Rating: Summary: A weak spoke. Review: The "Wheel of Time" is a wonderful fantasy series, and just about all the positive comments about Jordan and his characters are true, but it is difficult to avoid the sensation that the story bogs down within the later books, and particularly in the fifth volume, "The Fires of Heaven." The constant repetition of Aiel customs, Rand's temper tantrums, and chiches that are nerly inevitable in a project of this magnitude are at their strongest here. One gets the impression that Jordan wastes too much time with *travel*, causing one to wonder if Rand will *ever* get out of the waste or if Nynaeve and Elayne will *ever* get to Salidar. And how many boisterous inns and fat innkeepers do we have to suffer through? Do not misunderstand this criticism; Jordan is a very good writer and at least makes every chapter vivid and interesting, but the best novels in the series are the first, second, third, and seventh. Between those the sense of adventure and wonder seems to take a back seat to bureaucracy, boring journeys, and Rand's interminable temper tantrums and paranoia. In spite of that, "The Fires of Heaven" is a must-read due to its few essential elements of the overall story, and, again due to Jordan's excellent descriptive style, stands above and beyond many other rival sagas. I eagerly wait the eighth volume.
Rating: Summary: Did I miss something? Jordan keeps milkin' it Review: Ah...here is a book you can slam down on someone's leg and break it. The sheer size of "Fires" is impressive, so I snuggled down to chew this one up, prepared for the literary ride of my life.... and found that this book has nothing. There is no content in this book that can explain the 800 plus pages. I somehow finished it and to this day, can't remember a thing that was in it. All I recall is the ending was great, the last 50 or so pages were tremendous, but everything else was a waste of paper. What got accomplished in this book? I can't recall anything in this book, whatever emotions I had...who knows? All I remember thinking is that Mr.Jordan should have ended this series long ago, with book 3. Instead, he insists on churning out huge volume after huge volume, and expects people (rightfully so, because they are) to eat these books up. I'm sorry, but 8 volumes of this is too much. I made it to "Lord of Chaos" but gave up after that. Book 1 was great, book 2, book 3...and then it started to dwindle away, to utter monotony and repetitive, bone-dry BORING fantasy. "Fires of Heaven" may be considered a classic by Jordan fans, but I feel like a threw down _ bucks for a large block of paper. Utter boredom, disappointment in where this series went. Mr.Jordan, END IT.
Rating: Summary: A fantastic book Review: I first heard about the WoT from a friend at school, and I can't thank him enough. The entire series is just wonderful.I am deeply attached to the characters. I thought about it, and I cannot pick my favorite one! The books just keep getting better and better!
Rating: Summary: Jordan is THE best Review: This is by far the best book i ever read! Write on RJ !
Rating: Summary: Excellent!climax of the series. Review: If you thought the Shadow rising was good. You ain't seen nothing yet. nations battle, building crumble and prophecies are awoken in the inntelegent fantasy epic to rival the legendary " Lord of the rings"
Rating: Summary: Amazing story Review: The Fires of Heaven is an amazing story. I've just read it for the umpteenth time, and I found it as engaging as ever before. Unlike Knight Michaels, who writes nearby, I do not see characters being "murdered," whether by sexual stereotyping or anything else. The main protagonist, Rand, shows an incredible growth in strength in response to the position he finds himself in. He seems to understand full well how everybody else has ulterior motives or hidden agendas where he is concerned. He alone seems to have an holistic view of the struggle, and he steels himself to do, or cause to be done, that which will give the best chance of success. If he seems arrogant or "full of himself," - well that's sometimes what it takes to be a leader. Yet having to be that way is hurtful to him. He is after all, just 20 years old, and most of the world wants to use him or to kill him. That's a load for anybody. And, it's humorous to see the effect that three young women can have on the poise and concentration of our young Dragon. We see Elayne a lot more in this book. Sure, she's a spoiled brat. And, she's also delightfully spunky and adventurous. She has been growing on me, and she wins my heart in the scenes around Birgitte's reappearance in this world, and in particular by her dealings with Thom and Juilin. Those guys will follow her anywhere, and that's a good start to becoming Queen of Andor. Nynaeve - now there's a case for you. She has so many conflicts gnawing at her it's remarkable she can keep it together at all. She is several years older than the other key characters, and she was an important person in the quiet place where she has lived most of her life. She's struggling with the changes - her loss of acknowledged station, her situation with Lan, her ambivalence about Moiraine and Aes Sedai, etc. But, she's tough as nails and fierce as a tigress, and a real heavyweight with the One Power. The scenes with Moghedien, especially in the Royal Palace, are riveting. Mat - my favorite character - just keeps on being Mat. He would always take the easy way if he could, but the Wheel won't allow it. Our unassuming hero just continues to grow. Because he is such a cynic and antiestablishmentarian, the things that befall Mat are really incongruous. As a result, stories about Mat are often side-splittingly funny. But, even though Mat doesn't confide every little thing, Rand recognizes the development of his military skills. He uses Mat's skills to the extent he can. The battle scenes around Cairhien are terrific. As for the relations between men and women, I think Jordan has that scoped out pretty well. That's why that book about Mars and Venus was a monumental best seller. Let me introduce you sometime to my five sisters-in-law. They make ordinary Aes Sedai seem like Brownies, and they all seem to think they are the Amyrlin Seat. And, we brothers-in-law just look at one another and roll our eyes when they launch. There's nothing to be done about them. Finally, to those of you who think Jordan is just "milking" this story for the big bucks - think a minute. Imagine yourself a very wealthy person now, who everyday has to sit down behind a typewriter and write for 8 or 12 hours. You're going to spend a large chunk of your life producing further instalments of a story instead of going off to play and spend all that money. And this even though some significant number of people will revile your efforts and accuse you of being some sort of sleaze. I am thankful Mr. Jordan has stuck with it. I'm willing to pay the pittance he asks every two years or so, just to find out about some imaginary people who seem very real and are important to me. Remember what your grandmother said: "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."
Rating: Summary: I miss the beginning Review: I'd give this book three and a half if I could. It does still manage to hold my attention more than just about every other fantasy novel I've read. But it's not as good as the beginning. In the first two or three books, Nynaeve was a character to admire for her courage and complexity - her silent love affair with Lan and the way she dispensed justice to the Seanchan sul'dam made her my favorite character of the series. But now she has been reduced to a squabbling, annoying whiner. Of course arguing makes her more human, but over and over again? It just gets on my nerves. Give me back the pre-White Tower flight Nynaeve, please!
Rating: Summary: Pepto-bismal please. This abysmal book is disgusting! Review: Ewww. This is talent? Wasting hundreds of pages to describe a story that could have been done in perhaps 100-150? Introducing more character "depth" by reducing them to a primitive challenge of genders? Slaughtering likability by murdering characters who used to be so intriguing and giving them all calloused, self-centered, two-year-old mentalities? Everyone in the Wheel of Time starts acting as if business is as usual and you get the feeling no real story is being told. Page after page, you hope that it is all to make some wonderful observation. But it never is. The Fires of Heaven ultimately cannot be saved by such amusing conundrums like *saying in a ladyish voice* Elmindreda or by shocking plot twists like deaths or Tower betrayals, it all seems so much like...a comic book. No character growth. And there should be character growth, we should not have to buy two more books just to see extremely slight nuances hinting at very small character changes. Pl! ot begins your narrative and keeps it fresh, but ultimately only good characters will ever distinguish popular work. Jordan's style is so rote by this time, you can almost imagine the words yourself. And why must he explain every single thought process of each character, as well all his points for readers he obviously does not consider intelligent enough to take in what little symbolism there is and make their prejudices so blatant and hellish? Why does he reduce them to one dimension by using sex, when he could have expanded them past anything else there was in this genre? Why do we never see them highly effected by what happens to them? That's just not realistic, no mattter how stubborn Emond's Fielders are. Furthermore, there is a weakening of the diversity by making all men essentially the same with little differences and all women follow the same line of thinking. The nations all have the same problems and their interesting civilizations are now rote memorizations. A ! shame. Truly a shame, Jordan had to come to this. Where did! all the plot elements go? Jordan has completely lost control of them and his so-called imagination. 3 out of 10. Only bother with it if you must know what happens next--like a horrid soap opera--and if you can stand Aviendha and Sorilea. A few bright seconds (the ending was predictably tolerable), but not much.
Rating: Summary: Wonderful! Simply wonderful! :) Review: This addition to Jordan's WoT books is one of the best, yet! It adds story to Rand's struggle against keeping himself Rand instead of letting Lews Therin take over. The world of dreams is covered more and lets you in on the true vastness of Jordan's world. If you liked any of the of first books, definately buy this one.
Rating: Summary: Loved It Review: Never a better saga.
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