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A Crown of Swords (The Wheel of Time, Book 7)

A Crown of Swords (The Wheel of Time, Book 7)

List Price: $7.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Fantasy Collection Ever Written
Review: I have been reading the Wheel of Time series since the first book came out and this is my favorite series ever. However, it's not for everyone. Jordan is probably the most descriptive writer I have ever read and he will describe everything he possibly can in one situation in order to set the mood properly. This makes his books, and the chapters, very long. Some people don't like long and descriptive, elaborate writing like this, I do, and I believe that Robert Jordan is the best author I have ever read. Read the series in order, starting from the first book, and it will make a lot more sense and be much more enjoyable reading. I've gone back and read all of them over again at least twice.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I think i'm going to be sick.
Review: I will admit that I was enthralled from the first this series. I enjoyed the first two to the point where I just bought the next six so I wouldn't have to wait. But when I finished six I realized that the characters had been becoming more and more annoying as the story went on. The women are untrustworthy and as a general rule too full of them selves. Now I have nothing against strong female characters, some of my favorite books center around strong women, but these women just make you want to tear out pages of their Nonsensical bickering. I found myself counting the pages till their chapter was over or even considering skipping them all together. The male characters are weak and forever repeating I wish i understood girls like my two friends. As if the annoyance of the characters and the droning on about unimportant things such as what Random Aeil #1 is wearing wasnt enough the story gos NOWHERE!! Literally almost nothing relevant happens. I struggled to find something, anything that would restore my joy in reading an amazing series but I found nothing to restore my faith. I even tryed listening to an audiobook on the chance that listening wasn't as bad. I WAS WRONG! IT WAS WORSE! I can't struggle through another book like this and from the reviews i've seen it appears I won't be waisting my time.
Another amazing series gos the way of the dodo.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Chapter In The Series
Review: Jordan's "A Crown of Swords" feels more like a sequel than any of his other books. Some character stories get mini resolutions such as Elayne's & Aviendha's search for the weather bowl, but most only open doors to new and more complex issues. I actually enjoyed this installment more than the last, my only issue with the book was a hasty and neat ending that I'm not sure if I believe is true. Of course you can never be sure of anything in Jordan's world, but here I just felt it wrapped up a little too neatly in the end.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Jordan pick up the pace!
Review: This book in his series seem to drag on and on. It never felt like you were going anywhere. I kept on saying to myself as I read the book I hope it gets better.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Most Light-Hearted, Playful and Amusing Volume!!!
Review: After the triumph of Book 6, any writer would have been hard-pressed to equal such an effort. Instead of trying to match what he had done before, though, RJ changes gears with A Crown of Swords, and gives us his most playful, amusing volume in the series. The key to this shift in tone is the focus on Mat, the put-upon, misunderstood, just-trying-to-keep-his-promise guy who gets the tables turned on him with Queen Tylin, and shows the Atha'an Miere what being a ta'veren is all about. There is an obvious sympathetic connection between RJ and his gambler creation; makes you wonder what he was like in his 20s. Oh, there are other characters, other plotlines to follow in ACOS, but they seem a little pale and less interesting than Mat's trials and tribulations. Who can forget Tylin tying Mat's wrists to the bedposts, or Mat receiving Elayne and Nynaeve's apologies with his usual skepticism and practical good humour? Any poll I've seen has Mat as the most popular character by far, and ACOS is the volume that gives Mat room to grow in our hearts.
PLOTTING: Aside from Mat, Elayne, and Nynaeve in Ebou Dar, we've got Egwene trucking the rebels north, and Rand and Perrin returning from Dumai's Wells to discover renewed suspicions. There are a few side-trips (Elaida's troubles with Alviarin - serves her right; Sammael messing with the Shaido), and RJ even tries giving Rand an oppprtunity to goof around (his impetuous jaunt to a certain hideout).
CHARACTERIZATION: Queen Tylin is an inspired creation, putting Mat so hilariously in his place, and we finally get to meet Cadsuane, the most imposing presence since Sorilea. We also get a rare treat - a POV with Aviendha, who gives us a welcome glimpse into the mind of an Aiel. Given the sheer numbers of characters, RJ has his work cut out for him in trying to give them all identities and dimensions, and with the major characters, I believe he succeeds quite well.
PACING: RJ begins the book by looking at Dumai's Wells from a couple of different angles before delving into the aftermath, and the result is his most patient, thoughful opening to date. From there, things gradually pick up speed; some nice suspense with Egwene's discovery of Myrelle and Nisao's transgressions, which carry us through the middle of the book. Then, two false climaxes before the true climaxes. The way RJ writes it, we're not sure which challenges were more difficult.
BEST SCENE: There's no doubt - the scene that has Tylin finally trapping Mat in his bedchambers, and does some tricky things with her wedding knife. The Best Scene We Never Got To See: Lan and Nynaeve's Sea Folk wedding.
MOST POV: Even though this is Mat's book, he really steals it out from under Rand, Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve, who get about as much time as he does. But because his POVs are usually so much fun, they tend to stick in your mind more than the others do.
OVERALL: RJ doesn't try to outdo book 6; instead, he changes the tone and writes a more light-hearted volume. This is all to the good, but as we'll soon see, Mat's character is more necessary to the success of the story than you'd think.

Sorry for my rambling on, and making the review so long. Hope it helps!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An amazing novel
Review: This is the first book in the Wheel of Time Series that I have to think about whether I enjoyed it. In the previous books, the climax was always better than the rest of the book and the rest of the book was pretty darn good. I will say the building action in the Crown of Swords is first rate, but the climax is lacking. I am definitely glad I read the first part of this book, but I could have skipped the last 100 pages. I kept waiting for something new and exciting to happen, and nothing did. Even the conclusion leaves you hanging, not in a good way. Jordan was written nine books, and he can't even be definitive on Sammael's fate. He brings back other forsaken whenever he wants, but he won't even tell us if Sammael even died. I have two problems with this novel. One is the conclusion I have already mentioned. The second is Rand's love life. I don't care who he loves or how often he makes love. Many men have loved more than one woman, but I don't think it qualifies as adventure. However, the rest of the novel is much better and makes the Crown of Swords worth reading.

What Happens? Mat, Elayne, and Nyn find the bowl in Ebou Dar, but do nothing with it yet. Mat becomes a pretty for the queen of Ebou Dar. Rand is captured by Aes Sedai and severly mistreated. He is rescued by Perrin and makes some of the Aes Sedai swear fealty to him. Perrin continues to have troubles with Faile and Berelain. The Ashaman have increased in numbers and power. Elaida has lost all power to her Keeper. Egwene is on the march for Tar Valon, and is receiving massages from one of the resurrected Forsaken.

Mat Cauthon makes this novel. I think the plot of this novel is centered around developing Mat's character, eliminating Sammael, and creating aminosity between Rand and Elaida, perhaps between all Rand and all Aes Sedai. A third of the novel deals with Mat and his views and characteristics. Lews Therin's voice makes this novel even better. The voice is usually funny and ironic, I look forward to pages with italicized sentences. As long as Jordan includes them, I will enjoy the Wheel of Time Series. I have critized this novel, but it was also my second time reading it, which is why I gave it four stars.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best
Review: I thought that with this book Jordan will get boring or etc. Thankfully for me that didn't happen. This book was one fo the best and is still one of the best! The Gholam, Moridin, the scene with Sammael are my favourite! So with this book Jordan continues the great saga "the Wheel of Time"! Highly recommended!
Regretfully is the last good book from the series. Hopefully I think that Jordan will return to his primary quality.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Hi
Review: Hi!!!Hi again!!! Hi!!! I am half way through this book. It is incrddibly boring and annoying, especially that Elayne. She thinks she's so all that and she's so obsessed with herself that she doesn't know what a [naughty person] she is. I would slap her right now. Bye!!!Bye again!!! Bye!!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A Crown of Swords Review
Review: The good thing is, Moiraine is dead.
Sadly, this is the only good thing. A Crown of Swords is the most horrifically, disgustingly awful book of the Jordan series I've read yet. And it isn't just that you're extremely bored during it, the book could have been written better by a fifth grader. Jordan must have been in a tremendous hurry writing this, because I don't think he went back to check over his poorly constructed sentences, and I doubt the editor even read the book, since some of the parts are so obviously contemptible a real editor would have died before letting them get by. I wish I could have remembered some of the really good examples that had me reeling in disgust, but here's one of the better written sentences: "To her, all people were Aes Sedai and the nobility, and their upper servants." This is barely a sentence...If to her all people were Aes Sedai, nobility, and their upper servants, then what about all the people that don't belong to those three? And why those three classifications? They seem a little unrelated. Plus, I had to read the sentence a few times before getting the gist of what the heck he's rambling on about, and even now I'm not too sure. Even worse, Jordan probably was unaware that he was repeating himself, such as in the sentence: "By her book, no one else mattered; perhaps no one else thought, by her book." Yes we know it's by her book, by her book.
If you can ignore the inferior writing (somehow), all the description will still bog you down. I was finally and desperately skipping whole paragraphs by the end of the book. Here is an example of Jordan's rambling. If the sentence had been: "Had Nyneave and Elayne been cavorting with Jaichim Carridin and Elaida in the fountain, he would have passed by without a second look," it would have been a decent, even droll, little sentence. Instead, it was like this: "Had Nyneave and Elayne been cavorting with Jaichim Carridin and Elaida in the fountain beneath that statue of some long-dead queen, two spans or more tall and pointing to the sea, he would have passed by without a second look." We're never going to see that statue again!!! Why do we have to know so much about it!!
When I started the book I was instantly reminded why I hated the last ones so. The prologue was fifty pages long the prologue was. No, excuse me, fifty-four. It was stupid and boring and all it did was show how different people were all stupid and boring. It started in the White Tower with Elaida who's fretting about how no one respects her and goes to the Aiel who want to capture Rand. I'm not sure what excuse the leader gave for why she's capturing Rand, but she actually wants to sleep with him. Everyone wants to sleep with Rand in this book, it's one of the main plot lines.
Actually there is a woman in the wide world that doesn't want to sleep with Rand, by her book her name is Tylin, she's a Queen and she wants to sleep with Mat, by her book. She tries to woo him with endearments like "my little rabbit," "you little piglet," and "you're a succulent little duckling." When this plan fails, she moves on to raping him violently.
The dust jacket of A Crown of Swords says: "In this volume, Elayne, Aviendha, and Mat come ever closer to the bowl ter'angreal that may reverse the world's endless heat wave and restore natural weather. Egwene begins to gather all manner of women who can channel-Sea Folk, Windfinders, Wise Ones, and some surprising others. And above all, Rand faces the dread Forsaken Sammael, in the shadows of Shadar Logoth, where the blood-hungry mist, Mashadar, waits for prey."
This is hopelessly inaccurate and just proves my theory that no one actually read this book before it was published. First of all, there's about fifty other people with Elayne, Mat and Aviendha looking for the bowl so I have no idea why just they were chosen to be on the dust jacket. And for what it says about Egwene, she does no such thing! I don't know what they were thinking when they wrote that! As for the last part, and above all Rand screws Min and orders people around in his spare time. He doesn't go to Shadar Logoth until the very last chapter of the book, and since it was a scene only a few pages long, it doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the dust jacket. I guess, though, that since the editors only skimmed A Crown of Swords and none of them actually tortured themselves reading it, it's the most one can expect, I guess.
I had a really hard time keeping track of the forty or more different characters for each different story line (ever though they're all described to their toenails). As for the main characters from earlier books, they're as annoying as ever. Egwene is the leader of the rebel Aes Sedai and everyone hates her. Rand thinks he's insane and in his confused state Min finds it easy to take advantage of him and watch him bathe. Sadly, Perrin married 'Faile' and is utterly whipped by her, sadly.

Elsewhere (the entire series having become one big soap opera) Lan has finally been suckered into marrying the ever stupid Nyneave, who goes on and on the next day to Elayne about the great sex they had.
I suppose if you're really into the series, you might like A Crown of Swords, but if not, never read this. As a book by itself without the rest of the series it's astonishingly horrible. This is such a wretched book it should be banned, nay, burnt...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Exposition rather than action
Review: I was somewhat intimidated going into this book because a great majority of the friends who had recommended the _Wheel Of Time_ series to me said that it lagged considerably around the seventh book. Well, maybe I'm the freak of the bunch, but I truly enjoyed this book.
While it is true that the more annoying aspects surfaced occasionally (such as the "Rand wished not for the first time that he understood women as well as Mat did" thing), the action moved on at a canter rather than the walk-gallop-walk pace of the previous books. To me, it stayed at a level of perpetual "almost there," reaching points of extreme excitement at times and lagging a bit at others, but still maintaining at a very enjoyable pace. I found that I'd read a hundred pages and not even realized it. Yes, it may have less action than the previous titles, but this is a SAGA, people. At points, it has to explore every aspect of the world... which brings me to my next point. What I think people are chafing at is the exploration of EVERY character. My experience is somewhat different, I'm sure, than most readers out there simply because I went ot the bookstore around two months ago and bought all nine books at once. Ever since then I've been reading them non-stop... and I gotta say that this book is just fin in my estimation. Exposition versus action. It's summed up right there. I, for one, think Jordan balanced those two concepts admirably in this one.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. :)


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