aspiring writer, and want to dissect the writing of one of my favorite authors to learn whatever I can.

- I want to ingrain habits that make me sit at the keyboard and write every day.

- I want to create, review, and reject many of the theories I’ve discussed with other fans over the last decade.

I hope it also serves your needs, whatever they may be. Feel free to comment, disagree, say ‘me too’, take the discussion to other forums, whatever.

A very brief summary of The Eye of the World:

The Eye of the World is a highly entertaining adventure story. The bits with channeling the One Power and the clues dropped that come into play several books later can all be happily ignored in favour of the immediate adventure. The thematic story consists largely of learning how you stand up to an evil that seems greater than you are. The answer is by finding your roots, sticking to your ideals, and overcoming doubt through sheer determination, perseverance and force of will. I can’t think of a much more human or more universal message than that.

I first read the Eye of the World in 1991, in college. The theme resonated with me, and I’ve often overcome obstacles in life by drawing inspiration from favorite characters such as Rand or Egwene.

In the Eye of the World, perhaps the most pivotal element of the novel is found in the story of the fall of Manetheren. Moiraine tells this story to disperse an angry mob. The story reveals the character of the Two Rivers Folk, but also serves as their inspiration through the trails they face. When things get hard, they march on like the armies striving to get back to Manetheren. The compassion they feel for each other stems from the blood price paid long ago by Manetheren. The reassurance that their steadfastness will be rewarded with freedom from the Shadow comes from learning how that was the origin of their own people and village. Lan is a child of Manetheren too, his own home of Malkier having succumbed in much the same way. Shienar seems poised for an equally devastating fall, and the flight of its people mirrors the Fall of Manetheren. To overcome doubt, to control the Power he wields, to confront evil, Rand finds resolve in the unyielding pitiless stone of Manetheren. Like the men and women of Manetheren, they do what they must then pay the price. So should we.

Tai’shar Manetheren!

I’ve abbreviated my summary descriptions for each 50 page block, and listed them below as a means of looking at the structure of the novel. These descriptions were done blindly, on the fly, so they could have been described otherwise, but I’ll work with what I’ve got. You can get a sense of the pacing of the book, the slow spots and tense spots, and exciting spots, and boring spots, even from such a short and undetailed overview. I look forward to seeing how closely it matches the structure of the series as a whole.

-The setting is established, the characters are well introduced, the idea of the set of mysterious strangers with unknown motives is placed, now the adventure can begin.

-The threat to the characters is revealed.

-The heroes act on the information they have.

-The heroes get their first chance to interact with the outside world.

-The heroes learn about the evil in the idea of the end justifying the means.

-For the first time, we get new points of view.

-The heroes begin to make their separate ways, gaining and losing allies

-The Heroes evade capture or death by keeping a low profile.

-The heroes evade enemies galore as they flee.

-The heroes score some victories, and things are finally looking up!

-The quest is tossed aside in favour of a new quest.

-Revelations, and a slight pause before the final battle!

-Enemies more powerful and numerous than any seen before are faced and defeated.

Writing Lessons:

Examine the structure of your novel, either in the planning, or after the 1^st draft. When you have writer’s block, draw on Tai’shar Manetheren!

The Eye of the World - Chapters 9-12

In this section, the heroes act on the information they have, and flee the Two Rivers. The party is rounded out by an adventurous Egwene and a potentially insidious and troublemaking Thom. They both have good reason for wanting to join, and Moiraine has good reasons for allowing them to. Her argument is one of necessity. She wants to leave as soon as possible, and with as little notice as possible. She’s eager to have dibs on Egwene, and figures she can deal with Thom later if he proves troublesome. Thom knows it too, but he’s in a mood to undermine an Aes Sedai despite the possible consequences. He’s the first of many who will purposefully do what they must, then pay the price.

We don’t need to know Moiraine and Lan’s and Thom’s backstory to understand what they are doing, and that they are highly motivated to do it. The motivations can be made clear in time. If you read New Spring, then you might have a slightly more trusting attitude towards Moiraine and Aes Sedai. We don’t know how Tam knows what he knows, but he tells Rand to watch the ‘tricksome’ Aes Sedai. It’s an effective way to build tension, when you have two or more mentor-type characters who are offering opposing advice, and the hero must make a decision lacking crucial information. Because of the openness and honesty of the relationships each of them fosters, Rand’s trust will quickly fall in the order: Tam, Thom, Moiraine.

Moiraine will get a strong last place finish due to her interest in getting Egwene to the White Tower for Aes Sedai training. Egwene would be a prize to attract Moiraine even if the Trollocs had not attacked. Making sure Rand knows she’s going to Tar Valon creates an extra motivation for Rand to complete the journey, but Moiraine does not realize it will come at the cost of her trustworthiness and credibility.

It’s practically inevitable that Rand would mistrust Aes Sedai. Even if he hadn’t been mistrustful of the legends in the first place, even if he wasn’t resentful of Moiraine dragging Egwene along, the very first thing the bad guys do after they’ve been routed by the Aes Sedai is to attack the boys in their dreams. It’s not a face-to-face attack, just an immediate attempt to discredit the Aes Sedai by showing Tar Valon as a place of danger. An attempt to separate the boys from their protector. Given the role that the World of Dreams plays in the series, I can’t accept that this is just some random nightmare, or that Rand would accidentally dream himself to Shayol Ghul.

The standout writing is in Moiraine’s telling of the Fall of Manetheren. Not just an info-dump, not just a means to escape an angry mob, Moiraine’s tale reveals the character of the Two Rivers folk, and situates them in a much larger world, historically and philosophically. Manetheren’s opposition to the Dark One is renewed by Moiraine’s tale, proving that you can’t kill an idea. Drawing on the tale of the Fall of Manetheren, the boys will find their own resolve to endure later perils.

Writing lessons:

Stories told by your characters are not only an effective way to reveal backstory, but to form other characters as they respond to the stories they hear. Make your stories reveal more than just past events.  

The Eye of the World Prologue - Ravens

The Young adult version of The Eye of the World had a bonus chapter and several new illustrations that are sure to make it some kind of collector’s item. I’d love to get it. My library’s copy is dog-eared and missing half the back cover. It was released in 2002, which in my mind corresponds to the beginning/middle of the young adult craze. The book was split in two, presumably to make it less intimidating to younger readers. Part One was named From the Two Rivers, and Part Two was named To the Blight. Color versions of most of the new illustrations ended up in the Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game book, using the D20 system. There’s also an ad for a Wheel of Time soundtrack at the back, music by Robert Berry. Like I say, collector’s items, bound to have limited print runs, and all with material not found elsewhere.

On top of Prologue: Dragonmount, we have an extra prologue placed before it titled Earlier: Ravens.

Ravens had to have the feel of the beginning of the book, not give away anything ahead of time, while giving the backstory in immediate and simple terms to new readers. This is done by having 9 year old Egwene criss-cross the sheep shearing fields looking for Rand, and ends with Tam telling the young men the story of the Dragon in epic fashion. Tam’s story is much better than flipping to the Glossary. Many ravens watch the whole time, then fly off, obviously to report to the Dark One.

There are 39 named characters in Ravens, over a 25 page length. This is more than the entire cast of Emond’s fielders in the rest of The Eye of the World. What are the costs and benefits of so many characters on page? For one, the village of Emond’s Field is a vibrant community. We see wives, husbands, old men, young girls, babies, sisters, cousins, thatcher, farmer, shepherds, mayor, smith, bakers, rascals, lazybones, wisdoms, apprentices and the all-important sheep watchers, sheep shearers, sheep washers and sheep counters. We know how and when the people of the area work and play together, and even some of the internal politics. A benefit might be that when the heroes leave town, you understand what they are giving up.  

With all these characters running around, you can hide one or two special characters in plain sight. Darkfriends and Forsaken are often hidden this way, tucked in a clump of mass introductions. If you only ever describe principal characters, readers then know that any speaking character plays a key role.

With scant space to devote to each character, a bare outline has to do, so they are tagged with fairly familiar stereotypes: portly mayor, crotchety old man, tired old man, know-it-all sister, handsome boy down the lane, drunkard, diligent farmer. None of the characters are very surprising. If they were, we might want to spend more time learning about them, and drawing too much attention to them is not the author’s objective here. If anyone catches the eye, it is Tam, whose Court-Bard level storytelling and familiarity with little-known facts clearly set him out from the other backwater villagers. Was he enough of a standout to cause Padan Fain to start directing his attention to this area after the Ravens report? No dice. Fain’s been coming every spring since Rand can remember. 

The obvious disadvantage to all these characters is that you have to maintain the reader’s interest for a long time. The more critical readers will feel 25 pages of sheep shearing is more than they can take. It is a matter of balance between what you’re trying to convey to the reader, and the speed at which you move things along.

Writing Lessons:

Incidental characters have a role to play in a story, which is to create the feelings you want and move the plot where you want. Use them as sparingly or frequently as serves your needs.