Rating: Summary: One step ahead of the Pack Review: I am one of the fortunate fans that skipped book ten. My reasoning for not buying CoT has nothing to do with the other online reviews (although they are a great reinforcement), it has solely to do with books 8 and 9. Book 8 seemed disappointing to me, but I stuck it out to book 9, which was an absolute disaster. I ordered Winter's Heart with the latest installment from George R. R. Martin, and read them back to back. The difference was astounding toe to toe. Martin's work had such depth, creativity, action and plot development when compared to Winter's Heart. It was like a cloud had been lifted and I was able to see the truth - the WOT series now appears to be the juvenile meanderings of a has-been money grubbing sell-out. The characters are stuck in a rut and have not grown, matured, or expandend over the past several thousand pages. To top it off, it now looks like they don't do anything but wheel around aimlessly. It seems that the author is writing for the sake of writing, like some people who can talk for hours without listening. I swore at that point that I would not buy another WOT book until the series was completed and available in paperback, and only then if the reviews justified it. I am sticking to this plan in round one, and judging from the reviews, I am the better for it.
Rating: Summary: redundency Review: well if you were like me and loved the way book 9 ended, couldnt wait to find out what happens next, you will be waiting till book 11 Mr Jordan decided to use book 10 to detail what EVERYONE ELSE was doing at the end of book nine. Save your money, buy book 11 when it comes out, the prologue will fill you in on anything you think your missing. As for me, I will NEVER buy one of these in hardcover again after this disapointment
Rating: Summary: Why Mr. Jordan...why??? Review: Sigh. Yet again...a Wheel of Time book. I remember when my cousin gave me the first book in this now delapidated series. It was so fresh, so vibrant, so interestingly differnt. He was vividly descriptive and even though a fool could've seen that the main character was the Dragon Reborn, it was still fun to see the characters slowly come to that realization themselves. And once they did come to that realization, readers knew they were in for something truly epic...and so they waited for the next book...and the next...and the next...and the next...and the next...and nothing has yet happened. Doing this with two books would have been forgivable, after all, everyone makes mistakes. However, Mr. Jordan refuses to listen to his former readers. This review says exactly what every other review said: boring, redundant, not worth the effort.
Rating: Summary: Read between the lines. Review: WoT fans, do not despair! Even though the book (CoT) is hardly exciting, you have to understand that in itself the whole series is one book and its following the rules. Its title implies what its meant to transmit: when its twilight things come to a standstill, an uneasy calm overcomes everything before the activity continues and at crossroads everything gathers before going its own way, and this book is just that. If you read between the lines and understand the way Jordan has built his work, you'll understand that this book was necessary to establish a pause and gather the necessary threads of the story before the climax comes. So I repeat, do not despair, I believe the best parts are yet to come.
Rating: Summary: More (and more) of the same....... Review: I enjoyed the first several books of the series. They were fairly well written, entertaining, and even at times exciting. If you have not read this series yet, the first 5 books are defininatly worth the time. The series begins to slow down at that point. Most of the action is talked about after the fact, described by characters debreifing themselves or others. By book eight, the characters have lost all depth they have had, and have become flat and lifeless caricatures. By book 10, I found myself hoping for several of them to be written out of the series altogether. Instead, the author continues to add new supporting characters who have little purpose and add no life to the story. If you have not started the series yet, I would suggest waiting until it is completed before starting it. I think the level of frustration expressed by most of the reviewers should be a warning to you. If you are already caught up in the series, and feel trapped by a need to see it through, I would suggest not buying each individual book. Rent it from the library or borrow from a friend. If Jordan follows in his current habit, the first half of the next book will be a summarization of the last, so you won't miss anything. The second half will be a prelude to the next, so you really only have to read every other book! I am glad I haven't wasted the cover price on the last two books.
Rating: Summary: Ditto Review: Little more to add than than most of the other reviewers. The WOT series started out with a bang, but has since bogged down. Good luck with your series Mr. Jordon - I'm off to other authors.
Rating: Summary: The Wheel of Time turns... Review: The Wheel of Time turns, and Book come and pass, leaving first memories that become legend. Legend faded to boredom, and even boredom is long forgotten when the next Book in line comes again. In one Book, called "A Crown of Swords", a Book yet to rewrite, a Book long written, a cry rose in the electronic reviews of Amazon.com. The cry was not the beginning. There are neither beginning nor ending to the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning. From the valleys of readers to the heights of the writer, the cry flew. A cry of despair from the poor readers who waited for more action, more insights with the grand conflict between the Light and the Dark. Over and over again, with each publishing of the next Book in the serie, the cry grew about promises not fulfilled, of boring description and caricatural sex-oriented clichés until the Pinnacle of "Crossroad of Twilight" was reached. Yet the Wheel weaves as the Wheel will, and Jordan the Creator, sheltered in the Light, never heard that cry, and never will. So the cry rose, to no avail, until that last Book and it is yet to be known if in the last Battle, the Dark Lord of Boredom will be defeated at last. Many readers forsook the Light and became Darkfriends, rejecting the prophecized word of Glory to come, with no patience enough to wait two more years for the Creator to spin "New Spring", a prequel to the "Wheel of Time" before again two years to the Eleventh Book.
Rating: Summary: Fluh? Review: Nothing needs this many books. The history of our own entire planet isn't even this long.
Rating: Summary: WOT=Waste of Time? Review: What was once my favorite fantasy series is now my biggest frustration. Somehow Jordan has practically made me lose interest after 9 great books. This book is nothing but filler. It looks like they increased the font size (really) and gave us half of a book where everything happens in the 2nd half. That would be a way to make a good profit. This is the big book about nothing. I was warned ahead of time by some friends that nothing really happens in this book and they were right. Read with very low expectations. The only thing good about it is it is a quick read due to fewer words per page.
Rating: Summary: Borrow this one from a friend Review: Robert Jordan is a great fantasy writer no doubt about it. There were pages in this book that made me feel like I was reading the Dragon Reborn again. The chapters about Matt were at least as good as anything else in the series. For that alone I give the book two stars. Still, I can't see rewarding him by buying this book. Get it in paperback or borrow it from a friend and save it for a rainy day.
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