The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan

The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Ah, and this was the famous slow-down in Jordan's great Wheel of Time series. As the characters spread out and become involved in their own plots the story starts to drag some, and it is harder to pull it all together. I noticed this the first time around (years ago) when I read these, and so I was ready for it this time, and my plan worked.

I enjoyed this book, and kept up with all of the detail by simply reading it quickly. Luckily I had an overseas business trip to go on, so after a whole day in airports and on planes and then a solid week of alone time to read in the evenings, and I nailed this near-1000-page monster in less than a week. I am convinced that is the only way to do it. In fact I sprinted through this book, and the next, and now am taking a little breather before book 7, but appreciated the story the whole time.

Even though I was entertained I can't justify more than 3 stars for this installment. 900+ pages is hard to justify. Some of the subplots could have been shallower without taking away from their value to the larger plot, or taking too much away from the character development. (I should mention that the massive character development that Jordan takes on here is not lost on me, it just gets lost in the quagmire of all of the various threads he is trying to pull together.)

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