After a 3-4 consecutive book slump the plot starts moving forward, albeit slowly. Jordan seems to develop everything apart from the main character, who gets a few chapters in a 700 page book.
Time to move on to the supposed modern GOAT of fantasy writing in Brandon Sanderson who finished off the last 3 books after Jordan passed away 🫡
Knowing that Sanderson wrapped up the series is the only reason I didn’t give up on this series during the slog.
⭐️⭐️Final Rating: 3.25⭐️⭐️
My wife randomly bought this back in 2017 to start reading more and never finished it. So I decided to give it a go to break up the fantasy/classic/Stephen King binge I’ve been on.
Good story and pacing was great. Nothing overly complex about it. Would have enjoyed a deeper exploration of the main characters. A book that doesn’t require the concentration/deep analysis that comes with chunky classics, so was a welcome change.
Final Rating: 4.0
Bleak, dreary and boring. Literally described mundane tasks in a repetitive formula for 300 pages. There was no action or change of pace throughout the whole story. The dialogue was at a bare minimum and severely lacked. I get that the author purposely wanted to present the story like this but it’s the opposite of what I’m looking for in a book. This was too simple.
Final Rating: 1.5
Spurgeon truly understands suffering from his personal experiences and knows how to convey this as a message of hope! A suffering christian who is brought to the end of themselves, surrenders all to Christ and is then led into a blessed hope of glory; Christ in us, the hope of glory.
Final Rating: 5.0
The slog well and truly continues. Too many names to remember. Too many pointless scenes that slow burn to nothingness. The last 3 books could have been merged into one. It’s like flogging a dead horse.
At least Mat made a return after being MIA for a book and a half, only for Perrin to have a few chapters and then disappear. The male characters need way more attention because Jordan’s female characters are annoying AF and get too much time dedicated to them.
Sea women are boring, the forsaken are clowns, and the “dark lord” has been MIA since living rent free in matt and rand’s head in eye of the world.
Had a 2-3 month break In-between books which helped me power through this one.
Final rating: 2.25
The reputation of this book flatters the actually quality of it. Super cool concept and world building of the town Derry. Was absorbed in the first 1/3 of the book but it dragged on big time. Could have cut at least 300 pages out give it more of an impact. Theres no way these kids are 11 years old and the infamous drain scene is beyond disgusting and the most vile material I have ever read in a novel that serves no purpose to the story at all. How “IT” was resolved was dull and anti-climactic. That being said, I enjoyed the originality of the story and the characters.
Wanted to love this so much more than I did, but doesn’t deserve the high acclaim it receives.
Final Rating: 3.0
Final Rating: 3.75
What I thought was going to be a murder/mystery/thriller novel turned out to be a supernatural story with some other plot lines working around it. A bit slow at times and felt the story could have been condensed. The writing was good and I liked how the plot lines all tied together. Not a huge fan of the supernatural element in this book, too far fetched to take it seriously.
Final rating: 2.0
Just boring. Love this series, but theres just so much filler that is not interesting at all. Matt, one of the most interesting characters is completely MIA. Too many names and characters all over the place. Skim read a majority of the book so that I could be done with it. Elayne, Egwene, Nynaeve, the female aiel, the aes sedai and the ship people are batshit boring mannnnnnnn 💣🔫
Final rating: 3.0
Had a 4 month break after reading Lord of Chaos (nearly gave up on the series) before tacking this bad boi. Honestly enjoyed it better, but it still suffered from a slow pace where seemingly not much was achieved in a book 650 pages long.
Im missing the sense of adventure that the first few books contained (particularly the Great Hunt) and am left bored at times which became evident during the Fires of Heaven.
Theres so many names of different Aes Sedai and Aiel that it makes it hard to follow and remember who is who which is disappointing. Felt the book was meandering for 600 pages and then suddenly wrapped up a major plot line in the 20 odd pages of the last chapter which seemed rushed.
Expectations are very low heading into the Path of Daggers which should help me enjoy it more….