Cons: not going anywhere, overdeveloped characters, underdeveloped story.
The Bottom Line: If you're reading the series, by all means pick up this book for your "fix". If you haven't started, wait 'til Mr. Jordan finishes the series.
Naughtius's Full Review: Robert Jordan - Crossroads of Twilight
Note: I don't like to spoil books by revealing too much information about specific detail. You want that kind of review? Go somewhere else. Or read the spoiler at the bottom.
Winter's Heart is the latest book in Robert Jordan's masterful, plodding, exciting, overdescriptive series. As you can see I have very mixed feelings for Mr. Jordan's books. At first, the series was new and exciting, a breath of fresh air, with lots of forward-thinking ideas, exciting characters, and a sense of mystery. However, after a while the books have tended to bog down, often spending a lot of time with "filler" material, instead of continuing towards what should be a spectacular climactic battle. The three previous books: Lord of Chaos, A Crown of Swords, and The Path of Daggers, are all "filler", compared to the excellent books preceding them. I had hoped that Mr. Jordan would have returned to the writing excellence he has previously proven himself capable of.
Unfortunately, I was somewhat disappointed.
To Mr. Jordan's credit, Winter's Heart is a cut above the three novels I mentioned previously. Many of the "secrets" and loose ends have been tied in to the series (FINALLY), as well as adding less new "surprise" characters than the previous three novels. Mr. Jordan also has done a rather good job in further developing his current characters, adding new levels of depth to many former "two-dimensional" characters. The return of some of my more favorite characters, such as Bayle Domon and others, was particularly welcome, especially since they have changed or been affected by the passing of time.
However, this can often be too much of a good thing. In his quest for realism and character development, Jordan may have gone off the deep end. Some characters have been overdeveloped, often restating ideas or character traits that have been touched on again and again, such as Rand al'Thor's hesitance in fighting women, and the agony he feels if women under his protection die. Jordan also likes to describe some things to trivial details, such as fashions, customs of people over the continent, beard styles, spiced/mulled wine... The list goes on and on. I would eliminate about 100 pages of text that is just trivial information (color commentary). Moreover, many important storylines are either only glossed over or ignored altogether! For those of you expecting to hear more about characters involved in the climactic ending to Path of Daggers, you're going to have to wait another book, or two...
Mr. Jordan is good at one thing, still. Climactic endings. This one's a doozy, too. But great, cliffhanger endings shouldn't come at the expense of a long-winded, overdescriptive epistle interspersed with occasional action and character/storyline development.
In closing, for those of you reading the series currently, here's your fix. For those of you considering reading the series, wait until Mr. Jordan finishes the novels. I've heard that he knows how the series is going to end already. For everyone's sake I hope he finishes it soon, and with better quality than his last 3 or 4 installments.
In my opinion, if you want a good "epic" series (albeit a bit more "gritty", read Stephen King's Dark Tower novels. Give Mr. Jordan a miss, for now.
***SPOILER*** ***SPOILER*** ***SPOILER***
I think Mr. Jordan's slipped up! Egwene was leading the "renegade" sisters to reclaim the White Tower at the end of Path of Daggers, but not only is there no mention of the siege in Winter's Heart, when Egwene is mentioned, there's no information about the siege at all! Is this because of some concurrent timeline bull? Did Jordan slip up? Your thoughts?
In the tenth book of he Wheel of Time from the New York Times #1 bestselling author Robert Jordan, the world and the characters stand at a crossroads,...More at HotBookSale
In the tenth book of The Wheel of Time series from the New York Times No. 1 bestselling author Robert Jordan, the world and the characters stand at a ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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