Robert Jordan’s fantasy novel The Eye of the World was first published in 1990.
The novel launched The Wheel of Time, a major epic-fantasy series set in a world shaped by recurring patterns of history. It introduces Rand al’Thor, Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al’Vere, and other characters from the village of Emond’s Field as their lives are transformed by the arrival of Moiraine Damodred.
The Eye of the World was published by Tor Books in the United States in January 1990. Its opening combines a rural coming-of-age story with a much larger conflict involving the Dragon Reborn and the Dark One.
Readers sometimes confuse the publication date with later editions or with the dates of books published near it in the series. The second novel, The Great Hunt, followed in 1990, but The Eye of the World remains the series opener.