Rating: 
Summary: My Brain is Dying
Review: if it is true that the brain has something like a maximum capacity, some threshold at which point old material starts being deleted so new material can be absorbed, Jordan owes me a few billion neurons. of all the filler books in this series (you know- those 2-5 book stints in which NOTHING happens?) I find this one the most insulting. the complete lack of action in this volume has been interpreted favorably by some of my more forgiving friends. one went so far as to say "he's just setting us up for an awesome book 9." did tolkien feel the need to screw up the Fellowship just to sell more copies of the Two Towers? if he did, history has obviously forgotten, but somehow I don't think it was the case. a writer should set out to make every book amazing, or not publish the accursed thing. artists, which writers should be, are the last people in the world who should stint on perfectionism. the lack of this drive in good ol' RJ has led to the current state of affairs, in which his books receive solid "3 star" reviews because most of us balefully give him one, while a [...], merciful or just plain stupid minority give him 5. I've been hooked on these schlock-fests for half a decade, and I know very well that, despite my antipathy towards the weak prose and redundant characterization, i will read every book Robert [...] Jordan will produce, until they finally shove his bloated corpse into a coffin of solid gold, paid for by thirty volumes of hardcover and paperback WOT sales over four decades. May his body then rot like the spine of a tor paperback!
Rating:
Summary: good god, let it end already
Review: I have recently re-read the first 4 books of the wheel of time series, and they were fantastic books, rich with characters, plot and above all a POINT! But after those books, the series starts creaking under the weight of all the extraneous detail and convoluted plots. I applaud Mr. Jordon's ability to keep everything straight, but I can't any longer. I had hoped that book 9 would pick things up again and move us along, but it just gets worse! It would also be nice to see some character DEVELOPMENT. Are all these people going to continue acting either as bossy know-it-alls and/or three-year-olds?
Rating:
Summary: To those who say he's still "got it"
Review: You're dead wrong. Go back and read the first few books. You are doing a disservice to Jordan, to his readers and to fantasy in general when people say that book 8 or 9 is just as good as books 1-5. They just aren't. There's no comparison.For example. When's the last time you actually heard mention of Rand's herons burned into his palms? How often do you hear about the dragon tatoos? When's the last time Rand faced a master with the sword? Preferably not one made out of magic. When did Thom become (in book 1) a cool, mysterious bard, to (book 8) a toady at the whim of "The Women of Jordan's World." Face it, I'm beginning to wonder if Jordan even reads his own books anymore. I don't have a problem with characters changing. The sense of fear and suspense may lesson in the books, that makes sense as they all gain power and prestige. But dangit, those sword fights were cool. The awe that people had when they saw the heron-bone blade gave chills! Now, we are lucky to even see Rand, much less his blade.
Rating: 
Summary: It started out great...
Review: ...but where is it going now? I started reading this series back in 94 or so, then stopped after Book 5, waiting for the series to end...of course, it didn't, and a friend started reading the series and got me back into it. Book 6 was long and meandering, then 7 was a little better, and now this book, TPOD, was a bit better than that...but also contained many new flaws, such as disorganization. Basically, I don't know what's happened to this series. The first 3 books were incredible, and TWOT promised to be the greatest fantasy series of our generation. Around Book 4 it started to go astray, but now it is stuck in a quagmire that (i fear) it can't get out of. Of course, I'm addicted, which is what's causing me to go on. But since Winter's Heart is still not out in paperback, I have some time to withdraw and move on to another series. Which makes me sad, b/c this was an excellent series. But with two hundrend sub-plots and twists going, I don't see how Jordan can end this series anytime soon. I will say that Jordan has created a world as full of detail and as rich as our own, but that's about all I can say now. All the characters behave like little children. The Aes Sedai, for all their age, act no better than catty teenage girls. And...well, I could go on. I hope Jordan can salvage this series, but I think now it may be too late. And at the rate this series is going, I think Jordan will die of old age before finishing it.
Rating: 
Summary: Forced to read
Review: Someone said no one is forcing us to read Robert Jordan. Well, Robert Jordan is forcing us to read. By giving us a feast of words and titilating our imagination he has much of the fantasy world hooked. We can't afford not to read for fear we may miss a plot line he has set up in the first set of books. Even after reading this book I am still waiting for those pay offs. And when the pay offs do come I can't remember the set up because it was years ago as well as many books ago. Thank God for the internet and the information we can turn to to review. As far as Path of Daggers is concerned, I enjoyed it, but was disappointed. It took well over one quarter of the book just to activate the silly bowl of winds and change weather from hot to cold. That should have been a chapter. I wish Jorden would stop milking us for all we are worth just because we had faith in him at one time. Talk about a god that failed!
Rating:
Summary: The series drags on
Review: This book continues the increasingly painful story of multiple epic battles. I started reading this series when only the first three books had been published in soft cover. (Yes, I liked them quite a bit.) After book six, I kept hoping for a sign that events will resolve themselves, but Robert Jordan is ever one for introducing two or three new unresolved twists for every one loose end he ties off. At this rate, it'll require several more books just to wrap up the subplots that I can still remember. I've purposefully held off on buying the 9th book until it comes out in soft cover because I don't wish to reward further drawing out this endless twisting tale. At this point for new readers, I'd recommend waiting until the last book is published (assuming that happens in our lifetime), and then buy the whole set to read. As it is, I'm going to have to go back and re-read parts of several books to get back into the plot. Of course, I get tired of the same foreshadowings over and over, like yes I know that the lady who went through the magical gate that burned is not dead even though Rand assumes she is. If he hints that again in the next book without bringing her back into the plot I think I'll scream.
Rating:
Summary: A lot of nothing.........
Review: Mr. Jordan takes us on a new weave of storylines but he dosen't do much in the over 600 pages of text. Granted, I have only read baout the first 2/3rds of the book but we don't even have a chapter with Rand until page 281. I don't know where he is going with this book, but you could have cut it in half and placed the first half of the book in ACOS and the last half in WInter's Heart instead of making this a separate text. I am going to continue the series because of what I have invested already timewise but I wish he would get on with it already.
Rating:
Summary: The Wheel of Time trudges on
Review: The Wheel of Time series trudges endlessly on. Surely it will come to an end. At the beginning the spankings were cute, but grown men and women going through this is not cute anymore. Also the pat phrases about playing with dresses and glares and stares have been common in this series. Because of the length of the series some of the groups of friends and enemies have been forgotten and now are being re-introduced. The daimane are back in this book, but the reader may not remember what they are because they appeared much earlier. The plot is similar to the other books. The Ta-veran Rand al Thor, Matt Cauthan and Perrin are doing something to bring Rand to the cosmic fight. This book does not see Matt, which detracts from it. Rand has been suffering from his mystical powers - again. Won't Mr. Jordon spare him further grief? The Ninth Book has been written but is not yet in paperback. Does anybody know how many books there will be?
Rating: 
Summary: Slow... but in a GOOD way
Review: This book bores many people I think because it breaks from the mold of the previous books quite a bit. Jordan is often lauded for his character development and this is never more evident than in this book. Contrary to what some have said, LESS time is spent on arguments over fashion and male/female romance and MORE time is spent over problems of politics and power that feel more real in this book than in any previous. The best thing about the book however, is that it is not just another version of The Dragon Reborn (which the past few books have been) in which Rand spends the whole novel planning, and the last few pages prosecuting, an attack on another nation held by another Forsaken, killing them with Balefire and then ruling. This is a good book... plain and simple. Very mature and very powerful.
Rating:
Summary: I'm afraid to read more
Review: Before 1999, I wasn't into fantasy at all. I picked up "A Game of Thrones" (George R.R. Martin), "The Black Company" (Glen Cook) and "Eye of the World" in the same weekend, and finished all three within the month. And when I was done, the first thing I looked for in the bookstore was the rest of TWOT series. I was -- and still am -- tragically hooked. While all three authors caught my interest, the world of TWOT really captured me. But now I'm afraid of what the future holds. Beginning with "Lord of Chaos," I began to have doubts about Jordan's commitment to the series. A chain of lacklustre installments left me wondering if Jordan was just going to walk away from the series and leave me twisting in the wind. Is he losing interest? In TPOD, Jordan has lost none of his flair for weaving very detailed scenes. But instead of adding to the story (as he so ably did in the first novels), he now seems bent on concealing it. Much was said, and little happened in this novel. I cannot fault his writing skill, but perhaps it's time for Jordan to pick up a collaborator to develop plots for him. I know very little about the mechanics of getting a novel published, but I've heard it said that all Jordan has to do is submit a manuscript, and Tor rushes it into production. This, I believe, could be the problem. Jordan seems to be flailing, hoping for inspiration. If he wasn't under pressure to submit manuscripts, perhaps he'd recapture his direction. And before anyone gets on my case for whining about lack of action, don't. This is fantasy. This is entertainment. It is not the Bible. It is not a textbook on biology. If it fails to entertain Jordan's die-hard fans, perhaps that's their problem. But maybe, just maybe, TPOD fails to entertain because of its complete lack of content. This novel is 685 pages of filler. If the next one is (as reviews indicate) another 685 pages of filler, maybe I'll just wait 'til book 10 (or 36, at the rate Jordan's going...) to pick the series up again.
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