The Fires of Heaven (The Wheel of Time)

The Fires of Heaven has some interesting developments in store for Nyneave, Suan, Rand and Matt so its well worth reading if you have read the other books. However I am beginning to have some problems with the story line. Some of the events and characters are beginning to lack credibility. This began to creep into the story early on when the girls were brought to the tower, quickly raised to the accepted and almost instantly packed off to hunt down the Black Ajar by themselves. The same calamity has beffallen this installment as Aviendha has developed instant powers casting fireballs at shadow spawn not to mention the fact that she was able to open a doorway to Seanchan, something that Asmodeon could not teach Rand and the complexity of which Moraine no doubt could not fathom. I'm willing to stretch incredulity for fantasy, but this story is beginning to get difficult to swallow.

In addition i'm getting really bored of the Aiel, and this 'he who comes with dawn' rubbish. The account of the fight with Couladin, the Aiel foe, strangely seems to have been added as an after thought, a huge anti-climax for Rand's foe. Why not give a first hand account?

However like I mentioned at the beginning, if you have followed the story so far don't stop now, Nyneave's dressing down alone is worth putting up with up all the above mentioned concerns.


Wow!   September 13, 2005
 0 out of 3 found this review helpful

For any of those who have read the previous and subsequent books, this is unusual - Nynaeve actually does something useful instead of just tugging her braid and being a whinging little pain in the posterior! She dosn't do a lot untill the end of book 9!