Which is your favorite of the first 4 books?

I love The Eye of the World! This is my fourth re read and I like seeing how RJ put in little stuff about all the main characters and how it came to fruition later in the series.

 

Yeah, I love all the foreshadowing! He did a great job with it, and that makes each reread worthwhile -- you always notice something new.

That said, I think I like TDR best of the first four; the Real Plot starts moving there, I think.

 

Yeah, I agree about the plot. I felt like I could feel the gears/wheels turning faster and picking up momentum in TDR.

 

The Eye of the World. It is the BEST! sure the others move the story along, But the first book is Powerful! and i Love meeting each character!

 

Each book has it's own element!All are great but a preference order is
1.TSR
2.TEOTW
3.TGH
4.TDR

 

Really its close between the great hunt and the shadow rising, with the great hunt winning my favorite of the first 4. But I will always have a huuge soft spot for the dragon reborn because thats what actually got me into the WoT series. Haa its actually a funny story, I was in high school and I looved dragons(stilldo) and I picked up TDR only because it said dragon on it, after 3 chapters and not understanding anything I finally went back and started it at EotW.

 

I was going to say the first book since it hooked me into the world, but then thinking about it.. The Great Hunt it is! the fight at the end with heroes of ages past, and Rand fighting in the sky... The powerful mental imagery was amazing and made the series even more wonderful. I compare all the fights to that one with Rand fighting in the sky and the heroes vs the seachan

 

That is funny. Someone else said something I read about how they started reading based on the expectation that there would be a "real dragon." And I recall that in those "critics praising the story" pages in the front of the books, someone mentions that while the current book is really great and all, they cannot recommend starting anywhere but at the beginning b/c of the complexity.

 

Am I the only one less than fond of TGH? The ending was epic, but it reminds me of HP7 in the beginning -- too much camping! The period Rand, Hurin, and Loial spend in the portal world just draaaaaaags.

 

I am totally with you there, Elorenya. I found a lot of TGH to *to me* rather dull and boring, especially the "guys on the hunt" part. I loved the beginning and the ending and some of the tower stuff, but overall TGH is easily my least fav of at least the first 6 books.

 

I'm not a fan of the dragging and camping, but.. the end was worth it to me

To be fair, I had to suffer through a lot of dragging and camping for my few awesome fights through out the series.
Great hunt had that great end though. The eye of the world really introduced the badies well. Forsaken and mydraddal were so scary!

Later in the series...

Spoiler

now that the heroes are tougher.. meh. Especially the later... mydraddal are a dime a dozen, the forsaken are tough people, but just people, plus all the mental issues makes them pretty easy to exploit. the only guy i'm really wondering about is Shaidar Haran

 

The Great Hunt has my favorite scenes of the first four with Egwene and the Seanchan. However, The Shadow Rising would be my overall favorite of the four. It maintains a strong steady flow throughout, without ever really hitting any slow spots.

 

Probably the Eye of the World. As a reader you still don't have a very good grasp as to what exactly is going on, even by the end of the book, yet you're being thrown through this ridiculous adventure. It's just very mysterious and very exciting. That's the reason why I enjoy the first books or movies or episodes of almost anything, really.

 

I very much agree with you!
When I got started with that book, I couldn't stop reading!

It lead to a lot of late-night reading, and a little sleeping

 

I agree with Irinia with each book has it's "character".
I liked the first and second for the action and the introduce of the world, and for the "unnatural ideas" Jordan choose to include in his world.
There are also parts , even small that cause me shivering with excitement in each book ,even in the third which is good ,but less the others.

 

The Shadow Rising is my favorite because we get to see the history of the Aiel and a real glimpse of the Age of Legends. Also we see Rand becoming a powerful leader in this book. Also the different ways that Rand and Perrin deal with leadership. Rand accepts the role, while Perrin resists it.

 

I'm on Shadow Rising right now, reading the series for the first time. So far, I haven't liked it as much as I did Dragon Reborn. DR had everything I love a book to have, and right now SR is introducing a lot of new info that I'm having a hard time keeping track of, because it's all coming pretty quickly, with less transition into them.

So far Dragon Reborn is my favorite, with Great Hunt being second. I did not like Eye of the World, and might not have kept reading if I hadn't had reason or encouragement to see the series through.

 

I agree with all of this! I love TDR & TSR but I have to go with tEotW on this one. I love the innocence of the main characters in the first book and the fact that everything is so new and scary! I love the scene of Rand dragging Tam through the woods and wondering what will happen next. And how much in awe everyone is of Moiraine whereas some of the magic leaves later in the series once you get to know the characters better.

 

And I agree with all of this All of the unknowns at the start of the story properly gripped me, as they should! Loved the rider on the road behind them and the absolute confusion of the trolloc attack.

 

TSR is probably my favourite of the first four and probably top 3 for the entire series. Love love love the Aiel, the Rhuidean chapters are definitely some of the best in the entire series. Also this book was the first in which I felt myself liking Mat after being mostly indifferent to him for 1-3. Also also who can forget Moggy vs Nynaeve...