Rating: 
Summary: What this book is not doing!
Review: Let me start off by saying that this entire book could have been accomplished by a 5 page chapter at the end of book 4 or 5. Rand al Thor cleanses the taint from the Source (oh, did I ruin it for you? Don't worry, I'm actually saving you from reading 550 pages to find this out. Go out and play with your kids or something!)and that's it! The first 300 pages actually caused me an intense physical pain which I initially attributed to a fledgling brain tumor but later turned out to be extreme boredom. Come on Bobby (can I call him Bobby?) end the series and save us all a large sum of money and time. Maybe we'll even buy a few more of your books some day as long as no one in them has "al" in their name! That said, this series as a whole started strong and eventually withered up (altough we couldn't tell because we were busy trying to climb out of 10,000 pages of text). I think I've caught his disease because I feel like writing on and on and on while making my point in the first 20 words.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible with a capital T
Review: I loved the first 5 books and tolerated books 6 and 7 but the last 2 "epics" are absolutely miserable. The pacing is terrible, the editing is terrible, the storyline has totally disintegrated and if I never read about a swishing dress or tugging pigtail for as long as live it will be too soon.Jordan is just going through the paces and collecting his royalties. He should go back to writing Conan pulp and leave the fantasy writing to real story tellers like George RR Martin. Like many many readers this will be my last WoT book.
Rating: 
Summary: Ages Come And Go
Review: I started reading this series when THE WHEEL OF TIME first hit the shelves. What seems like an Age later, although it has been a great series, I find myself eager for an ending. The end is the only thing keeping me interested. I could have just skipped to the last chapter of this installment and been content. With this recent ending, however, perhaps the end is in sight?!
Rating: 
Summary: An Epic World
Review: Robert Jordan continues to keep me interested. I like the epic proportions... And though I wouldn't have taken some of the steps he did in his story telling he still continues to suerprise and entertain. I agree with the other reviewers, the story is very complex. And yes it doesn't appear to be drawing to a close soon. But still the books are masterfully written. And book nine improves upon is predecessor which I thought wasn't likely until I read it. (Path of Daggers) I think the coming plot for the next books will actually add instead of draw out the story. The books are very well done and the characters are very well thought out. It really comes alive. Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time is in a world of its own. To the Author I say. Please finish your story. But don't short your readers. Your entire epic story is one of the best of our day. Please pick up the first book if you haven't already...If you don't feel the urge to read the next in the series than maybe this isn't your line of novels. Good luck and don't settle for less than the best! (I recommend Lord of the Rings if you haven't read the master yet)
Rating:
Summary: Yawn, Lets please get on with it.
Review: Yet another installment of do nothing for 700 pages, then wisk through an ending that leaves almost everyone puzzled as to what really happened in the end. Introduce another 100 minor characters and forget the main ones. I would love to hear some more...whining...
I keep shaking my head trying to figure our what happened to the series I fell in love with. The first four/five books have kept the momentum for the last four, but that momentum has fizzled out and is dead. I will not read another book in the series until it is done. I might change my mind and read the last 50 pages of the next book. I would not miss much and would save myself the headache of having to try and remember who everone is again. In book three Matt, was promised to see the princess of the nine moons. Hello, Mr Jordan quit toying with us. I feel like I am listening to a record played at half speed for the first 750 pages and then have the record played at twice normal for the end; both leaving me frustrated. Jordan should combine the substance of his next 5 books into one, and get on with it.
Rating: 
Summary: What a shame
Review: There was a time when I was in love with the Wot series. Unfortunately, I have gradually fallen OUT of it. In my opinion, when reading a book starts to feel like studying for a history final.. it's time to put it down. What happened to this series? It reminds me of an aging horse. There's a time when you just have to put it out of it's misery. If only Rand would go insane and kill all of the females the book would improve dramatically. But honestly, what people claim is rich storytelling is actually a bunch of BORING RUBBISH. I read to enjoy myself, not to fall asleep 10 minutes after cracking the book. Am I the only one who SKIPS PAGES when the focus of the story turns to the women? If Jordan skips all the useless female chit-chat he can wrap this series up in two books EASY. I say have Rand kill EVERYBODY, then kill himself and be done with it!
Rating:
Summary: When is the next one coming?
Review: Elayne finally goes to Caemlyn. Egwene moves her army close to the White Tower and then disappears from the book. Perrin goes after the Shaido for personal reasons and suffers the same fate as Egwene. Rand decides to move around a lot to escape his enemies while figuring out how to clean saidin. Mat finds out who is The Daughter of the Nine Moons, which was a pretty cool turn. Very nice surprise Mr. Jordan! In all it was kind of slow and setting some things ready for the next book. Apparently there is going to be a lot happening on the next. The only question is...when is the next one coming????
After reading book 1 in December of last year I had to get my hands on the rest, I was hooked. I finished book 9 in the first few days of February and with some disappointment I found out it wasn't the end. I mean disappointment of not being able to find out what happens next :o). After this series I'm taking up again my abandoned reading of fantasy books. It has been a long time since the last one, almost forgot how good it feels. Desperately waiting book 10,
Sword2
Rating:
Summary: The Wheel Of Boring
Review: As much as I enjoyed the first 5 books in Mr. Jordan's saga, I hve been very disappointed with his latest additions. Winter's Heart continues his passion for long winded, over done descriptions, with enough characters to make your head spin, and a story line that goes nowhere until the final 50 pages. It's time for the author to step back and look at what made his first books so enjoyable, an engaging and fast moving plot with a group of characters you actually cared about.
Rating:
Summary: Finish the damn series for Gods sake!
Review: Nearly 800 pages and only one major event took place in this book. Ever since the dragon reborn, this series has begun to drag....and drag!. It took 300 pages in Winters Heart for anything significant to occur. The book kept my interest....but just barely. Robert Jordan spends entirely too much time setting the scene and describing the battles of will between the HUNDREDS of characters is these books. It is nearly impossible to keep every character straight. I very nearly did not purchase this book because of the same long windedness in the previous 6 books. If this series extends beyond 10 books, I will give up on Robert Jordan and the Wheel of Time series.
Rating:
Summary: Consolidating plot lines is WH best accomplishment
Review: Look at it as one story, not individual books. I understand that many people are upset because the story seems to stretch further and further with each book without much overall progress . I am assuming that most readers who are 'tired' of this series are simply tired of waiting for progress to occur , and when a new book comes out every two years, there are so many plot line s to address that not much progress seems take place. Winter's Heart does something good about that. Each of Books 1 and 2 can work as a perfect stand alone story. But starting with Book three you simply need the previous and the later books to make sense of the 'madness'. I read all 9 books within the last two months. Books 1 through 5 resolved a great deal of the plot lines initiated in the beginning of the each book. But with book 6 (Lord of Chaos), the pattern of leaving a story hanging in mid air started, although book 6 by itself was only 2nd best to The Great Hunt in the whole series. Books 7 and 8 did not progress the story much, but having read them within days of reading the previous books, it is very clear that they are very important to the series, even though they did not cover many areas readers wanted covered. Book 9, Winter's Heart, finally ties most of the plot lines together, and resolves some major conflicts in the series, as well as introduce others. Consolidation is what it does best.
Mat meets his Daughter of the Nine Moons and settles some unfinished business. Other characters come to him that three or four plot lines have now been consolidated into one, with Mat heading it.
Perrin is up to the same thing. Even though he did not depart from the camp in the book, Jordan managed to consolidate some 5 or 6 plot lines into one by uniting the plot lines of the Prophet, Morgase, Falcon and Hawk, the Shaido, and the White Cloaks. Rand not only manages to settle down his harem's business but also fulfills some of the prophecies of the earlier books and strikes his most stunning victory in the series. Not even the fallen Stone or Callandor or Rhuidean come close to what he did in Book 9. There are many other sub plots that were either resolved or consolidated. Winter's Heart does an excellent job at consolidating plot lines. It is clear where every character stands, we have far fewer plot lines going on now, and some major problems out of the way.
It is clear now, as book 9 ends, that we have fewer plot lines to follow, and most characters know about things they should have known about along time ago. Which is something I always hated about the characters, everyone is keeping secrets that would make everyone's life easier have they revealed some of it.
I did a research project about the seires for a class when book 7 came out, I expected the series to total 12 books. But having read all of them now, it is likely that we might end up with 15 books. So, here we go. Excellent Book. Kudos for progress. Kudos for plot line consolidation. I give this book 5 out of 5.
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