Rating: 
Summary: Not the best in the series, but still a very good read
Review: "Wind Rider's Oath" continues the adventures of Bahzell Banahkson, the first hradani Champion of Tomanak in 1200 years, that began in "Oath of Swords" and "The War God's Own". This time, Bahzell finds himself as envoy to the Sothoii, hereditary enemies of his own tribe, the Horse Stealer hradani. With him are the hradani Brandark Brandarkson, the newly-formed hradani chapter of the Order of Tomanak, God of War, Justice, and Truth; and fellow champion Dame Kerry. They face numerous problems: a mysterious demonic attack on the Sothoii's beloved coursers, a legal dispute between a free-hold of Warrior Maids (followers of God of Light Lillinara, sister of Tomanak) and a neighboring Sothoii lord, political intrigue against Bahzell's host, and his host's 14-year-old daughter, far too smart and impulsive in a society where women have little or no standing except as mothers and wives.The book juggles three interconnected storylines, dealing this time with the plots of two Gods of Darkness; Weber juggles them deftly, not setting any of them aside for long before coming back to it. Nonetheless, this book seems a bit less satisfying than previous books in the series. The strong points: the pacing is good, remarkably so given how many storylines Weber is juggling. There's promise of interesting things to come. Two of the three major storylines reach satisfying conclusions, though the aftereffects are still to be felt (reminds me a bit of the ending of "In Enemy Hands" in the Honor Harrington series). And of course there is Bahzell, Brandark, and Kerry. The weak points, however, should not be overlooked: the humor is stretched a bit thin; whereas it suffused previous books in the series, it seems more incidental in this one. There's too little of Brandark, and about half of what there is involves the evil-doers saying how important he is (though we readers still don't know exactly how). Most of the interactions seem to follow stereotype scripts (the shining exception being the interaction between Kerry and Lord Trisu). Given how much time and effort Weber has spent reminding us that the very notion of a female warrior, let alone a Champion of Tomanak, is near-blasphemy to the Sothoii, and even more so the notion of a hradani Champion, it seems to take remarkably little effort for most characters to come to accept both of them. Again, the shining exception being the interactions between Kerry and Lord Trisu. And fans of the Honor Harrington series will have a strong sense of deja vu when it comes to coursers and wind riders (a bit too much like treecats and adoptees!). All in all, it is clear that of the three books in the series so far, this one is the weakest. It would certainly be a very bad place to jump into this universe; while either of the two previous books made a reasonable good starting point, this one is most definitely not. However, "weakest in the series" is still pretty good overall, and those of us who enjoyed the first two books will certainly enjoy this one... if a bit less then the previous ones.
Rating:
Summary: Strong story-telling adventure
Review: Bahzell Bahnakson is the first hradani to be Champion of the war-god Tomanak, which means that he's stuck righting wrongs, fighting evil, and generally carrying on even if the people he's helping don't like him. And they really don't like him. After a thousand years of war, the Sothoii hate anything having to do with the hradani--and there's a sizable segment of the court who will do just about anything to stir up trouble and end the pesky peace that threatens to break out between Sothoii and the hradani. The dark gods, always looking for an angle, are happy to take the opportunity Bahzell's opponents give them. With luck, they'll be able to eliminate Bahzell and his fellow champion, Kaeritha (the only female Champion of Tomanak in maybe forever). Their first step is the slaughter of a courser (horse-evolved but with human intelligence creatures) herd--and stealing the power that this gives them. WIND RIDERS OATH switches back and forth between two simultaneous plots launched by the dark gods. In one, they attempt to undermine the peace--and Baron Tellian Bowmaster--along with the coursers under his domain. In the other, they stir up hostility between the unpopular War Maids (women who have fled to free cities where they are no longer subject to Sothoii's parernalistic legal structure) and the conservative nobility. Success in either plot would cast Sothoii back to its 'times of trouble.' Success in both would be a major victory for the dark gods. Author David Weber continues his fantasy series with a strong adventure. Bahzell is a charmingly 'human' champion of his god--a champion who sometimes resists the god's orders and who certainly follows them in his own way. The coursers are only a part of the strong world-building that Weber brings to this series. Weber is a story-teller rather than an 'author,' and he occasionally gets bogged down in boring conversations where characters chat things out, explain what they are going to do to one another, and generally kill the action. As with many of Weber's books, a hundred pages of trimming would have made the story stronger. Still, when Weber gets down to action, he's hard to beat. The second half of this story, in particular, was a rolicking adventure that kept me turning the pages. As with many recent Baen hardbacks, a CD-ROM, containing the full text to dozens of novels including the earlier books in this series and Weber's Honor Harrington series, dramatically enhances the value of the package.
Rating:
Summary: More, more, more...
Review: C'mon- we want more! And sooner! Lots of plots that twist and turn through each other... This is a must have for your personal library! I also recommend "Eternal Undying Love" by Brett Keane
Rating: 
Summary: Another Disappointment
Review: First, let me say I have followed David Weber from the beginning of his writing career. I enjoy his writing style very much. But this novel is typical of all his latest books. The multitude of subplots make it confusing and detract from his style. The characters are flat and inconsistent; they don't jump out of the page at you and they don't make the reader want to empathize with them. But most of all, David Weber has began to specialize in massive info-dumps, paragraph after paragraph of detailed exposition, which only manages to slow down the pace of the story.
I still buy his books in the hope he will return to his earlier form. Since I doubt that will happen, I will probably stop buying them.
Rating:
Summary: Middle of the Series Complex
Review: First, let me say that I love almost everything that David Weber writes (I only qualify as almost because although I've enjoyed everything of his that I've read I'm sure I've missed something), but I wouldn't put this at the top of his books. As some readers have pointed out, you definitely want to read this after the first two in the series - Oath of Swords (vol. 1) and War God's Own (vol. 2). It's also fair to say that quite a bit of this story was about Leana (a whole lot of the story). Now she's an okay character, but if you've been reading this story since the beginning - you're really looking for Bazhell and Brandark (Brandark in particular gets short shrift in this story). So why did I give it four stars? I still read it cover to cover in one sitting (I do that alot so that doesn't mean that a book is phenomenal, but at least means its good and engrossing). Weber has great fight scenes (although there's not a ton of them). His characters are also usually very interesting (although Bazhell comes across a bit like Superman). Bottom line - despite the nitpicking it was a fun book to read. The series is kind of going through an evolution. Oath of Swords was pretty much a straight up adventure - two buddies going on an adventure with only limited "grand scale issues". The War God's Own introduced a few more characters and started getting more involved in political issues - Bazhell's father leading the Hrdani (sp ??), the political structure of the War God's religion, etc. This third book really gives the impression that you're in a series. Multiple characters and plot threads developing. But there's still a good climax (actually a couple of good grand fights at the end). Don't read this book first. Oath of Swords introduces the characters really well. You care about them after reading that book. If you enjoy the first two in the series, you won't be disappointed in this one (I think its the weakest of the three, but its still good).
Rating:
Summary: Mediocre and a big disappointment
Review: I got the impression while reading this that Weber was desperate to fulfill his contract for another Bahzell book so he could get back to Honor Harrington. Windrider's Oath lacks the breathless excitement and political intrigue of "The War God's Own" and "Oath of Swords" while attempting to introduce new characters that really aren't that interesting. This series doesn't advance the overall adventure or tie up any loose ends. What about Churnazh? What about Jashan? Tell us more about the gods and their war, Mr. Weber. I loved the first two books but can't really recommend this one unless you're just in desperate need of a Bahzall fix (Brandark, the second-most interesting character, gets short shrift in this book). Let's hope the next one gets it right
Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment!
Review: I greatly enjoyed the first two books of the series, but this one is a joke. 1. Everybody gets more and better powers. And even more and better powers. No, really. What a cheap trick. 2. Leena irritated me. The war maids irritated me even more. 3. There are at least two plot points that received absolutely no resolution. Mind you, Bahzell's relationship with his God is always fun to see, and some of the nonmagical battles were nice. But this was as tremendous waste of time on my part.
Rating:
Summary: New Developments for the middle of a series
Review: I thought that this was a positive development in the series bringing in new characters and expanding on the plot world's development. The first part is devoted to developing new characters and expanding threads while the last third is action with the characters. This has a lot of foreshadowing and will fit in with follow books and new series. Overall worthwhile. Reads best when in conjunction with the other books in the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Substandard slog through Orfrressa
Review: I used to be a huge fan of David Weber, I in particular really enjoyed the first book of this series, Oath of Swords. It had all the humor, engaging unique characters, plotting and a proper sense of scale that is almost entirely lacking in this looooong delayed sequal. I was really let down by the first 2/3rds of WRO, which seemed packed with too much of the author's exposition and too little of descriptive action and (interesting!) character interaction. Seems interminably long with too many "parlor" scenes where characters explain what they are going to do and why, ad nauseum.
Even worse is that there is no real sense of peril, the two champions of Tomanak (certainly Bahzell) seem invulnerable and the villian's inept and weak. Threats to the Big BB hadrani champion seem to just shrugged aside too easily for this reader to be truly engaged in the lead character's struggles. Only real suspense comes way too late in the novel with the female human champion of Tomanak.
The greatest flaw is probably the number of plots, characters being juggled by the author in a somewhat forced if not (horrors!) pedestrian manner. In my opinion, David Weber could stand a real severe editing for all of his books of the past 5 years or more, this book should be pared down to maybe one major plotline and remove all of the unnecessary characters/minor plots (the nephew of the Baron's first taste of independent command/battle and maybe much of the Leanna story could be trimmed/dropped out or placed as short stories in some future anthology). I've read a great set of books when he works with joint authorship with Eric Flint (even with John Ringo, as much as I dislike the man's politics) in his Honor Harrington anthologies and the 1632-universe of Flint's.
It might be that David weber, like too many sucessful authors these days, needs to maybe cut back on the number of series/projects he's commited to (sometimes I curse the coming of the computer/word processing software, which allows authors maybe to write too much too quickly and dilute that which made the writing so special in the first place).
Rating:
Summary: Less than decent
Review: If there's not a sequel coming, then the editor of this book ought to be fired immediately. Half (quite literally; up to about page 250 of 500) of the book is expository dialogue that either rehashes What Has Come Before or introduces new characters who are neither particularly compelling nor interesting (though that's partly my own personal opinion, of course). Something on the order of eight different plot threads are weaving back and forth, with the result that none of them are very well-develeped. And the ending stinks; it's abrupt, cheesy, and all too easy. There's no sense of any meaningful climax or completion. If Weber's not planning a sequel immediately, about a third of this book could have been chopped with no negative effects - and the remainder still wouldn't have that good. I expect better from David Weber, and I really hope this is just a temporary aberration. On the plus side, the free CD is, as always, nice. It's got Weber's Honor Harrington books and the first two books in this series, as well as Crown of Slaves by Weber and Eric Flint. As far as I can tell, the rest of the books on the CD by other authors have already been released on other CDs, but if you haven't bought all of the books with CDs, there's a good selection here.
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