Rating: 
Summary: Waste of Time and Money
Review: The Wheel of Time series is "New Age" fantasy. Channeling, a new age technique, is the only form of magic in this series. The series GARBAGE! I've read much better fantasy than Robert Jordan. For example, Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series is 100 times BETTER than the Wheel of Time! I wasted my time reading the 1st 6 books, and I am glad I had the sense to stop there! Don't waste your money buying JUNK! Don't waste your time reading this JUNK!
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely one of the best in the series (so far, anyway)
Review: There are certainly both positive and negative things about this book and the Wheel of Time series as a whole. There are only a certain number of ways we can read about how wonderful and terrible saidin can feel. Ice and fire, sweetness and vileness, etc. ad nauseum. But the reader gets the impression that Jordan wants us to understand exactly how it feels for male channelers, and the constant repetition of sweetness and vileness makes the end of Winter's Heart all the more poignant, even moving. I have to take issue with previous reviewers' problems with the book. Elayne, Nynaeve, Egwene, Rand, Mat etc. all act juvenile BECAUSE THEY ARE JUVENILE. Even Nynaeve, the eldest of this young group, is understood to be no older than 25. Being 24 myself, I can testify that these individuals are acting exactly as many of my peers would act given the same situations. I can't imagine what kind of stress it would produce to have the kinds of life-altering experiences these people have had. I understand it is fiction, but I think Jordan has done an excellent job portraying realistic characters and their reactions. I also don't understand one reviewer's statement about "Jordan's juvenile obsession with female nudity and sexuality." Honestly, the male characters are naked or in their "smallclothes" just as often as the girls are naked or in their "shifts". I would have to say Jordan is again being realistic. People change clothes. It happens. I think Jordan has anything BUT an obsession with nudity. He doesn't go into medical detail about body parts like some writers. Heck, one of our main characters didn't even have sex until the FOURTH book in the series. Sex is not meant to be a driving point in the story. Speaking of the story, I would have to join others in saying that the series has gone on longer than it maybe should have. But I'm sure Jordan is well aware of this fact himself, and doesn't need US to tell him that. That whole "many-headed monster" idea is probably truer than we think. As a budding writer myself, I can't imagine how difficult it would be to keep track of as many characters and storylines as Jordan is juggling. I would have to say he's doing admirably. Bravo, sir! I believe the story is meant to have a web, or Pattern. As I read the story AGAIN, I am struck by how clear it is that events are drawing to a conclusion, however bleak, far-off, and long-awaited it might be. I'm willing to wait and I respect Jordan as a writer trying to write the best story he can. I believe it was Stephen King (and please forgive me if I'm wrong) who once said, "Sometimes a story is just a story." I think we, as readers, would do well to remember that. I've been a fan of fantasy for as long as I've been able to read. In a literary sense, of course certain authors (Tolkien being a good example) are going to be better than others. Tolkien is probably looking down from whatever cloud he may be sitting on, and wishing we would all just let the authors in the genre he really created simply TELL THEIR OWN STORY. I think we need to stop comparing EVERYONE in the fantasy genre to Tolkien, LeGuin and others. Personally, I don't care for LeGuin. But that's my opinion. If you like Jordan's books, good for you. If you don't, well then good for you too. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. Before I close this review, I would like to remind the readers who keep comparing Tolkien and Jordan of one thing. Please remember the VOLUMES of material concerning Middle-Earth that Tolkien never had a chance to have published before his death. I believe the "History of Middle-Earth" is pretty close to 12 volumes, if not more. Jordan doesn't have to worry about a professorship at Oxford, so he therefore has the time to do what Tolkien never did . . . truly complete his epic. I say again, Bravo Sir!!
Rating:
Summary: Not his best work but still good
Review: This book is a slow moving plot line, like a giant freight train.....
Rating: 
Summary: Not quite a three star book, really
Review: This was the weakest book in the series so far for me. The plot is thinly developed, and the relationships are not focused or emotionally acute enough to make me care. I read this after I finished Shadow Rising, with the relationship of Perrin and the Bashere woman fresh in mind. (I think that she was from house Bashere-- the Hunter of the Horn, whom he loves.) This one, despite the sparkling relationship between Aviendha and Rand, saw these highlights come few and far between. The best thing in the book for me was probably the rise of Matt as leader of the Red Hand, a re-instated military group from the Age of Legends. Matt does not use Age-Of-Legends warriors or anything to man his army. He just runs it. Also, this book relates some great tragedies, and course changes. The book gets three stars because Jordan's prose is still actually pretty lucid, and he seems to have a point to make. The thing is, these points are explained with little vigor.
Rating:
Summary: Mostly very good
Review: Yes, the book is very long. When I began the series, I'd only read a couple of thousand page books. Now, I'm starting to think that I'll have read a dozen by the time the series is finished. That's besides the point. When I read Robert Jordan, the pages fly by. Suddenly I'm 100 pages from when I last looked at the page. This book had some of the usual annoying babble and frustrations such as Nynaeve and Elayne consistently falling into traps and revealing too much information. I did enjoy reading about Rand's relationship to Aviendha, and Moiraine's change in character. Mat is becoming more and more interesting as he begins to have a life of his own outside of following Rand. Sadly, the book doesn't talk any of Perrin, and way too much of Elayne and Nynaeve. I think the ending could have been a bit better but I still liked it. It gets 4 stars because I didn't put the book down with a big "wow" at the end. Jordan keeps the story moving with various plot twists, and I don't think there is a single chapter where something significant doesn't happen. It's a very, very good book, and from what I hear, the next one is better. I just have one question... how many women can have "ice cold stares" or something equivalent to that?
| 
