Wheel of Time
By Robert Jordan
Well, it has one of the epic ending of the entire series, Dumai Wells, - a fight with multiple tribes fighting at a common scene, some for the hero, some against. Other than the ending though, Robert Jordan continues to build on this fantasy world. New systems like asha'man are introduced and built. Lot of interesting character movements especially for the three women (Nyaneve, Egwene and Elayne) who are shaping well. However, the bit of born with gifts continue on. Example Nyaneve knows how to heal stilled folks and Elayne can make duplicates of Ter'ngreal by studying them, both lost powers are now discovered. It is a bit too much and little too much. However, overall plot developments are very well done and book moves at a quick pace.
A point to note is that the book remains shallow in many aspects. For example - Egewne becomes Amrylin out of the blue. In contrast, remember how Jon Snow gets elected as the Lord Commander of the Watch in GoT. Similar scheming happens here but Jordan does not dwell much on the scheming. He shows a flashlight that such schemes occurred but refuses to go deeper into them.
Whenever he goes deeper, the book becomes richer. For example Rand's capture is nicely detailed and is a great arc to follow.
Things take a turn post Dumai Wells and shape most of the events that follow. However, we also start to see the verbosity starting to creep in. Siaun always complains about washing the smallclothes of the general. The whole Ebou Dar arc and Egwene rebel Aes Sedai is beautiful in conceptual development but it could have been done much better in prose. For example, you would expect that Egwene being so young will need help to manoever things and likely need a confidante, she gets one too in the name of Siuan but there is rarely a bond between the two. Infact both seem to taunt each other and it gets annoying.
Pacing at Ebou Dar is very slow and here too - you would assume main characters to be friendly to each other does not happen. Elayne, Nyaneve keep Mat out and sneer at him. In every good vs evil story, the hero has friends while the hero may lack in strength, it is the friendship that is the true power. In Wheel of Time, this friendship is not only taken for granted, but outside of the need, there is always tu-tu-main-main between these friends. This is a trend that goes into book 8 and 9 as well.
Finally, the bowl of winds, Ebou dar arc comes to an end. Where Jordan excels is the world building, there is a notion of similarity that gets repititive over pages - the Kin group and their hierarchy, the sea-women, Seanchen, the forsaken, all have levels, rules and an inherent notion of slavery. Jordan defines slavery in various forms, it is penance in Aes Sedai, ji'e'toh for Aiel, each society has its rules, its culture. But each society is one dimensional after a point. It is just different flavors, different renditions of the same raaga.
Overall, one thing is clear is that this is far away from the happy world of Two-rivers aka Shire. It is much bleaker world than GoT
And beyond a point it makes no sense. For example. the sea-women as part of their bargain get agreement that they will get Aes Sedai to train them but then they treat the Aes Sedai like a slave instead of a guest. An instructor who is a slave is a pattern that repeats - Rand-Asmodean, Rand-Moraine, Egwene-Siuan. In this particular instance, it does not makes sense.
Overall. things move slow in book 8. Book 8-10 are considered slog books of the series. It was evident why.
One other aspect of Jorden's writing is that he introduces many characters, what they wear, describing places as they occur in detail and it takes a lot of page. It is not important to describe the neckline of each woman's dress. However, considering everything Jordan does it well. However, the inner monologues of each character are okay-ish. Where Jordan excels is to not explain things in detail and letting audience connect. An important aspect like Ashaman going mad and then put to sleep is covered in mere two pages and if you are not paying attention, they tend to slip away fast. So, amid the verbosity of world building, such important incidents tend to get missed and I had to refer to web couple of times to understand how did that happen.
Book 9 - Winter's Heart
A very bold plot premise - Rand wants to remove taint from the Saidin. But it is never explained how this will work. Yes, there are couple of points to explain it but then more logic here could have helped. Overall, the final sequence is written from multiple povs and it is done well. However, it comes so late in the book, so definitely book is slow. Matt's chapters are much better to read but somethings like bellfounder makes no sense. Overall, a decent end.
Book 10 - Crossroads of Twilight
I skipped this book since so many had told that this is a slog. Read the chapter summaries on dragonmount.com and I kinda agree. Many arcs are not yet resolved. So, I am jumping to book 11.
Ranking of this series - 6 > 7 > 8 > 9 > 10, haha, this is linear. Looking at my first part review, my overall ranking would be - 4 > 2 > 3 > 6 > 5 > 1 > 7 > 8 > 9 > 10
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