The Fires of Heaven: 5/12 (Wheel of Time)

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Couladin is killed in single combat by Mat, while Rand is attacked from afar by either Rahvin or Sammael during the course of the battle. This is the book where we get a much stronger bleed through of Lews Therin into Rand’s head and we get Rand talking to / arguing with his past life.

Rand’s ta’veren nature exerts itself as an inordinate number of Maidens lay down their spears to make marriage wreaths. What hope can he have against four of the most powerful, most talented channelers to have ever lived?

One of my favourite of the series, this is where the focus comes more and more upon the allied forces of Rand and how they are not allied at all, The Aes Sedai have split and the Aiel are also, Rand comes back from. If you don’t know, even vaguely, what the characters are heading towards and reaching for, it just makes the book feel like a little ramble through the world with the odd attack from faceless monsters here and there. Into the Amyrlin's study in the White Tower, where the Amyrlin, Flaida do Avriny a'Roihan, is weaving new plans. I think working out why these books seem meandering and slow without much progress will help going forwards because I can quantify why, rather than it simply being a bad feeling.

There's certainly an argument to be made that Jordan repeats certain concepts and attitudes because he finds them important and doesn't want readers to forget them. Sometimes the disparity between the sexes is humorous but other times it gets in the way of the story and unnecessarily lengthens a scene. Nynaeve enters Tel’aran’rhiod, where Birgitte takes her to watch Moghedien spy on the other Forsaken.Moiraine crawls out from under the wagon to see Rand suffering and Lanfear in the wagon with the Twisted redstone doorframe behind her. Spoiler alert: men and women (mostly Nynaeve) still hate each other and it's really frustrating to have to read over and over again about how women (mostly Nyaneve) think men are idiots who are only good for their looks or how a man thinks women are so confusing. Am thoroughly enjoying reliving the adventures of Rand, Egwene, Nyneve, Matt, Perrin, Elayne and many others. When complete, [The Wheel of Time] sequence will almost certainly constitute one of the major epic narratives of modern fantasy. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

As I said before, there are some genuinely great parts — the final battle of the book, the apparent sacrifice of Moiraine, the divided White Tower arc that continued from the previous book, Nyaneve's rivalry with Moghedien. Also, Egwene is becoming a stronger character, as is evident by her shifting the balance of power between her and Nynaeve in Tel'aran'rhiod, planting the seeds for her future employment. Egwene joins the Wise Ones and Moiraine in the sweat tent; Moiraine attempts to convince the Wise Ones that crossing the Dragonwall with Rand would be disastrous. It’s hard for me to argue that Jordan's repetition is artful because it starts to contradict his characterization. The repetition of Jordan's writing is annoying, but it ideally would be drowned out by the larger narrative.When complete, the sequence will almost certainly constitute one of the major epic narratives of modern fantasy.