The Wheel of Time series represents, for me, the perfect example of a guilty pleasure in the world of fantasy.This series is not actually written very well. Robert Jordan was not a very good wordsmith, and he really only knew how to say and describe things one way. His characters are generally unbelievable, and have ridiculous dialogue. The plot is tremendously predictable, and is heavily influenced (close to the point of being unoriginal) by the fantasy works that came before. The whole story is much, much longer than it needs to be and obviously became bigger than Jordan could handle.That being said... I still enjoy these books. I can't rationally explain it, and I've re-read most of them at least a couple times. I shouldn't be so attached to them, yet I'm chained by my own embarrassed desire to periodically dive into the wheel of time. The only explanation I can think of, is that Jordan was a wizard. Not a skillful, subtle, thoughtful wizard; a sneaky, dark, and soul-sucking wizard who has enchanted me by his mediocre writing.Many people despise and look down their nose at these books, and I totally understand that. Many people also love and adore these books, and will forever place The Wheel of Time series upon their list of all-time favorite books. I can understand that impulse too.I realize this review is lacking in helpfulness, but the important thing to take away is this: try these books out. If you hate them, then fine. At least you'll have given them a chance. If you Love them, then great! Good for you, and you have a long, LONG, journey ahead of you filled with something you love. Either way, you'll have exposed yourself to one of the most famous fantasy series of all time.

I'm Rand Al'Thor and I'm in love with three different women. In a good story, I would have to make a hard choice, lose two women I loved and possibly gain one devoted lover/wife/confidant. In a move straight out of Love Hina, I refuse to make a decision and am rewarded by not one, but all three beautiful yet exotically different women desperate to bear my children.The only instance I can think of where more than one woman is nice for any length of time to a man in the entire WoT series occurs in this book.A good plot thread would have been if Rand had made no decision and then been punished by all three women saying "the hell with this." Way more believable, and also more consistent considering that all the women in this series are horrible man-hating serpents.

This was another Wheel of Time instalment that passed with very little advancement in the majority of the ongoing story arcs. Despite that I still thoroughly enjoyed this 9th book in the series. I think I'm just so sucked into the story by this point that I'm happy and entertained by the happenings even when the characters are doing little more than chit chatting with each other. Spoilers ahoy! So what did actually happen for our favourite characters I hear you ask? Rand: He actually had a productive book and hogged most of the actual plot advancements. He spent most of the book sightseeing and holidaying in places like Camelyn and Far Madding before showing us what it really meant to be the Dragon Reborn in an epic scene at the end of the book. The guy also had time for real developments in his personal relationship with his harem of women. Perrin: Someone told him Faile had been abducted. That is it. Presumably he is still thinking of a way to rescue her. Maybe he will get to that in the next book. Mat: He spent the book in Ebou Dar thinking about how to escape the place. He might even manage it in the next instalment. Despite that lack of progress his chapters were probably the most entertaining of the whole book. I loved most of his interactions with his wife-to-be. Egwene: If she appeared in this one that appearance was so brief I've forgotten it. Nynaeve: She was mostly a secondary character in Rand's tale but I did think she continued to improve as a character and she got involved in a bit of the action towards the end. Rand's Harem: Aviendha and Min have been reduced to the role of love interests for Rand. Elayne had a bit more to do as she finally remembered that she was supposed to be running Andor. Elayne finally got separated from Nynaeve in this book but responded by firmly latching onto Aviendha. The good news for Rand is that the women have worked out a rota for his time. Min warms his bed when he is on the go and Elayne does when he visits Camelyn. The list still needs a bit of tweaking as they forgot to find time for Aviendha but all was not lost for her as Elayne devised an ingenious way for the whole group to share those fun bedtimes. Random Secondary Characters: We got quite a few new POV's from minor characters in this instalment and while none of those characters really stood out I felt like their POV segments still added to the story. All in all I enjoyed Winter's Heart and since it finished with a bang I'm quite eager to press on with the next Wheel of Time book!Rating: 4.5 stars.Audio Note: Krammer and Reading were as fantastic as ever.

Knjiga realno za tri zvezdice. Elem posto je deo serijala te moram gledati siru sliku dao sam joj cetiri. Da ne bih spojlovao ostacu samo na oceni. To jest dodacu i to da Ovaj serijal treba da je upola kraci. Dzordan je voleo da pise i svaka mu cast na tome, to je zaista fino ali nekada je manje vise :)

I'm really starting to run out of things to say about the Wheel of Time series. To be honest there are so many things about these books that irritate me that it's a miracle I'm still reading them but here I am nine books in and not only still reading but also thoroughly enjoying myself in spite of the issues I have. I think I've just invested so much time and effort into reading this massive series that I'm determined to stick it out to the bitter end and I just have to know how things turn out for all of the characters.A big highlight of this book for me was Mat's reappearance, especially since Tylin wasn't around much (if you've read my previous reviews you'll already know exactly how much I HATE her!). I'm very curious to see where his storyline is going, especially now he's found his Daughter of the Nine Moons and she definitely wasn't who I was expecting! I love Perrin but I'm a little fed up with his complete inability to see what is going on around him, I know he was just a lowly blacksmith but surely he can't be stupid enough to not see through Berelain's actions? She's almost as high up on my characters I hate list as Tylin at this point and I'm sick to death of reading about manipulative women in this series. I'm not even going to get started on the Aes Sedai and now the Sea Folk, it seems to me that women who access the power all turn into crazed megalomaniacs who would swear the sky is green and the grass is blue just to get one up on each other. The power makes men insane but the women aren't much better really, they just think they are. At least we're starting to see glimpses of the old Nynaeve though, I've really missed her so it's about time she found her brain again.I'm also glad Rand and his little harem have finally started to sort things out, mainly because I'm hoping that means the characters will stop moping around now and we can actually move on with the storyline. I have to admit that their weird four person relationship is one of the most awkward things I've ever had to read about, it makes absolutely no sense to me that all the women are the instigators and I just find the interactions between them all really uncomfortable to read about so I'm glad they're now off in different directions again and hope they stay parted for many more books to come.There isn't a lot of action in this book, it's like the beginning of a game of chess where a lot of time is being spent getting all of the characters into the right positions so that they can hopefully all go into battle at the same time later on. I'm at the point where I'm struggling to keep all the side characters straight in my head and half the time I'm having to backtrack to try and figure out which side this current group of Aes Sedai are on and whether I'm supposed to trust them or not. There are just too many characters with similar names that only have minor roles and just crop up for a few pages here and there for me to remember them all but for some reason it just doesn't matter. Picking up one of these books is like meeting up with old friends and they always leave me wanting more so I'm off to dive into the next one.____________________Buddy read with Buddies, Books & Baubles starting 1st September 2016