Rating: 
Summary: Above average
Review: Well, after reading that pile of ... known as Crossroads of Twilight, I had very low expectations for this prequel. The reason I bought it: I had a B&N gift card given to me to burn. I would never thought to waste my own money on this.Lo and behold, this wasn't half bad, especially the last 100 pages. Much is explained about Moiraine's and Lan's motivation for their quest in the WOT. Both grew during the novel, rather than being static and stagnant characters (unlike EVERYONE in the WOT, books 6-10). Siuan's background, too, is developed. There are some annoying things:
1. Too many of the important Aes Sedai in the WOT seem to be Accepted and Novices at the same time as Moiraine and Siuan. When such a premium is placed on age, how could so many relatively young (Moiraine is 40-50 during the WOT, as are many others) Aes Sedai be in such important positions? 2. RJ is still obsessed with description, especially women's clothes. Is he a cross-dresser? What's the deal here? Bottom line: don't waste your money on the hardcover, wait for the paperback if you are interested. It's worth a read if you're a WOT fan. One last observation: did anyone notice how the series started to tank when he made Moiraine disappear (who will obviously be rescued from the clutches of the Aelfinn by Thom-it's clear she ain't dead)? I don't think it was an accident. She was the glue that held this all together and one of the few characters that stayed interesting until she was gone. She came to terms with her fate and what she could do with Rand (or Bland Rand as people have taken to calling him). It is sad: Jordan could have had a magnificient and memorable series if he had aimed at ending WOT in 6-8 books. Instead, we've got a greedy jerk of an author who's out to screw fans. It makes it all the more remarkable that he was able to write a semi-interesting book. Then again, he was working with two of his best characters, starting from scratch.
Rating: 
Summary: Good
Review: I don't really understand the people who hate this book. First, if you have read none of the other WoT books you probably wouldn't hate this book, though I would recommend reading the main plot books first and saving this for when you go crazy trying to beat your way through books 8-10 (most people seem to include 7 in this also, but I liked it as well as the others. Of course I liked Crossroads too, but I can definitely see why people would have problems with it.) For those who have read the other books, there is a good bit of totally new material beyond the original short story--contrary to popular opinion of reviewers here--and that material is very enlightening in aspects of Aes Sedai not previously dealt with (especially the testing for the shawl.) Overall the pacing is better. Reason: RJ was burned out from writing the same thing for twenty years. Assuming your still interested in more than the Last Battle being lost to make certain no one is having a tea party to talk about, you won't be overly dissapointed in the actual story content, and all that description gets a little more dilute fewer main characters. I'm not certain that concludes, but I think it shows my assessment of the book, though my own wordiness may leave some questions in your mind.
Rating: 
Summary: Most reviewers are blithering idiots
Review: This is a welcome addition to the Jordan fans. I cannot understand the blithering idiots praising JRR Tolkein for finishing when from beginning to end, Hobbit to Return of the Kings took THIRTY YEARS. If you want to restrict it to Lord of the Rings, then it only took 13 years. Grow up you children who have never had an original thought, much less written an original line in your lives. I want to encourage Jordan to finish his series. All I have done is put it all on hold (while buying the books) until he (or his ghost writer) finish the series. As to this book, I feel it adds to the WoT series and I for one am sure he has worked out his denouement for WoT and needed to lay the foundation for it with this multiple book prequel (if you believe all of the rumor mills about what Jordan has "said" in some discussion group). Happy reading.
Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting
Review: I read many of the reviews prior to purchasing and reading this book and I am glad I bought it. It cleared up questions I had about Suian, Moriaine and Lan that was only hinted at or only a brief explanation given in the WOT series about how they met, etc. I would have liked to see more information on Tam and the story of Rand's birth mother.
The stories in New Spring were not as exciting as the first 3 WOT books were but they give good background information on the 3 very important characters. This book is still a good read and recommend it to any serious WOT fan.
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of Time
Review: When my wife told me that another book was just released I was in suspense and eager to get my hands on it. For those of you who've read the last couple of books in the series, this will seem like an entire year wasted on a book that could have been written after the series was finished. The male source is finally clean. And while we're salivating for the final battle to commence, he writes a story about Novices going on an adventure. Thoroughly disgusted, I cannot bear to read any more of his books until he gets his act together and stops writing about snotty Novices, Accepted and power junkie Aes Sedai scheming and whining about how every single nit picking detail is or should be done in, around or for the White Tower.
Rating:
Summary: Good book.
Review: It's a great book for Robert Jordan fans but you have to have read a wheel of time book before this sort of. It's a prequel to the series not a sequel however and is alot shorter.
Rating:
Summary: This book is excellent!
Review: Having never read the original New Spring, I must say I really enjoyed this book. Contrary to the beliefs of others, this book reminded me a lot more of the earlier books in the series than the latter. I don't know how people can claim this book is worthless and that there is nothing new in it. The fact we get to see the test to become an Aes Sedai is more than worth it for me - let alone the detail about the White Tower and its inner politics. I would not be surprised if the people who nay-say this book actually only read a small part and decided it wasn't worth it before they trashed it. Yes, it is a lot better than the later novels in the series. No, it is not trash. Perhaps people just want the series to end so badly that they cannot sit there and think about the value of the very details Jordan is providing. I for one am glad I purchased this book, having read it completely in two days.
Rating:
Summary: About Time
Review: After finally losing all patience with Jordan after that fiasco called book ten, I started New Spring with growing tredpidation and nightmares of nothing happening. It starts off slow and wanders for chapters over copying names onto a list.
However, it does pick up and once it got going i could not put the book down and it reminded me of the very first book in WOT. I absolutely loved this book and I hope that the other Prequels are done in the same way. I know that a lot of fans are turned off by Jordan these days and i can understand why. However there are a few things that happen in this book, I never read the short story version of this one so it came as a surprise, and I think that in order to write book 11 he had to deal with that first. It definitely makes Rand's position in book 10 a little more tense.
Rating:
Summary: RJ haters, shut your mouths.
Review: I'm really tired of reading reviews about how Robert Jordan should end the WOT series already, and it's all the same, blah blah blah. If you don't like it, stop reading it already. It's a long story with more than just battles and magic. If you want that, go read some Dungeons and Dragons novel. As for this book, good stuff. Shows us some more background. If you love WOT then I have no doubt that you will love this.
Rating:
Summary: Stop Whining!!!!
Review: I thought this book was great for anyone into the WOT. The story moves well and it fills in a lot of small gaps and tells a lot of background previously undisclosed. I check the reviews out of curiosity and so many people are crying, "When will it end - too long!" Yeah, its a long and detailed story - suck it up and enjoy the intricacy! Not a series for those without the will to read a LONG story. I would not recommend this unless you are into the WOT and if you by some odd chance are just getting going I'd wait until I was done to hit this.
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