Reviews
THE RE-READ CONTINUES. 2015 - 2017! Again, this is just as wonderful as it was when I was 15!
dnfed at 70%, then i 'finished' the book by reading chapter summaries. i'm a patient reader, i try to look on the bright side even if i'm not fully enjoying a book but, sometimes, you just have to stop. as always, i'll be giving my honest opinion on why a crown of swords has made me give up, at least temporarily (MAYBE, one day, i'll try again), on wot. i have mentioned many times that i wanted to continue the series after the disappointment that was lord of chaos, but that was because i expected this book to be better and not worse. this book was exhausting, from pacing to writing and plot. the pace is slow, the plot barely moves, the action is nonexistent except for a few times in which the characters fight. but the action of a book shouldn't be only defined by the fight scenes so, if i don't take them into account, then there was nothing. the writing really did help to make the barely existing plot almost unbearable. 80% of this book are descriptions of places, rooms, clothes, and the background of secondary characters that, for the life of me, i wouldn't be able to tell who is who even if i had a gun pressed to my temple. the prose is dense, dull, boring. it's true jordan is able to craft very interesting mental images because of how detailed he is, but it's too much. the wheel of time is the definition of overwritten; i truly believe that 40 pages of jordan's writing could be compressed into 10 or even less, and it would tell the same in a more light way. another aspect of the infamous descriptive writing is how much space in a page is dedicated towards women's clothing and discussions from the current pov character (a man, most of the time) thinking how inappropriate or revealing it is, or how difficult it is to maintain eye contact with a woman while maintaining a conversation because Boobs. in one mat chapter, i saw 4 newly introduced women being introduced in that way. all of them. with every woman there was a reference to how deep their necklines were, how scandalous they were dressed, and how little shame they had, as well as how big their boobs were. i wished i was joking, but i've never seen an author use the words 'breasts', 'bosom', 'chest' or 'bust' as often as jordan in so little space. sometimes i wondered if i was reaching with this point, but then i asked myself "would a woman point out how big or flat the chest of each of her female characters is? would she consider it important, would she make it one of their main descriptive points?" and the answer was no. the combination of the three elements (the slow pace chosen, the no-plot, and the boring writing) makes this one the worst wot book, in my opinion. and i did dislike lord of chaos, but at least at the end the battle of dumei's wells happened and it was so great that it fooled me into believing i wasn't enjoying wot as much as i did at the beginning simply because i was burned out. no, i don't enjoy it as much because the story takes ages to move. since the eye of the world it exponentially got better until the shadow rising and the fires of heaven (books 4 and 5). i really enjoyed them, but book 6 and 7 has made me wonder if wot has already peaked quality-wise in the previous instalments. out of 41 chapters, i may have found genuinely fun and well-done a total number of 5 or 6 (probably they were rand's and min's povs). the sad thing is, i really like the overall story and i'm interested in it, but i CAN'T go through books i don't like merely hoping that, when i get to book 14, i'll be able to think "oh that was nice". i want to enjoy the journey as well, not only the destination. another big problem for me was the characters, especially women. i don't like how robert jordan represents and writes women. their personalities seem inconsistent, they're moody and mean for no reason at all. it's not only that one woman has this specific personality; i wouldn't have a problem if one character was presented like that purely because that's how they're. but this description applies to ALL the women in the story: always angry, with a frown on their faces, throwing insults around and believing themselves superior to the rest of mortals. they feel like cartoon characters written by a man who has never talked to a woman before. robert jordan shouldn't make me feel bad because i'm saying this about female characters, but it's the truth: they're infuriating and annoying. of course there are exceptions (for example: min, moiraine, birgitte) and, of course, i think likewise of some of the male characters, but it's especially remarkable in women. "The pure truth was, women all had a violent streak, not just some of them" (chapter 28). but WHY? can wot women just... be normal. i'm begging. the dynamics and, overall, the relationships between male and female characters are hollow. it seems like men and women can't be friends in wot, they can't even be respectful to each other. they always have to be fighting, trying to get the upper hand in every single conversation to indicate who is superior to whom. women have to be thinking "how foolish this man is!" and men "this woman makes no sense!". all of them are insufferable, and i can't get over one scene in which nynaeve was throwing a tantrum because she was asked to apologise to mat. for god's sake, why is this drama relevant? truly, my most recurrent question is "why can't they be normal?". even the characters presented as friends are mean to each other, questioning their intelligence and decision-making skills. instead of naturally deciding to work together, every character believes they're right, and it's like they prefer death before admitting that another person has a better plan or is right when they're not. it feels so immature. it's almost as if they all secretly despise each other and the only real, valuable love that can exist is romantic and heterosexual. where is the friendship? where are the bonds? where are the human platonic relationships? related to it, a plot point that bothered me to no end is how mat and tylin's relationship or dynamic has been conveyed with an almost comedic tone. for context: tylin is a queen, a middle-aged woman; mat is simply a young man. this woman, tylin, stalks mat (who, by the way, is the same age as her own son) and punishes him when he tries to avoid her. in the end, she ends up sexually abusing him at knifepoint and manipulating him (abusing her power and title), after various attempts at cornering him when he's alone and after mat had to sleep with his door locked with key. i don't have any problem with these issues being included in a fictional work, but the way it was written made me uncomfortable. obviously, after this event takes place, mat feels ashamed and scared. but the writing... it's an attempt at role reversal, but it plainly felt wrong, it is conveyed as if it's funny or not that serious because mat is a man and tylin an older woman. terrible. the best is, as always, rand. i really think that if the wheel of time only had rand as a pov character i would enjoy it more. would the story, the entire plot, make any sense? probably not; it is a multi-pov series for a reason and i think they all must serve a purpose in the story. would i be much happier only reading about rand? definitely. the main character doesn't have enough pages to himself, we see him less and less and i don't understand why. this was dull. again my patience is wearing thin. maybe in the future, one day, i'll want to keep going. i won't close the door for wot, but for now there are so many books for me to read that i don't want to force myself to keep going. i deserve better books, and wot deserves better readers than me, i suppose, because i can't love it as i wanted to.
Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant! So much happened and I loved it all. Robert Jordan is brilliant at keeping track of everything. I especially loved Mat's sections. They actually made me laugh out loud. Usually out of shock. The women have improved significantly here, so I am hopeful that they will grow on me. Min is still the most reasonable. I also have a few favourite lines: "... I'd say she is as pretty as you, but how can you compare two sunrises?" “In a cruel land, you either learned to laugh at cruelty or spent your life weeping."
Almost halfway through! I can't believe how much has happened already with this series. I get a little tired around the halfway mark, but then something amazing happens that keeps me intrigued until the end of the book. I will finish this series in 2022!
Really enjoyed this. This is the first wheel of time book I listened to and the narration was INCREDIBLE. I also found it a lot easier to consume. I'm halfway through!
Crown of Swords, or the tale of Elayne and Nynaeve being such ASSHOLES you’ll want to box your own ears and gouge out your own eyes so you won’t have to hear or see how many levels they’ve gone in just this installment to be among your most hated characters. Or, if one manages to ignore their godawful squabbling and self-righteousness, the tale of Mat’s threatened masculinity, Rand’s continued cluelessness, and Perrin’s uncalled for marital problems. It’s like a horrible drama I’ve become addicted to even though I wanted to stab my eyes out 90% of this book. On to the next!
THE WHEEL OF TIME 1) The Eye of the World ★★★★ 2) The Great Hunt ★★★★★ 3) The Dragon Reborn ★★★★★ 4) The Shadow Rising ★★★★★ 5) The Fires of Heaven ★★★★★ 6) Lord of Chaos ★★★★★ 7) A Crown of Swords ★★★★ -----------------------------------------------
I'm getting so tired of reading the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I've finished book 7, which is an entire book that basically nothing happens in that furthers the plot. Oh hey, there's this cool bowl that can change the weather, so we're gonna spend two whole books looking for it and then not using it when it is found, even though the drought is surely killing as many people as the Shadow is right now. Also, I know that Rand needs help, wants us to join him, all of that, but I think I'll just go over here and do this other thing instead, even though someone else could easily have done this thing. Rand can just sit and wait for me until I'm damn good and ready to return to him and do the thing he wants me to do, the thing that only I am capable of doing in the whole world. Which might be never actually, cause I won't be bossed around. Not even by the guy who's trying to save the whole world. Besides that, everyone uses balefire for everything, despite the fact that it completely erases the entirety of a person's life, including any instances of them coming into other people's lives. Though this can tear holes in the pattern that the wheel weaves, and is extremely dangerous, all the main magic users continue to use it on people like the Forsaken, who are very important threads in the pattern, with little to no bad consequences. I'm getting so mad about this. Like, seriously Rand, Eguwayen, Avienda, do you not realize that you could erase yourselves from existence? What happens if Rand no longer exists to fight the Shadow? Are you people stupid? Can I reach into the book and shake you?
** spoiler alert ** 4.5/5 Isn’t this supposed to be the start of the slog portion of this series? I didn’t feel that at all. Instead this is one of my favourite books of the series so far! I didn’t feel many too-long stagnating areas, the general flow was nice and constant. Not a full 5 because of the mysterious saviour at the end feels like a cheap move to save Rand lol. Also a weird way to end Sammael, I hope there’s more elaboration coming up. What about all the stuff he’s done to the Shaido and Savanna? Why did he go straight to Shadar Logoth? Kinda random tbh. Still enjoying Matt the most out of all the characters so far. Maybe because of his bad boy front but he really does have some sort of structure to his personality though it still is chaotic at its core. I have to say that though Aes Sedai are one of the most crucial things elements of WoT and are key in so many of the story defining lines... they are hella boring. I enjoy their whole sphere only for informational purposes, in general I dislike their posh politics and annoying arrogance. And their infighting is beyond yawn inducing. The Black Ajah is great but seems like now they’re only involved when useful to drive a plot. If this is slog, I’m looking forward to the next couple.
Listened to as I drove from Montana to North Carolina
7 book in and I am DNF the series. It's not for me.
I do not like this series and will not be continuing on. I honestly have no idea why I haven't kept going, I never loved it. Getting rid of my books. Hope the show is better.
Many Moments of Awesome! But still long. And fuck Tylin.
