Jai Sedai

4.50/5.00 Followed Veradis' order without hesitation. And it is clear that he would have killed his own countrymen without hesitation. Another fool too loyal to think for himself. He shook his head. Where does Nathair find them? TRUTH AND COURAGE!!
Ruin, the ultimate answer to the question of why do people love this series so much. Why is there so much hype for The Faithful and The Fallen. Ruin is a blockbuster. This book is made for high budget TV. The character moments, the duel, the battles, the plot twists, all add up to one phenomenally addictive read. John Gwynne lands all the punches, makes me cry, scream and roar at the events. I feel so deeply guilty for not giving this book a 5.00/5.00. The problem is really the thematic simplicity and the dialogue still being barely average.

Despite this point, I was prepared to throw a 5.00/5.00 out of just plot, characters and emotional impact, but the thematic twist at the very end of the book did not land too well for me. I agree that this is completely unexpected twist, happens so out of nowhere and is shocking. Makes for great storytelling. But I am not convinced that the author can pull this trope off. Remember that this trope is handled to perfection by giants in the genre like Frank Herbert, and so this twist feels a bit too forced and undeserved. A simple good vs evil theme is enough for this story. The next book, Wrath will tell me if this trope is well handled by this series.

I am finally on the Papa Gwynne Train!

Emotional Impact -> Spectacular book, enough said already. That moment when Corban duels and kills Sumur, and he performs a running mount and Jael's men cheer for him! . What a scene, what a spectacular scene TRUTH AND COURAGE!!

Prose -> The endless POV cycling has been resolved in this book, where POVs shift when needed based on the story progression. This is a massive problem I had with the second book that has been resolved in this book. And why do so many arrows save so many main POV characters at the last moment. It's almost funny because it happens like 7 times lol. The action scenes are written so so well! But the dialogue can be so much better. I think John Gwynne with better dialogue and slightly better worldbuilding makes George RR Martin. But this book is not Martin, and that is very obvious.

Characters -> Veradis is shaping up to be one of my favorite characters in this series. The villains in this story are truly terrifying, the darkness in this story is rage-inducing and shocking. Nathair-Veradis friendship, Gar-Tukul parental love, Camlin's Braith problem and the Corban-Brina-Craf relationships are so satisfying to read

Plot -> Ruin has some of the best plots in fantasy action genre. the ASOIF level plotting and character arcs is finally paying off. The final twist, the multiple battles all feel well deserved and natural.

Worldbuilding -> While I have been less than enthusiastic about this world, I am starting to enjoy the familiarity and consistency of this world. That moment when Jael's men cheer Corban's running mount is a wonderful cultural moment for this series which I believe has been missing in this story for a while. Moments like this make epic fantasy. We need more.

3.50/5.00 If there is any justice in this world, Owain and Rhin will kill each other. She snorted to herself, knowing the only justice she would get would be the one she made. With a sharp knife.

Valor, the second book in The Faithful and the Fallen series, is promise fulfilled. This book delivers of the promises made in the premise of this series. Valor is action packed, filled with unexpected twists and turns, great characters and plot. The world of banished lands also feels more real this time around, while still being quite limited in the grand design. Valor is not without its flaws, especially what is sub-standard dialogue in my opinion and an annoying writing choice, but overall this is a good book.

Emotional Impact -> I had a lot more fun in this book (slightly better than book 1). There are several action packed moments, even some slice of life moments that feel very consistent with this world. The twists and turns are great, and so is the plot. For me, the biggest weakness of this story is again, the writing. Worldbuilding is the next weakest.

Prose -> The consistently irritating POV shifting is just F**KING ANNOYING. I am quite sure that each character POV in this book was written separately, but simply spread out in the book as it cycles through POVs in each chapter. This is totally unnecessary. I hate when authors do this, and John Gwynne is not stopping. Brandon Sanderson did this in TWoK, Peirce Brown did this in Iron Gold, and they both stopped it right away in the next books. Shifting POV every chapter does not make a great epic fantasy book. Bunch multiple POV chapters together, finish a section of the story and then move on to the next POV. We don't need every chapter to be cliffhanger. Learn from Robert Jordan, the granddaddy of epic fantasy who never did this unnecessary POV cycling.

ANOTHER problem I have is the sub-standard dialogue. This book is definitely an improvement from Malice, but we still don't get any good and memorable dialogue. Action scenes are very well written though.

Characters -> Great characters, just great. All characters are consistent with the worldbuilding and with the plot.

Plot -> Great plot overall, but I did not enjoy the Maquin plotline (super predictable and boring). Fidele's plot is good. Cywen-Veradis was honestly fun. Uthas plot was okay. Corban was great that one dream scene with Asroth was finally some good stuff Seriously, how stupid is Veradis ? How long is he going to take to realize what's going on ? I also think there are too many conflicts where the main characters escape without any harm and the most conveniently killable characters get killed.

World Building -> A step up from book 1. The author does a wonderful job of character consistency with the world and history. But I was still hoping to get some cultural development for the giants, which did not happen much. The Vin Thalun was good, but the surrounding plot was boring.

3.50/5.00

The Shadow of What Was Lost, or the shadow of the Wheel of Time is a good book, slightly better than okay. This book feels like an homage to the Wheel of Time, shamelessly retelling several themes, ideas, and concepts from the epic series. However, this series introduces an interesting twist with an enjoyable magic system. The story begins with many tropes, but lays over interesting new ideas on top of the existing tropes. We have the chosen one trope, the aes sedai trope, the mysterious and lost civilization trope, and yet it all feels somehow fresh. The story is very quickly wading into deep thematic issues and challenges the readers to take sides, which I find very enjoyable. The pacing is relentless, as the author punches through the plot, with things that I thought would happen later in the series happening right away.

However, this pacing is both a good and a bad thing. While things happen fast, we don't get to sit with the characters. We don't get to understand or think about this world, as interesting as it is, the grand sweeping events that take place in this book fall flat and lack the feeling that should go along with the book. For an WoT/stromlight style epic fantasy, the John Gwynne action style pacing is not working. The characters are good but that is not the focus of this book. Many times everyone is just playing the role they need to play to move the story along. I do think that this series will get better though.

4.50/5.00

The Eye of the Bedlam Bride is an excellent name for this book. Simply awesome. This book delivers a powerful punch and exceeds expectations for book 6 of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. The authors fabricates a fun and innovative combat style in this book which is just pure fun. Like book 5, book 6 leans in the horror of this genocide committed by the villains. There are moments where I felt as hopeless as the crawlers. Matt Dinniman has finally managed to wrench the emotions from me that was always needed for this series.

The struggle between the mudskippers, the AI, the syndicate council, the faction teams and the crawlers is simply excellent and super fun. The ethical dilemmas in this book makes me pause and reconsider this book. Is this really just lit-RPG, or is it as deeply thematic as many science fictions stories? The book evokes anger and not just the genocide but the gleeful exploitation of the survivors. It also makes us think, can consumerism really take such a horrible path ? Is this a dramatic version of our future ?

Carl's character takes an important step ahead as the fellow crawlers recognize and admit the role he plays. He has become general Carl. I cannot wait to see the aliens get slaughtered in the next book. Princess Donut takes a step back in this book, which I am disappointed by, but its okay. I am torn as to what I want from the series. Is it better to stay in the dungeon and entertain ? Or is the political intrigue of the galaxy a better choice to quickly end the series. I am not sure. Based on the story so far, I believe we will spend several more books in the dungeon.

The plot for this book is top quality. Just excellent. So many unexpected twists and turns, so many hopeless moments mixed with moments of hope.

Now get out there and Kill! Kill! Kill!. This Cascadia needs to die a slow painful death.

4.00/5.00

She'd gone to so much effort to make him seem like an unrepentant megalomaniac, and then left to his own device, he named himself de facto ambassador of the whole human race. “Ma'am, we don't ask ‘how high' when James fucking Holden says jump”, the officer growled back.

What an amazing scene with Holden reliving the memory of a galaxy spanning hive mind! holy hell! Yass this what we need. The slow zone, the tangle between the station and the humans and the protomolecule-miller! WOWza!

3.00/5.00

Malice by John Gwynne is a good book. “Good” is the best way to describe this book, for many conflicting feelings clashed within me to arrive at this compromise. Malice shines in establishing good characters, with clear motivations and traits. Malice tells a very good story, finishing with an ambitious and shockingly awesome ending. Malice employs its characters to great effect to produce a very enjoyable story. We see clear inspirations from ASOIAF and traditional epic fantasy roots and a fresh take on the time tested tropes of prophecy, hero's journey, chosen ones, and good vs. evil themes.

However, John Gwynne's “Banished Lands” fails to land within the upper echelon of fantasy worlds. Founded on uninspired retro-Christian lore, with limited thematic complexity and disappointing cultural world building, Malice fails to intrigue. The focus of the story quickly moves away from the world and zeroes in on the plot and characters, spasming to ride the coattails of ASOIAF. John Gwynne's dialogue is clearly the weakest link of this book. Most characters say exactly what one would expect them to say, in the most basic and plain way possible. While significant events take place in this book in terms of plot and characters, it feels like a recital of a screenplay where no prosaic beauty exists. During slower parts of the book, this lackluster prose almost caused me a DNF.

In summary, its a good book. A dollar-store version of “A Game of Thrones”.

4.50/5.00

The Butcher's Masquerade is a wonderful addition to the series of Dungeon Crawler Carl. To my surprise this book had a sander-lanche style ending, which was nothing short of amazing. This book takes a slightly darker tone than the previous DCC books, finally bringing the horrifying reality of the dungeon world to its pages. Our characters are put in extremely stressful situations, making them lose hope, taking them to the point of breaking.

The book contains many heartbreaking moments, spends time developing the world beyond the dungeon. Introduces complexity with the supposed villains of this story, and somehow manages to be funnier than the books before. The lawyer character is my favorite character in this book even though he appeared only for a very short time.

Matt cinnamon set the standard for the personification of a cat. Donut manages to be ridiculous, incredibly consistent, and wonderfully hilarious at the same time. This is my most favorite DCC book so far, this series just keeps getting better and better.

Kill kill kill!

4.00/5.00

The Gate of the Feral Gods is an excellent addition to the Dungeon Crawler Carl Series. While this dungeon floor on this book is not as interesting as the previous book, the characters have grown more familiar, and there more depth to these crawlers than ever before. Donut is an excellent character, a variety we almost never see in fantasy/science fiction. The absurdity of this series allows such characters to exist and allows them to grow in interesting ways.

Boy, did I enjoy the AI comments in this book. I think the Carl-AI interaction is the favorite part of this series for me. keep it coming!

This is an action packed excellent read with some surprising twists in the overall story line. I am totally invested in Carl, who seems to be evolving into a General Carl type character. However, I see a lot of Mary Sue vibes around this character. While one of Carl's character traits is a relative lack of intelligence, he seems to be the smartest person in the Dungeon. I am glad that he started losing his shit in this book, which is a more authentic reaction to his character trait.

The audiobook is excellent as usual. Don't miss out what are probably the best audiobooks ever made!

5.00/5.00 “I am Lews Therin Telemon, the Dragon. I ruled these lands, unified, during the Age of Legends. I was the leader of the all the armies of the Light, I wore the Ring of Tamyrlin. I stood first among the Servants, highest of the Aes Sedai, and I could summon the Nine Rods of Dominion.”“Duty is heavier than a mountain, Dai Shan”
The Wheel of Time is a wonderful journey, the end of an Age, a story that was woven with worldbuilding, with wonderful characters and epic battles. The last battle is the greatest battle that I have ever read. The ending is satisfying, bringing so many character arcs to beautiful conclusions. A worthy read, I highly recommend all to read this series.

The mind boggling thing about this book, is that there are innumerable open threads in this ending. This is consistent with the tone of this book. A bittersweet ending delivered perfectly. The confusion, the plethora of questions of what happens next! The worldbuilding around what is Rand ? This is an astounding story. A story that will leave you thinking for years. This is not a sweet satisfying conclusion, but a complex and mysterious conclusion which is the perfect choice for this series. How will I move on? I miss these characters so much.

So many twists, deaths, moments of tension that persisted throughout the book. This is a spectacular ending. It is amazing how real this world is. The author maintained realism in every moment of the last book, including the ending.

What happens after ? Will the horror of Aviendha's vision come true? Probably not.

The Wheel weaves as the Wheel Wills. As the wheel turns and the next age comes around, the Lord of the Dawn will be our salvation. Born once more as he was born before and shall be born again, time without end! The Dragon shall be Reborn, and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth at his rebirth. He shall break the world again by his coming, tearing apart all ties that bind. In pride he conquers, forcing the proud to yield. He calls upon on the mountains to kneel and the seas to give way and the very skies to bow. Pray that the heart of stone remembers tears and the soul of fire, love. Like the unfettered dawn shall he bind us, and burn us, yet shall the Dragon Reborn confront the Shadow at the Last Battle, and his blood shall give us the Light. Let tears flow, O ye people of the world. Weep for your salvation!Let the Prince of the Morning sing to the land that green things will grow and the valleys give forth lambs. Let the arm of the Lord of the Dawn shelter us from the Dark, and the great sword of justice defend us. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.

Emotional Impact -> I couldn't believe Egwene died. I really thought she will be the last person to die. Man! what an unexpected twist. What a battle! This is one of the best books I've read, with the sheer amount of battles. Were there some ideas lost with Robert Jordan's death ? Yes, we lost something. Something important.... I am so emotional about this book. The end of all the WoT. It is done so well. Egwene, no no Egwene. The Flame of Tar Valon! Lan's story is just the best story of a king ever. Rand story is incredible. The journey of this chosen one is the greatest of fantasy. Never again will we see this trope done better.

"Aviendha is right", Amys said. "The Aiel will not fight the Seanchan.""Oh? Shall we test it, Fortuona? You said you trained them yourself. You are a sul'dam, I presume? Put the a'dam on your neck. I dare you. If I am wrong, it will do nothing to you. If I am right, you will be subject to its power, and will prove to be marath'damane.""Three thousand years ago the Lord Dragon created Dragonmount to hide his shame. His rage still burns hot. Today . . . I bring it to you, Your Majesty."The Power left her in a quiet, beautiful explosion, washing across the Sharans and sealing the cracks created by her fight with M'Hael. Egwene's soul separated from her collapsing body and rested upon that wave, riding it into the Light.

4.00/5.00 “Al dival al kiserai, al mashi!”, For light, glory and love! “Tai'daishar!” True Blood of Battle! “Carai manshimaya Tylin. Carai an manshimaya Nalesean. Carai an manshimaya ayend'an!” Honor of my blade for Tylin. Honor of my blade for Nalesean. Honor of my blade for the fallen.

Towers of Midnight, the penultimate volume of the Wheel of Time. This book reveals the mind bending, earth-shattering secret of this story. The horror of the Wheel of Time surfaces in one unholy scene. I will never forget reading this scene. It will forever remain one of the greatest worldbuilding moments of all time, in all of fantasy.

I wish I could declare this book as a masterpiece, but it is very far from it. Rand's plot is glory, shocking and amazing. Nynaeve's plot is very good and results in spectacular character development, wowza!

While Perrin's character development is good, consistent and does finally come to an end, the plot is not as engaging as the other stories in this book. I found myself hoping it will come to an end and I can move on to Rand, Mat and Nynaeve. So much of the Perrin plot lines are low quality compared to other plot lines in the Wheel of Time. Perrin's story started so well, with the Shadow Rising, but his character got stuck at the same place for a dozen books. Perrin's abilities were not developed in these books. And suddenly, his ability just rockets forward beyond others. This is a missed opportunity.

Overall a great read.

Emotional Impact -> Rand, Nynaeve great. Aviendha's Aiel scene is beyond awesome. Elayne sucks, Perrin is boring, predictable and stupidly out of place for a penultimate book. Egwene's anti-Mesaana plot is not good. Mixed, so mixed.... Still throwing a higher score for the good parts of the book. That prologue short story of Borderlander boy coming of age was fire!Characters -> Perrin's character arc concludes well. Gawyn-Egwene's arc is not bad. Rand's journey delights. Nynaeve's arc is great. Nynaeve is shaping up as my second fav to Rand. Egwene and mat follow. Nynaeve is so unique, so real, so interesting. I love her. You show them how to be Aes Sedai girl.Plot -> So weak here. I do not care about Elayne. I didn't care much for Moiraine's return, since the rescue was done very poorly. Lost opportunity on the Finn worldbuilding. Egwene is not good. Perrin is okay at best. I am going with a slightly higher score, as I am looping in the greatness of the worldbuilding moments (marginally) into the plot score. And because all these side-quests are over. Prose -> Its okay. No great standout lines. Well written dialogue for Rand and NynaeveWorldbuilding -> I was shaking in this revelation. The Aiel! The Seanchan! I want to burn all the Seanchan to the dust of history. The wheel has damned the Aiel to this horrible fate!! Save us Aviendha! Save us Lord Dragon! There will be no peace with the slavers! There will be no peace to those who commit genocide. NO NO NO NO NO this cannot be the fate of the Aiel! Great Rand moments! Rand Sedai! Great Egwene meeting with the women channelers! Perfect worldbuilding.

5.00/5.00 “Dream on my behalf, Nynaeve. Dream for things I no longer can.”“Do not think we will ignore this insult, Corana. Vengeance will come. Once this war is done, the Seanchan will feel the storm of our arrows and the tip of our spears.”

The Gathering Storm is a miraculous achievement from Brandon Sanderson, building on Jordan's legacy, creating a Wheel of Time book that is marginally better than the best of Robert Jordan's books. However, the world and the story does not exist without Jordan, so I lay most of the praise to the late RJ. Brandon's unmatched competency in writing complex characters, mixed with Jordan's unparalleled story telling and worldbuilding makes one explosion of a book. Brandon has handled Fantasy's greatest character, Rand al'Thor with such grace, I should not be surprised at all, after reading the Stormlight Archive. This book takes a small step back from worldbuilding, making use of mostly existing worldbuilding. I hope this is not because we lost some of the ideas in RJ's mind. I hope the next two books will deliver.

This book is the beginning of the end, the last battle looms, the dark one twists the pattern. In spite of this looming doom, our champions prevail, and they hold the pattern together.

At the end of time, when the many become one, the last storm shall gather its angry winds to destroy a land already dying. And at its center, the blind man shall stand upon his own grave. There he shall see again, and weep for what has been wrought.

Emotional Impact -> Rand's character development in this book is shocking, terrifying and amazing. Egwene's victory is so satisfying to watch. That moment when she burns the Seanchan! Awesome! Amazing! My favorite WoT book so far. Even more enjoyable than the Great Hunt. Characters -> Rand Rand, the perfection. Fantasy's greatest character. The raging madness, the rampant paranoia, the PTSD all weaving together to a massive crescendo in this book! And the helplessness of the people around. The helplessness of Nynaeve, and when she finally bows to Cadsuane because, because!! there is no other way to help Rand. OMG! Duty. Duty was like a mountain. Well, Rand felt as if he was trapped between a good dozen different mountains, all moving to destroy him. Among those forces, his emotions seem to boil under pressure. Was it any wonder when they burst free? Plot -> Pure Madness, Madness I say! So much intricacy. So many things weaving together. Wheel of Time is the GOAT. That last moment when Rand questions the point of everything!Prose -> Pretty good. Not as good as book 11. Worldbuilding -> This book mostly makes use of existing worldbuilding. There are some great moments, with some really interesting reveals. But this book seems more plot and character focused than other top WoT books.

5.00/5.00 “My name is Nynaeve ti al'Meara Mandragoran. Lan told me once that Malkier lives so long as one man wears the hadori in pledge that he will fight the Shadow, so long as one woman wears the ki'sain in pledge that she will send her sons to fight the Shadow. I wear the ki'sain, Master Aldragoran. My husband wears the hadori. So do you. Will Lan Mandragoran ride to the Last Battle alone?”

Knife of Dreams is a testament to Robert Jordan's legacy. The Wheel of Time is weaving closer, some threads nearing the end, some ending to bring us to Tarmon Gai'don. The most perfect way to bring Lan's story to the end was exceuted in this book. Plot threads laid in the early books, world building done in early books and characters from earlier books all come together at various points to weave this story. How wonderful. Never again will we see a story as grand as the Wheel of Time.

This book is one of fantasy's finest. One of the longest and most complex story in fantasy is finally maturing some characters and is bringing character development close to the end, which is so satisfying to see.

This book is not perfect. One of the storylines (we know who this is) is not good as the other and takes away from this book.

“My name is Rand al'Thor. I'm the Dragon Reborn.” And they wailed at hearing his name.

Emotional Impact -> Egwene's story, rebel aes sedai story, Mat's battles, Perrin's battle, Rand's battle, Rand's loss, Lan's legacy. Knife of Dreams is a dream come true. While the book is packed with so many good stories. We have to suffer through Elayne's nonsense. This takes away from this book being perfection. As you command, Mother. Characters -> Egwene!!! "She comes! She comes! The Watcher of the Seals, The Flame of Tar Valon, the Amyrlin Seat."The Amyrlin Seat indeed. When Egwene was made Amyrlin seat back in book 6, I was unconvinced. Now I understand. 11 books of character development has led to this. Chained by the Seanchan, Trained by the Aiel, Flamed by the Rebels, Egwene al'Vere will lead the Aes Sedai to the Last Battle. Matrim Cauthon!!! A man of many layers ? Matrim Cauthon made an onion look like an apple!" Robert Jordan is right. Mat is a complicated man. Brave but not too brave, rapscallion and an unwilling hero. Mat's reactions to some things infuriate me. But I get it. He is the flawed human that he is. He smiles at Tuon's beauty while condemning her desire to enslave. A wife for an enemy, and enemy for a wife. It's time to toss the dice. I hate Tuon. I hope she dies a slow painful death. But I care.. that says a lot. I don't like Mat's relationship with Tuon. I think all of Mat's relationships are bad. I hate Elayne. I hope she dies a slow painful death. And I don't care. This is a problem. Elayne is the weakest character in the Wheel of Time. She is a blunder, a walking talking channeling and pregnant catastrophe. She got hundreds of people killed and shamelessly claimed that it wasn't her fault. It is totally her fault!!! Vandene died because of Elayne's stupidity. I really hope we acknowledge how useless she is, but I don't think that is going to happen. I think RJ wrote Elayne as a severely flawed character who managed to luck into things with the help of more competent friends. Egwene, then Nynaeve, then Rand, and now Dyelin and Birgitte. Rand and Logain are great, but not much development. Lan and Nynaeve almost do a guest appearance in this book but they rock the few pages they feature in. If it wasn't for Elayne, I would give a better score here. Still pretty high. Plot -> To say the wheel of time has great plot is a gross understatement. The wheel weaves so well . So complex, intricate and beautiful. Lan takes the gold, followed closely by Egwene. So many battles, such an unpredictable story. Where is it going ? Elayne sucks but everything else is amazing. That moment when lewis therin unleashes on the Shadowspawn, that moment when Nicola calls Egwene "Mother". All those battles! Moiraine's Letter ! Seanchan and Rand!Prose -> So much better. Some poetic writing, some beautiful lines, some amazingly immersive chapters, some crazy battle visuals! Second only to the Great Hunt!Worldbuilding -> Burn me, Light burn me! AelFinn and EelFinn, the colors, Lewis Therin, Tinker-Seanchan, Aes Sedai Ajah heads, Malkier, Aviendha's Talent, the signs of Tarmon Gai'don! The crazy horror style touch of darkness, Aes Sedai-Ashman interaction, so much so much. Please gimme more.

4.00/5.00 They will not break me, I will break them.

The third installment of Dungeon Crawler Carl is a an action packed adventure and remain funny and grows into a mature fantasy. The worldbuilding takes a significant step forward, something completely unexpected and deligtfully entertaining.

While the plot is better than the first two books, this book suffers from some relative obscurity in the plot. The authors has done his best in describing the crazy world of this game as much as it can be done on paper, without extensive maps and visual aids. But I was largely unable to follow the mechanics of this floor of the dungeon. The main plot and the significant parts of this world floor are clear, but there is some amount of “trust that the character knows the world” aspect that I did not enjoy very much. I liked being a back-seat game player in this series but that aspect is not feasible in this book.

There are several good character moments and the book is non-stop action and fun. For this reason alone, this series continues to delight, even after looking past the plot armour and mary-sue aspects of carl's character.

One major plot hole that bothers me is this: Everyone, including Carl beleives that Carl is not very intelligent. But Carl figures out everything this book. He never makes any major mistakes. He is never confused. Yes, Cotyia is the "brains" that figures out how the floor works, but we still see Carl plan everything and solve all problems. hmm....

4.00/5.00 “He was better. But he thought I was finished, with only one arm. He never understood. You surrender after you're dead.”

Read this book between Crossroads of Twilight and Knife of Dreams

And he's back!! Robert Jordan delivers in this short novel a incing on the wheel of time cake. I throughly enjoyed this entry. I struggled to start this book after I finished book 10, since I really wanted to start book 11 right away. I was tired of drugging through the slog and I wanted to reach the end of the slog. It was a difficult decision to read New Spring before jumping into Knife of Dreams. Having read this, I don't beleive this book is must-read, but if you are a wheel of time fan, this is a must-read. The Aes Sedai worldbuilding in this book is vital context for every other book in the series. We finally understand what it means to Aes Sedai, portrayed a story of adventure and courage in Moiraine's POV. The story composes several good characters, and mostly importantly, it elegantly avoid inundating us with numerous named characters, which is the dead-weight that was caused the slog. A very fun read, New Spring may not be as grand a story as a regular WoT book, but it is very enjoyable.

Emotional Impact -> Throughly enjoyed this book, loved Moiraine and Siuan, their friendship and FWB relationship? LOL. The Aes Sedai worldbuilding was like dessert after the bad soup of the slog. I enjoyed Lan's POV and the Malkier worldbuilding as well. Great read, not the best of WoT but better than the slog. Characters -> I loved how Moiraine has the childish streak mixed with a dangerous unpredictable tones. She is a wild cat. Really enjoyed the character developement between here and her "pillow-friend" Siuan. Lan is great as usual, and the book is solid fun. Plot -> Pretty decent plot, nothing overly amazing, but it does have a lot of hints dropped for the larger scale WoT series. Prose -> Solid Robert Jordan prose. All the shit of uncontrolled named female charaters are cut dramatically in this book and I was able to enjoy RJ's prose again. Thank you lord! However, this is nothing really poetic on the scale of the Great Hunt. Worldbuilding -> Amazing White Tower worldbuilding. You'd think after all this time, there is nothing much to add to the white tower. There is so much! We finally experience what it is to be in the white tower. This is an experieced I craved in Book 1 and I forgot that this is something I wanted.

2.00/5.00 The creator had made the world and then left humankind to make of it what they would, a heaven or the Pit of Doom by their choosing. The Creator had made many worlds, watched each flower to die, and gone on to make endless worlds beyond. A gardener did not weep for each blossom that fell.

Crossroads of Twilight, sigh. How to review a book that is shameful low point in this epic series? It is exactly as bad as advertised. This book was the first time ever in the wheel of time, where I stopped paying attention to the audiobook and didn't bother to rewind, especially during the Elayne POV. There are still some significant events that take place in this book, but all these events are wrapped in innumerable named characters curtsying to each other, which makes it impossible to take these events seriously. I don't understand how an editor can read this book and approve of how it is written. I ground through the book anyway.

The worst part of this book is the Elayne-Aviendha-Andor where nothing happens and we get to hear about all the politics where nothing happens. Perrin storyline is abysmal as usual, but the story ended in an interesting twist. Mat's storyline comprises of some immeasurably small progress. Egwene's plot seemed the most productive, but is still riddled with all the issues I have stated earlier.

The beautiful visual writing of wheel of time is bogged down by an insane amount of named characters, with meaningless inter-personal interactions such as facial reactions, and body language and dress details.

The wheel barely turns.

4.50/5.00She was Una Meing for a moment, and he was Caz Pratihari, and the world was a heady, powerful, romantic place.

A suprisingly beautfiul and touching story of love doomed to fail. The fire of youthful emotions mixed with the wonder of Martian worldbuilding, Gods of Risk is one of the best short stories I have read. The story is so precise in developing martian culture and environment. It allows a main character to ruminate in this story, and be inspired to do better things. This is a powerful story. I liked this short story better than book 2!!

4.50/5.00

He wonders if that's what makes the promised land holy: that you can see it but you can't quite reach it. The grass is always greener on the other side of personal extinction.

4.00/5.00 “Desparate psychotic people do desperate psychotic things when they're exposed. I refuse to grant them immunity from exposure out of fear of their reaction. When you do, the desperate psychos wind up in charge”.

Caliban's War, the second entry into The Expanse is an action packed, character driven story that lets us stew in this world for some more time before the plot moves on. One feels eirily like the characters in this world, watching the protomolecule's venusian occupation with anticipation for something to happen, while humanity reacts badly to the coming of the unknown. Paranoia cripples Earth and Mars, and war brews. While the plot of Cailban's was seems a realistic depiction of a civilization's reaction to the protomolecule, it lacks any inspiration, riding the coattails of the excellent existing and new characters, Caliban's War seems very much like a repeat of Leviathan Wakes in many ways.

However, the book is entertaining with action, wonderful, lovable characters who defy tropes and bring freshness to the science fiction genre, while expanding on the incredible world of The Expanse. Like Holden, I also wish to see the wonder of Io, basking in Jupiter's lethal glow, a testmaent to the terrifying beauty.

Emotional Impact -> Action takes a high spot in this book, and Avaserala-bobby plotline showing so much promise. I enjoyed this book, especially the yatch takeover and the confrontation between Avasarela and Holden, two very diametric characters trying to work together. The ending was very good and very satisfying, with Bobby's duel with the monster being nothing short of amazing. However, the plot is repetitive and nothing too big happens. This story isn't that different from book 1. It is the same or similar story with different characters. Characters -> Really enjoyed Holden's, although I think Holden's inital emotional shutdown was repeated so many times. We get it, he changed during the time jump. Avaserla is a very interesting character and is a lot of fun. She gave me strong Mary Sue vibes but she does fail a lot in this story. But I do think she has the potential to be very hard to like. Her cussing is a disservice to this story. Its a gimmick that doesn't add any value to the character. Many others characters seemed to take back seat as we learned more about the new memebers. I'm sorry, but Prax is a very uninteresting POV. Prax seemed like a more sympathetic reconstruction of Miller, but is almost one-dimensional compared to Miller. Some of the decision Prax makes are understandable, but the whole character is not compelling for some reason. Plot -> Here is the problem with this book. This plot is not very different from book 1. There is more "political" drama here, although that is not very interesting. Replace Miller with Prax, Julie with Mei, Fred with Avaserala and we are back to book 1. Even the villians are the same, which Amos acknowledges as a snarky comment at the end of this book. How is a kidnap-rescue a plot in The Expanse? I almost didn't want to get into the politics here, as I think James S. A. Corey is clearly not very good at writing interesting politics. We need to return to sci-fi world building, moral struggles and semi-rightenous crusades. Prose -> Very similar to book 1, but a slight step down in my opinion. World Building -> Excellent. Ganymede was so well flushed out. The orbital mechanics, the military world building takes a step up in this book. We learn more about earth and how the culture has changed there which is very intersting. Great!

3.50/5.00

Carl's Doomsday Scenario, an action packed adventure through the Dungeons with Princess Donut, his loyal companion and sidekick and starring the pet dinosour-chicken Mongo. A wild ride that started with a bang in Book 1, Carl's Doomsday Scenario suffers severly from the sequel syndrome. While the AI's hilarious comments and jam-packed action blends with Donut's witicissim elegantly, the plot fails to impress in any way. The major quest-plot of this book seems beneth this book and is largely uninteresting. The inter-galactic plot is part way between funny and melodrama and fails to do either one of these properly. Overall, this book is a mixed bag.

Carl and Donut's character development takes a few good steps ahead. While these two pop-heros lambast with action, there are any moments where the characters struggle with decisions or learn any important lessons. This feels largely like a filler book in terms of character development. The series really needs interesting villains. This is a major shortcoming of this fun filled adventure.

The audiobook is highly recommended.

2.50/5.00 “The male and female halves of the True Source were alike and unlike, attracting and repelling, fighting against each other, as they worked together to drive the Wheel of Time.”

Winter's Heart is disappointing on so many levels. Most of this book is made up of nothing. The four main plot lines in this book are all boring and are all mostly side plots, with the exception of Rand's plot. Most importantly, none of the plot lines were interesting. This book is a sub-standard entry into the WoT.

Some good parts include significant progress in the Rand-3 women romance plot line (although it is so cringe and I am just happy its over, but it was still funny), end of the major plot line with Rand and WoT in general and some fun times with Mat. Perrin's story in this book is just completely unreadable. I did actually enjoy my time with Mat in this book and the whole Seanchan world building, even though the strory moved so slowly and felt repetitive of book 7. Elayne's plot line is slightly better than Perrin but is completely uninteresting.

The end of this book is surprising but feels so badly executed. The villains are turned into clowns in struggle with a predictable outcome.

Emotional Impact -> I enjoyed Mat's part of this book, but the plot there is bad. Otherwise this book was bad. The first 200 pages are unreadable. I am not interested in the Perrin-Faile-Massima plot. Please end this torture. Rand's plot is boring and ends with some progress but the Shadar Logoth battle was not as good as I had hoped. There were so many good things that happened in this book, like male-female bonding.... but the book is so boring. Characters -> Rand goes in reverse. His character development has been so good so far, but this book spoils it. Nynaeve and Mat was probably the best part. There are so many things the characters just don't talk about, and it looks like it's just to save the melodrama for future books. This is getting annoying. What a cringe moment for Mat, feeling sad to leave the woman who has been raping him! I hope they acknowledge this at some point as Stockholm Syndrome. Cadsuane as a main character is a hard pill to swallow. Dollar-store Moiraine here is another terrible angry and violent female character in this book series. At this point, the sheer number of badly written female characters are outnumbering the good ones...Plot -> Oh god.. please this was so bad. And why did they resurrect Lanfear! I liked her as a villain and now she is a joke. I fucking hate the Perrin plot, just die!!!! The cleansing was a huge step and I wanted this to happen so I am a bit happy it is over, but I did not like how this was executed. Oh god, that moment when Elayne was like please fuck me too.... so cringe. Prose -> On the border of bad. I had to search the book for a single line that sounds quotable. Nothing really stood out to me. The persistent problems of WoT prose are all hitting their highs in this book (so far as I have readWorldbuilding -> Least impressive of WoT so far. So much of this book was melodrama. There is some good Sea Folk, Seanchan and Far Madding world building. I hate the Sea Folk, Seriously the most annoying set of characters I have read.

4.00/5.00 “The Oaths are what make us more than a group of women meddling in the affairs of the world. The oaths hold us together, a stated set of beliefs that bind us all, a single thread running through every sister, living or dead, back to the first to lay her hands on the Oath Rod. They are what makes us Aei Sedai, not saidar.”

Let me start by stating that this book is wildly underrated. Widely regarded as one of the “slog” books, The Path of Daggers defies this expectation smoothly. While the slower pace of this story is undeniable, the plot stands up to the quality of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, with Rand's character developing with such grace and satisfaction. The world building makes some progress, and is certainly not the best of this series, but it is solid. A surprisingly good read, The Path of Daggers is not a slog by any means. It is certainly better than ACoS.

For those who hated this book, I do sympathize. The explosion of named characters seems exponential and unnecessary. It has become entirely impossible to remember which character is who and what the hell is the history of that character. However, Jordan does remind us of the important characters repeatedly, so the plot is still coherent. Jordan has also completely given up on writing lyrical prose. The quality of prose in general seems to be dropping off. Hopefully it will get better.

Emotional Impact -> Its hard not to see the deep and rich worldbuilding theme of WoT when Siuan Sanche tells Egwene why the Oaths make Aes Sedai, not saidar. Rand's loneliness is a beautiful theme of this story, the burden of being the Dragon Reborn, the weight of entire world on one shoulder. And finally, he looks to share the burden. The chosen one trope is done so perfectly in WoT. Elayne's return to Camelyn is a poignant moment. Cadsuane-Rand relationship is interesting, but she feels like a bad place holder for Moiraine. I miss you Moiraine Sedai. However, we have to struggle through dozens of named characters which all blend together, so the character interaction is not so engaging. The writing is so bad that many important moments fail to land well. Characters -> Rand, Rand, Rand. the loneliness, the weight of this immense burden, the stubborn refusal to share this burden with anyone, to trust anyone, is a marvelous representation of his struggles in this story. Nynaeve finally changing and controlling her temper is great, but fails to land properly as I don't recall her development in the last book. Perrin-Faile is a shit show as usual. And is the next book going to be focused on Perrin rescuing Faile? KMN! Plot -> Here is where this book is better. The plot is unpredictable for most the most part and is pretty interesting. Returning characters shock and awe in their sudden arrivals such as Logain. There are so many twists in this book, it would take a genius to plan all of this. But there are some plotlines that are underwhelming and I just wanted it to be over. Perrin-Massema being the worst. Prose -> This is bad. Jordan's numerous characters and their similar character traits make things cheap and hard to follow. Every female name in this book sounds the same. Forget lyrical prose, Jordan is struggling to write anything quotable at all. Not to mention that every significant moment in this book felt like an unsignificant moment. The writing utterly fails to stand up to the story or the worldbuilding. World Building -> Another solid WoT worldbuilding book here -> Unweaving, travelling, strangeness in the one power, the bowl of the winds and the dark one, what makes aes sedai. It could still be so much better.

3.50/5.00

“They made me the poster boy for disproportional response. They made me a butcher”.

Great read. Solid character building for Fred.

4.50/5.00“Now I am free”.

What a beautiful conclusion to the story of Paul Atreides. This is the ending we deserved for Paul. At 80% of this book, I feared that I was pulling away with disinterest, but then I was hit with one of the most emotional endings that I have read. The imagery, the metohpor of Paul's life, and ultimate tradegy is re-writing all my feelings about Dune. I don't even want to read more. This is perfect.

I did struggle to read this book much more that the first. Why not have a glossary like the first book? The prose is meandering and gets very metphorical and a bit hard to follow. The first book was certainly more easy to read. If Frank Herbert had taken it a little bit easier, made the book a little bit easier to follow, Dune Messiah would have been a greater success. Prose departed from its lyrical approach to the metaphorical puzzle, which I am not a big fan of.

“What is before ?”

Emotional Impact -> The book starts out great, the later mid part gets a bit hard to follow. The ending is spectacular and worthy of a Dune book. The ending is even better than Dune. "A planet for a tomb"!! Beautiful. Characters -> Paul stole my heart. His journey, his terrible purpose, his tragic life, his helplessness, his loss of free will. What a terrible life! Plot -> Incredible plot. I didn't see any of it coming. Praise be to Frank Herbert. LOL when his son Leto II calls Paul father! wow. The plot left a lot of loose strands that somehow made the book more interesting. I did not like the Alia-Duncan romance.. where did that come from ? so random. Prose -> This is where I struggled. My non-spoiler thoughts cover it already. Worldbuilding -> This story is not focused on worldbuilding. It is plot and character focused. It makes use of the existing Dune worldbuilding and it almost feels like the ending of the first book.

5.00/5.00“Miller watched a little peice of the man's idealism die and was sorry that it gave him joy”.

Leviathan wakes is a stunning accomplishment of modern science fiction, a perfect blend of classic sci-fi ideas, worldbuilding, with the modern touch of charcter development. The world created in this book is frighteningly real, awesomely detailed, brilliantly creative and ultimately hopeful. A marriage of tangents from Star Trek and Dune, the expanse is a world to aspire for, and to fear with the foreboding inevitability. An epic space opera, warrring factions, well-developed characters, deeply rooted in science fiction worldbuilding, Leviathan Wakes is a love story of epic proportions. “Oi Pampaw!”

Emotional Impact -> The realistic world building, the wonder or orbital mechanics, the intrigue of the protomolecule, and the wonderful characters. Its hard not to like Holden, the reincarnation of Duke Leto Atredies, but still unique and fresh. I am loving Amos, I am loving all the ethical dilemmas, the thought provoking questions. Characters -> Miller! I hated this guy and ended up loving him. "He looks at his soul, sees the taint, and wants to be clean. But you? You just shrug". Miller's character is a masterpeice. A damaged, hurt soul making the ultimate and selfish sacrifice. Amos > Holden > Fred > Naomi. Plot -> Complicated plot, focued on orbital mechanics. Can I ask for anything better ? The warring planets! So relalistic! The protomolecule is giving us everything we needed in a mysterious alien seed missile. Killing the cant, the twist with the MCRN, finding Julie, romancing Holden, romancing, hallucianting Miller, Eros coming alive. Great, just great. Prose -> Slightly better than Sanderson. Several quotable lines. But I see too many characters shrugging all the time. Prose has the potential to be much better. Worldbuiling -> Here we go! Gimme the orbital mechanics. Give the MCRN, the UNN, the OPA. Give me the belter creole. Give me the hand gestures. Gimme the gravity! the ultimate villan. The uranium bullets, the nuclear explosions, the PDCs! The Nauvoo. I cannot stop. Best of the best of sci-fi. The worldbuilding is not historically rich as like Dune. But its so good. so good. I love it.

4.00/5.00

Dungeon Crawler Carl is a greatly paced funny book. The AI comments are real funny. Some good characters, one great character. Some of the action and the various mob/monsters blend together. I think the author is really struggling with action, but shines at comedy, character work and plot lines. Certainly worth a read (better worth a listen). The book starts off with a deep and reflective battle and gets very RPG later in the book, but return to deeper themes later. I am getting a lot of Upload vibes.... (amazon prime show)

Love princess donut. The AI's feet fetish is hilarious. We need better action writing. We need more character moments, more ethical dilemma, more trauma and horror of this situation and less RPG. This book is so RPG!