Winters Heart #9(Wheel of Time)

by R. Jordan

[thepunktheory]

Full review on my blog!

I just want it to end. Why are there so many books? Why does this very book even exist? Honestly, there is no reason whatsoever for there being 15 books. It feels like nothing is going on, the story is dragging on all fronts. The series is way too long with not enough happening.

Just after finishing this book, I had a thought. I remember when George R. R. Martin started working on other projects related to the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, literally writing other books in the universe, but still not finishing ASOIAF itself. It felt like he was procrastinating writing that story so hard, he just wrote several entire other novels in the process. I have a similar feeling with Wheel of Time. By this point, Jordan keeps coming up with another and another side plot, with more characters that I simply do not care about. Anything to not have to go on with the actual story.

There are simultaneously too many and not enough things going on. As I said, there are constantly some new additions. I get that he is trying to set up something very big, laying out the threads that will at some point come together. But it’s just too many characters that you cannot bring yourself to give a damn about, too many little side plots that so far drag on just like the main story. Despite adding new things, we are getting nowhere.

The main story isn’t moving along at all. And mind you, these books are fairly long, so not getting us anywhere is almost an achievement. I’m sorry to say that at this point it’s just not sparking joy for me anymore. I really hope that once I make it to the Sanderson novels in the series, this will get better. Friends told me that those books certainly are an improvement, so there is hope!

Maybe I wouldn’t mind the story dragging this much if the characters weren’t all so annoying and obnoxious. I know that I already talked about this in previous reviews but it’s almost unfathomable to me how we started out with a great set of characters that I liked and now I hate almost every single one of them. In this novel, we spent a lot of time with Mat and while I want to know how his story ends I’d simultaneously be happy if I’d never have to read any of his thoughts or the things he says ever again. The worst thing is, this is the case with pretty much all the characters. I’m sad about that.