Winter's Heart (The Wheel of Time, Book 9) (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Is Robert Jordan still doing the Light's work? Even loyal fans have to wonder. (And if you're not a fan yet, you'll have to read the previous 6,789 pages in this bestselling series to understand what all the fuss is about.)

Everyone's in agreement on the Wheel of Time's first four or five volumes: They're topnotch, where-have-you-been-all-my-life epic fantasy, the best in anybody's memory at the time since The Lord of the Rings. But a funny thing happened on the way to Tarmon Gai'don, and many of those raves have become rants or (worse) yawns. Jordan long ago proved himself a master at world-building, with fascinating characters, a positively delicious backstory, and enough plot and politics to choke a Trolloc, but that same strength has become a liability. How do you criticize what he's doing now? You want more momentum and direction in the central plot line, but it's the secondary stories that have made the world so rich. And as in the last couple of books, (A Crown of Swords and The Path of Daggers), Jordan doesn't really succeed at pursuing either adequately, leaving a lot of heavily invested readers frustrated.

Winter's Heart at least shows some improvement, but it's still not The Eye of the World. Elayne's still waiting to take the crown of Andor; the noticeably absent Egwene is still waiting to go after the White Tower; Perrin gets ready to pursue the Shaido but then disappears for the rest of the book. About the only excitement comes with the long-awaited return of Mat Cauthon and a thankfully rock 'em, sock 'em finale in which Rand finally, finally changes the balance of power in his fight against the Dark One. --Paul Hughes

From Publishers Weekly

The ninth installment in Jordan's sprawling Wheel of Time saga is as bountifully pregnant with plot threads as its predecessorsDand as bewilderingly esoteric for readers who have yet to commit its previous episodes to memory. Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, seems no nearer to fulfilling his destinyDto unite the embattled races of his domain against the Dark OneDthan he was in The Path of Daggers. The warmongering Seanchan are pouring into Ebou Dar, setting refugees in flight and complex schemes in fidgety motion. Perrin Aybara is distracted from his mission to shepherd the prophet Masema to Rand when he pursues the rebel Aiel who have kidnaped his wife, Faile. The mystical sisterhood of the Aes Sedai remain divided between Elaida, pretender to the title of the White Tower, and Egwene al'Vere, ally to Elayne, Queen of Andor. Elayne, Rand's lover, barely escapes poisoning, and Rand himself, still smarting from the unhealed wound of an assassination attempt, shapeshifts through a variety of disguises to pass unnoticed in hostile territories. Jordan can always be counted to ground his dizzying intrigues in solid chunks of cultural detail, and he here rises to the occasion, with chapters as dense as Spenserian stanzas with symbols and rituals. Not all of his subplots tie together, and fewer than usual of his vast cast of characters make a memorable impact. Nevertheless, he manipulates the disorder of his narrative to credibly convey a sense of an embattled world on the verge of self-destruction, and he entertainingly juxtaposes the courtly civility of his villains with the precarious chaos they cause. Devotees accustomed to this ongoing epic's increasing lack of focus will no doubt find it on target. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 625 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (November 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312864256
• ISBN-13: 978-0312864255
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,102 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #152,052 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 9 in The Wheel of Time Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

111 of 114 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Still sub-par for a WoT book, November 20, 2000

By A Customer

Without giving out spoilers...

The Good:

1) Jordan moves a few of the major plot lines forward. Certain events that we were expecting finally occur along with the revealing of several identities.

2) He returns Mat to the story and provides him with some good chapters.

3) The juvenile romances (among every single couple) are mostly absent.

* It frustrates me not to have more positive things to say about a WoT book.

The Bad:

1) Still overly emphasizes on EVERY female character continuing to either tug at their braids, smooth their skirts, adjust their shawls, blushing, etc.

2) After the last book's cliffhanger of Egwene and her contingent of Aes Sedai approaching the White Tower, Jordan decides to completely skip over that subplot (in the same way that he left Mat out of "Path of Daggers").

3) The prologue is over 70 pgs long. Most of it contains worthless story filler without much happening. The 6 chapters following the prologue mostly involve Perrin and Faile in rotations. They are likewise dull and uneventful.

4) Way too many minor characters with similar names. Keeping track of them all seriously requires an index. As someone pointed out to me in a slight exaggeration... "you need to distinguish Daigian from that other character Dagin, without confusing him from Degian or that scum Dagean." Really hated looking back into the last 8 books to check.

5) Excessive details given to minor characters and scenary. A lot of talking, but a lack of meaningful conversations. What suffers from this is the progression of the story.

The Ugly:

1) Not by any means a large book (625 pgs) considering the large font that Jordan chose to have each page printed in.

2) Waited 2 years for this, book 9 of the WoT, only to learn that Jordan still hasn't recaptured his writing technique from the first 5 books of the series. Although improved from the last 2 books, Winter's Heart continues to show that Jordan is losing control of how to get to the end of this once epic story.

3) Jordan has announced (verbatim) at a recent book signing in San Diego that he "can not complete his vision of the story in fewer than 3 more books." Given that he takes 2 years to write each one... we'll have seen Star Wars Episode 2 & 3 by that time.

Final Thoughts:

I've faithfully been following RJ's acclaimed series and have been a fan since book 1. The first 3 books of the WoT series are his best. RJ has created a rich fantasy world with some great characters and background history, but for all that potential... the writer must keep his audience encaptivated and loyal. After enduring the declining quality of his story writing, it scares me to realize that I'm losing my emotional attachment to the story and its characters. It's no longer a series that I can confidently recommend to my friends and colleagues, knowing that a new reader will find the WoT deteoriate as an engrossing story as they surpass book 5. Why are many once loyal fans of the WoT starting to have serious doubts, some of them leaving the series behind only to pick up another fantasy author's work? It's really a rhetorical question. Some die-hard fans will continue to exalt RJ's work without unbiased eyes. 2 years later, I'll continue to read his work simply for the sake of intellectual curiosity to the story. Meanwhile, I search for other authors who've been "overshadowed" by Jordan's fame (slowly turning to infamy) and publicity, but who've been given genuine praise for their writing in the fantasy genre.

64 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but only in comparison to the last two in the series, November 17, 2000

By	M. Alexis (Odenton, MD) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Be warned that this review contains some minor spoilers. Let's be honest - if you have read the Wheel of Time to this point, you'll read it to the end no matter how bad the future installments are. Unfortunately, Robert Jordan realizes this too. Everything in this book and the last two could have been condensed into one, excellent book of the same quality as "The Shadow Rising" or "The Fires of Heaven". But why charge readers for one book, when you can charge them for three?

Jordan's biggest problem, in the words of a good friend of mine, is that he loves keeping secrets for the sake of keeping secrets. For example - in Book 3, a gray man showed up dead in the White Tower. Now, in Book 9 (8 or so years later) we find out that Isam killed that gray man. I only remembered this because I decided to re-read the series for the first time before this one came out. Why keep this a secret? Isam kills two unidentified poeple in this book - I'm sure we'll find out who they were in another 8 years. Every other chapter of Winter's Heart seems to involve either: a) The resolution of some irrelevant plot point left in limbo for years or b) The introduction of a new and equally irrelevant plot point.

Jordan's ability to develop his characters has also apparently whithered. He used to stir and inspire us - for example, Ingtar's redemption in Book 2. Now, his characters almost seem fungible. Why should I care if one sniffing, vomit prone Aes Sedai dies? There are apparently hundreds more just like her ready to take her place. I cared more about what happened to a single minor character in the first few books than I do now about most of the major players in the series.

For that matter, the writing itself is a bit stilted and utterly fails to inspire or energize the reader. Not to give away too much, but there is a battle at the end of the book that involves most of the living Forsaken. Talk about anti-climaxes. For example, Demandred attacks, encounters minor opposition, and just leaves. The battles at Falme and Dumai Wells kept us at the edge of our seat; this one puts us right to bed.

Half-hearted writing about half-hearted characters just doesn't work. Considering what happens at the end of this book, you'd expect some sort of big to-do. Instead, the book just ends. Jordan missed a wonderful opportunity here. A five or six page pro-logue about "after-effects" could have redeemed this entire book.

With that said, I should emphasize that I only criticize this book because it was written by an author of Robert Jordan's caliber. If this were from some minor author, I would be raving about it and recommending it to my friends. But we all know Jordan can do better.

I should also say that, in my experience, there are few people as unforgiving as fantasy and sci-fi fans when it comes to their favorites. Everyone has a bad day, and I think, if we really are fans, we owe it to authors to give them a break and not act like hysterical children when they turn out a sub-par work. Problem is, this is Jordan's 3rd (arguably 4th) sub-par work in a row. I'm starting to think that the quality of this series doesn't have as much to do with Jordan having an "off" day as it does with him holding his readers in contempt. The "five dollars for the pro-logue" fiasco certainly doesn't help Jordan's case.

76 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Its not too late to save this series..., November 30, 2000

By	Flynn (Phoenix) - See all my reviews

I, too, have been a reader and rereader of this series since it began a generation ago. This latest book was, AGAIN, disappointing. Jordan and Tor should be concerned, too many people are giving this series up for dead.

Can you remember what those first books were like? Fleeing at breakneck speed from Shadowspawn? The fear? The wonder at this brilliant world, the histories, the cultures, the laws of nature and magic? The amazing women and men? The innocence of the good and the black heart of the evil? Those books made your heart pump! And the characters - just as that first original cover review stated so long ago - seem like old friends.

What happened?

Slow, gradual, decent into mediocrity.

The last several books have been, as many other reviewers have written, fluff. Filler. Spotted with great scenes, but generally shallow and getting shallower. We want to get into it! But at every turn Jordan forces a sigh of agony or a roll of eyes from his readers, by repeating the same descriptive passages, or repeating the same bickering between characters, or repeating the same tired thought threads (Faile...likes to be shouted at...?). Aarrgg! Same thing again! We know already!!

Put some focus into it. Rand and his tragic love square(trapezoid?)? Soap opera? Didn't have to be. Mat as Queens plaything? Overly obnoxious? Didn't have to be. Focus, follow the arc, and move on. Our characters becoming less and less important and powerful? Fine, just tie it together and move forward. New characters, new background, new threads? Fine, but remember the story. Remember why we all came to the table in the first place. Tell the story! Put your back into it man!

Its not too late for this series. Just give us something to cheer for! Cut out the filler, the petty, the repetitous. Give us intrigue! Give us glory! Give us a 300 page battle for Tar Valon! Give us love! Give us Moraine back from the Aelfinn to save the day as the Blight spills shadow over the lands! Give us peril! Aei Sedai at the gates of The Dark Ones prison! Adventure! Passion! Mystery! SOMETHING!!

50 pages at the end of 600 is not putting your back into it.

He needs to stand up to his publisher and swallow his ego. Jordan began as the best voice in fantasy we had seen in ages, but like so many greats before him, has been broken under the weight and fame of this series.

But its not too late...just one powerful book is all we need. It'll feel good to write it. He'll see how satisfying it is. And his numbers will stop dropping off so sharply. Reading bad reviews from the industry as well as fans has got to get old.