Alex Arendsen’s Reviews > The Eye of the World > Status Update

The LotR parallels are hard to ignore (Mat & Perrin -> Merry & Pippin; Taren Ferry -> Brandywine; Emond's Field -> Hobbiton; Baerlon -> Bree; Bilbo & Frodo -> Tam & Rand; main guy has ominous visions of "the dark one"; Thom has Galdalf's crazy eyebrows, etc.), the characters and dialogue could be more challenging, and some of the world building components feel a bit contrived, but I'd give it a 3.5/5 so far.