The Fires of Heaven
Ratings472
Average rating4.1
Final Rating: 3.75
Felt like the book dragged on a little. A bit too Aiel heavy and am finding my self getting slightly bored with them.
Ta mi się naprawdę podobała. Pewnie dlatego, że były w niej tylko dwa główne wątki, jeden z Randem i Matem i drugi z Nynaeve i Elayne. Nie było też praktycznie żadnych wypychaczy. Nynaeve nadal jest nie do zniesienia, ale przynajmniej ona sama zaczyna to zauważać w niektórych momentach. Ciekawe co porabia Perrin...
Overall - 7/10
Plot - 7/10
Characters - 6/10
World & Concepts - 8/10
Prose - 6/10
Theme - 6/10
Narration - 7/10
Enjoyment - 7/10
This series just gets better and better. One of my biggest complaints about this series is that the main characters never die so there's no real danger, well this book sure changes that. Although I don't think this certain person is actually dead. Regardless it provides some mortality to the characters and makes me more inclined to read the next one sooner rather than later.
This book is slow as usual, relying less on action and more on character development of the female cast with a sprinkle or two or Rand and Mat, who are still
“Stubborn Woolheads” I might add. The worldbuilding is top notch as usual. There's nothing I can really say about a book 5 of a series without giving up spoilers for previous books, but if you you've read this series this far and still don't really enjoy it then I wouldn't bother any further because this is elite fantasy at its finest!
5.00/5.00 “Far Dareis Mai carries your honor, and you take ours away”.
The fifth installment of the Wheel of Time is rich in worldbuilding and filled with crazy twists and turns. As a welcome surprise, there is an excellent battle scene in the book, which superseded expectation and was woven beautifully in to the plot. However, Robert Jordan's writing is a point of frustration. His brilliance in writing a thematic and intricate plot, jaw-dropping twists, super-coherent and satisfying magic system, combined with incredible character moments, is dragged down by repetitive descriptions, innumerable pointless characters, cringeworthy romance and irritating character flaws.
I come out on the largely positive side for this book. The wheel weaves as the wheel wills. Glory be to the Lord Dragon Reborn! Hail Lord Mat!
Story/Plot -> Jaw dropping & unpredictable moments such as Birgette's return, Elayne bonding her as warder, Nyneave tearing Moghedien a new one, Rahvin being the final villain, the incredible battle, Mat killing Couladin, the amnesty and so much more! Even the Aviendha-Rand romance was enjoyable. I am really not enjoying the Elayne-Min-Rand part of this romance. I also cringed at the Elayne-Thom part, WTF was that. Remove romance from these books, and the story would be a perfect 10.Worldbuilding -> No need to rehash the extraordinary worldbuilding in WoT. It is outstanding as usual. The One Power and Tel'aran'rhiod is so well developed in this book, that it is mind blowing. I love how the story weaves around the magic system in such a wonderful way. Characters -> Rand and Moiraine steal the show here. Rand's madness, his relationship with Far Dareis Mai, with Moiraine is outstanding. The gut wrenching Moiraine death leading to Rand's character development is just heaven. I actually liked Galad? wow. On the other hand, listening to Nyneave's thoughts and opinions on men are just so vexing. If it wasn't for Rand and Moiraine, I would have dropped this score. And what a character moment for the Far Daries Mai leader Sulin! Dialogue/Prose -> I feel like the writing gets really bad in some places, but is decent overall The whole thing about Rand-Aviendha-Elayne-Min "romance" is just cringe worthy to read. Every time Rand is attracted to a woman, why does he have to talk about Min and Elayne ? I get what Robert Jordan is trying to do. He wants Rand to have three wives, a blonde, a red head and a brunette, which is just cringe for me. I would just go back and delete all romance from WoT books. And why does every female character think men are stupid ? Why do all the men think women are crazy? Why does it have to be stated and reminded every 5 mis ? Why is everyone so angry and violent ? Why do we need so much recap ? Why is every other female character described as "plump" (the only time to use this adjective is to describe a tomato!) ? Why do we care so much about necklines and dress colors ? I have decided to just accept this style of writing and adjust my expectations. I wanted to throw an above average score here, but I am going to give RJ the bonus for the dream world writing, the battle scenes, which are just excellent. Emotional Impact -> I really enjoyed the worldbuilding, the battles, the plot twists and the ending. I struggled with the writing here, but it didn't "bother" me as much as I just noticed the problems and wished it was better. Moiraine stole the show for me. This book scores high for her.
The books (at least 2-5 so far) are similarly constructed in that they really crescendo. Once I hit like 5 chapters from the end I am lapping it up like a dog.
The material to get there is not that amazing but as an audiobook I don't really mind putting it on one time speed and just chilling out with these characters in this fantasy world for a long time. I still have the motivation to keep rocking, which is pretty good for five 1,000 page books.
The only piece of the world-building that doesn't really work for me so far is the Children of the Light. They are basically a bunch of dudes who are just kind of angry and run an official militia looking for evil people. And you know what typing that out nevermind I get it now.
Probably my favorite of the series. Perrin had his show in the previous novel, but Mat, Rand, and Nynaeve really come into their own in this one. Some of my favorite scenes are in this book.
But it's also chock full of gender stereotypes and some excessive handwringing over the propriety of character attitudes and clothing. It can be annoying as hell to read in sections.
2.5 — this one is a little unfairly rated because life got really busy for me in the period in which i read this, but it's nonetheless one of the weakest so far.
4/5
The last lines of The Fires of Heaven had me excited for the sixth chapter in the Wheel of Time series. Whilst the promise of more male channelers definitely delivers in Lord of Chaos, there's other glaring issues in pacing, gendered writing and repetition that I have unfortunately come to accept in these books.
Read my full review on Life of Karrot.
Another long story
That might sound like a pretty odd and simple title. This whole series is filled with long books. This latest isn't the longest and yet it took a week and a half of reading and audiobook every day. It's an epic for sure.
This particular entry in the series is a very strong one filled with some great action, huge plot moments and some real story progression. Have to say, this is the my favourite since the second. Though - my ongoing two major complaints remain: all women in this book are portrayed as short tempered and angry and not a single person in this book has a sense of humour or seems like they have fun - maybe Mat!
THE WHEEL OF TIME
1) The Eye of the World ★★★★
2) The Great Hunt ★★★★★
3) The Dragon Reborn ★★★★★
4) The Shadow Rising ★★★★★
5) The Fires of Heaven ★★★★★
6) Lord of Chaos ★★★★★
7) A Crown of Swords ★★★★
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Oh, this was so good. Love how much we got to see of Nynaeve in this one!
This is my fourth? Or fifth? Time reading this book and although when coming up to it on rereads it's always “that one without Perrin” (he's my favourite) I always forget how much fun this is once the ball gets rolling. I just really wish Asmodean had more to do!
“Life is a dream from which we all must wake before we can dream again.”
This WoT has torn me slightly, for three quarters of the book I found it slow and whilst it was never boring the focus on “the game of houses” isn't my favourite part of WoT. That said... What an ending! The final four or five chapters are SOLID!
It would have had a 3 star rating but I can't go any lower than a four now!
Another epic installment to the series. There is SO much that happens in this one. Still loving the in-depth character development and world building. I can't help but worry about the battle-hardened people these young men and women will grow into. The tense, multi-layered relationships surrounding many of the friendships, and love interests makes everything seem genuine. I care about what happens to them, good or bad.
I swear Jordan leaves the last 100/200 pages of each book to smack the reader with all the tricks he can pull. A few plot developments I saw from a mile away due to subtle hints dropped throughout the book, but others caught me by surprise. This book was very focused on Nynaeve and Elayne which bored me a lot. I looked forward to the scenes with Rand and Mat. I am eager to see Nynaeve's block released and see her develop, but I felt like she and Elayne traded insults most of the book and never really went anywhere except in dreams. I also got tired Of hearing Nynaeve complain about her clothes. Brigitte was the best part of the Nynaeve/Elayne storyline and I can't wait to find out more about her future now.
Zo, we zijn in het midden toegekomen. Het lange, lange midden van de serie. Het tempo doet denken aan een gletsjer: traag maar gestaag, soms eens een opstoot.
De gewoonte van Jordan om alles nog eens allemaal te herhalen (en te herhalen, en te herhalen) begint wat op de zenuwen te werken. De in het algemeen weinig realistische vrouwelijke karakters ook. De manie van iedereen om aan zijn haar te trekken ook, net zoals de honderden keren dat het ene of het andere karakter met wijdopengesperde ogen de kledingkeuze van sommige vrouwen probeert niet op te merken.
Serieus: als alle vermeldingen van tugged on / yanked / pulled her braid er uit zouden gelaten worden, zou het boek een paar honderd bladzijden korter geweest zijn, en niemand zou het erg gevonden hebben. En ja, we hebben het ondertussen door: alle vrouwen vinden alle mannen nutteloos, en geen enkele man zal ooit geen enkele vrouw begrijpen. Dat hoeft echt niet om de vijftien bladzijden herhaald te worden.
Qua verhaal: Mat komt tot zijn recht. Hij heeft wegens redenen een paar honderd jaar random geheugens in zich zitten, en hoe harder hij probeert om niet met niets te maken te hebben, hoe meer verantwoordelijkheden hij krijgt. En in plaats van zijn leven te spenderen met Wein, Weib und Gesang (en gokken), blijkt hij plots een gevierde generaal te zijn, zowat de leider van Rand's legers.
Rand danst op een slap koord tussen Aiel en politieke intriges, Wise Ones en Aes Sedai, krijgt een onvermoede helper, en verliest er een andere.
Terwijl Egwene een Wise One leert te worden, beleven Elayne en Nynaeve zowaar Spannende Avonturen, zowel in de dromenwereld Tel'aran'rhiod als in de echte wereld, inclusief een verblijf in het circus. Al hun eindeloos kinderachtige gedrag steekt wel verschrikkelijk tegen, maar daar staat tegenover dat de karakters echt wel evolueren naar iets beters dan wat ze waren.
Ik hield mijn hart vast –ik herinnerde me vaag dat het vanaf boek 5 de dieperik in ging– maar dat was verrassend genoeg niet zo. Misschien dat ik meer geduld heb gekweekt, misschien dat het is omdat ik weet dat ik meteen het volgende boek kan lezen in plaats van een jaar of meer te moeten wachten, in alle geval: ik heb dit in één ruk uitgelezen, en ik ben meteen aan boek 6 begonnen.
Another 1000 pages gone and Jordan ups the game if that were even possible. Perrin takes a breather and the women take center stage though The Dragon Reborn goes his merry way. But the books high points are all about Mat. And if you had any doubts that there was a reason why there were three Tavernan this book disperses them. Though neither Perrin nor Mat can channel they each have now their own abilities that bring interesting aspects to the books. The best part of Jordan's ability is to be able to be so consistent with each character. Each person behaves in the way they did since the first book so you would never have a moment where you go “Oh Mat would never do that!”. Almost halfway stage and I can't seem to go through them fast enough. Lets ride on with the Dragon!
Executive Summary: I liked this a lot more on a second read than I did on my first.Audiobook: Another fantastic job by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading.Full ReviewI really liked Wheel of Time as a whole on my first read through, but I felt like things slow down a lot during the middle books. On my first read Perrin was my favorite character and Nynaeve annoyed me for much of the series.This book had no Perrin in it whatsoever. Probably because much of the last book focused on him. It also had a lot of Nynaeve. In fact I'd probably call her the main protagonist (or possibly co-protagonist with Rand) of this one. She's started her infamous braid tugging. That said, the things I came to appreciate about her later in the series are more apparent to me on my reread and so far I don't find her nearly as I annoying as I recall.I also really like Mat, who became my favorite character at some point later in the series. I'm really enjoying his parts of the early books a lot more on my reread as well. There are some big developments for him and his plot line here, especially at the end.Overall, while not as strong as the first four books of the series, this is another solid entry if you're a fan of the series like I am. If you were struggling with the earlier books, you may struggle with this one more.So far I haven't lost steam on my rearead and plan to continue on with [b:Lord of Chaos 35231 Lord of Chaos (Wheel of Time, #6) Robert Jordan https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1440954553s/35231.jpg 827903] at some point. Hopefully that's another book I'll enjoy more the second time than I recall the first time.
Depending on your level of tolerance, you might have given up at book 4 instead of moving into book 5. Book 6 and 7 are usually the ones that people say are their final stop. Why? This book is where Robert Jordan starts gearing up for what is possibly self-indulgence. The pace slows to a crawl, particularly when dealing with Elayne's arc of the story, and much is told from the perspectives of the females - so much so that whole chapters are devoted to extreme details of trivial happenings. Nynaeve in particular is starting to feel very one-dimensional and shallow - too much repetitive details are not good. There are good parts still though, as with book 4, a lot of very detailed and well thought out lore on the immense setting. Also, Rand's finally getting serious character development and growth in terms of his power. There's also a very definite and good ending at Caemlyn.