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4.5
Alright, once again I'm in a 'four or five stars' predicament. And as usual, I'm calling it a 4.5 and rounding up. Call it generosity, call it not being critical enough, whatever. This was a great book. I don't know why I even say when I'm between ratings, I could just rate it and move on. And now I'm talking about the fact that I didn't just rate it and move on. Anyway...Another thread in the Pattern complete. The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills and it wills me to love this series. I am in deep now, this being the fifth of fourteen books, and the best way to describe my feeling within this world is.. comfortable. I have reached a point where even areas of the story that are paced slower still remain interesting to me, simply because I've grown fond of this world and the characters that fill it. Jordan remains a descriptive master, and if you give his writing the thought that it asks for you will find yourself in places as fully realized as those around me as I type. Now, that isn't to say that I will let any and all slow pacing off the hook, I'm just saying that it didn't bother me in this book. Maybe it will in the future, who knows?Now, the slower pace for this one did lend itself to some excellent characterization. Especially in Nynaeve. We get to spend (what felt like) more time with she and Elayne in this one, and I am really enjoying Nynaeve's growth. She is finally becoming a bit more self-reflective, which I've been waiting for for some time. You can feel her start to change, and feel how it affects the characters around her too. I will admit that she has a long way to go when it comes to her attitude toward men. And really, no character gets a pass on this. It seems every man in the series can hardly stand to be around women, and the same for every woman with men. At least in their internal dialogue. It comes off false, and frankly a little weird. It's one thing to fear Aes Sedai, but this is just frustratingly blind, and way too generalized. I'm ready for that to change. It doesn't bother me totally, because it's sort of been this way from the beginning, but if it did change it would be welcome. Anyhow, I was also pleased with Mat's POVs, I just wish there were more of them! I won't detail his growth because it's a major spoiler for readers in the earlier books, but it is very satisfying to watch, and Mat has come a long way from the boy he was back in Emond's Field. I have the sense that he has a long way yet to go, too. I was a bit surprised to find that Perrin has no POV chapters whatsoever in this one. He is mentioned offhandedly a couple of times but other than that, we are left in the dark as to just what Perrin Goldeneyes is up to during this book. I'm eager to have that cleared up in the next book. Rand's part of the story remains as compelling as ever, and is likely still my favorite bit, but I'm glad to see some interest building in areas of the story where it may have lacked before.Areas of slow pacing aside, The Fires of Heaven really did have some moments that packed a punch. These are long books, and reality never takes a break, so they can take me some time to finish, but I was pretty enthralled with the story throughout. I can usually tell how invested in a series I am by how many notes and highlights I have for each book in my Kindle, and I've got a whole hell of a lot for this one. The Wheel of Time is so far living up to its reputation for me, and has maybe even exceeded my expectations a bit. It's ambitious, interesting, full of magic, and shows no signs of stopping now. Lord of Chaos is up next.Life is a dream from which we all must wake before we can dream again.
