Rating: 
Summary: what is going on?
Review: I just can't believe that a prequel would be written before the story is finished...unless the author wants us privy to information so that he can finish the series...finally.I just want the series done...I am tired of reading the same small details over and over and over...Light! Blood and Ashes! Fish Guts! At least "Nineave?" is not flipping her braid around again. I really do enjoy the story...it is just that it is so bogged down in the same details that I find myself flipping through pages to get to some action. At least this book...as my husband pointed out, is not so long. so that's a good thing.
Rating:
Summary: Worth reading, but not as good as the other books
Review: I have to confess that while I found the first 7 books of the Wheel of Time impossible to put down, I didn't experience that with this book. It was a good story, and a must-read for any Wheel of Time fan, but it's not in the same league with most of the other books. Worst of all is this nagging feeling...why is Robert Jordan writing prequels when he could be finishing the series? This annoyed me constantly while reading the book and it detracted from my enjoyment of the book. I would rather have seen the next book come out sooner than read this.
Rating: 
Summary: love Moraine, you will love the book
Review: While it was refreshing to avoid the deluge of new characters and sub-sub plotlines, the book forcibly reminded me that Jordan is still firmly in "stretch-mode," milking this cash-cow for all it's worth. If you were hoping for something out of the Age of Legends or the Two Rivers characters... sorry. Jordan does throw in a couple of tidbits about al'Lan, but his part remains relatively small. However, if you like the women putting each other on pedestals and shopping... that remains a core element of this book, and you will be well satisfied.
Rating: 
Summary: A Glimpse of the Past
Review: New Spring reminded me why I started reading the Wheel of Time series in the first place. It's nice to be reminded how well Jordan can delvelop characters when he's only dealing with a few, rather than the 624 he's been dealing with in the last couple of books. Although this is an extension of the novella Jordan wrote for Legends, I found it refreshing and I hope he can head back towards this style with the next Wheel of Time book.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally, Moiraine again!
Review: To my mind, WoT went astray when Moiraine "died", and will become a good series when Moiraine comes back... dead for 5 books so far, but someday she'll be back. Supersticious, I know, but it neatly coincides with when WoT went off track, and when it (hope hope hope...) will be thrilling again. Oddly enough, I found this prequel fun to read, in spite of how much Crossroads of Twilight let me down, and how negatively I approached the "prequel" notion, just dragging the series and money-making on. I approached this book very negatively, but I enjoyed it very much. Really, what is fun about this book is less major characters, less plotlines, less perspectives. RJ can really pull you into a scene, but when he has hundreds of characters going in the main series, it gets drowned out in details... too many words painting scenes, pulling you in here, pulling you in there, over and over, with nothing left over for plot, suspense, ... anything. In this prequel, with more of a stand-alone focus, RJ can be at his best, without having to switch characters so much that it becomes an indifferent blur. I especially appreciated this after Crossroads of Twilight. I don't want to spoil any plot elements in this book, but it has plenty of fun details about life in the Tower, including the test for the Shawl. If you simply love the world Jordan has created, this book has interesting details. But I loved it for a return to the old days, with fewer characters, and more space and care given to each plot, rather than splitering in a hundred directions. This is a neat, self-contained novel that is fun to read for its own sake, not just to satisfy addiction like the recent WoT books have been.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK
Review: ENOUGH OF THESE 1 STAR REVIEWS. YOU PEOPLE ARE JUST JEALOUS OF MR. JORDANS WRITING CAPABILITIES. THIS BOOK BROUGHT A LOT OF THINGS TOGETHER AS FAR AS HOW LAN AND MORAINE MET AND WHY SHE WAS LOOKING FOR RAND IN EYE OF THE WORLD. THERE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE TWO MORE PREQUELS, ACCORDING TO MR. JORDAN, WHICH I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO. TRUST ME PEOPLE. WHEN THE WHEEL OF TIME COMES TO A CLOSE, WHICH IT WILL IN A COUPLE OF YEARS, THE SAME PEOPLE WHO GAVE 1 STAR REVIEWS WILL BE WHINING AND COMPLAINING BECAUSE THERE ARE NO MORE BOOKS TO READ. ENJOY THE BEST FANTASY HAS TO OFFER. I HAVE READ MANY FANTASY BOOKS FROM GOODKIND TO MARTIN AND NOTHING COMPARES TO THE WHEEL OF TIME. JORDAN IS THE MASTER OF FANTASY WRITING.
Rating:
Summary: Nice to see some focus out of RJ
Review: Like many fans, I have been critical of the dwindling quality of the more recent volumes in WOT and have read the last few after borrowing them from the library (this one included, which may be a factor in my more favorable rating). I always thought the series began to drag under the weight of its own plot sometime around book 6 (The Lord of Chaos) or even book 5 (The Fires of Heaven). While those two volumes, overall, were excellent, it seemed that the plot, subplots, secondary, tertiary, and even main characters began to expand at an alarming rate. The story seemed to be losing its focus and momentum. The following four books bore this out as they reaped the harvest of this bloated plot and slowed advancement of the story down to a glacial pace. Jordan's defenders accused me of just wanting "action" and sword-fights and unable to appreciate the finer subtleties of RJ's political maneuverings and complex plot. New Spring the Novel has finally crystallized for me what I like about RJ's earlier works and what seems lacking from his later ones: focus. New Spring only tells the story from two character viewpoints, just Moiraine's and Lan's. RJ's slow, meticulous and wordy narrative does not lend itself to constantly switching between the umpteenth minor character who's name we confuse with another character's similar sounding name. It needs to build up slowly and enfold the reader in another world and character viewpoint. Constantly switching between other storylines and characters breaks the spell, not to mention the fact that it doesn't allow the verbose author much opportunity to advance the story. NS didn't have wall to wall action. Quite the contrary. But it did enthrall and draw me in like no RJ novel has in quite a long time. That's what WOT has been missing lately, not complexity for complexity's sake, or a blood bath action fest, just plain and simple focus on a single story and telling it.
Rating: 
Summary: At least Moiraine's In It.
Review: Just a re-hash, with nothing to add to the story that us poor (true) fans of the series hadn't figured out, back long ago in the "When-We-Cared Age". But hey at least we got to see strong characters again in Moiraine (remember when characters had depth in the WOT series?) and Siuan. Oh wait, Siuan is a lot more like her one dimensional, post-Amyrlin Seat character than the one who would rise to be the highest of them all... I borrowed a copy of this book (I refuse to buy since The Path Of Daggers--or "The Waste Of Paper"--) again, stupidly much out of hope that Robert Jordan could redeem the series, and just to loose myself with Moiraine and Lan back in the world that I once cared for. I'll admit I skimmed much of the repetitive, flowery, eloquent paragraph long descriptions / life histories of characters each time they appear in this suprisigly shorter book, as well many other plain usless details. I liked Moiraine in the series, she was a good tool for Robert Jordan to use to keep the story moving. As far as the series; once Moiraine got trapped with Lanfear, Jordan's mind got trapped with nonesese. The nonsense won...Hopefully Moiraine comes back and ends this hole mockery of a once brilliant series as Jordan has hinted at. But then again, the book descriptions and erroneous reviews have hinted at a story for four books now too... Ah, really though, who am I kidding? New reader or old loyalist, who cares anymore? After Winter's Heart I promised the next book in the series I read would be the last unless it dramatically improved, and thus I skipped Crossroads Of Twilight on good advice. Well, as of today my WOT series is now a 6 book series with a wonderful short story in a book of collected works. As I've said before, see you in Westeros (If George R.R. Martin can ever get book 4 out... and keep it relevant Goerge; Robert Jordan hasn't, and he thereby has ruined what once was thought to be the Holy Grail of SciFi/Fantasy). But at least Moiraine had life and purpose on Jordan's pages again, may The Creator bless her!
Rating:
Summary: say what?
Review: This was a surprising book, in that i expected to find out more about: the boys and the village, Lan, and more clues about the past, etc.
Great potential, little follow through. At least somebody died.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, I've read the book. I'm like a junkie...
Review: ...trying to chase that high I got when I read the first one. Same old drudgery. Didn't learn anything new. I think it's a testament to the fact that the series has become so convulated with useless information, that people become excited when they reread information that has already been presented. Nothing in there is groundbreaking or even remotely anything new. I crack up over the fact that people find this book so interesting because it shows that even they don't remember that they have already read most of this information before. I also notice that most people who rate the series very high still, although not all, are people who have come into the series at a later date and not from the beginning. I used to love the series and have read it over and over again, always finding information that I had missed before, or subtleties that I had glazed over. Now, I can't even begin to tell you what is going on with who. There are so many characters and plots, that it's almost kind of silly. I would love to see an Org Chart of this series. If anyone knows of a website that has an Org chart displaying all current and open plots/characters, please post it here. I would love to see it. This would be a great eye opener to many people so they can see the true extent of craziness that is Robert Jordan plot/character mania. In the end, we all want the same thing. A great story, with a great ending. I guarantee, if he doesn't wrap up it soon, all of those people who still love the rich and intricate writing of Robert Jordan, will be writing reviews about how you wish he would just wrap it up, and stop all the driveling nonsense. While the rest of us who are already there will be there to welcome you to the Robert Jordan Crisis Center for Stories that Contain too Much Information and Endless Long Winded Nothingness Plot Development. See y'all soon!
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