This was so damn rough. WinterÂ’s Heart is easily the weakest book in The Wheel of Time so far.

“A man who trusts everyone is a fool and a man who trusts no one is a fool. We are all fools if we live long enough.”

Before reading this book, having read two of the four supposedly slog books in The Wheel of Time, I initially thought I was prepared for WinterÂ’s Heart. I thought I was ready to bring myself through the dreadful slog. I was not. This was a pain to go through. Not only it's the worst book of the series so far, but I also think it is one of the most overrated novels IÂ’ve ever read. Even having expressed relatively few significant events were happening in A Crown of Swords and The Path of Daggers is not sufficient to encapsulate how useless this book was. Sure, Mat appeared again after being out of the spotlight in The Path of Dagger, and Tuon marked an entry of a probably important character. But these and the magnificent final chapter aside, WinterÂ’s Heart is an overwritten book. No. Seriously. If you read the official blurb, plus the prologue and final few chapters of WinterÂ’s Heart, you have basically read the most important scenes of the entire book. For the rest, you can read detailed chapter-by-chapter summaries online, and I donÂ’t think you will miss out on anything noteworthy. Doing this might ensure you WinterÂ’s Heart more than reading the entire book.

“You can never know everything, and part of what you know is always wrong. Perhaps even the most important part. A portion of wisdom lies in knowing that. A portion of courage lies in going on anyway.”

I have mentioned it many times now. I am not a fan of Perrin, Faile, and Elayne. And to have the first half of Winter’s Heart dominated by the three of them as the key POV characters already soured my reading experience quickly. So much. As I said repeatedly before. I don’t get the appeal with Perrin. Some have told me I would get to him more after reaching The Gathering Storm or Towers of Midnight. Let’s say that’s true, it is still insane. Towers of Midnight is the thirteenth book in the series. It shouldn’t take that long for a reader to a character. Looking back, one of my most unpopular opinions on the series is how disappointed I was with The Shadow Rising, and one of the main reasons is exactly because of Perrin. I don't find him intriguing as a character. And his toxic relationship and obsession with Faile made everything about him worse. As for Elayne? Nothing. There is nothing about this character that fascinated me. At all. Usually, Rand al’Thor’s chapters are the saving grace of The Wheel of Time for me. Rand and Mat. They are my favorite characters in the series. In this book, Rand's Far Madding's chapters and the last chapter aside, he barely had prominent chapters. And frankly speaking, chapter 12 of Winter’s Heart drove me mad. As a man, I admit I can sometimes be oblivious to what readers deem a male wish-fulfillment scene. I could even tolerate Kvothe in The Wise Man’s Fear. I did NOT it, but I could tolerate reading it. However, in chapter 12 of Winter’s Heart, where Rand suddenly admits his infatuations and receives a confirmation of acceptance from three ladies—you know who if you have read it—to share him, marry him, and also feel every time any one of them made love with Rand is male wish fulfillment at its peak. I cringed. It felt I had taken a peek at Jordan’s bedroom fantasy, and I wish I could unread that chapter. He even said in an interview somewhere (I could be wrong) that Rand's four-way relationship is inspired by his real-life experience where two women shared him as a boyfriend. Yeah, I don’t know what to say to that. I can, however, say Nynaeve’s dumbfounded reaction to the scene is exactly my reaction, too.

“Your body is only clothing. Your flesh will wither, but you are your heart and mind, and they do not change except to grow stronger.”

When people told me I would be utterly disappointed with The Path of Daggers, I was pleased to experience that the second half of The Path of Daggers was surprisingly incredible in many sections for me. Even when the book didn't feature Mat as one of the main characters, RandÂ’s storyline in The Path of Daggers was badass. I was mistaken to think I would experience another fluke that in WinterÂ’s Heart. After Perrin and FaileÂ’s POV chapters, the second half is focused on Mat, Rand, Elayne, and sometimes Cadsuane. But Winter's Heart missed the same occurrence of The Path of Daggers, where the second half successfully won me over. Despite Mat returning to the narrative, and I certainly enjoyed reading his chapters more than the Perrin, Faile, or Elayne, it was still not enough to save the book for me. His re-entry into the series after the cliffhanger ending in A Crown of Swords felt too casual and lacked impact. This made the ending of A Crown of Swords diminished in quality. And even though I am writing this a few days after I finished reading the book, the only crucial event I remember from MatÂ’s chapters is his encounter with Tuon, who I assume will be more integral to the series later.

“Great captains earned their reputation not just for laying brilliant plans, but for still being able to find victory after those plans began to fall apart.”

So what was great about WinterÂ’s Heart? Two things. The first one would be, shockingly, Nynaeve. In the first six books of the series, I am not a stranger to voicing how much NynaeveÂ’s thick-headed personality pissed me off. SurprisinglyÂ… Nynaeve is starting to develop into a more likable character. Nynaeve demonstrates in the narrative that she (together with Min) is most ly the only woman who doesnÂ’t have a hidden agenda toward Rand. I donÂ’t know. I could be making assumptions based on how awful the other women in the series are toward Rand. And Nynaeve proved this in the other redeeming part of WinterÂ’s Heart: the last chapter. If you have read the series up to Winter's Heart, or even just a few books in the series, you would know that despite how underwhelming the reading experience gets, Jordan does tend to deliver a good final chapter. The Great Hunt, The Fires of Heaven, Lord of Chaos, even The Path of Daggers, and Winter's Heart is not an exception to this. That last chapter with the Choedan Kal is easily one of the strongest climax sequences of the entire series. It was so epic, and it made me wish we had more of that level of scene rather than the pointless verbosity the rest of the book has.

Picture: WinterÂ’s Heart by Scott M. Fischer



I cannot wait to read the aftermath of the last chapter in the later books. The brilliance of that chapter is the only reason why Winter's Heart did not receive a 1-star rating from me. That said, I will make sure my expectations are in check. Despite the terrific final chapter, Winter's Heart is undoubtedly my least favorite installment in the series so far. And to keep hearing that Crossroads of Twilight is supposed to be worse than this genuinely terrified me. It took me 31 days to read Winter’s Heart. Similar to A Crown of Swords, it was the longest time I ever spent reading a single novel. It cannot be helped, though. Only by reading one—sometimes two—chapters per day I was able to finish reading Winter's Heart. I do not know how long Crossroads of Twilight will require me. I guess I will find out in a few months. But honestly, although I dread reading Crossroads of Twilight, the fact that I am near the end of the slog excites me. Wish me luck. The wheel weaves as the wheel wills.

“Stories have power. Gleemen's tales, and bards' epics, and rumors in the street a. They stir passions, and change the way men see the world.”

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One of the weakest Wheel of Time books, but still a great read that was highly entertaining

This book is the middle of three books that are commonly referred to as the "slog" - where not a lot happens and many readers abandon the series. And while I was totally dumbfounded at how people could have referred to the 1st book in the "slog" as anything other than wonderful, I do understand how this books gets the tag.

It is slower. But having the benefit of not needing to wait years between books, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Even though this series is absolutely massive, it does go at a relatively fast pace. So to have a book slow things down and get characters into new positions isn't majorly detrimental to this series. There are also many unresolved things that happen towards the end of this book without many loose ends being tied up. And again, while this is frustrating, it's easy to just keep on reading into the next book (and the next, and the next) to get that resolution.

I am a bit worried going into the next book however as pretty much everyone agrees it's the weakest entry in the series - but I plan to keep on reading right through it into Knife of Dreams.196 s Anna [Bran. San. Stan]334 203

After vacillating between 4 and 5 stars, I’m choosing the coward’s way out, giving it an unexpected 4.5 starts; I was prepared for “the slog” which I have yet to feel.

Spoilers below!
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Why rounding up to 5 stars? Because Mat is back. Because we finally meet the “Daughter of the Nine Moons.” Because Faile’s brief appearance did not give her the chance to annoy me (much). Because there were no Whitecloaks, who always make me unreasonably angry. Because I find the Seanchan creepy and fascinating and there were a lot of them in here. Because I love Egeanin’s character arc. Because there was blessedly little of Sevanna, who I really need to see suffer a horrible fate soon. Because no Elaida. Because there were not that many points of view from antagonists. Because all those Forsaken showing up at the finale was awesome. And, most importantly, because Rand is so delightfully proactive; he sets out to do something big and ends up achieving it – talking about promise and payoff!

Because of that, it feels his PoV is the most impactful to the plot – despite the fact that Rand‘s PoV only accounts for 13% of the book. After him misjudging the situation and arguably failing in book 8, he achieves something monumental. Meanwhile though, he means to erase any residual weakness in himself, to become ever colder – hence the title.

“He needed to drink in winter, till he made winter‘s heart seem Sunday noon."

Running counter to Rand’s mission to become a “stone” or “iron” is his little harem, which achieves new hights (level unlocked) when bonding Elayne, Min, and Aviendha, connecting him to the girls’ feelings more than ever. While I enjoy the bond trope in general and, in this case, appreciate that it ensures trust on a mystical level and prevents miscommunication to a certain degree, Min being unable to mask the bond so as not to feel him having sex with Elayne? This bond business suddenly felt very YA to me: “Love flowed through the bond a blaze of a noonday sun." I really hope that unwanted side effect will be addressed at some point! And how many offspring does Rand need??

As for our other characters, after 1024 (48+643+333) pages, Mat is back! And his PoV accounts for lost time: 21% of the entire book – which is a lot! I enjoy his narrative voice so much - even if his plans to flee Ebou Dar seemingly take forever. Elayne‘s was the most tedious viewpoint; I didn’t care so much for the politicking to make her queen. And as for my least favorite female character, Faile‘s capture finally made me feel with her, only to not hear from her after chapter 4. But then, this way she didn’t get the chance to annoy me much. (Except for the idiocy of announcing to the whole world who she is.) With so many viewpoint characters, WoT really teaches me a lesson in patience.

PS: Resurrecting Forsaken and placing them in new bodies is as unfair as the Fused returning. Perhaps more so – you can at least recognize those!

PPS: Did anyone else feel the first-sister birthing ritual was kind of creepy?

PPS: ONWARD!fantasy119 s6 comments Em Lost In Books955 2,080

Rough at times with so many characters and everyone eager to put their two bits about Al'Thor but this story has two events that I was looking forward to since book 5. Not a great addition but not bad either.2000-09 2018 3-star ...more97 s Melissa ? Dog/Wolf Lover ? Martin3,587 10.8k


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