Chrina says:

This review is from: Winter’s Heart (The Wheel of Time, Book 9) (Hardcover)

Be warned that this review contains some minor spoilers. Let’s be honest - if you have read the Wheel of Time to this point, you’ll read it to the end no matter how bad the future installments are. Unfortunately, Robert Jordan realizes this too. Everything in this book and the last two could have been condensed into one, excellent book of the same quality as “The Shadow Rising” or “The Fires of Heaven”. But why charge readers for one book, when you can charge them for three?Jordan’s biggest problem, in the words of a good friend of mine, is that he loves keeping secrets for the sake of keeping secrets. For example - in Book 3, a gray man showed up dead in the White Tower. Now, in Book 9 (8 or so years later) we find out that Isam killed that gray man. I only remembered this because I decided to re-read the series for the first time before this one came out. Why keep this a secret? Isam kills two unidentified poeple in this book - I’m sure we’ll find out who they were in another 8 years. Every other chapter of Winter’s Heart seems to involve either: a) The resolution of some irrelevant plot point left in limbo for years or b) The introduction of a new and equally irrelevant plot point. Jordan’s ability to develop his characters has also apparently whithered. He used to stir and inspire us - for example, Ingtar’s redemption in Book 2. Now, his characters almost seem fungible. Why should I care if one sniffing, vomit prone Aes Sedai dies? There are apparently hundreds more just like her ready to take her place. I cared more about what happened to a single minor character in the first few books than I do now about most of the major players in the series. For that matter, the writing itself is a bit stilted and utterly fails to inspire or energize the reader. Not to give away too much, but there is a battle at the end of the book that involves most of the living Forsaken. Talk about anti-climaxes. For example, Demandred attacks, encounters minor opposition, and just leaves. The battles at Falme and Dumai Wells kept us at the edge of our seat; this one puts us right to bed. Half-hearted writing about half-hearted characters just doesn’t work. Considering what happens at the end of this book, you’d expect some sort of big to-do. Instead, the book just ends. Jordan missed a wonderful opportunity here. A five or six page pro-logue about “after-effects” could have redeemed this entire book. With that said, I should emphasize that I only criticize this book because it was written by an author of Robert Jordan’s caliber. If this were from some minor author, I would be raving about it and recommending it to my friends. But we all know Jordan can do better. I should also say that, in my experience, there are few people as unforgiving as fantasy and sci-fi fans when it comes to their favorites. Everyone has a bad day, and I think, if we really are fans, we owe it to authors to give them a break and not act like hysterical children when they turn out a sub-par work. Problem is, this is Jordan’s 3rd (arguably 4th) sub-par work in a row. I’m starting to think that the quality of this series doesn’t have as much to do with Jordan having an “off” day as it does with him holding his readers in contempt. The “five dollars for the pro-logue” fiasco certainly doesn’t help Jordan’s case.