of Emond's Field is safe and predictable. Danger is only as menacing as the wolves that roam the countryside, and adventure is only as exciting as the arrival of a traveling peddler or gleeman. All this changes the night before the winter festival of Bel Tine, when a horde of fanged beasts called Trollocs attack the village. What's more, their attacks seem hardly random -- their targets are the homes of Rand, Mat, and Perrin. Guided by the mysterious stranger Moiraine and her menacing companion Lan, the boys flee the village to save their friends and family from the evil forces intent on killing or capturing these young men. Although the plot's pacing is occasionally uneven, the book's characters are developed gradually but steadily -- this early volume hints at powers and skills that these young heroes may use in future installments. Prophecy figures largely in the plot, and readers enamored of Tolkien-style high fantasy will stay tuned not only to discover the meanings of these prophecies, but to also continue to absorb the richly imagined fantasy setting. This is a repackaged version of the first half of the opening volume of the "Wheel of Time" series, including several illustrations, a glossary, and a new prologue that introduces the characters as children, several years prior to the main action. -- Norah Piehl More by this Author Robert Jordan was born in 1948 in Charleston, South Carolina. He taught himself to read when he was four with the incidental aid of