Rating: Summary: Totally Disappointed and Disgusted Review: Enough is enough. Books 1 through 6 were magnificent. Books 7 and 8 slowed way down and I had trouble getting through them. Books 9 and 10 totally stink. Nothing seems to ever resolve itself and the characters have become boring, boring, boring. RJ started out with a great idea but has bowed to corporate greed and is stretching out this series for what appears to be some hefty pocket lining. I have decided I am finished! I will not buy another book in this series. Totally disgusted!
Rating: Summary: STOP THE INSANITY Review: One thing has become plainly evident over the last 2000 pages or so of Jordan's magnum opus: either he's lost his mind, or he's decided to write page after tedious page of filler simply to "filler" his wallter a bit more, or he actually died somewhere in the middle of writing book 7 and, like poor Schussmayr with Mozart 's "Requiem," it has fallen to some sap on whom history will turn an unforgiving eye to take the strands of genius Jordan laid out and try to bring them to a meaningful conclusion. Given the pace with which this series has been written over the past three books (words like "glacial" and "excruciating" are entirely too forgiving), all three seem plausible. Jordan plainly has vision. Nobody could manage even the first 4000 (top quality) pages of this epic without it. And he has talent, or bored readers would have given up at "Eye of the World" and we wouldn't be here reviewing book 10. But the series has begun to lose all focus and cohesion. It is possible, even likely that Jordan...for all his talents...has simply bitten off more than he can chew (word to the wise: dragging the storylines out won't help, try cutting a few down to size and moving toward a conclusion instead). We are left with a Brobdingnagian tour-de-force that is less tour and almost toothlessly devoid of force. It will take at least two more novels, I think, to bring this to a conclusion, but the suspicious conspiracy theorist/numerologist in me smells a total of thirteen. Thirteen as a number is given repeated emphasis in Jordan's writing, and I have a suspicion that finally, hopefully, blissfully, the series is closer to the end than not.
Rating: Summary: Okay, I understand the complaints... Review: BUT, if you read the whole series in sequence (giving yourself time and not rushing) you'll probably find that RJ, rather than introducing scores of new characters and making the story more complex, is actually TYING THINGS OFF, slowly but surely. Personally, I don't think he'll make it in 12 books, unless the Last Battle breaks out within 5 pages of the prologue of Book 11, and the LB will take at least a book and a half on its own. Anyway, I digress. The primary complaint people have about this book, is really that the series is just taking too long to wrap up. Okay, that's legit, but seriously, CoT was better than WH, and once the series is finished, you people are quickly going to shut up. On the other hand, RJ does need TO WRAP IT THE F#(K up! 13! That's it, that's as many books as I'll pay attention to, Rob! Wrap it up, make the books longer, but I swear by all that's holy I STOP at 13!
Rating: Summary: rotten Robert Review: What in He$#fire is this!!!?? I though Robert J. was an excellent writer with a great imagination, I did anyway, until I read the 10th book. This book is a failure, 1-9 were amazing, and they actually had some good fight and battle scenes, but #10 is just a lot of describing womens clothes, and almost all of it is detailing Elayne trying to gain the lion throne, which is not what anyone wants. We want Rand and Mat, and maybe Perrin. The only parts worth reading are the characters who can channel feeling the blazing beacon, the effects from Rand attempting to cleanse the taint from saidin, and how they all react to it. This book really just somehow sucks, after 9 amazing, fast-paced ones. I hope this book was just a set-up for the finale or the 11th book or something.
Rating: Summary: THE REAL REASON CoT stinks Review: I have been a fan of WoT since '91. The initial books were great. About 5 years ago, as the books became worse, I read two interviews in a row and figured out the problem. One was from Stephen R Donaldson, who said that when he gets an idea, he immediately knows how many books that idea can sustain. RJ's interview stated that his inspiration was "what would it be like to be tapped on the shoulder and told you are the Messiah?" A brilliant idea, which sustained the first 3 books; after that it has been nothing but plot without spirit or a driving idea. Everything else negative that people have said is true-- the annoying characters, excessive descriptions, lack of plot progression, etc, but I think the deepest problem is that the inspiration for the series is dead. RJ--please just let the Dark One destroy everyone and start a new book with a new idea.
Rating: Summary: "The Wheel of Time turns..." SLOWLY Review: Reading this book was amoung the most boring events that have occured in my life. I picked up this book, spending ten dollars of my own hard-earned money, expecting a fast paced and action packed read. I was terribly wrong. This book is potentially interesting... for those of you who are interested in nothing aside from tea and the exact array of every individual thread on every dress. To be blunt, this book sucks.
Rating: Summary: Jordan is lost in the wheel of words Review: This has got to be the worst book yet in this series. I am sure that Mr. Jordan is just putting words on paper to sell another book. He has lost all support from his readers. Each successive book is worse than the others. They are dragging the reader along. Mr Jordan must love to make up female names and describe them in boring details. That is how he gets 800 pages of nothing. There is no action in this book. There is very little continuation of the story. Give it up Mr. Jordan and finish the story. Any future readers should skip this book entirely. Unless Mr. Jordan plans to finish the story in the next book, I would recommend skipping the next books also.
Rating: Summary: Yada, yada, yada Review: No need to expand on the other negative reviews that have already been written, this tome took us nowhere fast. If RJ's not careful the WOT series will turn into a Goodkindesque type of literary quagmire where the author keeps milking the same tired storylines without advancing any, at least until the faithful readers finally give up on the whole quest. The question that really needs to be asked now is whether or not RJ can finish what he started and move on to the sequel instead of the prequel? As the wheel turns so shall we see (hopefully before too many ages pass)...
Rating: Summary: Please, please end this series! Review: Okay. I've read the first ten books in this series, and I am going to finish the series if it kills me. But enough, already, with adding new characters and wasting time with dress-smoothing Aes Sedai, man-tall female Aiel, childishly bull-headed Nynaeve, Shaido and Brother-less Aiel, and all the rest. Blah, blah, blah! Just write the last $%&*#(@$! book in the series and get it over with! Action, man, I want action!
Rating: Summary: Far better if read in sequence! Review: I first read Crossroads of Twilight when the Hardcover came out. I struggled through it finding myself continually reading the glossary for names of characters I couldn't tell apart. I felt (as I had with the previous two books) that insufficient progress was being made and the plot was being sidelined by new threads. I swore I would not buy the next release, but rather to check it out of the library. Four weeks ago I began rereading the series starting with book one. To my surprise, Books 8 - 10 gained a richness and depth I had missed reading them two years+ apart. Each plotline was comprehensible and the progress of each plot was much easier to see. I still feel Jordan could have cut out 50 pages from each, but the stories stood up to the rest of the series. The strange wooing of Tuon by Matt in COT is richly displayed and well done. Interesting light is shed on the character and world-view of both the "brotherless" of the Shaido and of elements of Seanchen society. I cannot give this slightly slow read four or five stars as I have given earlier volumes, but I believe the character development, plotting, and cultural detail stands up to Jordan's earlier work. I enjoyed the second reading of this book thoroughly and will once again be waiting to buy the next installment.
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