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A review by sgbrux
The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan
3.0
Some spoilers ahead.
This is perhaps my second favorite of the first 5 books, following the The Great Hunt. But my god is it a test of fortitude to power through.
Book 5 focuses on Rand’s perspective, whom I still find as the blandest character of all, but at least he’s owning his DB status now. He is painfully stunted in his capacity for romantic relationships, which is just not believable at this point in the series given who he is. I think we’re well past the blushing naïveté. Please.
Elayne remains my favorite female character. She’s the least cringey and grating of them all, the only one who seems capable of donning her big girl pants, asserting herself, communicating, and taking the necessary action. I thought what she did to save Birgitte was incredibly resourceful and helped to change things up, even if Nynaeve berated her for it. Birgitte was also up there for me—a total scene stealer. It’s refreshing to get other women in the mix who aren’t all ‘hands on hips-sniffing-name calling,’ every 5 seconds. But I will say Nynaeve did have another commendable scene in which she totally owned Moghedien.
Aviendha stumbled back a few steps from book 4 IMO. In FoH chapter 31, there’s a ridiculous scene where Rand walks in on her naked in a tent, a tent they’ve been sharing every night—though not once fooling around—and she gets all embarrassed and freaks out, leaving and getting caught in a blizzard buck naked. Rand rescues her, they have sex, he thinks about Elayne, but then he brings up getting married, and so Aviendha spends the rest of the time feeling guilty because of Elayne, and feeling weird because of their culture vs Aiel culture. It just all seemed so forced and unbelievable. My problem with every book is that RJ gives us WAY TOO MUCH time in every person’s head. We’re forced to hear every little private, fleeting TMI thought.
We get absolutely zero page time with Loial or Perrin, though the latter is probably a blessing to not have to deal with Faile, but Loial’s absence creates a gap for more comic relief given the seriousness and raised stakes of this installment.
Mat gets a lot of personal growth with exercising his knack for tactics and strategy, and the whole scene with Melindhra.
I thought the whole sub plot with Thom and Nynaeve and co with the circus was bizarre and disjointed.
There were several scenes that could’ve been so much more powerful with the forsaken and balefire, but I felt like every last one of them was bookended by more unnecessary bouts of internal dialogue. A lot of the dialogue between characters seems to flow that way, too. What could be a powerful volley between characters in conflict is taken away by the fact that the dialogue is constantly interrupted by exposition.
I found Morgase’s storyline really interesting and look forward to what happens next there, and I also liked Rand granting all men channelers amnesty to fight on his side. Feels like a good setup for Lord of Chaos.
This is perhaps my second favorite of the first 5 books, following the The Great Hunt. But my god is it a test of fortitude to power through.
Book 5 focuses on Rand’s perspective, whom I still find as the blandest character of all, but at least he’s owning his DB status now. He is painfully stunted in his capacity for romantic relationships, which is just not believable at this point in the series given who he is. I think we’re well past the blushing naïveté. Please.
Elayne remains my favorite female character. She’s the least cringey and grating of them all, the only one who seems capable of donning her big girl pants, asserting herself, communicating, and taking the necessary action. I thought what she did to save Birgitte was incredibly resourceful and helped to change things up, even if Nynaeve berated her for it. Birgitte was also up there for me—a total scene stealer. It’s refreshing to get other women in the mix who aren’t all ‘hands on hips-sniffing-name calling,’ every 5 seconds. But I will say Nynaeve did have another commendable scene in which she totally owned Moghedien.
Aviendha stumbled back a few steps from book 4 IMO. In FoH chapter 31, there’s a ridiculous scene where Rand walks in on her naked in a tent, a tent they’ve been sharing every night—though not once fooling around—and she gets all embarrassed and freaks out, leaving and getting caught in a blizzard buck naked. Rand rescues her, they have sex, he thinks about Elayne, but then he brings up getting married, and so Aviendha spends the rest of the time feeling guilty because of Elayne, and feeling weird because of their culture vs Aiel culture. It just all seemed so forced and unbelievable. My problem with every book is that RJ gives us WAY TOO MUCH time in every person’s head. We’re forced to hear every little private, fleeting TMI thought.
We get absolutely zero page time with Loial or Perrin, though the latter is probably a blessing to not have to deal with Faile, but Loial’s absence creates a gap for more comic relief given the seriousness and raised stakes of this installment.
Mat gets a lot of personal growth with exercising his knack for tactics and strategy, and the whole scene with Melindhra.
I thought the whole sub plot with Thom and Nynaeve and co with the circus was bizarre and disjointed.
There were several scenes that could’ve been so much more powerful with the forsaken and balefire, but I felt like every last one of them was bookended by more unnecessary bouts of internal dialogue. A lot of the dialogue between characters seems to flow that way, too. What could be a powerful volley between characters in conflict is taken away by the fact that the dialogue is constantly interrupted by exposition.
I found Morgase’s storyline really interesting and look forward to what happens next there, and I also liked Rand granting all men channelers amnesty to fight on his side. Feels like a good setup for Lord of Chaos.