Rating: 
Summary: This is how i like a Jordan Book
Review: With the last book used as a setup, this one showed more of the excitement that Lord Of Chaos and Fires of Heaven showed. It rekindled the Mat storyline which i was glad to see and it had that action packed ending i always love. Im glad he left some storylines hanging so the next book will be similar to this one and not another setup book like Path of Daggers...now if i can only wait that long.
Rating:
Summary: I am not sure what you want.....
Review: It seems people complain that Jordan's books dont finish the plot or have too many characters and they are just ready for them to end. I can't help but wonder, if you are just waiting for it to end, then I can probably do that for you in a few words. Some more of the women will probably die off, maybe Mat or Perrin. Rand will ultimately beat the evil and the world will return to normal. Good beats evil. That is the formula that virtually every fantasy writer falls to in the end (except perhaps Moorcock). Thus the huge ending you are looking for is right there. Enjoy the writing. Once he ends the series, you wont get any more on these characters. Embrace that they are fleshed out more than any other series I can think of. Enjoy that each book has so many plots you may have to go back and reread some of the earlier books to catch up. My only real complaint is the 2 year lag time between books. But when it takes such a long time for the books to fall off the best seller list, it gives a writer little incentive to push another one out there! Hey, Jordan is in this to make money. If you wanna see the next one out fast, we all need to buy the hardcover and no one buy the paperback!
Rating: 
Summary: CRAP...TOTAL AND COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME
Review: I have lost all respect for Jordan. The first books were so good. This is garbage. Nobody can write less in 650 pages than Mr. Jordan. Like the last 2 books, NOTHING HAPPENS. Well, one or two things. The whole thing with Perrin is worthless. Mat only has one interesting thing happen to him. Elayne and Egwene...nothing. And the ending...the whole book led up to that? Pathetic. Speaking of the ending, it builds up with all these Forsaken converging on Rand while he is doing his thing and then BAM...Rand has done his thing and all the Forsaken have mysteriously disappeared. What the hell was that? The last 3 books could have been made into one 200 page book, if that, and we had to suffer through almost 200 boring boring boring pages. Don't buy this crap. Go to the library if you must read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Significantly better than book 8
Review: Reading this book went a long way towards restoring my faith in Mr Jordans ability to deliver an entertaining and well written 'Wheel of Time' novel. Winters Heart is a much better planned book, with good clear writing and decisive action. In particular it is good to have Mat (and buddies) back in the book, with their absence probably being one of the major reasons 'Path of Daggers' was so disliked by a lot of people. However the book/series still has 2 very large problems. The biggest of these is the collosal mess that was 'Path of Daggers'. As noted before by other reviewers 'Path of Daggers'and 'Crown of Swords' saw Mr Jordan introduce several extremely large plot developments that threaten to bog down the entire series. Indeed despite its considerable size (650 odd pages) 'Winters Heart' only covers a period of about 3 weeks and only mainly deals with Rand, Mat and a bit of Elayne, leaving Perrin and Egwene each with their own very considerable storylines to next book. This relative lack of progress makes me worry that Mr Jordan may have bitten off more than he can chew (plot wise)and that the series may drag on for years, or worse have an over hasty conclusion. This makes me nervous about the next installment, as he is really going to have to pack stuff into the next book if he is too succesfully complete this great series in 13 books ( which is supposedly what some Tor insider was suggesting). The other big problem I had with this book was that the female characters got even shallower than they already were (if that is possible). Although it has long been known that Robert Jordan/Jim Rigney is a bit of a chauvanist, 'Winters Heart' sees the good female characters become almost totally objects of lust, with nearly all of them fixated on male attention/attraction. Although this is not entirely unentertaining to read ( being a male reader) it undermines them as 3-D characters and makes the considerable portions of the series given over to the female main characters not very satisfying to read. I would be very interested to read what any (are there any??) female readers of the book/series thinks about the topic and whether they find it annoying or otherwise. Apart from these two worries I found the book highly entertaining and a lot better than the last book in the series. I would still recomend the 'Wheel of Time' to anyone as one of the best and most original fantasy series ever written.
Rating: 
Summary: Its not too late to save this series...
Review: I, too, have been a reader and rereader of this series since it began a generation ago. This latest book was, AGAIN, disappointing. Jordan and Tor should be concerned, too many people are giving this series up for dead. Can you remember what those first books were like? Fleeing at breakneck speed from Shadowspawn? The fear? The wonder at this brilliant world, the histories, the cultures, the laws of nature and magic? The amazing women and men? The innocence of the good and the black heart of the evil? Those books made your heart pump! And the characters - just as that first original cover review stated so long ago - seem like old friends. What happened? Slow, gradual, decent into mediocrity. The last several books have been, as many other reviewers have written, fluff. Filler. Spotted with great scenes, but generally shallow and getting shallower. We want to get into it! But at every turn Jordan forces a sigh of agony or a roll of eyes from his readers, by repeating the same descriptive passages, or repeating the same bickering between characters, or repeating the same tired thought threads (Faile...likes to be shouted at...?). Aarrgg! Same thing again! We know already!! Put some focus into it. Rand and his tragic love square(trapezoid?)? Soap opera? Didn't have to be. Mat as Queens plaything? Overly obnoxious? Didn't have to be. Focus, follow the arc, and move on. Our characters becoming less and less important and powerful? Fine, just tie it together and move forward. New characters, new background, new threads? Fine, but remember the story. Remember why we all came to the table in the first place. Tell the story! Put your back into it man! Its not too late for this series. Just give us something to cheer for! Cut out the filler, the petty, the repetitous. Give us intrigue! Give us glory! Give us a 300 page battle for Tar Valon! Give us love! Give us Moraine back from the Aelfinn to save the day as the Blight spills shadow over the lands! Give us peril! Aei Sedai at the gates of The Dark Ones prison! Adventure! Passion! Mystery! SOMETHING!! 50 pages at the end of 600 is not putting your back into it. He needs to stand up to his publisher and swallow his ego. Jordan began as the best voice in fantasy we had seen in ages, but like so many greats before him, has been broken under the weight and fame of this series. But its not too late...just one powerful book is all we need. It'll feel good to write it. He'll see how satisfying it is. And his numbers will stop dropping off so sharply. Reading bad reviews from the industry as well as fans has got to get old.
Rating: 
Summary: Something will happen, but I said that last time
Review: Winter's Heart is in the same vein as Crown of Swords and Lord of Chaos, a step up from Path of Daggers (a nearly unmitigated disaster), and a far cry from books 1-5. Once again, little actually happens to move the plot(s) and two major plotlines (both sides of the split Aes Sedai) are not given any significant space. The relatively uninteresting Perrin-Faile saga (including the basically worthless Sevanna-Shaido plotline) is stretched into 6 overly verbose chapters and the wanderings of Mat through Ebou Dar are similarly overextended. The largest weakness of the last 3-4 books is the lack of time devoted to Rand. This is alleviated somewhat in Winter's Heart, but the fact remains that he is THE messiah of Jordan's world, thus he should command around 40-50% of the book and much of the character development; the rest of the plotting and coordinating by other characters can be described more succinctly (do we really need to know about rabbits darting around while Egwene rides to a confrontation in Path of Daggers, same type of stuff happens in WH). Another weakness is the lack of interaction between Perrin and Rand -- arguably the two most important characters in the series considering the prophetic pronouncements regarding how important it was for Rand to keep Perrin nearby (this is only one misuse of Perrin by Jordan, the author could do MUCH more with that character). Jordan has a definite ability to produce great action in short, direct passages and does so in the final chapter. He also displays good subtlety of language and description. The contrast between these talents and the obvious padding within the recent books is what makes this series so frustrating to the legions of non-apostolic (yet loyal) fans. Jordan has much to do in this series, I just hope it's not eight more years (two more years for each of the four books predicted by one reviewer) before this all gets done.
Rating:
Summary: ridiculous
Review: I find it hard to believe that the last few books were written by the same author that wrote the first few. This series had more promise than any other fantasy series I have ever read. Robert Jordan got bogged down in his many plotlines and minor characters. Nothing happens. When you can skip whole chapters and pages of description, and pick up right where you left off, that's a bad thing. Some editor needs to slap the author and make him write again. Simply compare his writing style (descriptions, level of dialogue, advancement of plot, action) between the first 5 books and the last 4. He has begun writing simply for the act of writing, not for the reader. It shows, and it sucks. I would no longer reccommend even starting this series as it has become such a gigantic disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Overall...well done!
Review: A wonderful and enjoyable read. Jordan does a great job ofbringing the rest of the characters up to date with Egwene's march onthe White Tower. Sorry, you won't see that battle in this book but hehad to fill in the month while Egwene sat in Murandy and let her armyrest up. And a good thing he did. Alot happened that I don't thinkwe would have wanted to miss. (None of us really wanted to seedetails on Bryne's recruiting and Egwene's attempts to feed her army,did we?) So, everyone missed Mat in book 8? Well, here he is andnow folks are upset because of so little Egwene in book 9. Go figure.It just goes to show the proof of the saying, "You can't pleaseall of the people all of the time". Although shorter than theearlier books, I'm just as happy not to wait an extra year to get 300more pages. There are new points-of-view but I'm certain these aregiven to add depth of perspective, not necessarily to introduce newstorylines. After all, wasn't it the fact that this world is not justtwo-dimensional that hooked many of us in the first place? Myadvise: be realistic. Unreasonable expectations are the fastest wayto ruin a good book. Forget whatever you wanted to see happen andTHEN read the book...then read it again. For some folks it'snecessary to reread the whole series in order to put a new book inperspective. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book thefirst time through...but then, I've long since learned my lesson andtry to judge each book on it's own merit. (Personally, I read theseries again last month and have read Winter's Heart 3 times thismonth...along with all my other reading the last two months!) Mybiggest complaint is that Jordan tended to "lump" hischaracter stories together rather than intermixing them and thistended to make some parts of the book tedious. Perrin's story, forinstance, may have made for better reading if it's chapters had beeninterspersed throughout the rest of the book. But perhaps Jordan wastrying to maintain a certain timeline in relation to Egwene'smonth-long wait in Murandy. Yes, the book is shorter than others.Yes, Tor seems to have neglected the editing stage on this one. Yes,there is still lots to be resolved. Yes, Jordan could have given moredetail on how Rand puzzled out his plan to cleanse the taint. (And heprobably would have been criticized for too much filler.) Yes, ALOThappens in this book...just not necessarily what you expected tohappen. No, Jordan has not said that the series will end on book 13.That's just the latest of many guesses and will probably fall by thewayside just like all the others. His last estimate was that theseries would be completed whenever he finished writing the lastchapter. I apologize for the long review but hope it helps some ofyou. Shel END
Rating:
Summary: Please.. Please.. Please.. Make an end!
Review: I must join the chorus of folks who've grown weary of the wheel of time that will never end. I've bought each of the volumes in HB as they were released, and I don't want to add up the total I've spent. I loved the first few volumes, but they've gone downhill from there. "Winter's Heart" is better than "Path of Daggers," but not by much.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed Again
Review: As someone who has been reading this series since the first book was released, I have to say I was extremely dissappointed in this book. It used to be whenever the next Robert Jordan book was released, everything would stop for me until I finished reading it. With Winters Heart, I found myself struggling to get through most of it. In fact, I read several other books while trying to finish it. The first half of the book was extremely slow filled with what seemed like mundane details, focusing on events that just weren't very interesting. Not to mention the fact that I was having a hard time remembering what had happened in the previous books.I know I sound like I'm being disloyal, but I'm ready for the series to end. There are some cool things that that occur in the book, so if you can make it through the first half, you'll have some intersting reading. Hopefully the next book won't take as long or be as boring.
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