What does Robert Jordan's majestically epic fantasy novel series spanning more than a dozen enormous volumes have in common with the surreal millennialist animated TV series The Regular Show? The final season of that show—appropriately renamed The Regular Show in Space—was dominated by narrative arc in which it was discovered that the character of Pops—a doddering but kindly man with a British accent and an enormous head—was actually the key to keeping the entire universe from falling under the control of his malevolent doppelganger named Dark Pops.
The sense of having been through this all this before when reading The Eye of the World that might befall anyone who is familiar with any of the multitude of narratives pitting the forces of good versus the minions of evil that can be found in literature, movies, and TV shows—even cartoons—only begins with the fact that malevolent force at the center of this novel is known as the Dark One. The concept of an eternally recurring struggle between good and evil which cycles through a certain period of time is hardly unique to any one particular example.
It is also true that anyone reading The Eye of the World is going to be reminded of a great many other works of fantasy from semi-obscure TV cartoons to one of the defining works of Stephen King. It is inevitable that any number of other works dealing with immersive created worlds or the epic quest of a hero’s journey will come to mind while reading the initial entry in Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. This is because over the course of the many hundreds of pages required to tell his story, there is pretty much no standard fantasy trope or theme that isn’t touched upon. In a way, reading the novel is almost like reading a how-two manual for constructing a fantasy series.
Those looking for a deep dive into Joseph Campbell’s monomyth and hero’s journey will be satisfied. Those looking for a stand against the forces of evil to take place that is even longer than Stephen King’s will be very satisfied. Readers who want their fantasy battle to recur eternally have already realized this is the baby for them. Among the other common fantasy novel tropes which pop up and will have readers making their own personal allusions include the debate between free will and predetermination of destiny, the manner in which fact transforms into legend which transforms into myth which forges new conceptual thinking about perceiving reality, maintaining balance in the force—er, that is, the universe, can girls do things as well as boys and why is this even a question, the bummers of adulthood and responsibility, and just why is darkness always associated with evil, anyway?
One by one, Jordan plots out his first novel of a planned series in a way that makes it inevitable that later entries in the series will come to place more emphasis on one or more of these thematic explorations. It’s a great big universe and any single one particular fantasy or trope looks really puny by itself. Combined into a collective unit, however, they all serve to make The Eye of the World absolute essential reading for anyone planning on tackling the Really Big Ones occupying space on the bookshelf of fantasy fiction classics. Although, truth be told, the story really could benefit from a prank or two by Muscle Man.
