Once more unto another fantasy world dear friends.

The scope and popularity of this series speaks for itself, it is one of the few – if not the only – series that can contest with LoTR in fantasy culture for the acclaim of being the greatest fantasy series of all time. Most fantasy books and series live in the shadow of LoTR and this is no exception. The first half of the book reads similar to a fan-fiction and the parallels between the two series are there for all to see.

As you delve further into the book it starts to develop more of its own characters and style. It is slow, as you would expect from a fourteen book series, but it develops at a reasonable pace considering this and I rarely felt like I was skimming the page to go further. The worldbuilding is interesting and the characters are fun if not a little one-dimensional. The book does end well and it gives me hope for the rest of the series.

All-in-all a great start and I’ll look forward to reading more.