Are We There Yet? (a sort of Eye of the World review)

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

Two stars for effort, worldbuilding and potential, especially knowing that Brandon Sanderson takes over in the end, but, having finally gotten through Eye of the World (audiobook really helped), I understand why I put it back on the library shelves, along with The Sword of Shannara , when I was a teen.

Review done, let's move on to commentary about a problem I'm seeing a lot in epic fantasy: epicness for the sake of epicness. I think it's a disease some authors have. That is, writing these huge stories within these massive worlds with all sorts of characters. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. Eye of the World develops some pretty strong lore and (vaguely) interesting characters, but after a while, I started to wonder how much of the story was actually necessary.

Are we there yet? Perhaps we should stop at another tavern.

As far as epic fantasy goes, I've read and loved The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit before it, but don't ask me to read them again. I was quite happy with the movies and not at all troubled by what was edited out. Die hard fans might complain about the lack of Tom Bombadil, but I'm okay with that because he really wasn't that integral to plot and/or character development (No, he wasn't. Stop it.). When thinking about an Eye of the World movie saga, I can see alllll the scenes that could be excised with no real loss to the story -- because did we really need to visit yet another tavern??

Game of Thrones is another prime example of an author that has lost his way in his epic fantasy. I can't stop praising HBO for sifting through the detritus to bring only the meat, without ever losing the heart of GRRM's original story and I'm looking forward to how they end the TV show far more than I am looking forward to whatever GRRM eventually plans to do. Assuming he has greater plans than just fanboying over himself.

Back to Eye of the World for a moment. I said the book had some (vaguely) interesting characters. Actually, the only character I care about is Moiraine. I could do with a few less of the younger ones on this fellowship. Half the time, I can't even tell them apart. I suppose that's convenient if any of them were to die, but I can't really say the deadly and dangerous events in the story have filled me with enough dread to actually believe anyone was going to be hurt in any interesting way. I mentioned Brandon Sanderson above, and frankly, he's about the only thing that would encourage me to read on any time soon because I am fond of his characterization and know that he will do a good job of making the characters more likable and memorable than they currently are.

Oh you're just bitter, you might say, and you'd probably be right. But having recently read and loved what Ursula K. Le Guin could accomplish in under 200 words, my meh-ness grows over epic fantasy that is epic just because the author does not know how to trim the fat.

2 of 5 stars

Mogsy: A Book That I've Read More Than Three Times

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Okay, I'm going to cheat a little for this question. The thing is, I don't typically reread books. If I were to read a book again, it would be a book that I love, and generally books that I love, I remember very, very well, and that's why rereading isn't something I do a lot. Unfortunately, life's just too short (or more accurately, my TBR list is just too long) for it, so you can see why it would be kind of a challenge to come up with a book I've read more than once, let alone more than three times!

But...there is a book that comes close. In the fourth grade, I had a fantastic teacher called Mr. Smiley. And I am so not kidding, that was his real name. Mr. Smiley was a fun guy who was also Australian, so he had this really cool accent which made class story time even more amazing with his ability to do these great voices. One of the books he read to us was The Hobbit. And that, dear readers, was my very first exposure to this fantasy classic and the name J.R.R. Tolkien. I loved it.

Fast forward a couple years, in Grade 6, at another school in another country, my fellow students and I were assigned The Hobbit to read for English class. I'll admit, reading the book for a school assignment was definitely not as fun as listening to Mr. Smiley do his Gollum voice, but eh, what can you do? I remember having a great time returning to Middle Earth, nonetheless. It was just as good the second time around.

I have, of course, read The Hobbit again since my school years. But even if you count that along with the first couple of times (which I do, even if it was read to me the first time around) that's still just three times. But I included this book in my answers to the 30-Day Reading Challenge anyway, because as you can see the adventures of our beloved Bilbo Baggins played a big role in my childhood reading experiences which ultimately lead to my love for the fantasy genre in my adult years.

Eventually, I hope to be able to read The Hobbit to my own child, when she is a bit older. When I do, I suppose then it will be a book I have read more than three times, but too bad we're not counting future reads! In any case, I can't think of a better title to introduce my daughter to the world of fantasy books, and who knows, maybe it'll be the one that leads her down the road to become a fantasy fiction fan, like it did for her mom. The thought warms my heart.