vivdunstan

Finished my 7th book of the year so far last night, the 5th book in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, The Fires of Heaven. I’m reading the series slowly, and expecting to take ages to finish it.

On plus it’s still a gripping and epic read, with fantasy storytelling on a grand scale, as well as nice character features. There are certain aspects of the storytelling that I’m quite wowed by. And I’m keeping reading.

On the downside this was the first book where I struggled to remember quite a number of past characters as they returned. And it felt like there were too many separate strand being juggled, that needed to be trimmed. It also feels as though the whole story could be compressed down. I suspect I may think this more before the end.

However the ending was gripping. There’s a certain format that it’s settled in to now for the books and how they tend to wrap up. Which I don’t mean as a critique, but does mean that they tend to finish well.

So yes, overall thumbs up, but so many characters, and maybe getting a bit overlong.