Rating: 
Summary: It Bites- boycott Jordan until he's finished
Review: I gave up on Crossroads and swore not to buy another Jordan snorer until Nynaeve yanks her braid for the last time. I didn't buy this; see how much agony I saved? If you'll just boycott like I am, he'll finish this puppy fast. If only we could balefire our way back to book 6 or 7 and forget about the last 3000 pages of nothing.
JB
Rating: 
Summary: the beginning is not really the beginning
Review: Robert Jordan is an excellent writer. There is no denying his skills. I enjoying reading this book. But this book did very little to enlighten anyone of anything that had transpired before. The beginning should start with the DRAGON REBORN. It didn't addressed the questions that the series alludes to constantly: RAND al' THOR is not TAM al'THOR's son. How did Tam gain custody of Rand? Who was Rand's mother? Was she a runaway member of a high ranking Andoran house? According to discriptions, one of his parents is obviously AIEL. The questions just abound from this storyline. That's the storyline I was looking for throughout the book and it never materialized.
I mean it's all well and good that Moiraine ran across Lan and bonded him. But was it a storyline worthy of special note. Do you go back and write a novel based on that relationship. I don't think so. This was an excellent opportunity to write a nice introduction to this series. Something akin to the HOBBIT in relation to the LORD OF THE RINGS triology. Ok, even with that said: What does Jordan do next? Is his next novel going to address the things I mentioned here. Or does he try to finish the series with us wondering what are RAND's true origins. I don't necessarily like spinning my wheels. but I love reading these books. However there should be some point to them.
Rating: 
Summary: Will make a great movie.
Review: This is an excellent example of Mr. Jordan's writing talent. I loved the plot where Lan, an out of work ball-player, is forced to help Moraine, a nun, transport a monkey across the country. I don't want to spoil the ending but let me tell you... When Lan had to dress like an excotic dancer to avoid the biker gang, wow!I especially loved the scenes with Rand the monkey. If I could get a monkey that smart in real life... I hope in the next book that Mr. Jordan can find a way to keep the fun going.
Rating:
Summary: Who cares how it started anymore?
Review: Finish the dang thing for crying out loud! I couldn't care less how it started. It's become an unmoving morass. I read the first chapter in the store and thought "Gawd, how many ways can this fruitcake possibly try and cash in?" If he's got so much writing time on his hands, why can't he put it to good use finishing the story? I'll tell you why. He's lost. He doesn't know how to clean up the mess he made and he's milking it for all it's worth until he has no choice but to finish it. He knows he'll make a mess at the end and never sell another book. It's over. This bites.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing prequel
Review: I've been an ever faithful reader of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. Friends kept telling me he was stretching his story too long and he was just here for the bucks, and I didn't believe her. I followed him to Crossroads of Twilight and actually *liked* the book. Which is why I went a bit rabid when I heard he would first do this 'prequel' instead of finishing his first cycle. No way, I thought. That's one of the lowest blow he could score. But, being a rabid fan and all, I *did* purchase New Spring, out of curiosity. After all, Moiraine and Lan's beginnings should be pretty interesting to follow, right ? Wrong.
This book is very disappointing - as a Robert Jordan book, and as a fantasy book as a whole. The slow pace we came to know and like is not just merely slow. It's agonizingly snail-likely slow. Nothing of worth happens in these 400 pages. Absolutely nothing. There's little politics, little interaction, and much sniffing. Keep all the bad things, leave out the good ones. That about sums it up. Don't buy it. Else you'll have to do what I'll probably do: buy the next one out of habit, instead of buying out of love.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid offering: adventure, worldbuilding, character growth
Review: There's a war going on but, according to seer Gitara, something much more important has happened. The long-awaited, long-feared The Dragon is reborn and the world has entered its end-times. The Aes Sedai mobilize to find the newborn baby--the first man in centuries destined to be able to use magic without destroying himself because prophesies state that he is essential if good is to have a hope (not a certainty) of survival. But even Aes Sedai secrecy cannot keep suspicion from getting out to the evil as well--and they will do anything necessary to keep the Dragon from surviving until that battle. Moiraine Damodred and her friend Siuan are only Accepted--trainees in Aes Sedai magic, but they have the fortune (or misfortune) to hear the seer's last prophesy. They resolve to seek out the Dragon themselves once raised to Aes Sedai status--which the crisis soon requires. But their quest is not easy--thousands of babies were born during the critical period and the Aes Sedai records are incomplete. To succeed, they'll have to break all the rules and put themselves in danger. And when they do, they discover a more terrible secret. Even the near-holy Aes Sedai are corrupt, riddled by a secret order who are sabotaging everything the Aes Sedai stand for. Two brand new inductees don't stand much of a chance against the accumulated power of evil, but doing nothing isn't an option. Author Robert Jordan has become one of the top names in modern fantasy by delivering a solid tale that combines adventure, fascinating world-building, and character development. NEW SPRING delivers on all of these elements and makes a highly entertaining read. Unlike many of Jordan's books, SPRING is relatively short and self-contained. It is billed as a prequel to his huge-selling WHEEL OF TIME series and can be read by readers new to Jordan or unwilling to undertake the multi-thousand page investment in the full opus. If you read fantasy, you'll want to add NEW SPRING to your list.
Rating:
Summary: Not "New Spring" .... New Money! Yours!!
Review: Once again, Mr. Jordan has shown that he has run out of gas, out of ideas, and wants to *recycle* from a series which is already TOO LONG, even UNENDING. Yes, you poor suffering readers who have been hanging in there, thinking there would soon be an end ... even a CONCLUSION to all of this ... but no! He will travel back in time and have a book BEFORE #1, using recycled material! This could go on for 30 more years! Next, we could have a pre-prequel and then a pre-pre-prequel. This idea may have worked OK with the Star Wars movies, but it doesn't here (and they are quitting with #6, so I've heard). This book should have been titled "The Search for New Money," or just "New Money," because they want some more of yours! Avoid it! Mr. Jordan, you do have talent ... so, take a few years off, and come up with a completely new series (or retire and go climbing on your large pile of money). Sorry, I'm not trying to be mean, but I just don't like being suckered in .... every time I think we are nearing an end in the WOT series, I discover that the same piece of taffy has just been stretched farther and thinner. Some authors should know when to hang up their laurels and give it a rest. Sorry, Mr. Jordan, but it's just the truth. I enjoyed perhaps the first 5 or 6 books, but then it just became like the infamous "Chinese Water Torture." When will the next drop fall?
Rating:
Summary: Finish the Series First
Review: Mr. Jordan is off on another tangent again. I started to read the series right after the second book came out. This was over 10 years ago and still no end in sight. I suggest that readers find an alternative series to read, one which is complete or will be completed soon rather than committing to over 10,000 pages of rambling. The first book was one of the best fantasy books written, but they continued to loose steam until they became unreadable. If Mr. Jordan needs the cash, I suggest he writes a synopsis of the first dozen books, so people like me, who have complete lost the thread can catch up.
Rating:
Summary: Its been done
Review: If you are familiar with the series this adds very little to either the plot or character development of the Wheel of Time (WoT). The story, while interesting, has been recycled from other places either in whole or in part. It does serve as a way to introduce characters who appear later in the WoT and position them in the background but this seems to have limited value. It seems that Jordan has lost his way with the series and perhaps he seeks to go back to the roots as an effort to get back it on track. The books have become complicated beyond belief adding characters and subplots to such an extent that they have progressively slowed the story development in each subsequent release. At least here the author has a defined goal he is heading toward, the beginning of the series proper, if only the end were as clearly in sight. This was the wrong book for Jordan to be writing, it is the Hobbit and what he needed was the Silmarillion.
Rating:
Summary: Out of ideas
Review: At one time the WOT series was my favorite series of all time. Now whenever I speak to a person who wants my opinion on a series they should begin I tell them to stay away from WOT. I beleive Jordan is out of ideas and he is dragging out the story. I will read his next books just as I read this book; sitting in a bookstore with my coffee by my side. I will no longer be fleeced by Mr. Jordan. "New Spring" is better than his latest two books, but I can not understand why Jordan refuses to finish WOT. The only thing I can think of is that he is out of ideas. His ship has run aground with this fantasy fan.
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