The bonds and wards that hold the Great Lord of the Dark are slowly failing, but still his fragile prison holds. The Forsaken, immortal servants of the shadow, weave their snares and tighten their grip upon the realms of men, sure in the knowledge that their master will soon break free...
Rand al' Thor, the Dragon Reborn, knows that he must strike at the Enemy, but his forces are divided by treachery and by ambition. Even the Aes Sedai, ancient guardians of the Light, are riven by civil war. Betrayed by his allies, pursued by his enemies and beset by the madness that comes to the male wielders of the One Power, Rand rides out to meet the foe.
Yes, Jordan's writing can be a bit lengthy at times - and book 5 is certainly a good example. I'll agree that a lot of what happens with Nynaeve drags on more that it needs. Some tighter editing could have kept the Fires of Heaven closer to 900 pages than what it is.
But WHEN he get's into action, few fantasy works pack as much of a punch as WoT does, even in book 5. The way that every book (still!) adds more layers to the world's lore, reveals more stuff that neither reader nor characters knew previously - that's just amazing and I love it.
Out of courtesy for those who have not yet read this novel and are coming across my review, I will be placing specific portions of my review behind a spoiler tags: Read them at your own Risk!
This book…this book made me feel so many different things that I am not even sure if I can properly articulate all of my thoughts in a way which will be meaningful. Once I finished this book one of my initial thoughts was that while there are some significant events which have happened over the course of this novel, there really wasn’t all that much going on. It felt as if the majority of the time spent in this book dealt more with planning and …
Posted Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Actual Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Out of courtesy for those who have not yet read this novel and are coming across my review, I will be placing specific portions of my review behind a spoiler tags: Read them at your own Risk!
This book…this book made me feel so many different things that I am not even sure if I can properly articulate all of my thoughts in a way which will be meaningful. Once I finished this book one of my initial thoughts was that while there are some significant events which have happened over the course of this novel, there really wasn’t all that much going on. It felt as if the majority of the time spent in this book dealt more with planning and discussing rather than acting, it led to the book feeling somewhat slow overall but once the action got underway it didn’t stop. The planning and discussing did make a lot of sense though because from what I can gather of Rand’s plans, he is looking to unify all nations under one leader before Tarmon Gai’don – the prophesied apocalyptic battle between the Dragon Reborn and the Dark One. It is a noble yet delicate venture, especially since the political dealings always feel incredibly slow and frustrating due to everyone and their seeming need to manipulate everyone else in order to somehow garner more favor. It is going to be interesting to see just how much Rand has impacted the political movements of the world since returning from the Aiel Waste.
He is currently in control of Tear after defeating the Forsaken Ishamael, Cairhien after defeating the Shaido, and is holding the Throne of Andor in Caemlyn after defeating the Forsaken Rahvin (likely for Elayne since he doesn’t know what has happened to Morgase, thinking her killed by Rahvin) which constitute large portions of the population, but not all. The political stresses of attempting to govern so many people and garner their support is going to be incredibly difficult for Rand in the coming novels, especially now that Moiraine is no longer at his side to advise him.
Moiraine, I just can’t believe the amount of subtle impact she had over the course of events in this novel. If you remember, she traveled into Rhuidean and was shown prophecy of what was to come and in order to bring about the most optimal future for all she willingly sacrificed herself in many ways and ultimately her own life to save Rand from Lanfear. Moiraine and Rand had a difficult relationship at the best of times and disagreed on much, but she held to her word to listen to him, to follow him, to advise him as he needed sacrificing much of herself – almost belittling herself in order to ensure the future she wanted would come to pass. Granted, the whole altercation with Lanfear felt so much like a lovers spat that I was giggling to myself while reading it. Lanfear appears to her informant among Rand’s large group and this informant feeds her information that he thinks is relevant, except he tells her that Rand is now bedding Aviendha – he tells her this without any knowledge or confirmation of its truth and sends Lanfear into a jealous rage whereby she begins to channel damaging Cairhien and fighting against Rand, Egwene, and Aviendha. The events took place as Moiraine saw and she was able to sneak up on Lanfear, the two of them then struggled and ultimately fell through a ter’angreal – whether they are dead or not remains to be seen, however, Moiraine’s bond to Lan was severed upon her entering the ter’angreal which lends evidence to the argument that she has died. While I feel that perhaps Moiraine has the potential to be so noble as to ultimately sacrifice her life – I don’t think that is what happened and that she and Lanfear are still battling on the other side. Hopefully we will find out what ultimately happened to Lanfear and Moiraine in future novels.
I enjoyed following the story of Elayne, Nynaeve, Thom, Julin, and eventually Birgitte (ripped from Tel’aran’rhiod [the dream world] during an altercation between Nynaeve and Moghedein, now bound as Warder to Elayne) because their story never feels as if it is any less integral to Rand’s success though they aren’t able to have a consistent positive impact by fighting at his side. I love the banter between all of them, it definitely eases up on some of the heaviness these novels tend to have. Nynaeve continues to be a surprising character, we know of her block which prevents her from channeling unless she is angry yet she is still quite innovative in her manipulation of it. Specifically, chasing Moghedein in Tel’aran’rhiod and then tricking her so that she could ultimately bind her with an a’dam (a Seanchan item which allows a woman who can be taught to channel to control another woman who can channel). This decision, this trap is what ultimately led to the success of Rand defeating Rahvin in Caemlyn because Nynaeve was able to channel through Moghedein in order to help Rand defeat Rahvin – without Nynaeve, I don’t think that the battle in Caemlyn would have been successful for Rand at all. I am very curious as to how their story is going to progress having been reunited with Siuan Sanche, Leane, Min, and some Shienaran soldiers and arriving in Salidar (the current safe haven for Aes Sedai who rebelled against the Tower after the wrongful stilling of Siuan and Leane). While being back under the strict rules and politics of Aes Sedai is going to be somewhat difficult for Elayne and Nynaeve (who have been able to govern their own choices since leaving the Tower under Siuan’s direction), I am hoping that they will gain more strength in the power and will attain their goal of becoming Aes Sedai in truth.
TL;DR REVIEW: Overall, I really liked this novel and I appreciate how Jordan treats his characters – each and every one of them serves some sort of purpose either to the benefit or detriment of Rand al’Thor and I think that is an important factor in an epic saga such as this with so many characters and so many different points of view. While I felt that not a lot actually happened in this book, I will reiterate that once things started happening there wasn’t much of a break to catch your breath because the story just took off for those last couple hundred pages. I am especially looking forward to seeing what the future holds for these characters in Lord of Chaos.
Note: I'm breaking my own rules by reviewing a book that I've not read recently. I read these books as they came out, so there's the possibility my opinions might change were I to read them again today, but I doubt it.
This is where I finally started to lose hope for the series. It had less to do with any failings of this book specifically, but more to do with the progress of the series as a whole. I was no longer invested in the characters, and was becoming increasingly less interested in the fate of the world as a whole.
I've been enjoying these on audiobook. The male reader took a short while to get used to, but the things about his voice that initially annoyed me a bit, I hardly notice any more.
I'm enjoying the story, enjoying the fact that it's so complex and that there are so many different viewpoints. I'm really impressed that it was possible for him to keep all these straight and not get it all mixed up. There are so many loose ends after all!
The thing I've noticed, however, which is beginning to bother me a little is that RJ seemed to only be able to write very few types of women. Type 1, the strict and hard woman who believes that men are really little more than children and are to be ordered about or nothing will get done, and she'll happily switch anyone from top to bottom who dares disagree …
I've been enjoying these on audiobook. The male reader took a short while to get used to, but the things about his voice that initially annoyed me a bit, I hardly notice any more.
I'm enjoying the story, enjoying the fact that it's so complex and that there are so many different viewpoints. I'm really impressed that it was possible for him to keep all these straight and not get it all mixed up. There are so many loose ends after all!
The thing I've noticed, however, which is beginning to bother me a little is that RJ seemed to only be able to write very few types of women. Type 1, the strict and hard woman who believes that men are really little more than children and are to be ordered about or nothing will get done, and she'll happily switch anyone from top to bottom who dares disagree with her on anything ever. Type 2, the evil woman who takes pleasure in causing pain and suffering and not much else. Type 3, the simpering and not very intelligent little girl, who generally comes out whenever the plot calls for someone who isn't a baddie but whom we are still not supposed to like. All the women on 'our' side are Type 1. All the women who are Darkfriends are Type 2. No exception.
That's not woman. That's not how a woman thinks. That's not how a woman acts. Women are capable of seeing sense. We are capable of being wrong and not taking it as a huge personal affront, without resorting to calling all men fools and treating them like children. We are capable of taking advice from men without arguing. We are capable of, when being asked to do something by a man, actually doing it. Especially when it's something that doesn't really matter in the grander scheme of things anyway. We are NOT all stubbornly thinking that we know best at all times. We are not all carbon copies of each other like this. '
I really like the fact that he was trying to make his female characters strong women, but not ALL women are strong women, and some of these aren't really particularly strong women. They're just largely unreasonable. Nobody here is just genuinely friendly. Nobody here offers advice and guidance through gentleness and persuasion. It IS actually possible to write a strong female character without having her ordering everybody around at every turn and beating them over the head with a stick if they don't fall in line.
