The Wheel of Time Book 9: Winter’s Heart

“A man who trusts everyone is a fool and a man who trusts no one is a fool. We are all fools if we live long enough.” (Winter’s Heart by Robert Jordan)

---

If The Path of Daggers is the work of the series, Winter’s Heart is the payoff. Mat Cauthon is back and the plot is moving. Jordan gets out of his rut of drudgery and slowness here and back into the quick, adventure-story pace of the first few books in the series. A number of the large-scale plotlines pay off, as well, which may lead to you screaming “THEY DID IT!!” at the top of your lungs (make sure to read it in a private space or risk weird looks on the subway). You’ll end this book feeling elated, pumped, and needing to turn your energy into real-world action (plan ahead about when you’ll finish it: right before bed is highly discouraged. Shoot for the middle of the day, before a competition or vigorous exercise).

As great as book 9 is, there’s still the overarching problems in the series: the stop-go pace, the never-ending cast of characters, the long descriptions of regional dresses. Jordan provides a map of the world at the beginning of each book, but he would have done better to include a list of characters, their family relationships, and which plot they’re involved in, like in a play. I realize that this would take up approximately 100 pages, which would increase each book to about 1,000 pages, so it’s not a practical idea for the publisher. Yet, for the reader, the cast is dizzying, and each name is just a random scramble of consonants and vowels. There’s nothing to hang onto with your memory. It reminds me of reading Russian literature – remembering a first letter simply will not do. You must not only remember who is whom, but also what side they’re on: keeping track of which characters are secretly dark friends is beyond the scope of my brain.

Yet, if you’ve just finished book 9, I don’t even have to encourage you to continue. The inability to get a copy of Crossroads at Twilight immediately upon finishing Winter’s Heart has been known to cause temper tantrums.