Tej Patel

I really liked this book, and I hope that I will love The Wheel of Time. (Also, big fan of BookTuber Daniel Green :).)

It starts off very Tolkien-esque, which Robert Jordan admits was intentionally–him wanting to pursue a more “realistic” take on Tolkien. However, Jordan deviates from the Tolkien after the first third, going into more unique ideas (at least to my eyes, it has been a long time since I last read this).

I love the book, because of the characters and world (I'm not really a plot guy).

There are criticisms of course, the pacing feels a bit off for me. It's not a huge problem for me, but I felt it got too slow at some parts, and then quickened. For private reasons, I was not able to have a consistent reading schedule (and for the past few days I was too lazy to read at all), and I think that this might be the cause of this particular criticism, but I feel it to be true.

Secondly, though I haven't ventured far enough into Jordan to fully experience it, but Jordan sure loves his descriptions and info dumps. It isn't a big problem for me, yet (as I love info-dumps, and am quite forgiving of them)–I have a feeling that after 13 more books, or however many I decide to read, I will tire out.

4 stars because of enjoyment and the fact that I would recommend this (to be given at least a chance).

This book is one of my favorites, in the top ten (maybe even the top three).

I love the character work - I felt like of the characters (Damaya, Essun, Syenite; though there is a spoiler caveat to this, read the book to find that out). I also like the prevailing idea behind it. Basically, after chapter one, the world is like a post-apocalyptic world and given the excellent tone and how a certain race is treated, it often feels like a dystopian novel - but this is a fantasy novel. The author even tells one of the POV from the second-person point of view (“you”s), and it was quite well done.

Overall, I would say this book was a great start to this year's (and decade's) reading list.

This book is the almost perfect sequel to the first book in the trilogy (The Fifth Season), and I would have been enthralled entirely if personal matters did not steal me away from the book. I think this book has good characterization from the past book, interesting and great (at least for me) execution of the premise, good voice (that I probably became addicted too), and has set up everything for the next book.

However (and this is where I attempt to be unbiased), it could be said the book suffers from the last point–being the set-up book for The Stone Sky (the last installment). In relation to The Fifth Season, it was a bit slow from a plot perspective. I, personally, have enjoyed this book because it asked “questions” about its magic system and then answered them (though in the last few questions), set up the two (probably) major players in the next and last book (The Stone Sky) and set its premise.

I honestly would recommend, if you don't mind a middle “set-up” book (or at least one the feels like it), like I do. Can't wait till I start The Stone Sky tomorrow.