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

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Summary: Long...The only reason this series is great
Review: Some of you whine about how long and detailed this series has become. Face it, it is a long and detailed series with many subplots that are carried out. If you don't like the length then read a shorter series. The only reason that I really can live with the same old story of a noboby farmer boy who goes after the head of evil and distroys it with very little difficulty in under 600 pages is that this nobody farmer boy isn't the only charactor and he doesn't get to distroy the evil villon until he stops being stupid. This is a series that may fallow the general purpose of most fantaisies but it certainly can make the same old story into a compleatly exciting story. The reason this series is keeping my interests is that it is not all fighting and action. Books like that can't be concidered good cause they have such a weak story line. This series holds your attention with suspence as great as any famouse mystery story and if it did not have all the details and subplots then most of that "can't put it down" suspence would be lost to cheesy action that only lasts a page or two. With all the subplots and new charactors constantly being introduced the story never gets boring and all the mistakes made by the charictors just makes the story seem more realistic. True "A Crown of Swords" wasn't nearly as exciting in the way of action as the previous books have been, but there was no way that Jordan could have continued on with the series without every page of this book. If he had tried it would only have left a huge gap in the story and all of that realistic world would be lost causing the series into an unrecoverable decline in quality. The way I see it, if Jordan doesn't continue on with the story the same way in the 8th 9th 10th and howevery many more it takes books than this series will bit the bullet hard. So continue on great master of fantaisy, and don't let all the complaints of action adventure lover's make you change your writing style one bit. P.S. to all those people who say that in Tolien books you could always remember all the charictors and events at the end, pehaps you need to read "The Silmarillion" that is a book with an overwealming # of charictors and stories. Fat chance remembering all of them. Josh Barlow

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Summary: I love the book and its length, but now I have to wait for#8
Review: The Wheel of Time has been amazing. I know, since this review is really far down there most people won't get to it, but I would like to make 3 observations 1) Does anyone else get the feeling that Mazrim Taim is Demandred 2) The longer the better. I don't know about some of you, but I lover the fact these books are long. The more books I read the more problems I have finding more books in this genre. This takes a good chunk of time while I look for other books 3) For those of you who haven't read any of these books, I reccomend waiting until he gets closer to finishing the series to start. This way you don't have to wait for a while between book

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Summary: Jordan rules.. most of the time
Review: Normally I would give Jordan a 10. I have loved everything he has written and have read each book at least three times (except CoS). However I have two complaints.. One-- The women are ridiculous bitches that have become painful to read. They give me headaches and I feel myself bored to death of their anti-male hangups. They have seen worse than nudity. so relax. and two-- The delays between books make it impossible to remember all the sub-plots that are constantly being piled on. Lets tie up some of the loose ends!! Anyways, Jordan rules and I will continue to re-read his books. Nothing else can keep my attention long enough. PS - Terry Goodkind should stop reading Jordans work before he sits down to write one of his own. It is sickingly obvious. (Blood of the Fold = Children of the Light) (Sisters of the light = Aes Sedai) etc.. the comparisons go on and on.

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Summary: I have a few things to say...
Review: First I would like to say that I know every single one of those who bad mouthed ACOS will rush out to buy Path of Daggers. It is just the wait that is knawing away at people like a Shadar Logoth dagger. I have just finished ACOS and I loved it! What you must remember is that there are other things to do while waiting for the next WOT book. How about reading other books? Terry, Fiest, Tolkein again, Donaldson etc... What do you mean "did not further the plot?" Humans are so quick to action. The book was excellent. I don't care if he ever finishes the series. It's like the X-Files in that I know there is a specific end in mind but I don't want the show to end! Now I do have some minor complaints about the Wheel like for one I do know what an Aes Sedai is and I really don't need to be reminded of it every other chapter as if I'm some kind of da'stang! I'm also not real into the guy bashing. Personally I think the female characters make themselves less by constantly displaying their ignorance of males. While the males are also somewhat clueless, at least they don't 'browbeat" the females when the females do something "unexpected." Ah well, just the ravings of a young man unduly obsessed. One last thing though, by reading these reviews you are going to encounter a lot of negative reviews; they are just frustrated! Repeat! They are wishing for the next book to come out right this moment and are venting their anger here

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Summary: An absolute smorgasbord of strong-willed women!
Review: OK, so we've all read Tolkien: first, last and only, master of all he surveyed, archetypal fantasy God on high, yada yada yada.... Well, in response to this fiction icon's prostrating zealots I ask only one question: where are all the women? Yes, I know: they're pocketed in there at random intervals. But they are few and far between and, most importantly.... What's the word I'm looking for? Oh yes: expendable. Now, I am not what I would term a feminist. Therefore, it was not until I stumbled upon "The Wheel of Time" that I realized just how much my soul had been pining for strong, prominent female characters crucial to the development of the story line. Man-tall warriors, wielders of magic, walkers of the world of dreams: these are not the kind of women to cower behind dainty handkerchiefs and weep uncontrollably while their knight in resplendent regalia battles a villanous foe. Rather, they might turn on any man who so much as offered to combat their nemeses for them. Beautiful, yes -- Would they really be fantasy novels, otherwise? -- but fierce and independent and lovable not only for the splendor of their visage and form, but for their uncompromising desire to contribute the full spectrum of their abilities to an all-out battle against evil. Or the same battle against good, for this series accomplishes the commendable feat of instilling a compatable intellect and tooth-and-nail intensity in its female adversaries; as much as our hearts tell us we shouldn't have such feelings for them, we develop a kind of, if not love, than respect and awe. In my humble -- ?? -- opinion, there has never been created a work of fantasy -- especially on a scale this grand -- that has offered its readers a collection of female characters as varied as a box of 64 Crayola Crayons bound together by the common threads of a head on their shoulders and a fire in their hearts. Bravo

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Summary: Stop the Tolkien Comparisons, Please!!!!!!
Review: Robert Jordan is an author of unparralled quality, but please stop comparing him to Tolkien. His stories are not even close to J.R.R. yet every time I read a book cover, or even one of the more mundane reviews here on this page, I here yet another idiot saying how Jordan is the "new" Tolkien. Do you ever here people today comparing Barry Bonds or Ken Griffey Jr. to the likes of Babe Ruth or Mel Ott? Of course not! They have nothing in common except the fact that they are and were the best in their times; respective times that is. If published today, I have no doubt that you would never even hear of Tolkien's LORs. The same goes for Jordans books if published in the 40's. So get a grip! Enjoy the books seperately, not comparitively! And if any of you send out even one more Tolkien/Jordan comaparitive review, make sure you leave your e-mail account so that I can contact you personally and thrash your views of literature in a whole new sense of the meaning.

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Summary: How can anyone NOT like this book?
Review: Ok I was reading many of the other peoples reviews..(of which there are probably 10,000) And noted that ALMOST ALL of them that were bad had NO e-mail and we're signed "A Reader" coincidence? I think not. And in almost EVERY negative review I've found that the reader thinks the characters make the same mistakes...excuse me but give some reasons for this line of thought. I haven't even seen one solid reason for thinking this series was bad. Of course some of them thought that series like "Covenant Chronicles" were good, that would explain it. This book was perfect in EVERY way. 1st:It had only 663 pages. Myself I'd prefer about 1,000 pages per book. 2nd:It had the return of Fain to attack Rand only moments before his strike on Illian and Sammael(Tel Janin), It introduces some more aspects of the Shadow like the appearance of Moridin who's tapped into the "True Power" and tells of many creatures and abilities from the AoL. It also introduces the Seanchean again who take Altara and Amadacia. For those who say there is too much detail then let me remind you that if Robert Jordan had his way he would have put MUCH MORE detail into ALL his books instead of (what he feels is) hasty work to reach the deadline. These books are obviously not for everyone, They're only for those who truly appreciate literature, and have patience with those who want to tell a story and make you feel as though you're in it. On another point I feel that Jordan is in no way comparable to Tolkien because while Jordan can drag at times, Tolkien didn't elaborate on his characters and had no truly memorable villians who frightened or even amused the reader. I didn't really remember his heroes and was thouroughly bored by the middle of the 2nd book. Jordans books are ALL easy 10's Datchery

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Summary: A Great Book
Review: All of Robert Jordan's books are great and this is just another example. I got into this series a few years ago and I'm hooked. Although sometimes Jordan tends to sometimes go into too much detail, I like the way I can picture the scene in my head. His most recent novel wasn't as good as the others, but like all of his writing, it's definitely worth reading. This book drags a bit in the middle but at the end, everything starts happening at once in a chain of events. Let's hope the next one (which I've been waiting for for about 2-3 years) is as good

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Summary: Lucky 7
Review: After spending the last 4 years of my life following the story of "The Weel of Time" and patiently awaiting the coming installments in the series, i must say my hopes were up for the story to FINALLY reach its end. Not because I think the story was lacking i luster or that it failed in satisfying my need for an interesting, ongoing and cleverly planned array of plots and subplots. Nor was it because the caracters were getting boring, which often is the case in so many (at first) promising series. The only reason I could possibly have to wish this series into conclusion would be my frustration at having to wait so long before i can continue to indulge in the works of this prominent writer. He is Leagues ahead of the competition since the series just keeps getting stronger by the book and noticeably so in this, the latest installment, which many have passed off as "just a means of expanding his series and bank account into the next millennium". These unfortunates have just missed the whole point and not concentrated on the content (and concept) of the book. All this book did was expand the already thriving, magical world of Jordans genius creation. Visably, not much worth mentioning happened, but the stage has been set for the next book to be (perhaps) the greatest yet in this hard to beat series. I can't wait. Gustav Weslien

Rating:
Summary: GREAT!
Review: This book was as good and better as the other six. In fact I personaly think that this series is better than The Lord Of The Rings trilogy! If you think the books are too long , dont read them! Them being long is the best part!The Only dissapointment i had in this book was that it was shorter than the rest!This series is a must read for anyone! READ THIS SERIES,IT IS WORTH IT!!