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 thought that was a bit of a missed opportunity.

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