&quot;The Eye of the World&quot; is probably the most famous fantasy novel written in the last generation, but it doesn't deserve to be.  About the only thing that's going for this novel is the terrific ending, with a huge surprise waiting in the final line.  But to get there, you have to wade through about 650 pages of tripe, and that's in the hardcover edition.For most of the book, the plot is fairly straightforward.  There's a group of eight people who need to get from point A to point B, where point A is called The Two Rivers and point B is called Tar Valon.  Meanwhile, an archvillian known as The Dark One sends overwhelming sinister forces to stop them.  This portion of the book isn't developed with much skill, which is what makes it pretty boring.  All that the good guys have to do is swing their swords around a few times and they can easily defeat entire armies of bad guys.  One top of that, the good guys are led by an Aes Sedai (a female wizard) who can do more or less anything, so there's never any real sense of danger.  The action scenes also grow very repetitive.  For instance, there's one scene where our heroes are being chased by a horde of villians, but luckily they're able to run into a magic place where the bad guys just aren't willing to go.  This exact same scene gets repeated twice later in the novel.Many people seem to think that the characterizations are one of this novel's strengths, but I don't agree.  The main character is named Rand al'Thor, and the novel is supposed to show him changing from an ordinary farmboy into a great warrior.  The problem is that he doesn't act like an ordinary person at the start; none of the five characters who grew up in a small down do.  They all acts like soldiers right from the start.  They're willing to plunge into battle without any hesitation, and the children always act totally grown up.  I found the characters to be largely static and unbelievable.This certainly isn't a terrible novel.  As I mentioned, it does have a wonderful surprise ending.  Just don't expect to be swept away by it.  Also, be sure to read the gloassary at the end, which is more entertaining than most of the book. 

Question: How is the story?
Answer: good