The Fires of Heaven (The Wheel of Time, #5) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Mar 12, 2009 Bryce rated it really liked it · review of another edition

So this is the first one of my reviews that I've downgraded. I originally rated Fires of Heaven five stars, based on memory alone. Now it's four, and if it weren't for an awesome finale, it would have been lucky to have three. What did I think about it? I think the book took a tremendous turn from the epic fantasy roots of the first three in the series--a turn that started in book four, but which didn't really become apparent until this novel. Jordan went from writing an excellent save the world So this is the first one of my reviews that I've downgraded. I originally rated Fires of Heaven five stars, based on memory alone. Now it's four, and if it weren't for an awesome finale, it would have been lucky to have three. What did I think about it? I think the book took a tremendous turn from the epic fantasy roots of the first three in the series--a turn that started in book four, but which didn't really become apparent until this novel. Jordan went from writing an excellent save the world fantasy to writing an explore the world and its characters while you save it fantasy. And I'm not really a big fan of some of the exploration scenes--at least not now.

Perhaps if I were reading this for the first time again, it would be different, but as it was, I was really bored by the the endless circus and Prophet scenes with Nynaeve and Elayne. They worked at first--especially with Birgitte coming into play--but then about halfway through, they turned into much more of a "get Nynaeve and Elayne to Salidar--slowly" vehicle. Nynaeve can't remember the name of the town? And she's too scared to go back to the Dream World to search for it more? That just got to be too contrived for me, an excuse to explore a town on the verge of rioting. Add to that the endless harping of the three women in that section . . . I sighed every time they popped up, which was often.

And which is too bad, because the Rand stuff is great. The fight for Cairhien, Moiraine vs. Lanfear, the climactic battle vs. Rahvin--all very cool, very well done, exciting stuff. Some of the best action of the series. And Mat starts to really come into his own at last.

Still, as much as I enjoyed those pieces of the book (they were enough to get the entirety a whole extra star in my rating), I'm getting my first sniff of Trouble Ahead. No Perrin at all for the entire novel? Okay, I can understand that more or less. Not much was happening with him. But I think where the frustrations of fans came into play lie in the fact that Jordan started one type of series, and the series morphed into another beast along the way. The pieces of the original series (the action/epic fantasy series) are still there, but they've had a slew of character studies, scene descriptions and world building spliced into them, which is cool if that's what you're going for--but it isn't what the series originally promised.

We'll see what the later books hold in store for me. Maybe I'm needlessly worried. I hope so. Stay tuned to find out. ...more

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Mar 15, 2009 Emily Diehl rated it liked it · review of another edition

Working away from Perrin's point of view from the Fourth book, this one flows nicely.
Yes there are parts I was bored at, yes I wanted to throw the book. However, I kept reading it because the series is getting much better!

wow, even though nothing really happened in the first few books, I was surprised at how much sadness I experienced when a character was dismissed. Maybe I am more attached to the books than I thought. I didnt even like the character.

Kind of sad when Rand is revealed to a lette ...more

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Jul 12, 2018 Keith rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-books, fantasy

My review for each book and for the entire series can be read here: My WoT series review

This book is pretty standard for the series so I spent about half the book being really into and half the book incredibly annoyed and pissed off. Basically, if the POV was Rand or Mat: great. If it was any of the women: shoot me. Robert Jordan has a serious problem writing women. He apparently doesn't know how to write a female character that isn't a terrible person because I don't believe he would intentiona My review for each book and for the entire series can be read here: My WoT series review

This book is pretty standard for the series so I spent about half the book being really into and half the book incredibly annoyed and pissed off. Basically, if the POV was Rand or Mat: great. If it was any of the women: shoot me. Robert Jordan has a serious problem writing women. He apparently doesn't know how to write a female character that isn't a terrible person because I don't believe he would intentionally create so many characters that I would imagine you are supposed to like and root for. Since the women are so terrible, it makes it completely unrealistic that any of these guys would be willing to put up with their crap. I'm pretty invested in this series though so I'm still giving it 4 stars.

Almost all of my complaints are from the female POV portions:
(view spoiler)[ Egwene has hit Rand with the power multiple times with very little provocation.
Am I supposed to not hate her? I was rooting that he would casually beat her and teach her a lesson.

Elayne is flirting with Tom? REALLY? Is Jordan determined to make me hate the only female character I've been rooting for? Good God. Rand isn't there so she is going to take up with a guy old enough to be her grandpa? Geez, way to ruin the one female that was worth anything.

What the heck is Jordan's obsession with breasts? Everything has to be described in terms of the proximity to breasts. I felt like everything was constantly being described like, "She put on the necklace and it hung...between her breasts." Once is fine, but he will describe how something like a necklace, which is constantly being described, hangs between her breasts.

Nynaeve seriously falls for the spiked tea? Further proof she is the stupidest character ever written. Naturally, she immediately yells at Tom when he saves them. For what? For saving them.

They've also been going around telling everyone they meet about the Black Ajah. Way to keep a secret girls.

They visit the Stone of Tear over and over again in the dream world. You would think describing it once would be enough. You would be wrong. Describing it in almost identical fashion each time is way better.

Everyone is such an idiot. Nobody could recognize that Moraine was acting funny? I bet every reader knew Moraine knew something was going to happen to her about 150 pages before it did. She is literally giving Rand a letter for when she is gone and he's just like, "Boy, that's weird. Oh well, I'll not try to figure that out."

The whole “I can’t hurt a woman thing” is so stupid. She is one of the 9 most evil people in the world. She is actively murdering people all around her and he is like, “nothing I can do.” Even when she murders other women. So dumb. Tired of this.

I’m starting to get tired of the variable nature of Rand’s powers. It is just lazy at this point that he can go from being incredibly powerful to completely ignorant of what he can do and then back again depending on the needs of the plot. I get that Jordan doesn’t want him to be immediately super powerful, but he also wants him to have high stakes battles with Forsaken, so he is kind of stuck. I accept him randomly and suddenly knowing how to do certain things because that fits the story. Him selectively forgetting about certain abilities, like travelling into the dream world, is lazy.

I realized about halfway through this book that there hasn't been a single death of anyone important (The Forsaken are somewhat important, but the ones who have died were never really established characters, they just kind of showed up in a scene or two and were killed).
(hide spoiler)]

That being said, we have finally gotten to some battles and action. As much as I complain about 70% of the series, I've enjoyed the other 30% for it to be worth it. ...more

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