Author: Robert Jordan
Published: October 15, 1993
Publisher: Tor Fantasy
Series: The Wheel of Time #5
989 pages (mass market paperback)
I don’t normally write spoilers, but since this book has been out for over ten years, I’m not going to hold back on the spoilers too much. Besides, it’s kind of hard talking about the fifth book in the series without revealing things anyway. You have been warned!
Ummmmm … WOW. I really, really enjoyed this one. This book was what I needed to rekindle my interest in the series (because if you have noticed, my ratings for the previous installments of this series have been steadily declining, heh). It took me 4 weeks to finish this, only because this was my commuting book, so I only read it on the bus, to and from campus. Despite reading it in small doses at a time, I was hooked into the story world each time I opened it up. Yeah, there were a few sluggish parts — for example, some of the scenes near the end involving Rand and the war. Those were kind of too political-ish for me and I’ve never really been a fan of reading war scenes — but overall, I think this is one of the better ones in the series.
In The Fires Of Heaven, a lot of things happen to everyone, and pretty much all of it is going to be spoilers because, well, that’s the nature of the series. Each book doesn’t seem to have a very cohesive plot, but the entire series as a whole has a cohesive plot … if that makes any sense at all.
Almost everyone was doing something interesting in this book. The book begins with Min, Siuan and those people trying to find the secret gathering of Aes Sedai who have broken off from the White Tower, while at the same time, being chased by a Lord for burning down a barn. This was interesting because Siuan is no longer the Amyrlin Seat — no longer an authority that even kings and queens bow to. So reading about how she is adjusting to her very low status now was exciting, particularly because she refuses to remain in such a low status. She wants revenge. I also enjoyed Nynavae and Elayne’s part of the story. They have joined a traveling menagerie … the circus! And they do tricks! That’s always fun and exciting. What’s more is that they find Brigitte in the dream world and she actually comes to life in the real world after a mistake of Nynavae’s. So we have a newish character join our heroes now, and Brigitte is pretty awesome, being a legendary expert marksman (markswoman?) and all. And in Caemlyn, we also have the whole Morgase being smitten by Gaebril plotline, which finally progresses in this book. Morgase finally realizes Gaebril is slowly taking over her kingdom, but it’s a little too late to find out so she has to escape her own kingdom. This sets in motion a whole separate series of events at the end of the book.
The only plotline in this book I wasn’t too crazy about is, as already mentioned, Rand’s. I was a bit mixed with his plotline — sometimes it was great, sometimes I had serious trouble paying attention because it was boring. However … and this is a big spoiler … one part near the end of the book totally caught my attention and I was absolutely stunned. Moiraine died! I couldn’t believe it! She’s one of my favourite characters! In fact, even though all the characters were talking about her dying, and even Lan says he can no longer feel he connection he had with Moiraine and leaves (no, Lan!), I still couldn’t believe it. I refuse to believe it until I read the entire series and Moiraine still hasn’t come back alive. Moiraaaaine!
While I greatly enjoyed the story, and this book has totally got me craving for the next one, I did find the characterization in this book (and probably the previous ones, though I kind of noticed it more here) very one-dimensional. Most of them anyway. Nearly all the female characters can be grouped as one, all stubborn and proud and believing men are fools and women know best. The men have more ‘categories’, but only a few more — those who find women complicated, those who live life as honorably as possible, etc. I hope for more variety, but it is the 5th book, so I have a feeling I will be stuck with these one-dimensional characters for the rest of the series … not neccesarily too bad of a thing for an epic fantasy, since plot has always seemed more important than character development in the genre, but you know — just a wish.
My Rating: 4.5/5
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