Winter's Heart

Like [b:The Path of Daggers 140974 The Path of Daggers (Wheel of Time, #8) Robert Jordan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390508613s/140974.jpg 1098593], this book progresses slowly. But, I feel that if you've made it this far into the series, you are engrossed enough into the story not to be bothered by it. I certainly enjoyed reading it.

Zo, kijk nu, er komt zowaar beterschap in Jordan's schrijven.

Ik had al bij het vorige boek de indruk dat er bij zijn uitgever eindelijk iemand besloten had om het overdreven trekken aan haar en platstrijken van rokken er uit te wippen, maar hier viel zowaar Faile (al een paar boeken de vleesgeworden irritante jaloezie) mee als karakter. En er was, in tegenstelling tot het vorige boek, zowaar een climax!

Niet dat alles koek en ei is: ook dit boek had op een derde van de pagina's kunnen geschreven worden, en ook hier worden er honderden (letterlijk, “honderden”) zij- en neven- en bij-personages ten tonele gevoerd die er eigenlijk niet echt toe doen (maar die vreemd genoeg wel allemaal een unieke naam krijgen, alsof er nérgens anders in de wereld iemand de naam “Mat” heeft).

Ik keek trouwens al een tijd uit naar de manier waarop één van de voorspellingen die op Mat betrekking hadden, zou uitkomen: teleurstellend. Er zijn een aantal personages die dingen voorspellen in dromen en dergelijke en er zijn vage voorspellingen van duizenden jaren geleden: die zijn proper ambigu en orakelachtig (van het genre “ge zult moeten sterven om te leven”, “als ge de rivier oversteekt, zal een groot rijk vallen”). En dan zijn er een aantal voorspellingen waar weinig twijfel over interpretatie is, genre “X zal trouwen met Y”, zoals in het geval van Mat. 

Maar in plaats dat dat dan organisch gebeurt, is het van “oh, de voorspelling zegt dat ik moet trouwen met Y, ik er zal dan maar beter verliefd op worden zeker?”

En met de voorspellingen van een ander personage, Min, is het nog erger: die ziet een aura met beelden rond sommige mensen, en als ze begrijpt wat de beelden zeggen, dan komt haar voorspelling altijd uit. Dus zitten we met een situatie dat het al voorspeld is sinds boek één dat Rand verliefd zal zijn op drie vrouwen en drie vrouwen op hem, en ah ja, dan is het polygamie, ‘t zal wel moeten zeker, à la guerre comme à la guerre. Of voorspelt ze een tweeling voor een personage, wat dan meteen een vrijgeleide is voor dat personage om om het even wat te doen tijdens haar zwangerschap want, ah ja, ik ga zeker een tweeling krijgen dus ik overleef de zwangerschap.

Afijn. Brandon Sanderson heeft ooit gezegd dat het altijd de bedoeling was om de reeks in één ruk uit te lezen, en niet boek per boek met maanden of jaren tussentijd. De man had gelijk: ook dit boek heb ik op geen tijd gelezen, zonder noemenswaardige verkeersdrempel tussen deel 8, deel 9 en deel 10.

Niet afgrijselijk slecht, zeker niet in de buurt van goed ook. Maar bon. Nog even en het wordt beter, verzekert men me.

I am at the point with Jordan's writing that I am sick of new characters. I can't keep most of them straight anymore between reincarnations, nicknames and when he decides to call characters by their first names suddenly instead of their last. The original group and a scattered few others I can consistently remember now. With that being said this book was a struggle for me until around 500 pages in. If I weren't so invested in the series I would have stopped at 100, but there are characters that I simply need to know about like Matt and Rand. The women in this series I have lost my interest in except for Min. I don't understand their actions half the time and I want to smack them for assumptions they make. The last 100 pages of this book earned it 3 stars, until then I was contemplating a 2 star rating. The accomplishments by the end of this are impressive and I want to know how it was all possible. I'm hoping the next book picks up the pace a bit but I have a feeling I will take a break from Jordan for a few other books before returning.

Executive Summary: Much like some of the other “middle books” of this series, I enjoyed it more on my reread than I did the first time. That said, it's still one of the weaker books of the series.Audiobook: Another fantastic job by Kate Reading and Micheal Kramer. I suspect part of the reason why I enjoyed this more the second time was that I was listening to it instead of reading it, and they make it so much better.Full ReviewAfter nearly 1.5 books, Mat returns! There is also a bunch of boring stuff with Elayne, and some mostly interesting stuff with Rand, and a brief bit with Perrin that was OK.On my first read of this series, I really started to lose steam here. I found the first part of it quite slow both times. However by the time Mat shows up, I was totally engrossed again. And the ending nearly makes up for all the slow stuff at the start. It's probably one of his better endings in the series. The implications make me want to jump right into the next book.Overall I'm still quite enjoying my reread of this series. I still find that there are too many names and characters to keep straight though. Luckily I don't have to worry about spoilers and I can look stuff up when I'm confused. I think that's definitely another benefit my reread had over the first time too.I was really worried this series wouldn't hold up to my memory of it, but so far it's been as good or better than I remember. I'm absolutely dreading [b:Crossroads of Twilight 113435 Crossroads of Twilight (Wheel of Time, #10) Robert Jordan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1408325146s/113435.jpg 195579] though because from what I remember there is a bit at the start that's really good, and the ending is excellent but then nothing happens for the middle 80% or so. Hopefully I'll find that even that book is better on a reread, but I'm not optimistic.

And finally we are back into the action. In an interesting twist we are taken into a direction that is sprung upon us in surprise and brings a stunning end to this book. My only grouse would be that the climax deserved much more space than it got and even then not enough justice would be done to it. Mat is back albeit in the fringes but I can see his contribution is going to be significant in the future. Perrin disappears and so does Egwene. But lots of new characters abound and the Sea Folk are getting on my nerves. But its 9 down and I have the feeling that at times I live in Jordan's world more than mine:-)

Gasp! The plot lines move! Astounding! But seriously, the good thing about this book is that major plots lines are actually moving a bit and certain events that we've been expecting for the past 2 books have finally occurred (well, at least, they're starting to). Mat is given much needed limelight, after being a little absent in the previous book. There's a reduction in the lovey-dovey parts of the previous 2. Those are the good parts. The bad parts? Well, as you know, the main female characters are still performing their trademark action numerous times, and most of them described as if you haven't read about them for at least 5 or 6 books now. There's still a lot of filler, especially at the start of the book. Again, excruciating details for very trivial characters, dialogues, and events; but ironically, not enough reminder text or hints for the incredibly large number of supporting casts for each of the main characters - making recalling who they are very difficult. Still, if you've read this far, you're probably just persevering for the sake of wanting to know how it's going to end, and any review won't really change your mind.

2.50/5.00 “The male and female halves of the True Source were alike and unlike, attracting and repelling, fighting against each other, as they worked together to drive the Wheel of Time.”

Winter's Heart is disappointing on so many levels. Most of this book is made up of nothing. The four main plot lines in this book are all boring and are all mostly side plots, with the exception of Rand's plot. Most importantly, none of the plot lines were interesting. This book is a sub-standard entry into the WoT.

Some good parts include significant progress in the Rand-3 women romance plot line (although it is so cringe and I am just happy its over, but it was still funny), end of the major plot line with Rand and WoT in general and some fun times with Mat. Perrin's story in this book is just completely unreadable. I did actually enjoy my time with Mat in this book and the whole Seanchan world building, even though the strory moved so slowly and felt repetitive of book 7. Elayne's plot line is slightly better than Perrin but is completely uninteresting.

The end of this book is surprising but feels so badly executed. The villains are turned into clowns in struggle with a predictable outcome.

Emotional Impact -> I enjoyed Mat's part of this book, but the plot there is bad. Otherwise this book was bad. The first 200 pages are unreadable. I am not interested in the Perrin-Faile-Massima plot. Please end this torture. Rand's plot is boring and ends with some progress but the Shadar Logoth battle was not as good as I had hoped. There were so many good things that happened in this book, like male-female bonding.... but the book is so boring. Characters -> Rand goes in reverse. His character development has been so good so far, but this book spoils it. Nynaeve and Mat was probably the best part. There are so many things the characters just don't talk about, and it looks like it's just to save the melodrama for future books. This is getting annoying. What a cringe moment for Mat, feeling sad to leave the woman who has been raping him! I hope they acknowledge this at some point as Stockholm Syndrome. Cadsuane as a main character is a hard pill to swallow. Dollar-store Moiraine here is another terrible angry and violent female character in this book series. At this point, the sheer number of badly written female characters are outnumbering the good ones...Plot -> Oh god.. please this was so bad. And why did they resurrect Lanfear! I liked her as a villain and now she is a joke. I fucking hate the Perrin plot, just die!!!! The cleansing was a huge step and I wanted this to happen so I am a bit happy it is over, but I did not like how this was executed. Oh god, that moment when Elayne was like please fuck me too.... so cringe. Prose -> On the border of bad. I had to search the book for a single line that sounds quotable. Nothing really stood out to me. The persistent problems of WoT prose are all hitting their highs in this book (so far as I have readWorldbuilding -> Least impressive of WoT so far. So much of this book was melodrama. There is some good Sea Folk, Seanchan and Far Madding world building. I hate the Sea Folk, Seriously the most annoying set of characters I have read.

This series just keeps getting better and better!

I don't know what else I can say in a review without giving away spoilers, or that I haven't already said in previous reviews. If you've made it this far into this huge series, a review from some random stranger isn't going to change your mind about whether to continue or not.

I will say, bordering on a spoiler, that the last chapter is crazy intense...and I don't think I hate Cadsuane nearly as much as I once did. ;-P