The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time #5)

Hello, my lovely readers!
I really hope all of you are just as excited about Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books as I am – considering that we have another 9 novels to through. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and talk about The Fires of Heaven for now!

The Fires of Heaven on Goodreads

The Plot:

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, sure 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 treachery 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.

The Rating:

I finished The Fires of Heaven today, so only nine more Wheel of Time books to read! Yay! But what did I think about this one?

First of all, I want to talk about something that annoyed the shit out of me. I briefly mentioned it with the previous novel and stated that I hope I would get better but guess what, it got worse. I’m talking about Nyneave. Granted, Elayne is less annoying in this one, or maybe she’s just overshadowed by Nyneave. What is it that’s bothering me, you ask?
Well, you’d think at this point in time Nyneave would have learned how to behave. Somehow she still acts like she is the Wisdom in Emond’s Field and is entitled to tell everybody what to do. (Even if that still were her position, she often comes across as a bitch, and here’s why.) She is judge-y as fuck, constantly going on about how other women dress and how unacceptable most of it is. Nyneave is apparently not familiar with the concept of other countries having other customs. She never seems to do anything she doesn’t at length complain about. Oftentimes she does dumb shit based on half-baked ideas and when something happens she pretends it’s not really her fault. I’m getting annoyed with how she treats Julin and Thom – even though those two guys are certainly not without fault. Furthermore, she constantly seems to be looking down on and/or talking down to Elayne despite the fact that the latter is only a few years younger. Especially considering that Elayne grew up in a palace and thus got educated on a great many things should get some more consideration from Nyneave. I don’t care that she is the daughter-heir, but she has knowledge, a lot of knowledge Nyneave doesn’t have! Speaking of Elayne, what I most certainly could have done without is the flirtation going on with Thom. Honestly, I almost forgot about this whole thing because it was so dumb and so useless. Let’s just pretend it never happened, okay?

The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time #4)

Hey guys!
I’m ever so slowly making my way through the Wheel of Time series (sooo many books and soooo many pages!). I’ve finally finished novel #4, so only another 10 to go!

The Shadow Rising on Goodreads

The Plot:

The seals of Shayol Ghul are weak now, and the Dark One reaches out. The Shadow is rising to cover humankind.

In Tar Valon, Min sees portents of hideous doom. Will the White Tower itself be broken?

In the Two Rivers, the Whitecloaks ride in pursuit of a man with golden eyes, and in pursuit of the Dragon Reborn.

In Cantorin, among the Sea Folk, High Lady Suroth plans the return of the Seanchan armies to the mainland.

In the Stone of Tear, the Lord Dragon considers his next move. It will be something no one expects, not the Black Ajah, not Tairen nobles, not Aes Sedai, not Egwene or Elayne or Nynaeve.

Against the Shadow rising stands the Dragon Reborn…..

The Rating:

Another day another Wheel of Time review. And another comparison my brain made that nobody asked for. But we’ll get to that in a second. Beforehand, let’s talk about the book in general.

We’ve reached a point where several characters branched off into their own pretty significant storylines. This has been the case before, but I feel like now the separate bits of the story have become bigger than ever. For example, what Nyneave and Elayne are up to could easily be a book series of its own, it certainly provides enough material. This also means that you’ll have to keep a lot of different stuff straight in your head. I mean, I did expect that considering how freaking long the series is but not getting confused and remembering all the characters does involve some admin in my brain. In fact, there is so much going on that sometimes I completely forget about certain characters or storylines until the book circles back to them. Oopsie.

The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time #3)

Hello, everybody!
Another day, another Wheel of Time novel to tackle. I’m making my way through this rather expansive series of books, and just finished #3. This one sure left me with a lot of stuff to think about!

The Dragon Reborn on Goodreads

The Plot (according to Goodreads):

The Dragon Reborn—the leader long prophesied who will save the world, but in the saving destroy it; the savior who will run mad and kill all those dearest to him—is on the run from his destiny.

Able to touch the One Power, but unable to control it, and with no one to teach him how—for no man has done it in three thousand years—Rand al’Thor knows only that he must face the Dark One. But how?

Winter has stopped the war—almost—yet men are dying, calling out for the Dragon. But where is he?

Perrin Aybara is in pursuit with Moiraine Sedai, her Warder Lan, and Loial the Ogier. Bedeviled by dreams, Perrin is grappling with another deadly problem—how is he to escape the loss of his own humanity?

Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve are approaching Tar Valon, where Mat will be healed—if he lives until they arrive. But who will tell the Amyrlin their news—that the Black Ajah, long thought only a hideous rumor, is all too real? They cannot know that in Tar Valon far worse awaits…

Ahead, for all of them, in the Heart of the Stone, lies the next great test of the Dragon reborn…

The Rating:

Okay guys, I’m going to start this review off with a tangent literally nobody needs. Remember how in the last post I talked about Lord of the Rings and its influence on Wheel of Time? I also mentioned that the further I got in the last novel, the less it felt LOTR-sy. Well, after this novel, it feels like something else. Like the Arthurian legends to be precise. I am not all too familiar with those, but there were *a lot* of things in this book that reminded me of them. I mean, just look at all the names – seriously, how did I not notice that before:

• Egwene al’Vere – Guinevere (Arthur’s love interest, Rand’s initial love interest)
• Moiraine – Morgan le Fay (sometimes also spelled Morgaine, a powerful enchantress)
• Perrin – Percival/Peredur (come on, that name is similar to Perrin!)
• Thom Merrilin – Merlin (wizened old mentor to Rand/Arthur)
• Artur Paendrag Tanreall known as Artur Hawkwing – Arthur Pendragon (both united Kingdoms)
• Caemlyn – Camelot
• Tar valon -Avalon
• Elayne – The Lady of Shalott (I don’t mean this as in their stories are the same [though, who knows. I have another 11 books to go, a lot can happen], but the Lady of Shalott is actually also named Elayne)
• Galad – Galahad, sometimes also spelled as Galath (Galahad is said to be the most perfect of knights – which is kinda how Galad is described a lot)
• Mordeth – Mordred (Mordred is instrumental in Arthur’s downfall, Mordeth is a dark character who so far has brought nothing but trouble)
• Gawyn – Gawain (powerful knight)
• Lan – Lancelot (unrivalled swordsman)
• Sword in the stone (well circle back to that in a bit!)
• Nyneave – Nimue, sometimes also spelled Ninieve or variations thereof
• Queen Morgase – Morgause (a Queen as well)

Those are two many things just to be coincidence. And as I said, I don’t even know much about Arthurian legends, so I bet there’s a lot more in the Wheel of Time books than I managed to spot. I’m actually going to get into the review of the novel now, so spoilers ahead!

The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time #2)

Hey guys!
I’m back with another Wheel of Time review. I finished book number two. And boy, do we have things to talk about!

The Great Hunt on Goodreads

The Plot (as found on Goodreads):

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become 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.

For centuries, gleemen have told the tales of The Great Hunt of the Horn. So many tales about each of the Hunters, and so many Hunters to tell of…Now the Horn itself is found: the Horn of Valere long thought only legend, the Horn which will raise the dead heroes of the ages. And it is stolen.

The Rating:

I’m slowly making my way through the Wheel of Time novels, and I just finished the second book. First of all, there is just *so* much going on. Robert Jordan is going hard with the worldbuilding, introducing a bunch of new things here. Naturally, with all those new additions came loads of questions on my part. Those, however, don’t get answered. You can clearly tell that Jordan was setting things up for later in the series, this book feels like a promise of things to come.

That being said, there is still a lot of progress we make story-wise. I mean, it does take a while for things to actually get going, but there are some things I want to talk about in detail. If you haven’t read the book yet, you might want to avoid everything after this paragraph due to spoilers. Let me just tell you, I enjoyed this novel tremendously even if it did drag on ever so slightly somewhere around the middle.

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time #1)

Hey, my darling readers!
I just finished the first actual novel in Robert Jordan’s epic The Wheel of Time series. Prior to reading it, I had heard nothing but good things about it, so let’s see whether that holds true!

The Wheel of Time on Goodreads

The Plot (according to Goodreads):

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become 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.

When The Two Rivers is attacked by Trollocs-a savage tribe of half-men, half-beasts- five villagers flee that night into a world they barely imagined, with new dangers waiting in the shadows and in the light.

The Rating:

Wow. This was *a lot*. And I mean it in the best way possible! This book was quite long. The eBook copy I have contains all novels, so I kept glancing at my progress for the page total (a bit over 13,000 pages), which made this seem even more massive. Regardless of that, I essentially burned through the first novel, unable to put it down.

The world-building is super cool, and I can’t wait to learn in the next 10+ books. The story comes with a lot of twists and turns, chapters that will give you goosebumps, moments that will make you hold your breath. I loved the story, especially because you can tell just how much thought went into it. There are no gaping holes in the logic staring you in the face. This world, this legend, this story was crafted meticulously.

Thursday Movie Picks: Fantasy

Hey, guys!
Welcome to another entry for Thursday Movie Picks.
It’s a series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves, so if you want to join the party, head over to her blog! It’s pretty easy: check out each week’s topic and come up with 3 to 5 movies that fit the theme.
Today’s topic is fantasy films, so let’s dive right in without any further ado!

#1 The Green Knight

I was so excited when this film was announced and now I haven’t had time yet to watch it. 😭
As you all probably know by now, I’m such a sucker for all things mythology. So, I have no doubt that I will love this fantasy film building on Sir Gawain and The Green Knight.

#2 Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow to me is peak Tim Burton. This fantasy film is by no means perfect but personally, I love everything about it. The cast, the story, but most importantly the *aesthetic*!