I was introduced to The Wheel of Time series by a friend. I'm a BIG fan of The Lord of The Rings and she told me that if I liked LOTR, I would definitely like this.... so I read it and...... IT WAS FABULOUS!!!! It had a Tolkien-ish familiarity about it..... all the creatures, magic, and a quest not to be rid of something but to find something... the main characters set out to find their true identity's, and what they discover will give you a craving to read the next book in the series, The Great Hunt . An excellent beginning, action packed, and as soon as I finished this, I was lucky enough that my friend had given me The Great Hunt for my birthday so I got to keep reading. Excellent books.... If you're a fan of The Lord of The Rings Trilogy, you will love this book... I'm about 1/4 into The Great Hunt and it's great so far.