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Adams, Douglas (S)
Asher, Neal (S)
Aylett, Steve (S)
Banks, Iain M (S)
Barclay, James (F)
Barker, Clive (H)
Baxter, Stephen (S)
Brin, David (S)
Bury, Stephen (S)
Card, Orson Scott (S)
Cherryh, CJ (S/F)
Clute, John (S)
Cockayne, Steve (F)
Cook, Glen (F)
Danielewski, Mark (H)
Dick, Philip K (S)
Egan, Greg (S)
Feist, Raymond (F)
Gaiman, Neil (F)
Gibson, William (S)
Goodkind, Terry (F)
Grimwood, Jon C (S)
Hamilton, Peter (S)
Jeter, K.W. (S)
Jordan, Robert (F)
Lethem, Jonathan (S)
McAuley, Paul (S)
MacLeod, Ken (S)
Martin, George RR (F)
McMullen, Sean (S)
Miéville, China (S)
Moran, Daniel K (S)
Morgan, Richard K (S)
Nagata, Linda (S)
Niven, Larry (S)
Noon, Jeff (S)
Robinson, Kim S. (S)
Rucker, Rudy (S)
Simmons, Dan (S)
Smith, Michael Marshall (S)
Stephenson, Neal (S)
Sterling, Bruce (S)
Vinge, Vernor (S)
Westerfeld, Scott (S)
Williams, Sean (S)
Williams, Tad (S/F)

Collections (S/F)

Basically the Wheel of Time series is probably the most ambitious fantasy series to be written since the Lord of the Rings. As of today there have been 8 massive (most of them well over 600-800 pages) books written with supposedly at least 3 more to go before Jordan completes it. For a while he was pumping out 1 a year but he has really slowed down and is now producing slightly smaller books and at around 2 years apart. Very frustrating to have to wait for the next part.

First off, if you are just starting the series have a notebook at your side. Write down every character who speaks more than "Like to buy a chicken?" and leave a quick note as to who they are. There are probably close to over a 100 different characters in this series, all in critical roles and even worse, all popping in and out of the series. They might be mentioned in Book 1 and suddenly they are a key player in Book 7. The plot to this series is very vey intricate. Along with the 100 or so characters there are probably 30 or so sub plots running through and around the main plot of the story. The series started off reasonably enough, the first 3 books were complicated but not out of control,then with the 4th book he just blew the many plot to pieces and scattered everything to the winds.It really is to the point where I wonder if he is in control of the story anymore. The last two books seem as if they have been nothing but huge plot shifters, not really moving the main plot forward but rather getting the characters where he needs them for the next books. It is somewhat frustrating and to be honest I've been disappointed by the last two books.

Beyond the intricacy this is a very good series. Jordan concentrates more on the human side of fantasy dealing mostly with magic and human abilities rather than monsters. There are a few being that are not human but even some of them are human created. This is a pretty big difference between this and Tolkein's series and I assume Jordan did it on purpose to avoid heavy comparison. The main plotline is simple enough, good versus evil, if evil wins the world is doomed if good wins it might be saved, but there is even some question there. The writing is quite superb, his description of the scenes just incredible. For most of the series you feel as if you are right there, the battle scenes are awesome.

If there is a flaw with the writing it is with his characters. While you find yourself growing attached to nearly each character, certainly developing favorites and annoyances, most of his characters are very one dimensional. Each character generally has one trait or ability that makes them unique and that is harped on throughout the series. The character never really develops beyond that one feature. This isn't really a problem at first but after 8 books of it, it becomes a little irksome. Maybe this is just me, but I found this especially annoying with his female characters.Most of them share a common Jordanian female mold that just really gets on my nerves. Most of the scenes that deal with exclusively the women of the book I find boring and I really just go through it to get to the rest of the book. In addition, another annoying feature is Jordan's insistence of repeating what has happened in the last books. After 8 books this recap is taking up nearly a quarter of the book and after a while you get tired of rereading who loves who and who hates who.He needs to realize people are reading this as a series and not jumping into the middle. If he's going to recap just do it for the major details and not the love relationships.

Overall this is a very good series, that will certainly leave a mark on the fantasy world. It started off simply awesome with the first 5 books, but the last 3 have been less than impressive. I'm hoping he can wrap this up and finish as well as he started. Looking forward to book 9.

Our Ranking

First the good news though. For one, Jordan doesn't really add any new major plot lines in this one. While a few small ones are added to enhance the story, for the most part this is a continuation of the series. Hopefully he will continue this and finally start pulling the series together. Also, most of the favorite characters are back. Luckily Mat (who was absent in the 8th book) has a major role in Winter's Heart which is refreshing. He is one of my favorite characters, and I really missed having him in the 8th book. I was a little upset that it didn't focus on Perrin a whole lot, but I was very grateful that it shifted the tale a lot from the Aes Sedai conflicts.

Another good note is that you simply can't knock Jordan's story telling. As with the other eight, you are simply engrossed into Winter's Heart, carried along with the tale and the characters. The story while maybe not as strong as the first five or so does have some very powerful points. The ending was very well done and incredibly suspenseful. For the whole last half of the book, the plot(s) seemed to move at a fevers pitch and it was nearly impossible to put down.

Unfortunately all of this wasn't enough to really recapture the greatness of the first five. First of all, the book did frustratingly little to move along the grander plot of the whole series. While it's true that the final scene does have some nice implications for the Final Battle, for the most part nothing happened to bring anything closer to the ending. It's as if the series has stalled for the last two books.

Couple this frustration with the fact that the books are coming further and further apart (a two year wait for this one) and that they seem to be shrinking (this one only 640 pages compared to the 900+ page monstrosities at the beginning) and it is becoming difficult to believe this will ever end. Now normally you wouldn't complain about a 640 page book as short, but when Jordan is forced to spend 300 pages in almost pure recap mode, you realize there's not a lot of meat left for the tale. I almost feel like 8 and 9 should have been one book. It would have had a lot more substance than the two did individually.

Another major problem is that as much as I hate the 300 pages of recap it almost isn't enough. Jordan spends too much time recapping the obvious stuff. I mean after 9 books, probably at least 7000 pages of writing how many more times do I need him to tell me how much Rand loves Min or Elayne? I get it! Enough already. However, he barely glazes over the 100s of different Aes Sedai, leaving me grappling to remember which one is which and what side each is on. It's getting to the point where instead of a glossary, I think I need a small synopsis of every character in the back so that I can follow what is happening.

Overall, if you're already in the series, than it goes without saying you have to read this. It's too late to stop now. But be warned, your worst fears are probably true. This is just another Path of Daggers, not moving the plot and certainly not bringing the ending any closer. If you've never read the series obviously don't start here. You will be lost. But do yourself a favor. There will be at least 15 books to this. Wait until 11 or 12 is released and then start. This way you won't have the wait the rest of us have. Also, by then we should know if he ever intends to end this thing. This is really 3 and a half stars.