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Winter's Heart

Winter's Heart

List Price: $7.99
Your Price: $7.19
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Quit reading if you think they are so bad!
Review: I started reading the series about a year ago--Not realizing it wasn't yet finished! I've also read the first 1 1/2 books of Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire". You cannot compare the two--Martin's series is all about sex and violence. The characters don't become half as developed as Jordan's. RJ has taken his characters and given them life, not made them 1 dimensional characters.

Yes, he is taking the long way around -- but then, he knows where it is heading and what needs to happen along the way. Several things are predictable, but then he'll throw in a surprise or two as well. Sure it would nice to have an end --just for "closure"--but it's been a fun journey for me so far, I'm "content" to sit back and enjoy my ride. If you can't enjoy the trip, maybe you'd better get off and quit telling those of us who enjoy it how miserable you are.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Actually things are picking up again
Review: What a differance Matt makes in this story. He was painfully absent in POD (book 8). Rand Al Thor shows that no one...no one can stand up to him anymore. Moridin/Ishmael once again has failed badly for the Dark One. At least this time he had the common sense to send the other forsaken after Rand. Don't want to spoil it for those haven't read this, lets just say not many made it out alive. Al Thor Rules, nice to see the series alive. For those who keep complaining. Suggest you try George R.R. Martin's "song of ice" series. Which is admittedly far superior. I think what the Dark One needs to compete with Rand is the "Tyrion" character from Martin's series. You know someone "smart". enough rambling. Laters.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: If you've come this far, you know you're gonna finish.
Review: Did anyone have this problem: I read about 250 pages and was so confused about what was going on because I didn't remember who these people were? The relatively minor characters that are running around performing tasks all over the place, like those sisters hunting Black Ajah in the Tower, had me scrounging around for my copy of PoD so I could look up who they were and what they were doing. I didn't even remember that Morgase was now 'Maigden' or whatever the maid's name is that she's pretending to be. The only reason I remembered that's who it was is because the inside flap of the book says Morgase is a captive. The book itself never even mentions her name. Shouldn't RJ give a little reminder? One quick sentence like "Morgase was getting tired of the charade." I mean it's been 2 years and PoD wasn't that memorable. Most authors do give minor rehashes to keep their audience abreast. It doesn't dumb down the book (too much), and for people like me who don't read the r.a.s.f.w.r.j newsgroup that often, it maintains our sanity.

All that said, I enjoyed this volume even though the ending everyone here had been raving about was rather short and VERY non-descriptive. Sure a momentous event occurs, but the Aes Sedai vs. Forsaken battles are skipped over! "Cyndane approached the Aes Sedai and began to weave the flows..." Then it jumps somewhere else and you never get to read about the One Power battle! Mucho annoying. You only get the aftermath, and that was even quite abbreviated.

On the plus side, several plot mysteries are unraveled, such as the identity of Osangar, the Taim=Demandred issue, and who Cyndane is. (OK, She's back, now where's Moiraine?) Mat finally meets the Dot9M's. And the next book should ROCK due to Rand's success at his project in this book.

So a decent amount of stuff does happen, even though the books are now deceptively shorter than they appear. Anyone notice the older ones, about up to Crown of Swords, the font type was much smaller allowing about 48 lines per page, and with PoD and WH there's only around 30 lines per page? Thats a big difference when dealing with 600+ page books.

Anyway, like the title of the review says, if you've come this far, we all know you're not going to stop now. There's no point in saying "dont read this one!" or "skip it" cuz you cant if you want to finish the story and no one is quitting after digesting 5000 pages of WoT thus far revealed. If he takes another 6 years and 3 books to finish I'll be in my friggin 30's. So write on RJ, you know we'll all still be here to read em. Except for the really old people who die before you finish the series.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good, but we expect better.
Review: I liked this book. But I LOVE the series. How slow can this series get? I love the characters, I love the abundant sub-plots, and I hate the lull we seem to be in. I thought this book had an AWESOME start and finish. What happened to Perrin? We ended book 8 with Egwene beginning the war with the tower, wow that progressed in this book, NOT! I can only hold my patience in check for a book or two. Robert, HELP, I need some more action. We seem to be going in slow motion.

All said a good book, but I expect better from the author who stole Tolkien's crown.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: so good, so addictive
Review: Like so many, I am a hardcore Jordan addict. I wait with bated breath for the publication of each new inbstallment of the Wheel of Time epic. The latest, Winter's Heart delighted me thoroughly. Jordan has created a series one can completely escape into, and this novel is definately engrossing. The dynamic relationships between the main characters, and the dramatic events of Winter's Heart absorbed me completely. I whole heartedly recommend it, and the series as a whole, to any fantasy fan!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Better, at least
Review: Like almost everyone else, I've been frustrated that the pace of the last few books has slowed to a crawl. Although, as another reviewer has noted, I'm not ready for the series to end yet, but I don't see the point of having the last two books contain hundreds of pages of filler leading up to the last few chapters, where the only real action happens.

Winter's Heart is at least better than the last two books. I don't want to post any spoilers, but in this book, we have some long running plotlines finally being resolved. The ending, in particular, was quite satisfying - perhaps moreso than any other book in the series.

Overall, although the book could have been much better, I enjoyed reading it. Hopefully it marks a turning point in the series, and that the next book will return to the quality of the earlier books.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Magical Pickup
Review: Finally the book seems to be picking up speed. I cannot deny that the previous three books were on the slow side but then the author has to position his characters so that they can come into play when the time is right.

I know most of the readers want the story to end but I have to agree with the previous reviewer, we will all miss it the moment it ends. I have a feeling the book will end in another 2 or three series and I know I will feel the emptiness you all feel when something comes to an end and I am sure it will be more than one expects. And I know that I will continue to buy this author's books no matter how many books I have to buy.

When there is war between light and darkness, the whole world will be affected and not just a small population of people that have been shown in other authors' books. Well in his books even the little people who contribute to the cause are shown. That is what makes Robert Jordan's books "extraordinary" and that is why most of the readers keep coming back for more of his books.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Better than a slap in the face. Maybe.
Review: It certainly wasn't as awful as the Path of Daggers. In the view of a hobby writer who (hopefully) knows what he's doing, there were a lot of blaring errors. He told, and didn't show (the opposite of Show don't tell). He was repeating the obvious - what everyone knew up to that point. He had all these long explanations "What? A WOMAN warder?????" when a startled or surprised expression would have sufficed.

Although I had initially liked the fact that women were in all the positions of power, or most anyway, this made him have FAR too many damsel in distress situations, even in the most absurd of circumstances. It got old after a while. The very fact that no culture tries to obtain any sort of understanding with another is painful, and those "Men/Women are woolheaded stupid people" are annoyingly abundant...like tuna with too much salt.

On the plus side, I really was fascinated by the political intrigue, just a little, and was reading those scenes where Elayne was dealing with who and whatever it was. The ending scene was spectacular and well-thought out and I was turning pages during Mat's attempt to get out of Ebou Dar.

I must criticize the endings though. Unlike the first four or five books, where he had tied up all to loose ends, right now only one loose end is tied up and all the others are flapping in the wind. Even Mat's escape attempt wasn't completed fully. Rand cleansing the male half of the source was certainly good, and would have made the whole book great *IF* it had been leading up to that. Less than one-fifth of the story, in my opinion, actually had anything to do with the ending. Talking about Perrin, Elayne, Faile, and everyone else was just pointless blather that didn't significantly change a thing. Only Mat and Rand's story really affected anything. Maybe Elayne getting the Borderlanders sprinting towards Caemlyn was important, but not significant enough to spend as much time as he did in the Palace of Andor.

It's certainly better than Path of Daggers, but only slightly, and not enough to redeem him yet from eternal damnation of angry readers.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: stop whining
Review: After reading a couple of other reviews on Robert Jordan's latest books i noticed a pattern, everybody keeps on complaining about the lack of action, slowness of it all etc. well all i can say is that yes it is coming on slowly but if he did rush it you would be even more dissapointed. RJ is building an in depth world which he has to develop over time to create a truly phenomenal piece of work. Yes i agree that he really should have fit in a conclusion to the Perrin, Mat and Egwene plots but through not finishing them he has succeeded in capturing your attention so that you have to buy the next book. So stop complaining and just wait patiently for this epic of epics to unfold.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Next one please
Review: I was disappointed by this one. The Wheel of Time is a very interesting series, but I am getting frustrated by the padding. I expect this will go twelve (one season each book for the three years till prophecy is fulfilled) and I have no problem with that, I just have found the last couple books are paced to slowly. The story only grabbed me at one spot in the middle and the climactic last chapter was the only reward. Mr. Jordan has done better and I am just glad I finished this one.


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