Rating: 
Summary: Back Away from the Keyboard, Mr. Jordan...
Review: I blame Stephen Donaldson. He was the one who first dragged fantasy into the practice of spending hundreds of pages doing little to advance plot, characterization or theme. But there's no question that in the last 4-5 books of the "Wheel of Time" Mr. Jordan has set new benchmarks, leaving Mr. Donaldson and other pretenders to the title of "extended narrative" far, far behind. Maybe 4,000 pages or so behind.It's gotten so bad that even the modest advancement of the main plot that's in that last two chapters of this opus feels like a triumph. Finally, something happens. It makes you willing to forgive perhaps as much as half of the wasted paper that has gone before in this book. It doesn't make you forgive "Path of Daggers," arguably the longest book in the fantasy genre in which nothing meaningful happens. But perhaps half of "Winter's Heart." Special note to Jordan's publisher, Forge: Please, get this man an editor. If he has an editor, fire that one and find one with some spine. Force your author to start wrapping up some of the narrative threads. And I mean more than one per volume. What kind of contract did you give him, anyway? How about a bonus for Jordan for each narrative element he closes (and a penalty for each new one he opens)? Special note to Mr. Jordan: Shoot the dog. Wrap it up. Finish it. How about a goal of moving the plot significantly in each chapter? But I won't be buying any more of the volumes until someone tells me the last volume finally has been published. I'll buy it. And then decide if I want to read any of the intervening books. I'm voting with my wallet. And saving trees. Consider joining me.
Rating: 
Summary: No, not an epic, but . . .
Review: Honestly, I think it's an insult to Robert Jordan to say that another writer should just take over and rewrite something he's worked on for the past decade. Of course it's possible to take something like the end of the world (as we know it) and resolve everything in three books (i.e. The Lord of the Rings). But ROBERT JORDAN IS NOT J.R.R. TOLKIEN!! I'm getting tired of people thinking he should be. Cadsuane seems to know everything. OK. And of course that seems strange and oddly convenient. I think it's meant to be so. But I don't think that we, as readers, are meant to understand it all. That would defeat the purpose of even reading the books. Plot Convenience Playhouse does seem to be offering a lot to Jordan's characters these days. But I think the constant criticism of his "faithful readers" who are complaining about the series being too long is driving him to it. How else do you expect him to resolve everything in a timely enough fashion to please you? Although there seem to be a large number of "unnecessary" characters in the series these days, I can't believe that Jordan would introduce new characters just for the heck of it. I'm sure there's a purpose behind everything. To use a somewhat tired phrase, the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills. Ya know, the poor man can't win for losing these days. Either he gets criticized for taking too long in getting us Constant Readers (to borrow a phrase from Stephen King) yet another volume in his series, or if he leaves a character out of said book for the sake of getting it to us sooner he gets criticized for that too. Cut the man some slack. I stopped reading the Left Behind series because I got tired of the constant cliffhangers and having to wait until the next book came out. I'm just gonna wait for the whole series to be done and read the whole thing at once. For all of you getting tired of waiting for Tarmon Gai'don, why don't you do the same? I for one plan on buying each and every book as soon as it is published and reading it, because I am a faithful reader and Jordan's series is important to me, as are his characters. For those of you who obviously don't agree with me, please stop complaining and give Robert Jordan the respect he is due.
Rating:
Summary: ZZzZzZZZzzzzzzZZZzz
Review: I love the series. They are damn great!
BUT, there SHOULD be something to actually read in a new book. I won't give spoilers, but THE ONLY thing in the book worth noticing is the ending. Otherwise too much soaping, too tedious dialogues, too slow movement of the plots. But, well, mister Jordan realizes that if we bought the other books we will buy the next anyway. So why not stretch things a bit? Why, indeed?
Rating: 
Summary: Frankly...
Review: Frankly, I can't see what the fuss is all about with Winter's Heart. Everyone I've talked to has seemed to think this book saved the series. A Crown of Swords and The Path of Daggers, the two preceding books (don't even -think- about buying this book until you've read the rest of the series) were not good, by most people's standards. This book, the ninth in the enormous series, was said to be much better. All because, at the very end, the plot *gasp* is advanced! I'm giving this book two stars because it is, I'll admit, better than The Path of Daggers. The Path of Daggers had absolutely nothing important happen in it. The main plot was not advanced, merely the countless subplots Robert Jordan is weaving. Yet, The Path of Daggers and A Crown of Swords lack the action of the preceding books in the series. Subplot after subplot drives on, crowding out the main characters (Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, and Nynaeve). Nothing major happens, and nothing minor is wrapped up. All that happens is that new minor plots are introduced, and older ones are being continued. Winter's Heart starts off similarly. New plots pop up. Older ones are drawn out. All that really happens is that what is promised in the early reviews of this book is fulfilled. As you've read in the official review, the Daughter of the Nine Moons enters the scene. Taim is revealed to be a traitor. But little else important happens, and those plot threads are not really advanced at all. It's as if those things were -requirements- that Jordan had to fit to write this book, to satisfy his fans. A very dull read, really. Then, at the end, something happens. The plot is advanced significantly, for the first time in about 3 books. But this only happens in one chapter -- a long chapter, but only a small percentage of the book. 95% of the book could have been chopped off, really, as long as Jordan fixed it a bit so that the readers could understand where he was going, to get up to here. No more than 100 pages would have been necessary for the meat of this book to make sense. Instead, 625 were wasted. Not recommended at all, except for fantasy fans like me who simply -have- to read to the conclusion of the series.
Rating:
Summary: A disappointing spoke in the Wheel of Time
Review: I read all of the Wheel of Time books over the course of seven months. I devoured the first few books in a week or less. But as the series went on, I found it took longer and longer to finish each page, up until 'Winter's Heart', when I had nearly lost interest in the story altogether. I read 'Eye of the World' in three days. I read 'Winter's Heart' in three months- and that included the parts I skipped because I just didn't care what the minor characters had to say. Personally, I think Robert Jordan figured out after about book four that people were still buying his books, and so he decided to drag them out as long as possible in order to stretch his fame and fortune. Between a myriad of annoying, minor characters, page after page of the main enemies thinking about how much they hated each other and the protagonists, endless descriptions of the women's clothes, and constant reminders of how the world of Tel'aran'rhiod works, the story got put into the background. It's a shame, really. Jordan started out strong, but he seems to have forgotten where he was going.
Rating:
Summary: disappointing
Review: I must say that after reading all of the books in the series up until now, I am very disappointed. Even though the ending of this book is OK, there are still to many unanswered questions, too many sub stories to follow. In his first few books of the series, I enjoyed the plots because they were relatively few and easy to follow. Now though, there are too many plots and questions; when is the series going to actually approach some sort of ending? The way things are going, it will take another 9 books, especially if Jordan continues to answer half the questions posed by previous books and introduces more than were answered. I really wish I could give the book more stars but in good conscience, I can't.
Rating: 
Summary: Jordan makes up for the last few books
Review: I've read many complaints from readers who have lost interest in the series because of the previous couple of books (and i agree with them), but Winter's Heart takes the series out of its slump and rises to the standards of Eye of the World and the other first books. The book has a longer climax because a large event takes place both in Mat's and Rand's life which leaves you with less repetitive pages in the beginning and more excitement at the book's end. Unfortunately, judging by the ending in this book there will be at least two more books in the series, probably three, which means a few years of waiting for the grand finale.
Rating:
Summary: going somewhere...
Review: the gambler finaly meets the daughter of the nine moons. finaly
the series looks to be going somewhere. It look to climax in
the next 2 books.
Rating:
Summary: The series continues and keeps getting better
Review: The majority of people who have read Jordan's Wheel Of Time series agree that his work is finely crafted with complex stories weaved into one. Even though, I cannot do anyhting but recommend starting the series at book 1, The Eye of the World, I must say that book 9 is unquestionnably my personnal favorite. Jordan is full of surprises, leading the reader to new events affecting every character in the book. The ending itself is a breathtaking finale in its suspense and happenings, and leaves eagerly awaiting the tenth book.
Rating:
Summary: "Winters Heart"
Review: Like the last 3 books in his Wheel of Time series, "Winter's Heart" is pretty much a waste of good paper. There's no plot, little action, and little apparent effort by the author to do more than meet a publisher's deadline. What started out as a truly great example of fine story telling has become nothing more than an effort to make a buck. I would not recommend this book to anyone, nor will I waste another dollar on anything "written" by Robert Jordan. Like I said above, it appears that the author has worn out any interest in the story line which he so carefully created in the first four or five books in this series. It's on to better literature for this fantasy reader.
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