Product Description

The seventh book in Robert Jordan's internationally bestselling epic fantasy series, THE WHEEL OF TIME, now reissued with a stunning new cover design. The war for humanity's survival has begun. Rand al' Thor, the Dragon Reborn, has escaped the snares of the White Tower and the first of the rebel Aes Sedai have sworn to follow him. Attacked by the servants of the Dark, threatened by the invading Seanchan, Rand rallies his forces and brings battle to bear upon Illian, stronghold of Sammael the Forsaken ...In the city of Ebou Dar, Elayne, Aviendha and Mat struggle to secure the ter' angreal that can break the Dark One's hold on the world's weather - and an ancient bane moves to oppose them. In the town of Salidar, Egwene al'Vere gathers an army to reclaim Tar Valon and reunite the Aes Sedai ...And in Shadar Logoth, city of darkness, a terrible power awakens ...Find out more about this title and others at www.orbitbooks.co.uk

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4375 in Books
• Published on: 1997-03-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 773 pages

Customer Reviews

Continually excellent!
...This book, in my opinion, mantains Jordans high standards and is an improvement on the last book. Once more the pace is slow and you need to be prepared for this. It won't suit all people no matter how detailed a world he is building up this way. Personally I love this. It makes a marvellous contrast to other books such as the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson. Both are different but excellent in their own ways. Its good to read books of variety in pacing.

However, Jordan did get a little bogged down occasionally in the last book which I would give 4 stars for this reason. Crown of swords is different. I never once felt that a passage was unneccessary and all the detail simply added up to paint a wonderful picture of another world.

Some would say tht nothing happens in much of this book. I disagree, we see a subtle developments in character interaction particualrly between Mat, Elayne and Nynaeve, the intruduction of new elements to the world (true source for example) as well as a cliff-hanger of an ending. This all serves to set us up nicely for not only the next book but the rest of the series.

The aforementioned character development helps to negate the fact that Jordan still uses descriptions of Nynaeve tugging her braid, thinking all men are dumb etc. This is because you can see that these developments are leading us away from this. Hence me saying earlier that there are no wasted words. Without this, I would have begun to have become fed up with this but Jordan, skilled writer that he is has advanced things at just the right time.

So basically if you love the series then you will love this. It has many classic Jordan moments that stir the soul (a'la dumai wells!). If you are beginning to tire of things then please give it a chance as hopefully you will see the advancements that take place to make this one of the great achievments of fantasy literature. And he hasn't even finished yet!

Wake me when we get to a good bit...
I am on book 7 of the Wheel of Time and it's beginning to annoy the hell out off me. It's clearly never going to end;
Jordan is either going to be dropped or die before they are finished. Books go by now and NOTHING happens! He spends chapters explaining why chairs are set up in a room and pages discussing the necklines on dresses!

In book six they get an army together to storm a town; as far as I can see it takes until book 9 to get there! All they do is travel places!

The basic book is like this:
Pages 1 - 250 explaining what happened in the last book and explaining the people etc.
Pages 251 - 950 all the people in the story start moving to somewhere else and talking and drink tea etc.
Pages 951 -1000 something happens, normally nothing to do with anything else that has gone on in the rest off the book and normally takes the first 250 pages of the next book to work it out!

Its annoying to say the least. I keep going just for the sake of it now! The really frustrating part is he builds up a really
good story now and again (for example in book 5 a village is being attacked and one of the main guys bonds everyone together to defend it) and then he forgets out it for several books (this bloke doesn't reappear until book 7!).

Crazy.

Another superb Robert Jordan WoT installment!
A Crown of Swords picks up where Lord of Chaos left off. Rand al'Thor, The Dragon Reborn has been worrying about Forsaken Sammael for some time. It is in this story that he finally decides to confront him. Meanwhile, Nynaeve, Elayne, Mat, Thom, Juilin, Aviendha and Birgitte head to Ebou Dar to find the Bowl of the Winds and make the weather right again. A number of new characters are introduced - the sultry Queen Tylin of Altara and the mysterious and bossy Cadsuane Melaidhrin. We get to hear more of Sevanna and the Shaido Aiel, mostly from Sevanna's point of view, and Sammael and Graendal both make numerous appearences. Despite being slow in some places (Perrin is STILL the most boring wheel of time character, and Faile the most annoying), A Crown of Swords is an able successor to the great lord of chaos. But don't get it until you have read the 6 preceding books!