Book Review: The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan

 

Goodreads Summary: The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become a legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is may yet fall under the Shadow.
Into the forbidden city of Rhuidean, where Rand al'Thor, now the Dragon Reborn, must conceal his present endeavor from all about him, even Egwene and Moiraine.

Into the Amyrlin's study in the White Tower, where the Amyrlin, Elaida do Avriny a'Roihan, is weaving new plans.

Into the luxurious hidden chamber where the Forsaken Rahvin meets with three of his fellows to ensure their ultimate victory over the Dragon.

Into the Queen's court in Caemlyn, where Morgase is curiously in thrall to the handsome Lord Gaebril.

For once the dragon walks the land, the fires of heaven fall where they will until all men's lives are ablaze.

And in Shayol Ghul, the Dark One stirs...

Goodreads Ratings: 4.18 stars with over 165,000 ratings

Genre Listing: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Adventure, Magic

Goodreads Challenge: 21/36

2022 Reading Challenge: Read a book  with at least 5 prominent characters (find the entire challenge here)

Book Review:

Hi, Readers! I hope everyone is doing well. I am excited we made it to September; my favorite season is approaching. I've been collecting books lately more than I've been reading them. I've really been having a hard time staying interested in a story. I hope I get out of this funk soon. I started reading Fires of Heaven at the end of July and just now finished it. I'm likely going to stay away from long epic stories for a bit, as my classes for my Doctorate just started this week. Yes, Tress, I know. I'm a masochist. 

Okay, so Fires of Heaven. As you might be able to guess, this one was tough for me to get through based on how long it took me to read it. I enjoyed a lot of the story and appreciated that there was more information on the Ajah. I liked the dream world and thought it was interesting what Nynaeve, Elayne, and Egwene learned to do in it. Brigitte was my favorite character in this book. I feel like she brought out a different side of Nynaeve. Mainly she was just a fun addition to the story. 

For me, this book mostly felt like a middle-of-the-series book that you have to read to get to the other books. I enjoyed it, but it definitely wasn't my favorite. I don't know if it was my frame of mind, but by about 70%, I was ready to be done but kept trying to push through it. I didn't hate it. It was just slow-paced, and it felt like a lot of nothingness was happening. Once I was done reading it, I had to ask Tress a lot of follow-up questions because I'd forget something just as soon as I read it. I tried to keep up my usual WOT Twitter feed, but this was hard for me to keep up. Here's the link if anyone cares about my absurdness while reading: Social Tweety Thing.

I was missing a lot of the rest of the Two Rivers crew with this one. I kept wondering what was going on with Perrin and Loial. I do think that Mat's adventure was enjoyable, and I'm getting more interested in him as a character. He's growing on me, finally. I'm still processing Moraine's part of the story in this one. I don't want to go into spoilers, but I was definitely surprised. 

Fire of Heaven was probably my least favorite of the Wheel of Time so far. I don't know that that's entirely on the book, though. I really enjoyed The Shadow Rising, so I think anything that followed would fall short for me. Combine that with me just not being in a reading mood and it being so focused on traveling and waiting (more so than the other books). It just was okay for me. I still enjoyed a lot of it, and I'll continue with the series, but it was rough to get through.