Product Description

The bonds and wards that hold the Great Lord of the Dark are slowly failing, but still his fragile prison holds. The Forsaken, immortal servants of the Shadow, weave their snares and tighten their grip upon the realms of men, sue in the knowledge that their master will soon break free. Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, knows that he must strike at the Enemy, but his forces are divided by trachery and by ambition. Even the Aes Sedai, ancient guardians of the Light, are riven by civil war. Betrayed by his allies, pursued by his enemies and beset by the madness that comes to the male wielders of the One Power, Rand rides out to meet the foe. And the fires of Heaven scour the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4013 in Books
• Published on: 1994-11-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 928 pages

Review
'Epic in every sense' THE TIMES 'On very rare occasions, very talented storytellers create worlds that are beyond fantasy; worlds that become realities. Robert Jordan has' MORGAN LLYWELYN 'A powerful vision of good and evil' ORSON SCOTT CARD

From the Publisher
Praise for Robert Jordan

‘With THE WHEEL OF TIME, Jordan has come to dominate the world that Tolkien began to reveal’ THE NEW YORK TIMES

‘A powerful vision of good and evil’ ORSON SCOTT CARD

‘Epic in every sense’ THE TIMES

‘Well written adventure on the grand scale’ ANNE MCCAFFREY

‘Glowing with true magic’ FRED SABERHAGEN

The Wheel of Time series:
THE EYE OF THE WORLD, THE GREAT HUNT, THE DRAGON REBORN, THE SHADOW RISING, THE FIRES OF HEAVEN, LORD OF CHAOS, A CROWN OF SWORDS, THE PATH OF DAGGERS, WINTER’S HEART

About the Author
Robert Jordan was born in 1948 in Charleston. He was a graduate of the Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, with a degree in physics, and served 2 tours in Vietnam. His hobbies inc. hunting, fishing, sailing, poker, chess, pool and pipe collecting. He died in September 2007.

Customer Reviews

Just Great!
I have just finished this book and moved onto book 6. Where I would be if I was one of the poor souls reading these books as they were released, I don't know.

I don't understand reviews that literally tell you the content of the books...but I will try and help you make a decision about this series.

The series so far is great! If you like fantasy, and enjoy the use of magic and power...you get excited when someone starts channeling magic in battle...you like surprises that are quite literally sprung on you when you just don't expect it - this is book/series for you!. Literally. When you're quite happily sitting on the train on the way to work, reading what seems like an interesting conversion between 2 folk, and all hell breaks lose....you just don't want to get off that train to go into work. It isn't fair like that. ;)

Yes, there's a lot of excitement, and well written prose in his novels, but he has his down-sides. These are actually so bad that it has made me put the book down out of frustration. What is it?
It is his persistent repetition of the women's views of men. Personally, what women think of men, I don't care...and to mention it here and there is fine, but when it is an pre-, during- and post- every sentence when dealing with characters such as Elayne and Neyeavne (can't spell), it gets mightily frustrating! It really, really does. Constantly telling the reader that men are useless, can't tell men this and that, they're stupid most of the time - although it isn't author opinion clearly, ya just get sick of hearing it and you read on solely to get back to Rand, Perrin and Mat. They just get on with what they gotta do, they get you excited etc...but the women just moan.

Maybe it is trying to reflect real life in that sense, but I read these books to get away from that sort of stupid nonsense. :)

If you can put up with that, you'll be fine...heartily recommended!

Make sure and start with the first in the series.

Pretty sure not all women view men like this!
I recently finished Book 5 of the considerable Wheel of Time series. It took me longer than expected as there were numerous occassions when I had to put it down and read something better. Indeed it was only my own Herculean determination that allowed me to grind on through painful chapter after excruitiating chapter, alleviated now and then when Jordon returned to Rand.

The reason behind this excruitiating experience lies solely at the feet of Nynaeve and Elayne. The phrase 'he is only a man', or variations on this, must crop up over 100 times! Whilst I can appreciate that the author is trying to establish the (somewhat obvious) differences in the way the sexes perceive each other and the self evident tribulations associated with any male / female relationship, the reader does not need to be told 'he is only a man' every other sentence. It's derogatory and pointless.

To summarise; Elayne and Nynaeve appear to think of men as being entirely useless whilst Rand and Mat remain merely 'confused' by women. The chapters dealing with Rand are still enjoyable and by the conclusion of the book Jordon is back to near his strongest, but the over repetition of certain annoying phrases detracts from any enjoyment this book may have offered. The other classic - 'Her piercing / clear / penetrating / flashing blue (and occassionally green) eyes' also makes several dozen appearances and whilst less irritating than the above, does rather suggest that every character is going around with rather special optical abilities!

I wont be reading the next book in the series for a long long time.

Good but not as amazing as the rest of the series
Having read the previous books in the series, I was really looking forward to reading it. However as the plot developed I realized that the best thread of the story (perrin and loial) were missing from the whole book entirely. I found that totally anoying and bewildering. The next downfall was the fact that most of the book is based around Nynaeve and Elayne and their boring travels. Being fair, the parts about Rand and Mat are a stark contrast to the rest with Robert Jordans stunning literacy skills keeping me hooked all through the night into the morning. But once again Nynaeve and Elayne crop up spoiling the story with their insistant offensive sexist remarks.

Had Robert Jordan edited those parts to make them more interesting and less offensive he would have made the book as amazing as the rest of the series.

A disappointing 5th book but still looking forward to the next one.