The Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan) Book • Page 24

Book five down. Here are my thoughts by character

Asmodean - best Forsaken. He's so cute with his lil harp. RIP can't believe Jordan did him like that
Mat - love him. There's a comedic aspect to how he constantly stumbles into heroism despite his best efforts. I'm pretty sure there's a literary or critical term for that kind of thing but I can't think of it
Rand - I felt frustrated early on with how estranged he is from his friends at this point, but you come to see how he's just aware of what he has to do. He's constantly criticizing himself for his willingness to use people, but the fact that he's aware of it and feels pain for every sacrifice he makes him a sympathetic lead. I'm so glad to be done with the Refusal of the Call arc of his story. He's actually pretty smart now and listens to advice?
Aviendha - quickly became my favorite of the female leads. There is a lot of adherence to custom with her, especially early on, but she is the least frustrating as far as gender relations (which is probably the most annoying aspect of this series). Actually she might be the only person who could be called a good friend in this book lol
Moiraine - I'm happy the relationship between her and Rand has shifted to be more advisory/collaborative and less dragging him into action against his will, though that is closely tied with his character growth
Egwene - her early interactions with Rand are grating but I do really enjoy her friendship with Aviendha
Elayne - mostly really like her, though she is a bit naive
Nyneave - she's been one of the most difficult characters for me to like and this book was rough for her. Her treatment of Elayne and Egwene and even Birgitte sucks, not to mention every male character she interacts with. On the other hand, her taking on Moghedien was great
Siuan - super crafty. Her being stilled and deposed starts her on this journey degree you get to see how well she can manipulate people into doing what she needs. I'm really excited to see what she does next

 

Mentally, I always pictured her with more American Indian-like hair, but I'm all in on the look.

Curious how they're going to pull off the Rand is Aiel thing indicated by red hair if all the Aiel end up being darker skin tones. Not a complaint, so don't take it as such.

 

Slogging through book 7. Not sure if it's because I'm burned out or If its 800 pages of not much going on.

 

There’s a contingent of WoT fans that call books 7-10 “the slog”… I think only 10 is a slog, but they are the weakest books (9 has one of the best climaxes in the series though).

 

Finished a crown of swords. It could have been half as long. I feel like the entire ebou dar storyline could have been streamlined down to like 100 pages.

Anyway, definitely taking a break lol. I've powered through half the series in 5 ish months, need a palate cleanser of sorts.

 

I’m kind of in this boat too. Book 5 has taken me forever. I think I need something quick paced for a few books before I dive back in to finish out the series

 

7 books in five months? It took me seven months to finish Fires of Heaven lol

 

So I'm a fool and started book 8 lol. It is a slog through the first 200 pages. Glad it's a short book in comparison to the others. I own book 9 so I'll get through these two then I'm def taking a break before I buy the rest.

 

Still on book 5. Taking me forever because we just had a kid so my reading time is down but I might download the audio book so I can make more progress without holding a thick book too!

 

The Wheel of Time audiobooks with Michael Kramer & Kate Reading - at least the ones I have listened to - are probably the best audiobooks I've ever heard. I think they are absolutely worth the admittedly pretty steep price.

 

Alright finished the path of daggers. The first half was a chore but the second half was pretty decent. Some real action and people getting places. I'm pretty confident that when I am done the series I'll feel like it should have been 10 books or less.

Anyway, actually taking a break this time to read the new star wars book.

 

Alright I'm back on it and started winters hearts. Strong prologue. Really liked the becoming first sisters bit.

 

Midway through Lord Of Chaos. Love the story/world but Jordan definitely could have edited back some of the exposition on these last few…

 

Winters heart was good. Especially the back half, and especially the last chapter.

 

Well I'm back at it. Just got the last books in the mail today. Crossroads of twilight here I come.

 

A Memory of Light major spoiler don’t click unless you’ve finished.

My friend just got to the part in The Last Battle where it looks like Demandred killed Lan and she called me weeping last night and I had no recollection of the fake out and could only remember Lan being alive at the end and I forgot how intense that chapter got.

 

Im still chugging along with crossroads of twilight.

 

its definitely the one you have to chug through

 

I only have a hundred pages left! Audiobook helps the chug go faster!!

 

I also might add. I was expecting way worse with crossroads of twilight. I don’t hate it. Things DO happen, but from what I have seen, they just don’t…conclude at all? Also, Jordan needs to calm it with the sheer volume of aes sedai names that he says once and then never again. How the dialog flows is also funny. There’s like a piece of spoken dialog and then a 4 paragraph description of something random like the scenery or something and then the response from the other person.

 

My biggest gripe is being 300 pages in and no rand yet

 

I thought this too on my most recent re-read about it not being as bad as I thought when it first came out. But Yeah, it’s still the worst book of the series. Good thing Knife of Dreams was a monster rebound haha

 

I remember the first time I read it I was like “so the entire book is everyone else in the entire world reacting to the climax of winter’s heart and nothing else?” for quite awhile

 

Woo boy finally got through crossroads of twilight.