Wheel of Time book 1 summary

Amazon is currently airing the second season of The Wheel of Time, it’s epic adaptation of the books by Robert Jordan (and finished by Brandon Sanderson). The current season is adapting the second and third books, The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn.

But what about the first book, The Eye of the World? Amazon adapted that book in season 1, which you can stream now on Amazon prime Video.

What happened in The Eye of the World, The Wheel of Time Book 1? Let’s hit the highlights.

Summary: The Wheel of Time book 1, “The Eye of the World”

In The Eye of the World, we are introduced to several characters living in the sleepy fantasy backwater of Emond’s Field: farmboy Rand, blacksmith Perrin, local trouble-maker Mat, the healer Nynaeve, and the innkeeper’s daughter Egwene. Their lives are rocked when a group of Trollocs — monsters who draw inspiration from orcs from The Lord of the Rings — attack the village of Emond’s Field. An Aes Sedai sorceress named Moiraine and her warder Lan help defeat the Trollocs and tell Rand, Mat and Perrin that one of them is the Dragon Reborn, a messianic figure fated to either doom the world or save it. (In the show, Nynaeve and Egwene are also potentially the Dragon Reborn.)

The seven of them set off into the world, taking refuge from Trollocs and other shadowsparn in the city of Shadar Logoth. But even worse things live in that haunted city. After a struggle, the group is separated. Rand and Mat travel alone for a while, meeting up with a gleeman (basically a traveling bard) named Thom Merrilin. Thom appears to die defending them from a Myrddraal. Egwene and Perrin end up together, traveling for a while with a group of Tuatha’an wanderers and meeting Elyas, who teaches Perrin about his strange connection with wolves. Nynaeve, Lan and Moiraine also travel together.

The group eventually meets up in the city of Caemlyn, where they meet the Ogier bookworm Loial. From there, they go as a group to the Borderlands city of Fal Dara, where they hope to confront the malevolent Dark One, who is sealed at a place called the Eye of the World. When they get there, the seven of them run into two members of the Forsaken, powerful followers of the Dark One who have been alive for millennia. They defeat the Forsaken and Rand seems to defeat Ba’alzamon, another Forsaken who has been appearing in Rand’s dreams, presenting himself as the Dark One.

How did Amazon’s The Wheel of Time show change the first Wheel of Time book?

This is pretty much what happens in the Amazon show, although there are changes. For instance, on the show, after getting separated in Shadar Logoth, the group meets back up in the Aes Sedai stronghold of Tar Valon, rather than in Caemlyn. Also, on the show, only Rand and Moiraine go to the Eye of the World, and the two Forsaken other than Ba’alzamon do not appear.

And that pretty much brings us to The Great Hunt/The Wheel of Time season 2. The season 2 finale drops on Amazon Prime Video this Thursday night!

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