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The Dragon Reborn (The Wheel of Time, Book 3)

The Dragon Reborn (The Wheel of Time, Book 3)

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

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: 'Dragon Reborn' is a thrilling read.
Review: After reading the first three volumes of 'The Wheel of Time' books, this third volume is far and away the most well-written. I found myself hanging on every word with nearly 200 pages remaining. Jordan's prolific descriptive powers come through fully.

Don't let recent reviewers (although he does make sense) throw you, this is a fascinating read. It reminds me of a recent 'Buffy' television series episode. It focuses on the supporting characters as they fulfill their tasks...giving a new and fresh perspective. Although it is odd to have the main character of the series (and the very subject of the title no less) virtually non-existent, this gives the book enough of a different feel to make it intriguing.

Remember, some people live to criticize. Form your own opinions.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Favorite book of the epic
Review: If you enjoy Jordan's style and can bear his repetitiveness, this book is for you. I throughly enjoyed it. If you've read the first two and liked them then keep going. However, if you felt like you had to push to finish the second book, quit now while you're ahead.

I wouldn't recommend it for a tenth grade lit class, however. It's not quite challenging enough.

It gets three stars because it is a pale reflection of Tolkien's masterpiece, Lord of the Rings

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Worst of the lot
Review: I've read all of the Wheel of Time books so far, and The Dragon Reborn is by far the worst of the lot. The story is boring, and all too similar to the first two (main characters are seperated, have to make their own ways to Wherever City). Really only the very beginning and the very end make this book enjoyable. The sad part is, if you're a Wheel of Time fan...you have to read it. Otherwise you can't read the rest of the books...

But don't worry. The Shadow Rising, the next in the series, is one of the best books ever written by any author; it's faster-paced, has more action, more...storyline, more EVERYTHING. Almost as though RJ new he had to apologize for this waste of a gazillion words...

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Dull, Dull, Dull
Review: Okay, kids, I admit to my biases. I'm a Tolkien fan, but I also appreciate a few other fantasy writers who can write well (Ursula Le Guin comes immediately to mind). The problem is, it's pretty thin picking out there in the fantasy genre. So finally, hungry for fantasy, I dropped my guard and picked up Jordan's The Eye of the World, recommended by a friend.

That said, I'm not sure what people see in Jordan's work. His readers skew young, I know, and that may be part of the explanation, but what ever happened to good old common sense? Jordan's books aren't all that great. And this has nothing to do with a Tolkien vs. Jordan thing. Jordan is allowed to write fantasy as he wishes, Tolkienesque or not. But The Eye of the World was plain meandering, and often dull. The Great Hunt was surprisingly okay, due in part to the linear plot (a stolen horn, the chase to get it back, and very few annoying plot diversions). But Dragon Reborn is just plain dull and silly. First, where is Rand? The book is called the Dragon Reborn, but it should be named Dragon's Disappearance, since Rand is nowhere to be found. He just shows up at Tear at the end, defeats the Dark One (for the third damn time) and that's it. Instead, we readers follow the other characters on their way to Tear. At one point in the novel, these characters, now split in three groups, are ALL on ships, each one with a different captain's name!!! What was Jordan thinking? Not only is it confusing (Who was on the Snow Goose? What was that captain's name? Who's docking now at Aringill?) but it's also incredibly boring. If I'm on one ship with Mat and Thom, I don't want to go to ANOTHER ship in the next chapter with Egwene, Nynaeve and Elayne, and then I CERTAINLY dont' want to go to still another ship in the still ANOTHER chapter with Perrin, Lan, Moraine, Loial (who's rather Entish, I'd say)and Falcon. It's obvious, as another reviewer wrote below, that Jordan is just filling up space. His subplots are more distracting than interesting and Jordan is incredibly repetitive Count how many times Nynaeve tugs on her braid. Not only is the frequency ridiculous, but the notion is also silly...who really ever tugs at her braid? Throw in the overuse of exclamations such as Light, Bloody and Burn Me, and I'm ready to throw the novel in the trash. Lastly, and not of least annoyance, is the awkward, adolescent bickering of the younger characters. Remember, folks, Rand, Egwene, Elayne, Mat, and Perrin are OLDER than we think. They're young adults, not children, but still they all act as if they're fourteen. The female characters are rigidly one-dimensional, dismissing all the male characters as wool-headed or worthless or both. The male characters are even worse, so socially and sexually backwards that they don't even know how to talk to girls. Could Jordan be aiming this towards an audience that perhaps embodies this male awkwardness? Or is Jordan also clueless when it comes to writing of the sexes? Perhaps, since, at times, his writing wavers subtiley on the edge of extended male fantasy (why must the novices in Tar Valon undress when passing through the arches on their way to becoming one of the Accepted? Why does Jordan mention that such-and-such female character crosses her arms across her "breasts" instead of using the less-sexually injected word, "chest"? And why does Mat view every woman he sees as kissable?

Lastly, why does Jordan begin his books with a sort-of preface, or pre-chapter, that appears to set the stage for the events to follow but never does!!! Pedron Niall and Jaret Byar discuss plans to thwart the proclaimed dragon, and then we never hear another word regarding these two people or their plans again (and arguing that their ploy will appear in a later book is NOT an excuse.

Kids, I could go on and on an on. But I will stop and wait for comments in response.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: good fantasy
Review: I've read a lot of fantasy, and I've finally gotten around to this legendary series about which everyone's been talking. I haven't finished book 3 yet, so I can't offer insight on everybody else's reviews referring the ending (thanks for the hints, guys). But I can safely say that as the genre goes, Jordan has definitely captured the essence of high fantasy series writing. I'd consider him equal in quality to Eddings, and I think that which series you like better depends more on how you're drawn into books than which one is more well-written. As a matter of personal taste, I can't give it 5 stars because it fits so cleanly into the traditional epic fantasy mode. If you like that, it's at the top; buy it right now. But if you're looking for something a little more unusual, you may find yourself slightly unsatisfied with these books, so go to the library to get them instead. However, they are well-planned and well-thought out, with dynamic, fun, well-rounded characters and original ideas (and as an aside, if you like Jordan's ideas and want to see them some more with weird sadistic twists added on, I recommend Terry Goodkind - though I was not too fond of what he did to Jordan's original thoughts, myself. But to each his own). I'm looking forward to reading the other books in the series

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great
Review: another superb addition to a wonderful series...at this point

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome IS the only word
Review: Another of Robert Jordan's "Glassy eyed followers"? I think not. I have read many books by many authors considered to be the elite force of fantasy and, not to diminish thier work in any way, the Wheel of time series is the pinnacle of the fantasy genre and Dragon Reborn is the zenith of the series. Dragon give the reader thoughts to ponder during the rare moments that he/she is not reading the book itself. You will go to bed at night wondering if you could stand Nynave's temper and checking the shadows for halfmen. A must read for any true fantasy lover who is tired of the archaic styles and banal characters of Tolkien mimics.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: very compelling read yet dies in places.
Review: I believe this is one of the most intense books i have ever read to date yet, the author leaves alot to the readers imagination so as to give a sence of control. There is unfortunately too many places where the story leaves you thinking this has absolutely no relevence, but i have yet to find an author who can sustain the complete attention span of any reader when tranversing so many different topics.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Burp.
Review: One of the other readers actually had the nerve to write: "Can epic fantasy be any better?" I say this: "Does a bear shine his shoes in the woods?"

Every time I run into another glassy-eyed Jordan fan, I take them aside and gently ask them if they have heard of such names as Peter Beagle, C.S. Lewis, or Mervyn Peake. Nine times out of ten, I get the same glassy-eyed stare -- which in a way is good, because I get to introduce any of those excellent authors to another virgin reader.

But Jordan? If Lewis is filet mignon, Jordan is a sack of White Castles. His writing is wooden, repetitive (probably impossible for it not to be repetitive, since it's so damn bloated), aimless, and without a single real moment of insight or truth. Perhaps the best words is "trite" -- it's so obviously the product of someone who thinks he's God's gift to readers, and not someone who tries to actually tell a tight story that sweeps us along. There's no STORY -- it's all comings and goings and noise and misunderstandings and that all-purpose excuse for bad writing, A Set-Up For The Next Book In The Series.

Someone wiser than me once said, "Never tell in three books what you could just as easily say in one." Jordan seems to be out to make this mistake three times over.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: So far my all-time favorite of the series
Review: This book is the best of the series. Or at least I thought so. It had some really cool scences in it. I had a really hard time putting this one down. I loved every minute of this book. And was just enthralled by the characters and the way they were developing throughout it. The best book in the Wheel of Time Series to date


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