Rating: 
Summary: Moderate Pace - Plenty of twists and intrigue
Review: I bought the book before reading the reviews here. Many of the reviews would have made me reconsider, because I've seen some of the things in earlier books of the series. That is to say the slow downs and seemingly meaningless running around and smoothing skirts.I'm happy to say I did not get that impression from this book. This books shows Rand as growing in power, ability and intelligence. Not to meantion being able to conjure up good strategies. While all the same being naive and vulnerable in many ways. Mat finally starts to get some respect from those besides the band of the hand, and saves some very disrepectful butts in the process. Elayne and Nynaeve come to respect Mat even if Nynaeve respect is grudgingly. Anoying Padan Fain is still out there, but what's his real purpose. The Seanchan are starting to conquer lands again. The All Mighty Children of the Light are having difficulties to say the least. The Black Ajah get a couple of new weapons how will they use them. Not to meantion some of them get a good spanking as needed. The Shaido get tricked by the Forsaken, but we only know of some of their fate. All of this builds plenty of suspense as well of twists and intrigue in the plots. I can't wait until I start the Path of Daggers (book 8) tonight {even though some of it's reviews were less than favorable as well.} TAZ
Rating:
Summary: An amazing novel
Review: Jordan continues to garner my interest in this seventh installment of the wheel of time. A Crown of Swords is the first wheel of time novel that I can remember not focusing almost entirely on Rand. In previous novels, Jordan writes other plots along with Rand's adventures, but in this novel Jordan seems to write Rand's adventures along with Mat, Elayne and Nynaeve, who I think were the focus of this novel. Perrin is hardly mentioned, and not much occurs with Egwene. Jordan places more emphasis on knowing the actions of Elaida and the Forsaken then in previous novels. What Happens. A new Aes Sedai is introduced, Cadsuane, I think. Min has a viewing of her, that makes me think we will be seeing much more of her in upcoming novels. Egwene is on the move, recruiting more men for her army. Mat, Elayne, and Nynaeve are in Ebou Dar. They spend months looking for a terangel that will fix the weather. Lan also reappears in this novel. Rand attempts to do stuff, but Jordan leaves us in doubt of any real conclusions. The Shaido are dispersed. Elaida learns the Black Tower is strong and of Al' Thor's escape, which is not good for her. Again, Jordan hints at Moraines reapperance. I think this novel was published six or seven years ago. This time the hint comes from Min saying her viewing about Moraine was the only one she was ever wrong about. The other hint that came about ten years ago was one of Egwenes dreams. This was still a strong novel, but the pace continues to slow and Jordan continues his trend of introducing new characters who annoy me.
Rating: 
Summary: Back to business as usual
Review: ***2.5 stars*** Oh well -- it looks as if the exciting Lord of Chaos was an anomaly, as Jordan is back to excruciatingly slow pacing, wasted space, and not much of anything going on. In fact, the first 500 pages of this 850 page book could have taken 100-150 pages if Jordan had any idea how to write succinctly. Here is a plot summary of those first 500 pages: 1)damage from the battle ending book 6 is surveyed by Rand and the future is pondered. The future of Cairhien is pondered, Rand deposes a would-be Queen, and the future is pondered again. 2) Meanwhile, in Salidar, the future of the Tower is pondered, Moghedien escapes (boy, nobody saw *that* coming eh?), Telaranriod is visited and power balances are pondered. Lan returns. 3). Elayne/Nynaeve/Aviendha search for terangreal in Ebou Dar and Mat goes to the palace in Ebou Dar and is sexually pursued by the Queen. Meanwhile, Darkfriends and Forsaken briefly scheme and plot. 4) A new Aes Sedai confronts Rand and Elayne and Nynaeve apologize to Mat for ordering him around so much. Throughout, Loial incessantly whines about finishing his book. And all the while sedan carts are dodged, skirts are smoothed, and plenty of punch is had by everyone. Joy.
Of course, it's entirely possible to write a gripping, thought-provoking novel in which very little action occurs. Such classics as Darkness at Noon and The Stranger are mostly the ponderings of imprisoned individuals sitting in their cells, for example. Closer to the fantasy genre, Frank Herbert's excellent Dune Messiah is all about politics and plotting; little in the way of action happens, yet it is fully engrossing and is, IMO, the best-written book in the Dune series. Robert Jordan, though, seems unable to make his books interesting when the plot slows down, and this lack of ability hurts each and every one of his Wheel of Time novels -- even the more successful earlier entries. This is not one of the more successful Wheel of Time novels, though, and it is killed by his two-dimensional characters sitting around and bickering at each other. Things pick up a bit from there and the last third of the book is interesting, but the first two-thirds come very close to being outright awful, and the question is: WHY? Why, after laying out some very interesting conflicts and important plot developments in book 6 did Jordan abandon it all in book 7 to focus on new issues of substantially less importance to the plot, and substantially less interest to the reader? I have no clue, and I'm wondering if the author does, either.
Rating: 
Summary: Great series
Review: Love the overall series. Bogs down a bit in here filling in details. Have all of the books in hard cover.
Rating:
Summary: Growing in the telling, but not carrying Tolkien's torch.
Review: This is an excellent work of fantasy. There is little room for question, but it is limited in the sense that it is nothing more than a work of fantasy fiction. The detail is rich and the language flows well. Robert Jordan has found a style all his own and has persisted. It is understandable that some readers find the present plot movement slow and unsatisfying, but that development began with the very first book. Now that the characters have developed their own niches and have branched off from one another, as people often do, Jordan has to squeeze 8 books into one. All things considered, he makes very smooth shifts from different points of view. The barrage of seemingly insignificant detail he gives for the speech, actions, and clothing of each character is just an attempt to make us, the readers, know the characters better. It is the reason the world presented in the books becomes so real. On the other hand, Tolkien did not require such detail to make his world real. His tale grew in the telling primarily out of his study of language and myth, language being the most important factor. Language made the world real -- the poems, the shadows of the past. It all added up to a myth or a legend that was to be purely for the British Isles consisting in a linguistic history more than anything else. The novels thus take on more of a historical / fairy tale kind of tone. Jordan, however, writes pure fantasy fiction. Speaking about Jordan expanding upon any world Tolkien began to reveal is like comparing apples to oranges. There is a different motive, a different style, and exceedling different men with the pen. The Lord of the Rings is the book most read in the 20th century next to the Bible. Children and adults from everywhere and from all walks of life read it, and that was before the film phenomenon. Jordan will likely never achieve such status for the 21st century. He will dazzle the hearts and minds of fantasy fans like myself and all of those who read this review, but that will be the limit -- a great work of fantasy, but doomed not to be in the literary hall of fame because of the narrow target audience. I love it, and I would recommend it to anyone, but at the risk of being called a geek. The series just does not carry the universal appeal of Tolkien.
Rating: 
Summary: Please shut him up!!!!
Review: I enjoyed books 1-6. Crown of Swords is just what all the critiques say: boring, verbose, tedious, excrutiating... etc. After the climatic finale of #6, I was excited to see the reactions of all parties involved in the events in the beginning of #7. I was sorely disappointed. It was well more than halfway into the book before Elaida discovers what happened at the battle. Jordan has a bad habit of taking the first 1/4 or more of the book rehashing prior events. Absolutely nothing happens in the beginning of the book, and worse, little if any happens in the entire book. The whole book is a mindless verbose drone (sp) by Jordan. He takes entire chapters to describe converstions that can be contained in 2 or 3 pages. My trick in forcing myself thru the book is to only read the dialogue. Seriously, the book has fatal flaws. Jordan: Quit writing filler episodes! Your reputation has been tarnished enough already. I already bought the 3rd collection (7, 8, 9), so I will try to force myself thru them when I have nothing better to do. I see that #10 just came out and offers most of the same slow pace. Unless Jordan speeds up his books, I will stop at 9 (which I already bought, much to my regret) and read no more of his stuff. My recommendation, if you have to read his later books, browse thru only the actual diagolue (at book store or library). Skip the verbose unnecessary nonsense.
Rating:
Summary: Robert Jordon! Please speed up !!!
Review: I just hope that Robert Jordon takes a look at this review and ues it for pacing up the story. Ofcoarse even with the slow speed of parts 6th & 7th [ as compared to earlier parts 1-5 } the saga is still readable and intrigues as well as charms. But if we look holistically, nothing seems to be moving. Egwene is still slowly moving on towards Tar Valon, Morgase is no way near Andor, Rand did just 1 decent thing of actually attacking illian, no. of forsaken are still as much as there were two books back { even though last two books Rand's only aim seem to be killing atleast one of them }. Even with a Tavern, Elayne & Nynaeve coiuld not finish up the job at Ebou Dar in the whole 742 pages. In the first few parts, one book used to spread across 2-3 months atleast but now it seems, Robert is too bust detailing the daily events so that whole book is finished and only 10-15 days have actually elapsed in that fictional world. This perhaps is the main concern for now. If Jordon did not correct it, did hard fans like me would soon be gettings a taste of Ashaman's fate.
Rating:
Summary: The Never Ending Story
Review: I think this series is misnamed. Instead of the "The Wheel of Time", I think it should be called "The Never Ending Story". The first 4 books were truly outstanding. Robert Jordan was one of the few authors I could justify buying in hardback edition. Books 5 and 6 were still fairly good, but the story was beginning to get bogged down. This book is the first in the series I didn't like at all. Out of habit, I bought book 8 but the idea of reading another of those 40+ page, boring, and in most cases irrelevant prologues was enough to give me a headache. I'm not reading any more of this series. Sometime in the distant future, if I live so long, this series may come to an end. I'll read the last book just to se how things end up. As for the rest of the books, I'll wait for the Reader's Digest version or for the Cliff Notes.
Rating:
Summary: The horror, the horror
Review: This series started off well enough. By book 4 the story was starting to lag a little bit, by book 5 the series was going downhill, and by book 6 the story had ground to a halt. Still, I was willing to give the series another chance, and I opened up volume seven with high hopes. Much to my dismay, I found that it was absolutely, astonishingly awful. For one thing, the story goes absolutely nowwhere. Rand is is still complaining, Elayne and Nynaeve(Light burn them!) are still searching for supernatural kitchenware, and Perrin is still as boring as ever. Jordan tries to bulk up his tedious narrative with needless details. Who cares what Nynaeve is wearing! The female characters are even more annoying than ever. Elayne is the same chatering fool she was since book 1, but now she is even more vexing since half the book focuses on her. Nynaeve tugs on her braid some 22,000 times during the course of the book. The female characters are seem to have the sane annoying personality. It seems like Jordan couldn't write women if his ife depende on it. In short, avoid this book at all costs.
Rating:
Summary: ALL HOPE BEGINING TO FADE
Review: WELL,where do i start,the first 4 or 5 books in this series were brilliant and i was begining to...dare i say it think that perhaps this could be something to rival the might of Tolkien BUT slowly but surely that kind of outrageous thinking has been washed away.The problem is at times the series and this book in particular are brilliant, while at other times it is utter boredom,the women characters i would love to see all end up dead,more annoying characters i doubt could be found,the arrogance of some of them is astonishing.without question the charcter that keeps things alive is matt,just a shame that too much time is spent on the women. at times this book was very good indeed but the ending left a lot to be desired and was a let down to say the least. IT TAKES REAL COMMITTMENT to read this series,the books are frustratingly long,i have just heard that jordan hopes to finish the series in 13 books,regardless of what happens i will read them all but he desperately needs to turn it around as at this stage it looks as though good will triumph without any casualties of note,i strongly believe a main character needs to be killed off and the light only send that it is Nynaeve OR Elayne. the wheel weaves as the wheel wills so they say,i for one will not abandon ship just yet!!!
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