Guess What?

I decided maybe I'd treat this one as a real book instead of posting Mariah Carey lyrics. Fires of Heaven is the fifth book in the WoT series, and I feel like this is a good one to pick the reviews back up on because pretty much all the groundwork for what is to come in the next (at least) 6 books has been laid, and it also is here (and this is apparent on the third read more than the first, certainly) that while totally engrossing and engaging and great for what it is, Robert Jordan just struggles as a writer sometimes.

Its hard to talk plot w.o giving anything away, and though I don't expect anyone who posts or reads this will ever pick these books up, it still doesn't seem fair to give anything away just in case, say, you are one day snowed in in a log cabin in Wisconsin for two weeks with nothing but a flashlight and the Complete Works of Robert Jordan (I assume you would try to tackle WoT before his Conan: The Barbarian novels, but maybe thats just me). But plot aside, this is the book where the narrative starts to stretche a bit too far...the book clocks in at a heft 960+ pages, and yet not one chapter is devoted to one of the three (ostensibly) main characters. Devoted chapters are important, as Jordan will tell chapters from various characters PoV, and advance their part of the story as such. By this time the major characters are spread out all over the made-up globe, and he devotes more than a few chapters to minor characters as well. Going 962 pages without one chapter about Perrin or Edmond's Field is too much. Jordan also begins to display what I can only describe as a rather misogynistic streak, as every chapter devoted to Nynaeve is filled with her falsely blaming men for things, being incredibly un-self aware, and more shrewish behavior. And this is from a character we're supposed to respect and like, even though Jordan doesn't seem to like her very much himself. Also, its a fantasy novel.