The Fires of Heaven

Although this was a long read, it was worth it.

Sometimes the story became a bit too long, I kept going on with it. And I'm glad I did.
I think the characters have grown more. I missed Perrin in this book though, and hope he will return in book number 6.

At some moment I found that too much of the same happened in this story, and that we've all seen that in the first 4 books. ( )

Book Five is done. Being it's summer, I'm really moving at a slow pace through these books, slower than I need to be. I had hoped to finish the series by the end of 2013 (with some time in between for some other books), but at the current pace, that doesn't seem likely.

Anyway, another good one is done. This is where Jordan gets a bit over descriptive and sometimes repetitive. I think this book could have been condensed down to a clean 400-500 pages (from it's 950+ in paperback form) with no loss to the essence of the novel. The first 900 pages seem to be maneuvering for the last 50 pages and it's big reveals. Strange to have not seen Perrin at all (except being mentioned briefly by one of the other characters), but if I remember from my first read through of this part of the series, that becomes a pattern where we won't see entire characters or plot threads for an entire book, then they'll be back next time. I am starting to forget what happens in the next few novels that I've read before, so it will be like coming at them almost fresh.

I thought by now, I'd be ready to move on to something else for a short break from the Wheel of Time series and I've got a lot of books I'm itching to get too, but I think I'm ready to jump right into book 6. ( )

Five down.. Eleven billionty to go. I'm still enjoying doing this re-read, but I'm starting to get a little sad. I guess in retrospect I imagined all of the big events happening spread out over the first ten books. Now I'm realizing that most of the stuff I remember has already happened... I'm almost to the time of slowness already. I never noticed it on my first two reads of the series, I'm not sure why, but I have a feeling I'll notice it this time. Oh well though, I'm still looking forward to continuing on in the series. It's worth it to experience the final book in all it's expected glory, with all of the back story fresh in my mind. ( )

This is what I think of as the beginning of The Dreaded Middle. Rand is becoming less sympathetic as a character, plot threads proliferate, bad things start to happen, and the focus of each individual volume becomes a lot less clear. The Fires of Heaven is still good, but not nearly as good as The Shadow Rising, and it's downhill for a while from here.

Note: In general, I can't review this series with any objectivity. I've been reading it since I was eleven years old, and it's thoroughly embedded in my brain. ( )

This was my second attempt at The Wheel of Time, and I just ran out of steam in about the same place that I did the first time I tried to read it. It's not that I actively dislike the books, I just can't muster the energy to keep reading them. The plot is interesting, the world-building is great, but I can't muster any emotion for these characters. I don't get their humor, I don't get their personalities, I don't get their complete and utter lack of ability to deal with people of the opposite gender, I just don't get any of them at all. And I'm sick of reading phrases so often repeated they feel like the punch line of a tired joke. Yeah, yeah, Aes Sedai faces are ageless and Nynaeve tugs her braid a lot. This isn't building depth or interest, it's just repeating the exact same description a million times. Oh well. I guess it's just not the series for me.