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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Nynaeve is hard carrying.
9 out of 10. High 4 stars.
I’ve taken a point off of this one for some minor annoyances. However, there was some of the most interesting characterization in the series so far in this one; and, man, what an ending sequence! This is one of those series that gets me so excited about reading in general! Can’t wait to read book 6.
I’ve taken a point off of this one for some minor annoyances. However, there was some of the most interesting characterization in the series so far in this one; and, man, what an ending sequence! This is one of those series that gets me so excited about reading in general! Can’t wait to read book 6.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Another fun entry. Looking fwd to continuing the series.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ummmmmm... I miss Perrin and Loial! This was 36 hours without either of them! Threeeeeee working daaaaaysss! Unacceptable.
As for THIS story... I really just dont care about Rand. 😬🙈 Or Elayne or Min and their constant pining for him. Ugh, it just annoys me. Honestly, my favorite characters are Perrin, Loial, Moiraine, Nynaeve, and Siuan. (I had to google their spelling because I butcher them all as a listener.) Oh, and Mat, but lately he's being a bit of a whiny dishrag, so I'm losing patience with him as well. Upon finishing this book, I'm kind of mad and assuming things are NOT as they appear with a certain character... iykyk.
I dont know, overall, I was kind of bored with this book until the last 20% or so. lol.
As for THIS story... I really just dont care about Rand. 😬🙈 Or Elayne or Min and their constant pining for him. Ugh, it just annoys me. Honestly, my favorite characters are Perrin, Loial, Moiraine, Nynaeve, and Siuan. (I had to google their spelling because I butcher them all as a listener.) Oh, and Mat, but lately he's being a bit of a whiny dishrag, so I'm losing patience with him as well. Upon finishing this book, I'm kind of mad and assuming things are NOT as they appear with a certain character... iykyk.
I dont know, overall, I was kind of bored with this book until the last 20% or so. lol.
A lot of this novel is people kind of sitting around and chatting. In a sense, it's like 700 pages moving pieces around on a board, exploring the world deeper, and then a race to the end of the novel.
This novel especially reminded me of open world RPGs like Skyrim. Though I don't think it's just this novel. Rather, the whole Wheel of Time, so far, is kind of like that. Which is to say, sidequests take over the story. What would be minor elements of other books become the focus of this entire novel. Two sidequests basically take up half--if not more--of the novel. What happens there is important, I suppose, but I think they could've been captured more efficiently.
But Robert Jordan doesn't like to skip time. In chapters that could be excised or covered in a sentence of summary, he digs in deep and we get every waking detail of the mundane. This actually is a weird strength of his, I think, though that will vary wildly on the reader.
But at this point, I'm assuming readers are here more for the characters than for the overarching Good v Evil plot, which is mostly only interesting because of the mini-bosses that get thrown in Rand's way.
Which is kind of another thing. Each novel has its own boss battle near the end, and those are pretty exciting, even if it's kind of painful to admit it. Jordan handles action setpieces really well. He's not as good as Gene Wolfe (no one is), but he can be as propulsive as George RR Martin. His character interactions can be aggravating, as there's so much time devoted to how men and women can never understand one another. I don't know why that's so central to every interaction, but it leads me to believe Jordan kind of hated women, or at least found them insufferably incomprehensible. That's not to say he's uncharitable to his female characters. They have agency and power and so on. But they also find men as incomprehensible as every male character finds women. And, him being a man, I imagine this is just how he sees the sexes: two pillars that run forever parallel. Each as strong and as capable as the other, but so different from one another that even attempting to cross the gap is meaningless.
Anyrate, the novel did become a bit of a slog for a while, and reminded me, again, of an RPG. The novel's kind of grinding, leveling up its characters until they're ready for the boss at the end of the disc.
I really do think fans of the Wheel of Time are probably more fans of the world itself and the characters than any specific thing that happens within the series. The world Jordan creates is enormous and vivid, and parts are extremely bizarre and unsettling or familiar. I think his own motivations around this point in the series have shifted to exploring the world rather than driving towards this apocalyptic battle that's been promised since the prologue of the first book.
And that's fine. I kind of like that, in its own way. It's a strength of the worldbuilding that it can carry so many giant novels. Obviously, many disagree, as so many people talk about how the Wheel of Time becomes stagnant for thousands of pages before racing towards its conclusion.
With this novel, and the previous, to an extent, I think I've entered the stagnant part of the series.
Once again, it's the narrators of the audiobooks who really keep this going. I definitely would have abandoned this novel around page 400 had I been reading it. But listening to the two narrators is a delight, and it turns what could be boring or at least frustrating into pleasant sequences.
But, yeah, hoping to finish the whole series this year.
We'll see.
This novel especially reminded me of open world RPGs like Skyrim. Though I don't think it's just this novel. Rather, the whole Wheel of Time, so far, is kind of like that. Which is to say, sidequests take over the story. What would be minor elements of other books become the focus of this entire novel. Two sidequests basically take up half--if not more--of the novel. What happens there is important, I suppose, but I think they could've been captured more efficiently.
But Robert Jordan doesn't like to skip time. In chapters that could be excised or covered in a sentence of summary, he digs in deep and we get every waking detail of the mundane. This actually is a weird strength of his, I think, though that will vary wildly on the reader.
But at this point, I'm assuming readers are here more for the characters than for the overarching Good v Evil plot, which is mostly only interesting because of the mini-bosses that get thrown in Rand's way.
Which is kind of another thing. Each novel has its own boss battle near the end, and those are pretty exciting, even if it's kind of painful to admit it. Jordan handles action setpieces really well. He's not as good as Gene Wolfe (no one is), but he can be as propulsive as George RR Martin. His character interactions can be aggravating, as there's so much time devoted to how men and women can never understand one another. I don't know why that's so central to every interaction, but it leads me to believe Jordan kind of hated women, or at least found them insufferably incomprehensible. That's not to say he's uncharitable to his female characters. They have agency and power and so on. But they also find men as incomprehensible as every male character finds women. And, him being a man, I imagine this is just how he sees the sexes: two pillars that run forever parallel. Each as strong and as capable as the other, but so different from one another that even attempting to cross the gap is meaningless.
Anyrate, the novel did become a bit of a slog for a while, and reminded me, again, of an RPG. The novel's kind of grinding, leveling up its characters until they're ready for the boss at the end of the disc.
I really do think fans of the Wheel of Time are probably more fans of the world itself and the characters than any specific thing that happens within the series. The world Jordan creates is enormous and vivid, and parts are extremely bizarre and unsettling or familiar. I think his own motivations around this point in the series have shifted to exploring the world rather than driving towards this apocalyptic battle that's been promised since the prologue of the first book.
And that's fine. I kind of like that, in its own way. It's a strength of the worldbuilding that it can carry so many giant novels. Obviously, many disagree, as so many people talk about how the Wheel of Time becomes stagnant for thousands of pages before racing towards its conclusion.
With this novel, and the previous, to an extent, I think I've entered the stagnant part of the series.
Once again, it's the narrators of the audiobooks who really keep this going. I definitely would have abandoned this novel around page 400 had I been reading it. But listening to the two narrators is a delight, and it turns what could be boring or at least frustrating into pleasant sequences.
But, yeah, hoping to finish the whole series this year.
We'll see.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes