Alright I finished Eye of the World. I just want to tell you how I felt about it, please keep in my mind i myour reply that I only want to tslk about the first book, I don't even want you to say things like vague "oh but that character gets better, changes you'll see". I know I'm probably going to regret but oh well, I hope our shared forum history will make you behave yourself. Because I'm going to get book 2 pretty soo , either today or tommorow.
Me not behave myself? Absurd!
Yeah, the LOTR-ness hits hard in the first book. Really hard.
I love the world of the books, they're my favourite part. The gender dynamics on this level are interesting, as you said the balance of power in villages, also, the throne of Andor being a women held thing, Tar Valon being kind of lke the Rand-land Pope, but this not excluding men from ruling in other places. Balance between genders is a theme that RJ tried hard for.
Pity many of his prominent female characters are crap! Nynaeve and Egewene I wanted to strangle. I usually don't get worked up over fictional characters, but they're just infuriating. In book 1 though, Moiraine, Siuane, Min and Elayne (princess of Andor, not sure on name) were varying degrees of okay to good.
Most of the males in this book were good though. Rand is one of my favourite takes on the farm boy becomes hero character, Mat is great, Perrin is a bit dull, but still likable. Thom is surprisingly badass whe he takes on the Myrddraal, Lan is badass but for his falling for the probably-too-young Nynaeve on the way to the climax of the book, which is a plot line I think went against both characters. Unfortunately, guys like Fain irk me, especially since he basically became Gollum after the issue with Moridin.
Yeah Lan and Moiraine need a bit of fleshing ou, but they could be worse, and I think the first book left a good basis to develop them.