Not great

This one is the worst so far in the series. A whole lot of nothing happens...until the last chapter when a bunch happens and it gets confusing because the set up of most of the book seems mostly unrelated. I generally like the parts with the Sean Chan sp?? But even those didn't have a proper resolution which was annoying. Too many characters! I understand it's epic fantasy but it is too hard to keep track of, it also doesn't help the pronunciation has changed for some characters multiple times. Too bad I'm so far into it I have to finish the series or what was the point.

4 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Last two hours was the good part

The performances were great as per usual.
The story sucked. Basically nothing about Perrin and Faile. Mat is finally back and has his moments halfway through the book. This is a Super boring book with unnecessary parts. The whole part of Aviendha and Elayne and then Elayne and Rand while everyone else got drunk, was unnecessary. Then Rand and Lan going off to kill some people and then be arrested, to only be saved next Chapter was super pointless.
Typical of Robert Jordan to not build a climax and then throw you into it in the last hour of the book. Climax was the best of the series so far, but it should have dragged out a bit more and not jump from person to person so much.

2 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Still good but dragging

It feels like the content of the books are getting filled with fluff and filler content dragging the story out. It's still worth the listen but everything that actually happened of any importance could have happened in one chapter.

2 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Good book

This book was good alot happened with a lot of characters. I'm reading these books for the frist time I hope when I finally finish the series I'll understand why Robert Jordan made books 8,9 and 10 the way they are written.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Starting to drag on more slowly

Great book as always but with so many side stories, things seem to drag. Finally after 1.5 books Matt returns but has been over a book since we have heard from Perrin and even longer for other key characters.

It aoat seems like there is a lot of filler to extend the series with many chapters talking on great detail. About people. Who don't yet seem to matter

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Waste of a credit.

This book is the worst yet, I regularly find myself restarting chapters to try to make sense of it all, and then it’s ending.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Best book since B3 imo.

Maybe there wasn't a ton that moved the story forwards, but SOOOO many little changes and intrigues with each character. This really got me excited for the home stretch!

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Great Book

Kate reading and Michael Kramer really bring this to life. Have been hooked since book one. Consistent voice acting makes my drives to work amazaing.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

This one was hard to get through

So many new names, so many situations drawn out, made this one hard to keep pushing through to the end. Push through (worth it), just be prepared for a long haul.

Another Entry In The 'Forgettable' Subset Of Books

Wheel Of Time story structure:
•Books 1-3: Worldbuild (Awesome)
•Books 4-6: Learn How To Use The Power (Excellent)
•Books 7-11: Shuffle Alliances & Enemies* (Meh)
•Books 12-14 - Sanderson: You'll see (it gets Awesome again)

Don't get me wrong.. I don't think that Robert Jordan planned this story matrix a priori - the distinctions between groups of novels just turned out that way.. and these "world enriching" books are *absolutely* worth reading:
Books 7-11 add much-appreciated color to the author's peerless imaginings; consolidate the personalities of incredibly fascinating characters (Rand, Mat, Perrin, Nynaeve, Egwene, Elayne, et al); reiterate the "recurrent history/prophecy" theme of the entire WoT series; and put readers directly into Jordan's world (making it incredibly easy to immerse themselves into the illusion of reality).

It's just that nothing NEW happens. No important characters make a first appearance in these books. No unfamiliar settings are explored. No new aspects of the magic system are developed. In fact, No truly consequential story elements are introduced at all.
Instead, characters deal with inner conflicts.. while factions within groups (like Aes Sedai, Aiel, Seanchan, White Cloaks, Sea Folk, Asha'man, Two-Rivers Folk, etc.) struggle/battle/maneuver/scheme for predominance. You could conceivably skip any or all of these installments without missing anything important.

What you *will* miss, however, is some outstanding narration. Kate Reading and Michael Kramer continue the excellent performance that characterizes their work on the entire series.. but are particularly impressive in this episode. They read the book and characters with unsurpassed quality: both of them exhibiting spot-on diction, timbre, cadence, and pacing - but also an unmatched interested tone and voice-acting that portrays Jordan's characters *perfectly* and makes it easy to instantly recognize who is speaking to who.

Altogether, fans of WoT should invest the Credit in 'Winter's Heart'.. it merits a respectable 7.5 stars out of 10 and introduces a number of - at the very least - "interesting" story threads among our heroes.
If, however, you aren't all that invested in the series or decide you don't have the time or money, you can feel free to skip it.

[Incidentally: The way that Jordan writes the Seanchan is sheer genius: truly detestable traditions discussed as matter-of-fact "well of course we torture our slaves and keep women in kennels" cultural "realities" inspires readers/listeners to *despise* the entire race]