The Fires of Heaven

by Robert Jordan

English language

ISBN:: 978-1-85723-209-7

(39 reviews)

The fifth book in Robert Jordan's internationally bestselling epic fantasy series, THE WHEEL OF TIME, now reissued with a stunning new cover design.

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.

8 editions

Mormegil reviewed The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #5)

Unforgiveably Long

2 stars

"Men always believe they are in control of everything around them," Aviendha replied. "When they find out they are not, they think they have failed, instead of learning a simple truth women already know." (p383).

I wish I had something more profound to say. There were some fun scenes, but nothing approaching truly profound, and they are buried in some of the most tedious and unattractive prose I have ever read. I have a feeling that fans tend to remember the good moments and forget just how long it takes to reach them and how brief they are.

Jordan's characters hang in my mind and are manipulated by him like dolls (or action figures, if you prefer). When they fight they get bashed together. When they kiss they get smooshed together. And the thrills they delivered never reached above the heights that a child's action set play can deliver to a jaded adult. His description of women and treatment of women in general is frustrating. The men are not much better. The most I can say is that Robert Jordan is very passionate about them, and it shows.

But I will never be able to get over the length. In the time spent reading the pages of this series, you could have read War and Peace and Les Mis and Middlemarch, at least.

Landrin201 reviewed The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #5)

Review from a Long Time Fan (spoilers for previous books, but not this one)

4 stars

Fires of Heaven is GREAT on its own, but after book 4 it starts off feeling like a bit of a letdown. Perrin is entirely absent, and after his ridiculously good storyline in TSR it's really disappointing not to see him here. But after the rocky first third of the book, the story really takes off and the ending of the book is among my favorites in the series.

These middle three books have, in my opinion, some of the best character development in the series. The main cast continues to grow and change with each challenge they face. This is the book where Mat really starts to shine; for me, he becomes my favorite character here.

This book doesn't add as much to the lore as the previous book did, which is a shame considering how much time we get to spend with one of the Forsaken. I always …

This book doesn't add as much to the lore as the previous book did, which is a shame considering how much time we get to spend with one of the Forsaken. I always thought that was a bit of a missed opportunity.

Overall this is a great read, but the best is yet to come...

jcheshire reviewed The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #5)

Review of 'The Fires of Heaven' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Probably my favorite of the series. Perrin had his show in the previous novel, but Mat, Rand, and Nynaeve really come into their own in this one. Some of my favorite scenes are in this book.

But it’s also chock full of gender stereotypes and some excessive handwringing over the propriety of character attitudes and clothing. It can be annoying as hell to read in sections.

Strakul reviewed The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #5)

The 5th book in The Wheel of Time

3 stars

This is another addition to The Wheel of Time series so if you're planning to read them all you pretty much need to get it. It is, however, relatively weaker than some of the earlier novels with a bit of a slower start and some issues juggling its many plots and characters. If you're a fan of Perrin, he is completely missing from this book. You still get some Rand and Mat, but a lot of the focus is on Nynaeve. Overall, it's not bad after the initial start and introduced a lot more tension and players to the world.

For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2022/07/book-review-fires-of-heaven-by-robert.html

Radio reviewed The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #5)

Review of 'The Fires of Heaven' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

Men: “women are irrational and inscrutable”.
Women: “men! So pig headed”
Every fucking chapter, over and over.

David reviewed The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #5)

Review of 'The fires of heaven' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

100 pages of story stretched out over 700.

The Gnome King reviewed The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #5)

Review of 'The Fires of Heaven (Wheel of Time, #5)' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

In the fires of heaven you can feel that Rand is starting to grow up and accept his responsibilites. Some great fighting in this book and things are really starting to tense up as the Lord of the Dark's prison starts to crumble.

It was whilst reading this book that i heard the author had died and the series was incomplete, i decided not to read any more until the series had been completed by somebody else. that happened ages ago and I never did pick up book 6...but after reading the sleep-inducing Game of Thrones it has inspired me to pick up the story again, I may re-read book 5 just to remember where the story had got to.