The Fires of Heaven (Wheel of Time Series #5) Book

The Fires of Heaven bored me to tears. Nothing happened. My favourite character wasn't even present. I feel like the story hasn't progressed since The Shadow Rising.

It's 900+ pages of nothingness!

The problem with epic fantasy is that is can easily become too long. It's usually filled with big descriptive passages, history and lore with a huge cast of characters in order to fully illustrate the world. And I usually love it, as I have done with books in this series, but the story needs to move forward for these elements not to feel superfluous. Unfortunately, this remains very much stationary and stuck deep in the mud (the mud of one of Rand's endless campsites.)

This is the worse book in the series so far for me. The first third is loaded with recap material and repetitive storytelling. Some parts felt eerily similar to what I've read before. If I had the time, and the patience, I could find paragraphs and passages from the first four books that were almost identical to those printed here. I found myself skimming sections that added nothing to the story and just rambled on about things that have already been established and are growing tiresome. This book needed some energy! It needed a direction rather than the movement of an army and camp across the map.

The good bits (such as they are)

The only real interesting parts were some of the character interactions. I liked the tension created by having a Forsaken very close to Rand. Asmodean would have been killed by Rand's allies if they knew of his identity. Moraine is rigid and unflinching and is unable to understand that there is a space in between darkness and light, the moral grey area. Asmodean is a survivalist, nothing more, and Rand is his best opportunity at escaping annihilation. Though, that being said, Jordan could have done a lot more with this story thread.

Moraine and Rand continued to clash, and eventually she begged him to let her stay with him. She's sacrificed her own dignity just so she can be there to help him. Although toward the end of this book something has clearly changed to alter their relationship forever, I still found myself growing bored of their repetitive interactions and conversations. It follows a very similar pattern: Moraine advises Rand. Rand ignores her. Rand gets hurt. Moraine saves him. (repeat.)

I just want it to hurry up and be over with. At this point, I'm seriously considering skipping the next eight books and just reading the last one to see how it all ends. I'd read plot summaries to fill me in on the ones I'd miss. I will give Lord of Chaos a go first but if doesn't move quickly I will not waste my time reading the entire thing. That won't be until next summer though, this one took me almost four months to get through and it was a slog. (I'm in hope that it gets better and moves forward.)

The Wheel of Time
1. Eye of the World- An unoriginal five stars
2. The Great Hunt- A reluctant three stars
3. The Dragon Reborn- A well-developed four stars
4. The Shadow Rising- A strong four stars
5. The Fires of Heaven- A slow two stars