I almost gave up after finishing the first book, but there were enough elements that intrigued me to continue into the second, and I’m sometimes a little stubborn, so I pushed on. I’m glad I persevered.
A Crown of Swords Review
While being manipulative has a negative, scheming connotation, it is an inevitable byproduct of how we interact with each other and the diverse goals we all have in those interactions.
The Dragon Waiting Review
A few, core, what-if questions form the foundation of Ford’s genre-blending The Dragon Waiting. The most important is what if Byzantium adopted a policy of religious toleration instead of Christianity? Oh, and what if there were vampires and wizards, too?
Lord of Chaos Review
Mainly, this is another book about Rand, and Jordan again manages to convey both the sense that Rand is going mad, and how each step and action he takes is reasonable and logical for itself.
The Fires of Heaven Review
The fifth book in Wheel of Time starts Rand al’Thor on a leadership arc that will take many books to resolve, as he wrestles with a question that few of us will ever have to confront, but which bedevils theories of leadership, especially in other periods of history: how much can a leader allow himself or herself to care, on the individual level, about the people around her or him?
The Shadow Rising Review
Wheel of Time, to a certain extent, works by leaning into tropes and making them more, rather than avoiding or subverting them. The advantage of a story sprawling across fourteen books is that what starts as a trope can be fully developed and made into as unique a part of the worldbuilding as the most inventive, original aspects.
The Dragon Reborn Review
It gives us immense character growth from viewpoint and side characters, massively raises the stakes and complexity of the plot, and sets the stage for the broadening war against the Dark One coming in the subsequent installments.
The Great Hunt Review
It is possible both to read The Great Hunt as a contained, quest-style fantasy, following the chase after the Horn of Valere after its theft by agents of evil, and as an installment of a vaster epic in which this quest is a kind of backdrop to the main drama of our protagonists, and especially the struggle against destiny.
New Spring Review
It is Jordan at probably the height of his powers, managing with skill and finesse a task that stumps other skilled authors.
Eye of the World Review
The Wheel of Time turns, and the ages come again – in this case, it brings at long last my reread of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.
IGC Publishing 