Recently when I write reviews, I have been using bolded quotes. I am quite fond of bolding quotes because i love illustrating the writing of the author. However, in this specific review, I will not do so. Why? Because most of the words and writing in this book is bullshit Commence Rant Wow, I cannot believe I am doing this. Even though I hated the Dragon Reborn to a certain degree, I actually look back on it a slight bit fondly because it was not terrible . In fact, I did say as such, it was just ok. However, this book....ha....this book had the nerve of being written and released to a public that had been awaiting an excellent installment in the epic series. Then they had to wait 2 MORE YEARS, what a decade that was.I truly marvel and sympathize with how crushed some of those individuals must have been. Being disappointed, crushed at wondering where the hell the series was going. Now, we know that the series clocks in at 14 main books. But they didn't know that! All they knew was one quote RJ had spoken, saying that he would not be wrapping up the series in the next 3 books. Unfortunately, he would not even get to.Nevertheless, I will crush this book and break it down with every ounce of my being. Its sort of twisted, hating a work that a deceased author has written when you at the same time, love it so damn much and admire it so damn much. Its tough love everyone, that is all I want to say. Honestly, I could not enjoy this even one bit. So, let me begin. 1. Daes' daemar is the most unsubtle crap that I have seen when it comes to political maneuvering. WoT isn't all that subtle a lot of the time, but shoving it down your throat is annoying. Also, I have a bit of trouble believing when Rand and Elayne engage in such political struggles and then say crap such as "Moiraine/Thom has taught me well". There is a certain degree to where having been taught helps, but you can't just teach someone how to be cunning. You can display how to be cunning, but its a trait. And not everyone is capable of being so deceiving or manipulative. Using having been taught as an excuse sure as hell isn't the answer. 2. The Forsaken. There is a lot to talk about when it comes to the forsaken. First, the fact that they can be reincarnated into a new body by the Dark One. On one hand, that makes sense. In another, it makes their deaths and fights against them completely meaningless. All they are are fights to decide whether or not their names are changed to increase the stupidly huge amount of character names. As well that they have new sort of demanors. Like Cyndane who is undoubtedly Lanfear. She isn't even interesting anymore. All tension has been lost when it comes to a Forsaken because they are just a hindrance and their deaths mean nothing. You could say that it makes them lazier villains because Rand could still beat the shit outta of them. The fact that many of them attacked simultaneously in the climax was the best move RJ could have made actually. Second, what the hell are any of them doing? Osan'gar was Dashiva, so he infiltrated the Black Tower which is interesting. So what the hell are all the other forsaken doing? Are they just lounging, waiting around? If any of the chapters actually covered shit like that instead of describing a girl adjusting their shawls, tugging their braids, smoothing their skirts, or freakin blushing! 3. Lack of Meaningful Conversations. People speak sometimes per chapter, but it can be heavily doubted as to whether it has any point. All the POV characters might as well just have an internal monologue the whole damn book because that is as affecting the story as much as the ability of speech, communication. Its funny how all I try to do when characters are talking is finding a way to amuse myself. Just have them doing comedy skits is better. When Tylin shows up in Mat's POV, I honestly clap because her talking brings more amusement and emotion out of me than any of Mat's chapters ever did. Me: "Oh yes, I am finally giving a crap about the words on the page. How swell". 4. The Writing and the Detail. Notorious is what this series is for this, notorious. I read reviews about it before I even touched book one, but it is worse than I possibly imagined. Whole chapters have no progress, no entertainment value, no merit because we are being described horses and wagons moving. Some chapters have as much progress as ex: "Ch1, the character walked from here to here. Ch2, He slept, woke up, and spoke to someone then walked out the door. Ch3, he walked all the way to the harbor" THAT IS 50 PAGES. Because we have characters wondering shit like "The seachan are a people". Sure, you might be thinking and wondering as I did about the merit of having a character's perspective on a particular topic or having them think about other characters so we can define their relationships or even, or motherfu**** even , development . NOPE. What kind of crap have ya been smokin'? We don't do that sort around here. Unfortunately, that is the case and that was the reality dealt to me. Thanks for describing Elayne eating with a whole page of lyrical prose, I certainly appreciated it. How else am I supposed to know how Elayne drinks her wine? How crucial to the story. We can cover the assassination attempt in half a page, so let's just take a whole page on how she eats. 5. The Slow Pacing and Filler. This goes hand in hand with the above, but there is so much god damn nothing. Perrin's first 200 pages accomplish near nothing. We see some Berelain sexiness, but that is all that matters. We don't even get to see some Slayer action, a somewhat interesting plot thread. No, lets just walk around the camp and make actions with meaningless results, woop-de-doo! Let's have 50 pages of Cadsuane riding to meet Rand in Far Madding. Hell yeah! ISNT THAT WHAT I CAME FOR!!!??? What about the way too many minor characters with similar names? As i saw in an amazon review, "someone pointed out to me in a slight exaggeration... "you need to distinguish Daigian from that other character Dagin, without confusing him from Degian or that scum Dagean." FOR CHRIST SAKE RJ, DO WE LOOK LIKE WANT TO WRITE RECORDS OF THESE PEOPLE? So minor characters = slow pacing and filler as the prologue so clear proves to demonstrate. 6. Dreadful POVs. The slow pacing kills the amount of shit-giving per POV, but there has to be at least some redemable factors to hearing a character's voice? Nah, not really. For we are receiving the worst of the characters that we can possibly handle. Forget that Mat is just doing nothing, his thinking leads to nothing important. We don't even get some Mat flirting which is the best, we just get some "I DONT WANNA BE A HERO" crap. Perrin is whinny about Faile, and you know that its hard to like a character that just keeps whinning. Rand....he wasn't even enjoyable, he just kept teasing madness. Letdown. Also, forget the weirdest plotline I have seen in a while with Min, Elayne, and aviendha linking with Rand. YES, so NOW we can ALL know when he is having SEX. But that is not all, we also know when his fierce hunger arrives....aka A TYPICAL HORNY 20-YEAR OLD MALE. Forget how screwed up those relationships are since they are ok with Rand cheating on each of them, that LUCKY BASTARD. They are also ALL having his children! *round of applause* This bastard has multiple wives!!!All right, so I am a bit tired so maybe I should end it. Now, don't get me wrong, I still like the Wheel of Time series but I've been so faithful to the rich and spectacular world that RJ has built up. Even then, with all that potential that the characters and the world history hold, RJ still has to manage to captivate us and entertain us by writing something satisfying. Watching how his writing quality deteriorates, I feel like he wasn't certain how he was able to exactly move ahead the story. Just slowly marching forward to the conclusion. But also is my emotional attachment slowly fading. Even Rand wasn't entertainning to me, even my favorite character wasn't able to make me care! The series has grown stale, the villains have grown stale, progress has grown stale, and the characters have grown stale in their development. It is so disappointing and if people herald Crossroads of Twilight as the worst book, then that frightens me. Because this has become the all-time low for me.To encapsulate it perfectly in a single statement, this whole rant can be summarized in one sentence. This book was bullshit . Did you see how long it took me to plainly admit it properly? Because that is also how long it takes for RJ to describe and state the most simple of things. - Filler is Dull- Slow Pacing- Meaningless Drivel of conversations- Character Development- Characters that mean nothing- Forsaken aren't scary- Boring to readBUY/RENT/SKIP: SKIPFinal Score: 3.0 / 10Favorites from #1 to last: The Great Hunt The Fires of Heaven The Eye of the WorldThe Shadow RisingThe Path of DaggersA Crown of SwordsLord of ChaosThe Dragon RebornWinter's Heart
Well. Um. Ahem. *sweating*Sex has finally fully unfurled its flags and waves openly for all to see in 'Winter's Heart' (sex has been lurking in dark corners in every previous book), joining the hundreds of invented military banners (and magical battle action) already flapping around in every book in 'The Wheel of Time' series.(Sideways comment: Robert Jordan must have spent many hours annoying his friends and family by asking for ideas or sources in creating imaginary sigils and flags. I discovered through Apple Ipod apps flags are a big deal to many people almost a decade ago - dozens of apps about flags available at that time the fourth type of Ipod was released! - but anyone who has followed the century-long dispute over the American Confederate flag knows flags are a big emotional deal.Included for fun fact information - world flags:http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/fl...Included for fun - how to make sigils:http://youtu.be/wX19IvY5CWc)Throughout the previous books, Jordan has had his 'good' characters become red-faced when leading them to scenes of mostly avoiding lustful animal rutting whenever the subject of sex has naturally come up, but lest you, gentle reader, are now alarmed, remain calm. It is a fictional story, and not about anyone real. While Jordan is finally allowing some of his protagonists to have sex, he still is resorting to clumsy euphemisms and awkward writing (only Mat's sex life has appeared to be humorously unaffected and male-normal, even if told in PG-Teen safe words). In this book the author has brought the subject into the foreground for the first time; however, he is slyly titulating us gentle readers through the characters' small-town shames and increasing pressures of military exigencies, necessities and sacrifices, mostly through compromising wartime sex-fumbling and leadership woes (mixing in a massive dose of ancient mythic godsex for Rand), when all mores are breaking down (especially for middle-class, farming community heroes) while at the same time a miasma of desperation and strategy taints every kiss.Alas.I am happy to reveal the PG-weird (?!? depending on YOUR own proclivities and tastes, I suppose) sex scenes to suit all tastes - (view spoiler)[Rand, being the resident Zeus/Odin/King Arthur/Jesus god symbol (including unhealing knife wounds in his side), is now legally married (and literally bonded) to three women (Daughter-heir Elayne, mystical Min and Aiel Aviendha) as well as linked to two others (warder Brigette and Aes Sedai Alanna), all of whom feel every sex act Rand indulges in with whomever he is actually bedding. I guess, if you know your ancient god theology, we readers (perhaps saying it too loudly for some of us) should be glad Rand isn't raping or changing himself into bulls and other such animal or fog guises to have his way with his sweethearts.Mat is 'under'going a forced long-term seduction/rape nightly (he most certainly is the bottom) by Queen Tylin of Altara in the Seanchan-subjugated city of Ebou Dar. While I have seen some reviewers outraged by the rape aspects of Mat's boy-toy servitude, it seems to me he is not exactly fighting Tylin off with every weapon at his command. Instead, he is submitting to her dominatrix demands, enjoying her playful silk bondage restraints and his sexual subjugation in obedience to her commands (she does not do torture or cruelty). It definitely seems to me to be more of an ongoing sex game than actual raping. After all, Mat is a free agent and he is enjoying all of the benefits of an aristocrat status without any of the responsibilities. Any military assignments he is taking on are entirely of his own choosing and volition. All around him, though, the people of Ebou Dar ARE enduring terrible real subjugation, cruel and destructive, under the awful Seanchan Blood overlords.Mat has been the most sexually active of our heroes, bedding down willing barmaids in every town and city in nine - count 'em, NINE, huge 900-page novels (the others were virgins until either book 7 or 8), before fights and after fights, wounded and bleeding, healed and in top form, drunk and sober. Whatever. Mat's sex adventure in this book is without question the most funniest so far that the author has created for our sweet little pigeon Mat. Oh, to be a healthy 'pretty' lad of 20 who constantly catches the eye and the affection of all of the ladies, high-born and low....it's a terrible cross Mat carries with remarkable tolerance!Nynaeve has finally married (previous book) and she has made a warder (by borrowing his bond) of the love of her life, dark and handsome ex-King Lan. She can't keep her hands off of him and disappears in every chapter for pages of assumed nookie.Faile, now the warrior wife of Perrin (previously two books ago), is sexually humiliated by being stripped of her clothes and forced into weeks-long public nudity and servitude, as well as forced marches in snow throughout most of her kidnapped! adventure chapters in 'Winter's Heart'. Butt spanking occurs to her fellow captives all around her.Egwene has sworn off raping the love of her life, Gawin, which she has done in the magical dreamworld, Tel'aran'rhiod. She can easily have sex with whomever she wants through their dreams, but she only wants the brother of her best friend, Elayne, Queen-candidate of Andor. She is finding her forswearing off all sex difficult, because it was the best sex of her life. However, the difficulty of being a junior unrecognized Amyrlin Seat is keeping her busy with putting down Aes Sedai sisters who want her job, and organizing her army that she is planning to march on Tar Valon and bring on the Revolution. Depriving oneself of available sex, no matter how morally dubious, is going to have consequences for the White Tower. Amazing but true, the Black Tower (the Asha'man) do not seem to have sex crimes on their minds. They only want to kill, maim, torture and be dictators because that is what feels good to them. Does saidin power kill sexual desire? Rand has so much love running amok in his golden veins he has three wives, so I, and you, gentle reader, are left to muse quietly about Asha'man sexuality.Aes Sedai, the Aiel, the Whitecloaks, the Forsaken, the Seanchan Blood, the Knitting Circle, the Prophet, the Sea Folk, the Wise Women - all of these WOT sects of power and political maneuvering use sexual humiliation to punish rule-breaking both large and small. Any transgression can lead to enforced nudity and/or spanking, no matter what the characters' position or age or sex. Afterwords, women seem to suffer an odd PTSD symptom of messing with their breasts and blouses to shape a butt-like exposure of mammary flesh.(Reader, are you aware that many actual real-life religious-warrior sects, such as the Knights Templar, were rumored to use spanking and butt whipping, as well as branding and literal oath butt-kissing in their secret initiation rites? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knigh.... The rumors about the Knights Templar and butt obsessions arose because of gossip and drawings which circulated all around the halls and taverns of the European Middle Ages, but as far as I remember in my meager and erratic collecting of irregular knowledge, The Knights Templar may actually have cemented oath-taking in some sort of butt-kissing ceremony. Keep in mind as you read these books virtually EVERY military organization throughout history in every country in the world has had a hazing ritual scandal. These rituals often involve butt abuse first, genital torture second, and dares involving poop third. In any case, there are currently thousands of researched reporters' exposés available on the Net of military organizations and fraternity houses who use sexual humiliation and sexual torture in their membership rites. The most bizarre one I have read of late was that of a college football marching band. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic.... Since women are rarely instigators, this HAS to be an inherited male evolutionary trait. Just saying. (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about Winter's Heart (2002)?
Finally, a WoT book that ends decently well. Rand seems to succeed in (view spoiler)[cleansing the male half of the Power while his buddies seem to kill a few Forsaken in the process (hide spoiler)]
—Jerzy
Worried that the series is slowing down to a crawl after the first two thirds of The Path of Daggers and wondering if Winter's Heart is worth it? Let me start with a resounding YES.Like most people I too was a bit sceptical after The Path of Daggers since frankly until the last third of the book not very much happens and we're given the two most annoying POVs quite a lot of the time (Faile and Nynaeve). Fortunately Winter's Heart completely breaks away from that and I didn't feel like there was a single dull moment in the whole book. Overall a lot more happens and even when the book is dealing with side events they don't feel at all like filler.There's much more Mat in this one, which leads to a lot of information on Seanchan society and customs, along with something I was expecting for AGES (view spoiler)[ Mat finally meeting the Daughter of the Nine Moons (hide spoiler)]
—Pedro António
This is the first book in WoT that I review, and the reason is simple, I just didn't feel I had anything to add to the reviews here on any previous book: I think the general agreement is that books 1-6 are very good, and I definitely agree, and most people think book 7 is where things start to go wrong and book 8 an almost mediocre endeavour; I started skimming large parts of book 7, and book 8 I would recommend most to just skip it (not that it is unreadable, it is not that bad - I gave it 3 stars - but I can think of better things to do with one's time, and really, you won't be missing much in terms of events).But Winter's Heart I feel is injusticed. Most people consider it not a recover from the last 2 books (and I think the next one having such a bad reputation helps that, so people complain of books 7-10 as a group), and some even say it is worse than the others, but I actually found it very good!Maybe another problem is that the book starts slow, Perrin in this book is not as fun as in previous ones (and his story doesn't get anywhere in this book), but it is certainly not bad; and Elayne's part... well I never liked Elayne (Really, how many times you can be saved in the last instant and still think you are omnipotent and don't need anyone), but luckilly most of the book is about Mat and Rand, and I really think in those chapters Jordan is at his best!So no, this book is not as bad as last 2, and I wouldn't skip it. It has not so good parts, but most of the book is awesome, and few can say nothing happens here.
—Dougao06
