This book is a very good book in from (Robert Jordan). It is a fun book for the first word to the last word. If you like this kind of sciences fiction/ fantasy books, then I will recommend that you will want to read this collection of books.

The first six chapters of Winter's Heart follow Perrin and Faile after Faile is abducted by the Shaido Aiel. The next several chapters follow Elayne as she returns to Caemlyn and prepares to make a bid for her mother's crown. These two storylines are incredibly dull and I confess that I skimmed over a lot of it and read the excellent cross-referenced chapter summaries at Encyclopaedia WOT. I read Winter's Heart years ago and I just did not feel like once again sitting in on Elayne's steward's descriptions of the rats in the Caemlyn sewers or Perrin's angst about Faile (good riddance, I say!).

Mat's story, as usual, was entertaining, and we finally get to meet the Daughter of the Nine Moons (who turns out to be not nearly as exotic as her name suggests). Rand's storyline was side-tracked by his quest to hunt down the rogue Asha'man, so he doesn't really accomplish anything new until the very last chapter (as usual).

There is the usual plodding pace, annoying references to women's clothing, and frighteningly frequent mentions of spanking. The only thing going for this series at this point is that it is truly epic in scope and I still want to know how it will end. I just hope I can hang in there a little bit longer.

this is a great book from a series. they are hard to find in hard cover. Even their own web site sells them for more than double Amazons prices.

Firstly let me get it straight why I gave it a 2 star review. To me the only books deserving of 5 star are Harry Potter. That puts everything else on the 4.5 star scale. As for WOT only the first and third deserve 4.5 stars with GH and FOH deserving 4. SR deserves 3 and CoS and PoD deserve 1.5 while LoC gets 1. Now onto the review.

Alright winters heart was easily the best book since fires of Heavan. I say that for a couple reasons.

1. Welcome back Matrim Cauthon. He is the only character who hasnt been changed into an annoyance from Eye of the World. Him missing hurt PoD a lot.

2. Rand sets out on a clear path to do two things. Cleanse saidin and kill the Ashaman who killed him. Usually what he does has no real plan to it that the reader can see but you can in this one.

3. Finally Nynyeve and Elayne do not take up half the book with their bickering, complainging, and men hating. Instead Elayne actually has a good storyline in trying to claim the lion thrown.

However it was hurt by two things.
1. Starting with 5 chapters on Perrin and then not mentioning what happens with his rescue attempt.

2. Not enough about Egwene and the Salidar Aes Sedai. Thats one of the intersting story lines.

Overall I have found that Robert Jordan has a problem with his writing. It is, he keeps adding ingredients but not cooking what he already has added. Since book 6 it has become clearer that he has just added too much for the final dish to be as good as the the sum of its ingredients. For examole

Explain furthor all the different forsaken's plots and relations.

What is Slayer exactly? how did he become. Luke/Isam combo has been mentioned several times and never fully revearled.

Mazam Tains own intentions. Give Taim a few ch from his perspective so we can get what hes brewing.

What happened to Asmodean

What happened to Moraine.

Galad hasnt been talked about despite being rands half brother and the fact he was rising up in the ranks of whitecloacks. Speaking of whitecloasks what are they doing?

What are the borderland countries plotting? Are they against Rand, with Rand, or impartial.

Have a couple of Mins vieiwings be exllained.

When is Egewene going to reach her full potential as a dreamer?

All of these things he throws in there to sweeten particular scenes but then never has them pan out into anything. There is no way he will be able to pan them all out in the final three books.

Case Closed

Sadly, the pedantic prose of Book 8 creeps into this book frequently and early on in Winter's Heart. It takes quite some time for anything of consequence to take place. The return of Mat's plotline definitely helps, but the Faile/Perrin chapters are stuck in the mud and a waste of pages. It's not until the final scene (which is foreshadowed at the beginning) do we get a return to Jordan's great writing in the first four books of the series. The shifting viewpoints from all of the main players in that scene really build up the suspense and deliver an ending that put the series back after seriously slipping in Book 8.