Rating: 
Summary: Fantasy to Romance
Review: Ok here is the deal about Jordan...Ever since book 4 he has gradually started to slow down the overall plot of his story. perhaps he thought he could become famous, or rich (or both) by stretching the books out. Really all he has done is earned some criticism from readers. Books 1-4 were perfect, the ultimate combination of danger, action, twists and character development. But after reading book nine, you really don't see as much of that. Here is what you see. Matt has turned from adventurous to dull in the past two books, currently he was with a small portion of his band fighting constantly, now he is sleeping in the palace every night with Tylin. It has literally turned in to a romance novel the 10 chapters that matt appears. On the other hand Perrin hasn't been seen since chapter 1 or 2 or 3. I believe the book would have turn out great if it would have gone into the chasing and rescuing of Faile. Instead it drops the characters for the rest of book. Rand Is the only person who makes any sort of change what so ever. Even if it is only little tad bits of things. The editorial and reviews get you all built up about how Rand running away with Min is all great and exciting really...in till the last few pages it doesn't go anywhere, and he stops at Elyane's palace to be wed to the three girls, who after word they sleep together. So it seems to me that the story has turned from a sweet and fun fantasy. To a dull and unmoving Romance story! I hope this review helped you in terms of buying or renting Book 9 in the series. I am 12 years old and this is my review
Rating: 
Summary: Seems readers want everything and nothing at the same time
Review: I am amazed at how sometimes readers forget what made them love this series in the first place. Wasn't it the intricate details? the realism of settings and characters alike?the logic of the storyline? and the credibility of worldbuilding? All these conspired to make the Wheel Of Time not only a normal fantasy series but a whole world that seems very possible to have existed for true. And here come the genius of Robert Jordan.. Let's not forget people: this is Fantasy and not some contemprory novel with New York as the setting! And he still made it seem so believeable... That is because he created a huge world with all of its basics, he has to maintain this world or it will crumble on itself..It took him several books to build it now readers want him to end it in a book just because they can't wait anymore??? Like everything else in real world, it takes time for events to occur...and Jordan is respecting this time table while at the same time showing how characters evolve amidst what's happening. This is real life...Things are not effected by one person even if he were the Dragon Reborn but by the concerted efforts of all people involved... Let readers choose: would they want Robert Jordan to satisfy their impatience and in doing so flaw one of the biggest epic masterpieces of all time, or would they rather curb their curiosity a bit so they would be rewarded at the end??? I think that for any sensible person, the answer is self-evident...
Rating:
Summary: Finnish before that last nail !!!
Review: I joined the world of the light, little more than a year ago. From the moment that Moirane and Lan, absconded from Emonds Field with the youngsters,and the village Wisdom in pursuit, I have been, for the first time, a self-proclaimed, "FAN". Yes, I agree that the earlier books were of more magical content. But give this true storyteller, and Veteran a break! Only He has lived in this world from the time of the Creator, and "The Wheel Weaves As The Wheel Wills" after all. O.K. So yes a little less retro. To truly immerse oneself in this epic one must start from book one. But as for me "Winters Heart" is a very good read.With the cleansing of Saidin I see a plethora of directions this saga can take. So I do hope we get to the end before that last nail is driven into Mr. Jordans Coffin.
Rating: 
Summary: An editing monstrosity
Review: Jordan has lost focus. The first three books were excellent, but part of that is due to those early installments being written as if they were a trilogy. There was structure that not only built and resolved conflict per book, but that succeeded in doing the same over the course of all three. It began in The Eye of the World with the fulfillment of prophecies which said that the Dragon had been reborn, and it ended two books later in the aptly titled The Dragon Reborn when that very event transpired. A very clean and well executed piece of fiction.Since then there has been no structure. No trilogy like format to keep a sprawling story both interesting and reasonable. After The Dragon Reborn every book has wandered further afield. The story is now woefully in need of direction and resolution. Had Jordan enforced the structure he began this work with, the ninth book would've been the last one neccessary to complete this tale. Quite possibly he might even have been able to pull it off in six, with the first three leading to the proclamation of the Dragon, and the latter three leading to Tarmon Gaidon. As it stands now, and at his current rate, he'll need nine more just to wrap this thing up. The Wheel of Time is plauged with so many useless sub-plots and secondary characters that I will never read this entire series. There are too many great books of substance out there that do not meander and waste time with nonsense for a commitment of that sort. Instead I'll construct this series from the eighteen books it will become as I believe it should've been built from the first. Paring it down to six or nine books total, I'm certain I will have read the entire story without all the useless filler that is diminishing the tale. It's a shame that a work started with such greatness should be reduced to this. I for one am terribly disappointed and will approach all of his future endeavors beyond The Wheel of Time with skepticism.
Rating: 
Summary: Stop the wheel, please, I'm getting off...
Review: To give Jordan his due, "The Wheel of Time" used to be a *great* fantasy series. What started off as a Tolkien knock-off in "The Eye of the World", quickly evolved into an original and innovative epic in the volumes from "The Great Hunt" up through "Lord of Chaos". But then... things started to decline, with succeeding volumes (e.g. "Crown of Swords", "Path of Daggers") starting to drag, as the number of characters continued to multipy, as did the number of side-plots, with sub-plots developing within each of the sub-plots, and further digressions developing on those sub-sub-plots, requiring the need for Jordan to jump around so much that the main story got lost and nothing much at all really seemed to be happening any more-- until the last 50 pages of the book, when more or less out of nowhere, a suden flurry of activity took place-- a flurry that was so sudden that it was completley incongruous with the rest of the book... almost as if Jordan's publishers called him up after getting the draft and said, "Um, Rob... you *have* to make something happen in this book with the main plot. Can't you just give us 2 more chapters?" Still, the greatness of the earlier books gave me enough energy to move through those with some degree of enthusiasm. "Winter's Heart" is supposedly something of a recovery for Jordan, with a returned focus on the main characters. I suppose there's some truth in that, but to be honest, I found this book even more tedious and dull than the last ones. Yes, there's more of a focus on the main characters, but the overall plot here still seems to be quite lost in all of the sub-plots, sub-sub-sub-plots, and digressions just involving those main characters-- including new ones that are raised here (Oh no, Fail gets kidnapped...) and frankly, I just find that I can't muster the enthusiasm for any of it anymore. Even the parts of the book involving *Rand* seemed tedious to me (especially since, once again, the biggest part of the story involving him is-- guess what-- a new sub-plot/digression. Moreover, a lot of the distinctive little features of Jordan's style and world-development are starting to seem repetitive after so many books. Once, the detailed descriptions of Aiel bonding rituals seemed neat, and the continuous comments of the various characters on how men can never understand women and vice versa were kind of cute and playful. Now though, it just seems like, "Oh yes, this again." About halfway through, I realized that I was taking no pleasure whatsoever from the book and it was a major chore to force myself to read through to the end (and even then, it was only skimming that made it possible.) Maybe, on some purely objective level, "Winter's Heart" is a bit more on-target than the preceding pair, and maybe, just maybe, if there hadn't been such a big delay between this book and the last, my enthusiasm for this would be higher. But I justcan't fool myself into thinking that I am enjoying this series any longer. Based on how slow things are moving along with this series, The Wheel of Time will undoubtedly continue to keep turning and turning and turning and turning and turning and turning and turning and turning-- but for me, the ride stops here. There are too many good other books out there for me keep spinning along endlessly with a series that is no longer enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Goodness, people, do you know anything about writing???
Review: Jordon did exactly what he needed to do. Granted, it was slow-moving, but he needed to do that to keep the characters in place, lead up to events, and keep the integrity of the book! And just because it didn't FEEL fast moving doens't mean it wasn't. Rand not only got to see his three women (*giggle*) all together and say that he loved them (etc), but he killed some of his enemies (those insipid Asha'man) and cleansed the source. Mat found the daughter of the nine moons and got away from Tylin (if that isn't an amazing feat, what is?!?) That's four large events and I probably missed some as it is. Usually, all this fastness that you're all talking about is made up on little events and one or two bigger ones. This one has at least four. And as for Egwene he COULDN'T have her in the book without ruining it! Have you ever heard of time?? Why do you think when Rand used the rainbow-colored stones (can't remember their name... it was in one of the first couple books...)to travel to catch up to Fain (I think... its been a while)? You know why it took him months to do that? Why Jordon didn't just have him travel or have it be instantaneous? Because of TIME!!! Egwene and Elayne and Nyneave had to have been in the Tower for a while so he skipped those few months using Rand the the stones. Its the same thing now. Egwene isn't DOING anything but getting ready to attack. While she's getting ready, Jordon is concentrating on other people. Do you WANT to know how much the soldiers are getting paid, what they're doing in training exersizes, etc? That would be even more slow-moving than this book was! Get with it people!
Rating:
Summary: At last, Elayne is trampled to death by Bela!
Review: Dang, not really, but you might be so ready to see her killed off that you start scribbling your own alternate version of the story in the margins. But before the criticism, the praise. (Or is it better the other way around? I forget.) I know I'm not alone in thinking that the last few books in the series were getting in that dangerous zone of being interesting to people who have fallen in love with Randland, but utterly slow and boring to anyone who hasn't. You might ask why anyone who wasn't in love with the Wheel of Time books would have read as far as the latest books anyway, but my point is that even though the storylines in those books shouldn't have to stand on their own, the pacing and action should. I, being a fan, have enjoyed each and every book in the series, but have to admit I was getting tired of waiting through moves on the chessboard just to get things in place for future books. Winter's Heart is our reward for sticking it through. I don't want to give away spoilers, although the official review on this site already does a pretty good job - grrr. WH moves several storylines with a big shove, provides the filling out of several characters (Cadsuane and Verin come to mind), and offers a masterpiece ending battle in a form we've not seen so far. The final result is that the reader has been as positioned as carefully as the characters, and we too are now in thick of and poised for even greater things. Oh, let's face it, the return of Mat Cauthon is enough of a reason to read. Finally a little sense and humour is knocked back into life on this side of the Spine of the World. So what if Rand has become a machine and Perrin a consort, we have Matrim. A little sense, that is, but not enough. (Here comes the criticism.) I seem to be one of the few people who never really minded Elayne. She was a bit of a naive priss sometimes, but her heart was in the right place. But by the end of WH, I would have been just fine with her brutal death, preferably by a torch-bearing Two Rivers mob, as she smooths her dress, sniffs, and upon her last moments of consciousness gains a look of understanding in her eyes which says, "Oh, perhaps the lines on that map of Andor *are* a little outdated..." And take down Aviendha too. She was once my favourite female character, but I'm afraid she now bears the taint. The bosom-huffing, conveniently misunderstanding, foot-stamping taint of Elayne, that is. A near-ditto for the whipped Birgitte. Sigh. As for the other girly-girls, Nynaeve is still besotted with new husband Lan, which has not improved her obsessive-compulsive braid tugging whatsoever, and Egwene is away for most of the book apparently turning into a rather boring corporate Amyrlin, as opposed to bringing her own spunky personality to the position. Do I have any other complaints about a book I only wish I had the skill to write? Well, although several characters were developed further and got off their collective behinds, few loose ends from previous books were tied up. Which was fine with me. With Winter's Heart things are rolling again, and I'll happily look forward to more of the same. Maybe not another nine books, but that's negotiable if we can seal Elayne in the bore.
Rating:
Summary: Jordan Recovery?
Review: I was very sceptical when WH appeared in the bookstores. Jordans last two books were horribly disappointing, endlessly going on about details, I almost thought Jordan was getting paid by every word he wrote. But then this nineth part... Because I felt let down by this writer (as do/did lots of his fans) I didn't buy the book right away. No, I waited a few (I confess: agonizing) months. But now I've read it, I must say that it's actually good. Okay, it is still not as good as parts 3-6 but he is recovering. Gives me hope for the next books.
Rating:
Summary: it's not that bad, really
Review: i really enjoyed this book, granted it wasn't as good as the previous ones but in comparison to those what book is? it would be extremely hard i think for him to continuously topping his previous book... this is the best series of books i have ever read, better than the enders games books, which completely changed from the original one in the last few books... anyway, i'm not reviewing enders game here. yeah, it did seem like it could have built up to the ending a lot more... it talked about it some, just that he was planning it and then in the last chapter it all happens! and i was dissapointed with that battle with the choosen, it wasnt nearly as exciting as it could have been, hopefully the next books will be better.
Rating:
Summary: A previous review makes a good point
Review: The point was that Jordan has gone on for so long and likely to continue doing so for some time (I strongly doubt Book 10 will be the conclusion) that he can't POSSIBLY devise an ending worthy of all that verbiage. It's been built up and built up, etc. (for better or worse) and it's come to a point where you wonder how it possibly can end. Seriously, how does he end it? If it takes 600+ pages to simply get a bunch of characters from point A to point B I wonder how long it will take just to end the damn thing. The battle between Rand Al'Thor and the Dark One, assuming it'll ever happen, is sure to eat up at least 1200 pages. I think, at this point, Jordan may as well continue writing this and just completely forget about the intent to finish the series (if he ever had such an intent). I know lots of WOT fans would be happy and I'm SURE Jordan's pockets would be happy. I myself gave up WOT after book 7 and will not take it up again unless it finishes, and then only if I somehow get a lenthy prison sentence, a stay in a sanitarium or retirement home, or get stuck on a deserted island with nothing else to read or do. Since none of these events are likely to occur, at least not anytime soon, I'll look elsewhere for reading enjoyment.
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