Book Review: Winter’s Heart (The Wheel of Time, #9) by Robert Jordan
Cover art illustrated by Scott M. Fischer
Winter’s Heart by Robert Jordan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Series: The Wheel of Time (Book #9 of 14)
Genre: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy
Pages: 705 pages (Kindle edition)
Word Count: 238,000 words
Published: 7th November 2000 by Tor Books
This was so damn rough. Winter’s Heart is easily the weakest book in The Wheel of Time so far.
“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.”
Before reading this book, having read two of the four supposedly slog books in The Wheel of Time, I initially thought I was prepared for Winter’s Heart. I thought I was ready to bring myself through the dreadful slog. I was not. This was a pain to go through. Not only it’s the worst book of the series so far, but I also think it is one of the most overrated novels I’ve ever read. Even having expressed relatively few significant events were happening in A Crown of Swords and The Path of Daggers is not sufficient to encapsulate how useless this book was. Sure, Mat appeared again after being out of the spotlight in Path of Dagger, and Tuon marked an entry of a probably important character. But these and the magnificent final chapter aside, Winter’s Heart is an overwritten book. No. Seriously. If you read the official blurb, plus the prologue and final few chapters of Winter’s Heart, you have basically read the most important scenes of the entire book. For the rest, you can read detailed chapter-by-chapter summaries online, and I don’t think you will miss out on anything noteworthy. Doing this might ensure you like Winter’s Heart more than reading the entire book.
“You can never know everything, and part of what you know is always wrong. Perhaps even the most important part. A portion of wisdom lies in knowing that. A portion of courage lies in going on anyway.”
I have mentioned it many times now. I am not a fan of Perrin, Faile, and Elayne. And to have the first half of Winter’s Heart dominated by the three of them as the key POV characters already soured my reading experience quickly. So much. As I said repeatedly before. I don’t get the appeal with Perrin. Some have told me I would get to like him more after reaching The Gathering Storm or Towers of Midnight. Let’s say that’s true, it is still insane. Towers of Midnight is the thirteenth book in the series. It shouldn’t take that long for a reader to like a character. Looking back, one of my most unpopular opinions on the series is how disappointed I was with The Shadow Rising, and one of the main reasons is exactly because of Perrin. I don’t find him intriguing as a character. And his toxic relationship and obsession with Faile made everything about him worse. As for Elayne? Nothing. There is nothing about this character that fascinated me. At all. Usually, Rand al’Thor’s chapters are the saving grace of The Wheel of Time for me. Rand and Mat. They are my favorite characters in the series. In this book, Rand’s Far Madding’s chapters and the last chapter aside, he barely had prominent chapters. And frankly speaking, chapter 12 of Winter’s Heart drove me mad. As a man, I admit I can sometimes be oblivious to what readers deem a male wish-fulfillment scene. I could even tolerate Kvothe in The Wise Man’s Fear. I did NOT like it, but I could tolerate reading it. However, in chapter 12 of Winter’s Heart, where Rand suddenly admits his infatuations and receives a confirmation of acceptance from three ladies—you know who if you have read it—to share him, marry him, and also feel every time any one of them made love with Rand is male wish fulfillment at its peak. I cringed. It felt like I had taken a peek at Jordan’s bedroom fantasy, and I wish I could unread that chapter. He even said in an interview somewhere (I could be wrong) that Rand’s four-way relationship is inspired by his real-life experience where two women shared him as a boyfriend. Yeah, I don’t know what to say to that. I can, however, say Nynaeve’s dumbfounded reaction to the scene is exactly my reaction, too.
“Your body is only clothing. Your flesh will wither, but you are your heart and mind, and they do not change except to grow stronger.”
When people told me I would be utterly disappointed with The Path of Daggers, I was pleased to experience that the second half of The Path of Daggers was surprisingly incredible in many sections for me. Even when the book didn’t feature Mat as one of the main characters, Rand’s storyline in The Path of Daggers was badass. I was mistaken to think I would experience another fluke like that in Winter’s Heart. After Perrin and Faile’s POV chapters, the second half is focused on Mat, Rand, Elayne, and sometimes Cadsuane. But Winter’s Heart missed the same occurrence of The Path of Daggers, where the second half successfully won me over. Despite Mat returning to the narrative, and I certainly enjoyed reading his chapters more than the Perrin, Faile, or Elayne, it was still not enough to save the book for me. His re-entry into the series after the cliffhanger ending in A Crown of Swords felt too casual and lacked impact. This made the ending of A Crown of Swords diminished in quality. And even though I am writing this a few days after I finished reading the book, the only crucial event I remember from Mat’s chapters is his encounter with Tuon, who I assume will be more integral to the series later.
“Great captains earned their reputation not just for laying brilliant plans, but for still being able to find victory after those plans began to fall apart.”
So what was great about Winter’s Heart? Two things. The first one would be, shockingly, Nynaeve. In the first six books of the series, I am not a stranger to voicing how much Nynaeve’s thick-headed personality pissed me off. Surprisingly… Nynaeve is starting to develop into a more likable character. Nynaeve demonstrates in the narrative that she (together with Min) is most likely the only woman who doesn’t have a hidden agenda toward Rand. I don’t know. I could be making assumptions based on how awful the other women in the series are toward Rand. And Nynaeve proved this in the other redeeming part of Winter’s Heart: the last chapter. If you have read the series up to Winter’s Heart, or even just a few books in the series, you would know that despite how underwhelming the reading experience gets, Jordan does tend to deliver a good final chapter. The Great Hunt, The Fires of Heaven, Lord of Chaos, even The Path of Daggers, and Winter’s Heart is not an exception to this. That last chapter with the Choedan Kal is easily one of the strongest climax sequences of the entire series. It was so epic, and it made me wish we had more of that level of scene rather than the pointless verbosity the rest of the book has.
Picture: Winter’s Heart by Scott M. Fischer
I cannot wait to read the aftermath of the last chapter in the later books. The brilliance of that chapter is the only reason why Winter’s Heart did not receive a 1-star rating from me. That said, I will make sure my expectations are in check. Despite the terrific final chapter, Winter’s Heart is undoubtedly my least favorite installment in the series so far. And to keep hearing that Crossroads of Twilight is supposed to be worse than this genuinely terrified me. It took me 31 days to read Winter’s Heart. Similar to A Crown of Swords, it was the longest time I ever spent reading a single novel. It cannot be helped, though. Only by reading one—sometimes two—chapters per day I was able to finish reading Winter’s Heart. I do not know how long Crossroads of Twilight will require me. I guess I will find out in a few months. But honestly, although I dread reading Crossroads of Twilight, the fact that I am near the end of the slog excites me. Wish me luck. The wheel weaves as the wheel wills.
“Stories have power. Gleemen’s tales, and bards’ epics, and rumors in the street alike. They stir passions, and change the way men see the world.”
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