The Fires of Heaven

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.

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.

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.