Rating: Summary: Yet another pile of useless garbage from Robert Jordan Review: I never actualy read this book, but I did read #1, and it stinks. I am a fan of fantasy/role playing and this whole series is a mockery of it. Several friends agree.Robert Jordan is a bad writer. He is constantly opening new storylines within the main one..except there is no main storyline. And his lack of talent extends to his inability to close a story, that should be apparent from tthe fact that he already has about 9 books out, and I can summarize the entire series with one sentance: "Tam is my father" The End
Rating: Summary: Saved by the Ebou Dar crew Review: In _A Crown of Swords_, Rand becomes increasingly unpleasant. Although this is understandable, given his treatment while kidnapped, his suspicion rapidly grows into a sort of paranoia. Rand's job also becomes increasingly more political, as he meets with Sea Folk delegations, puts his loyal Aes Sedai to work, and tries to find trustworthy regents for Elayne in Cairhien and Andor. A brief and rather unsatisfactory battle with Sammael at the end gives Rand Illian, and yet another set of political responsibilities as he accepts the crown there. Meanwhile, Egwene marshals her power in the Salidar camp, and Moghedien/Marigan escapes, a fact which doesn't seem to bother anyone quite as much as it ought to. Egwene also is involved in all sorts of political exploits, as is only to be expected from the Amyrlin. But she at least starts off towards Tar Valon, making progress towards the Tower Civil War, with her little army. She also finds Lan, hidden by Myrelle, and sends him to Nynaeve in Ebou Dar. Which brings us to the most interesting portions of the book: the search for the Bowl of the Winds, and Mat. Mat is always interesting, but once he's accosted by Queen Tylin, the fun ensues. That, added to his belief that Altarans are crazy for fighing duels over almost anything, makes for some amusing escapades. And, of course, he's dumped on constantly by Nynaeve and Elayne, newly raised and quite aware of it. Elayne, though, lets up when Aviendha makes her (her determination to learn ji'e'toh and have Aviendha be proud of her is hilarious, mainly because Elayne finds it so hard to put away her prejudices) and Nynaeve is much less aware of Mat once Lan returns to her. There are a few encounters with various creatures of the Shadow, including Moghedien, the introduction of a new bit of Tower history in the Kin, and the invasion of the Seanchan at the end to add to the excitement of poking through the Ebou Dari Combat Zone looking for a bowl Elayne and Nynaeve have only seen in a dream. And Mat, left behind in Ebou Dar with a wall on top of him, provides a great hook to book 8.
Rating: Summary: 800 pages? Should have been 300... Review: This book just goes on and on and at the same time goes no where. As a series the books have been great, but this one is a huge let down. Oh, I'll read the next book, because by this time I have invested a buch of time in reading the series. I'm motivated to see how it ends. Lets just hope the books and stories get better. If that next in the series is as pointless at this one I may just give up.
Rating: Summary: Dark Truths and Deadly Games Review: Robert Jordan captivates the world again in his latest addition to the incredible "Wheel of Time" series. In this volume, Elayne, Nynaeve, Birgitte and Aviendha are still searching for the ter'angreal that may repair the weather and rid the land of a dry, stifling heat. Matt tries his best to keep track of the women, but with little luck. Elayne and Nynaeve eventually learn a much needed lesson in humility when they realize that in order to find the ter'angreal, they must enlist the help of Matt and his ta'veren abilities, and this means submitting to his wishes. In their search, they stumble across a secret group of women who can channel, and who share some very interesting secrets. Elayne and Nynaeve also meet with the Sea Folk, and from them they learn that this ter'angreal is a large, crystal bowl called the "Bowl of Winds", which in acient times belonged to them. Unfortunately, this odd group of women are not the only ones searching for this powerful artifact, and they find that they may have bitten off more than they can chew. Meanwhile, we learn the Black Ajah finally obtains control over the White Tower at Tar Valon, by command of Maasana, one of the Forsaken, who is hiding out at the Tower, disguised as an Aes Sedai. One of Maasana's right-hand women, we learn, is the Keeper Alviarin, and Elaida quickly learns she is not in power any longer. We also learn the full story of Moghedien's escape from Salidar, and her unpleasant visit at Shayol Ghul. But, instead of being destroyed as she assumes, she finds her soul bound to a seemingly young man who calls himself Moridin. He's not exactly a Forsaken, but he draws the One Power directly from the Dark Lord, which can only mean one thing: he's the one in charge, and Moghedien has no choice but to bend to his every wish. Aran'gar, the mysterious, reborn Forsaken is still posing as Halima, and, aside from being the one who secretly freed Moghedien, continues as a secretary to Delaina Sedai in Salidar. Egwene, the new Amyrlin of the "Little Tower" works to prove that, dispite her youth, she is every bit as strong an Amyrlin as any before her by officially declaring war on the White Tower, and beginning the long march to Tar Valon. Rand is still busy planning to kill Sammael, and keep both Cairhein and Caemlyn together, a job he not only finds challenging, but deadly. At the same time, the renegade Shaido Ael plot with a mysterious "wetlander" and his "Aes Sedai woman"---who are really Sammael and Graendahl in disguise---to somehow bring Rand to heel. The story, at first, seems threaded out in a thousand different directions, but most things fit together well in the end like a jig-saw; but there are still many pieces missing, and we are left hungering for more.
Rating: Summary: The fall of a great series Review: This has to be the most disappointing book that I have ever read. Why? Because after waiting so long for this book to be published it was so badly written that I found myself actually angry at the author. He ignores his own rules, eliminates major characters with barely a sentence worth of explanation, and spends much of the book simply covering ground we've already covered in the previous book. Before this book I would have said Jordan was one of the greats in fantasy but now I am convinced that he simply doesn't know where he is going with his story.
Rating: Summary: WORST NOVEL EVER! Review: I just finished reading A Crown of Swords a couple of minutes ago, I now feel I should vomit. The writing in trite and boring and the book last any sort of direction. It bounces around to different characters randomly while forgetting some along the way. It seems that around fifty chapters into the book Jordan realizes that he should wrap the piece up and finishes poorly in about forty pages. The first novel in the series is passable, but that's the most credit I'll give Jordan. Other reviewers seem to think he is some fantastic world builder. That opinion is laughable! Jordan takes one original theme and replicates it a dozen times. In case you haven't guessed by now Jordan's fantasyland is one where women pull the strings. This in an interesting idea, but this theme is ever present throughout all of the novels and in each of the world's cultures. It's fun to see this situation play out once or twice, but it becomes so disgustingly irritating!
Rating: Summary: I am in the midst of re-reading the novels Review: This book doesn't have a beginning, middle, and end like most. It kinda seems like ONE BIG MIDDLE. But it is still entertaining .. and the plot keeps moving forward (some). Maybe I have been reading too long but what I have noticed in this seventh volume is that Jordan's style has suddenly shifted. There are whole chapters of characters going from city to city .. describing the columns or the dead grass or the scary Aeil and how they don't get along and they think wetlanders are crazy. I think I as a reader I ALREADY KNOW ALL OF THIS. I know that Perrin thinks Mat and Rand know girls ... and Rand think Perrin and Mat do. Oh, how ironic! The 70th time .. well, it is just annoying. There are interesting things .. such as Perrin and Faile's emerging relationship, Min and Rand's relationship, Egwene's struggles as Amyrilin. Mat is always fun. But the fact that Nynaeve, Elayne, Aviendha and Birgitte haven't changed in 3 books bugs. To sum it up ... my problem with Jordan is that he pounds some of these ideas into our heads TOO often. No one is going to read Crown of Swords without reading the other books first ... but he keeps repeating the craziness of the Aeil, the Cairhienin stoicness, the Aes Sedai's nausea at men channeling ... y'know? I'm sure us readers could list a million of these. Finally, the first 6 chapters of this book are difficult to get through becuase he throws out 100 names of lords and Aiel and Aes Sedai and such. The cast of this world is dizzyingly large and I think he uses all of them in those chapters. But get beyond Rand's return to Cairhein and Caemlyn and it settles down a bit.
Rating: Summary: what's wrong with you people? Review: how could anyone dislike this book (or any other book in the Wheel of Time for that matter). Robert Jordan is one of the great fantasy writers of our time and the Wheel of Time is fast-becoming the new standard in epic fantasy. A Crown of Swords is definitely one of the best books in the series so it gets a 5 out of 5 stars from me. granted, the plot doesn't move too far forward in this book but that's mostly due to the fact that it takes place over a very short period of time (weeks at most). A lot of exciting things happen in this book and the character interactions are, like always, one of the best things about this book and really keep the reader interested. If you've read the first 6 books but haven't read ACoS yet: DO!!! And don't forget to read Path of Daggers and the upcoming Winter's Heart as well :) You may also want to look into Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series which has a lot of similarities to the Wheel of Time but there's not nearly as many characters so it doesn't feel as soap opera-ish as WoT.
Rating: Summary: getting better Review: Well I read number 7 and it was a great book I know some reviewers camplianed and didn't like the book but I enjoyed it and to me that is all that counts just my opinion only. It was funny to see Mat get a taste of his own medicane and be chased by a woman and he thinks it is not right,he should be the one to do the chasing.(OH BROTHER! )( Man if I was in that predicument I would love it.) I like Rand and Min's relationship it was abit anoying to hear Rand say that it would be better to send Min away so she will be safe.(I'm sick of hearing that, and like I said on a earlyer review this is coming from me a guy) I'm no expert on women but if they threw themselfs at me I would love it. Plus Mat still thinks he knows better than Nynaeve and Elanine I loved the way they had to appologise to Mat (especaliy Nynaeve who thinks she shouldn't Appologisy at all) All in all a good book. I can't wait to read number 8.
Rating: Summary: It's worth your time Review: I thought this book was wonderful, and although it's not quite as good as the earlier installments, (books 1 and 2 were my favorite)it is a lot better than books 4 and 5, which were kind of slow. I'll have to admit that Rand is getting too arrogant to be likable, which is a shame since he seemed to be a nice guy in the beginning. The thing that bothers me most is that the women characters seem so shallow. I mean, they are always bickering and worrying about their clothes and the like. It gets tiresome after a while. Although it has its flaws, this book is still as good as its predesessors.
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