(Amy) I have fond memories of aCoS - not least because some of the dangling - and irriating - romantic plots get at least a little closer to resolution (yay Min for talking a little sense into Rand, and yay Nynaeve for not taking Lan's "I don't deserve you" for an answer). It was the first WoT book for whose publication I had to wait, but I didn't have to wait long, and it came out before I discovered the newsgroup whose discussions really crystallized some of my frustrations with the series. so I was not disappointed by it when it first came out. This most recent re-read after a multi-year Jordan hiatus really makes all the irritating stuff - musing about clothing and how other people must surely understand women better and all these people lying to and manipulating and just plain not talking to each other for their own good - stand out pretty substantially.

For a long time, I always thought the next book would be better. Then we got Path of Daggers, which, enh, and Winter's Heart, which, bleh, and Crossroads of Twilight, which, eww, and Knife of Dreams, which . . . I never read. So I'm actually looking forward to see what I think of those four books this year. Soon enough I'll find out, and shortly thereafter, so will you.

( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/ze... ) ( )

I felt this installment lost a lot of momentum at the end. It became really easy to put down. I still love the series as a whole, though. ( )

Finally these have stopped getting much thicker with each one. Although they're beginning to make less progress with each book. See book 1 for longer review. ( )

The seventh book of the 2009 pre Gathering Storm reread and why are we not at the climax yet? Now, as we continue on our way one of the themes that Jordan seems intent on developing is that of evil. We don't have the glimpse into the heads of those characters as perhaps we should to truly see where evil will take us.

Is this book a good one? If you are not reading the entire series, then you will be lost, and it will not be worthwhile to read. There are so many plot lines, that the book loses people, and story arcs are barely concluded.

Oh, another one of the evil that we are exploring more of, bites it, which is good for the good guys. But that Arc has been going on since book three. What has taken so long.

Then in other arcs, barely a word about our tower in exile friends, which is ripe with political strife and turmoil and evil interlaced within its domain. Perrin, moved off stage for later shenanigans. Which is now a precursor that tells us, more is coming, this is not the last book, we are going to make it longer.

So here is the big picture. The series is too long, or too much is happening in too short a time. Our heroes are being thrust in an ever accelerated pace, after Rand saves Cairhein, to do more grown-up things then they should be capable of or prepared for given what we have walked down the path with them.

All of a sudden our three male Tevern and equally powerful Aes Sedai girls, are still that, boys and girls thrust to do very adult, wise things for which it would take years to master.

And the amount of balls they are juggling in the air, would take years also. It is as if FDR looking around on December 8th said, well lets let these six 20 year old juniors from community college handle the entire American war effort. I'll sit back and take the credit, but they can defeat Hitler and the Japanese, no problem.

Our heroes are faced with so many challenges that they should have had the years to develop especially as we have had 20 years to wait for the end of the series.

Thus we conclude that if you are a fan of the series, this is a transition book. There are some fun and exciting sequences, but even with the closing of some arcs, the book opens new doors and by now we know, that some of the things that Jordan adds, when he adds new things, just can not be finished unless he forces us to read 3000 new pages... ( )

The seventh book of the 2009 pre Gathering Storm reread and why are we not at the climax yet? Now, as we continue on our way one of the themes that Jordan seems intent on developing is that of evil. We don't have the glimpse into the heads of those characters as perhaps we should to truly see where evil will take us.

Is this book a good one? If you are not reading the entire series, then you will be lost, and it will not be worthwhile to read. There are so many plot lines, that the book loses people, and story arcs are barely concluded.

Oh, another one of the evil that we are exploring more of, bites it, which is good for the good guys. But that Arc has been going on since book three. What has taken so long.

Then in other arcs, barely a word about our tower in exile friends, which is ripe with political strife and turmoil and evil interlaced within its domain. Perrin, moved off stage for later shenanigans. Which is now a precursor that tells us, more is coming, this is not the last book, we are going to make it longer.

So here is the big picture. The series is too long, or too much is happening in too short a time. Our heroes are being thrust in an ever accelerated pace, after Rand saves Cairhein, to do more grown-up things then they should be capable of or prepared for given what we have walked down the path with them.

All of a sudden our three male Tevern and equally powerful Aes Sedai girls, are still that, boys and girls thrust to do very adult, wise things for which it would take years to master.

And the amount of balls they are juggling in the air, would take years also. It is as if FDR looking around on December 8th said, well lets let these six 20 year old juniors from community college handle the entire American war effort. I'll sit back and take the credit, but they can defeat Hitler and the Japanese, no problem.

Our heroes are faced with so many challenges that they should have had the years to develop especially as we have had 20 years to wait for the end of the series.

Thus we conclude that if you are a fan of the series, this is a transition book. There are some fun and exciting sequences, but even with the closing of some arcs, the book opens new doors and by now we know, that some of the things that Jordan adds, when he adds new things, just can not be finished unless he forces us to read 3000 new pages... ( )