The Fires of Heaven
Finally finished The Fires of Heaven, the fifth book of the Wheel of Time series. Took longer than I'd expected. But then again, I did have various other things to do this week. Anyway, gonna cut the whole thing, because of spoilers and tl;dr.
First of all... God, that book was a drag to read! Well, not completely; it did have some awesome moments as well. But... The Elayne & Nynaeve arc was just painful to read, and not in a good way. They spent most of their time acting like PMSing highschoolers, and their storyline took probably half of the book or so. Ugh! Thank goodness they're in Salidar now.
But I'm getting ahead of myself here.
I loved most of Min's storyline in this one. All right, mostly because of Logain. So I always liked Logain, but never to quite this extent. I don't know whether this is a coping mechanism (trying to shift the fixation onto Logain because I know how Taim will end up) or if the dream the other night just affected me that much... Well, it did, but. Either way the result is that I just want to hug him and not let go.
That damn dream.
Anyway. On the previous read, I remember thinking that Moiraine became more tolerable after she swore that oath to Rand. Now I discovered that it wasn't like that at all. The whole situation was just somehow... wrong. And Rand acted like a bitch, too, a lot of the time. I did love his interaction with Asmodean, though.
And speaking of Asmodean... *looks around for something to smash* That - was - not - fair! It wasn't fair ten years ago and it's no less infuriating now and having known all along that it would happen makes not the slightest bit of difference! I know he was one of the Forsaken, but what are we ever told about him as a Forsaken? That he liked to bide his time and not do anything too risky. And that he originally joined the Shadow for the chance to live forever and make music for eternity. Oh, I'm sure he was probably as evil as they come, but we're given such a sympathetic view of the guy. And how he was literally ripped from everything he knew and held to be true and placed at the side of the man who should have been a mortal enemy. He was a drowning man grasping at straws and he took it all with such good grace that I couldn't possibly not feel sympathy for him. And we never even find out what the fuck exactly happened to him at the end. That's just not... That shit is just not acceptable. I'm sorry, Mr Jordan, but I'll probably never forgive you for this.
Ah well. And to think that this is nothing - nothing! - compared to the amount of frustration that awaits me once Taim appears. However much I might try to fixate on Logain instead, Taim has always been and probably will always be my favourite character in the series, and from what I've seen in discussions about the later books (that I haven't read yet at all) it looks more and more inevitable that he'll just turn out to have been a freaking Darkfriend all along. I will hate Jordan so much if and when that happens.
Anyway moving on with this book here. Mat. He's becoming more interesting still. I loved that scene with him and Lan going over the battle plan against the Shaido. And then later him taking charge of that battle when all he wanted was to get the fuck away from everything. And later yet, after the battle, the Tairen and the Cairhienin commander both wanting to follow him where ever he would lead. Oh, and him teaching the soldiers the lyrics of that song to distract himself from the fact that he was halfway bleeding to death.
So what else? Moiraine and Lanfear are out of the equation for now. Lan is on his way to Myrelle. Nynaeve is in Salidar, studying stilling and gentling and will accidentally Heal Logain in not too long. Egwene still hasn't confessed to the Aiel Wise Ones that she's not in fact Aes Sedai yet. Nynaeve collaring Moghedien. Davram Bashere showing up, only to be told that he can't have Taim.
Anyway this is probably enough for now. I'll be back to rant some more about Mazrim Taim when it becomes relevant.
Oh, almost forgot! I found this awesome pic of Logain on deviantArt. *purrrr*
First of all... God, that book was a drag to read! Well, not completely; it did have some awesome moments as well. But... The Elayne & Nynaeve arc was just painful to read, and not in a good way. They spent most of their time acting like PMSing highschoolers, and their storyline took probably half of the book or so. Ugh! Thank goodness they're in Salidar now.
But I'm getting ahead of myself here.
I loved most of Min's storyline in this one. All right, mostly because of Logain. So I always liked Logain, but never to quite this extent. I don't know whether this is a coping mechanism (trying to shift the fixation onto Logain because I know how Taim will end up) or if the dream the other night just affected me that much... Well, it did, but. Either way the result is that I just want to hug him and not let go.
That damn dream.
Anyway. On the previous read, I remember thinking that Moiraine became more tolerable after she swore that oath to Rand. Now I discovered that it wasn't like that at all. The whole situation was just somehow... wrong. And Rand acted like a bitch, too, a lot of the time. I did love his interaction with Asmodean, though.
And speaking of Asmodean... *looks around for something to smash* That - was - not - fair! It wasn't fair ten years ago and it's no less infuriating now and having known all along that it would happen makes not the slightest bit of difference! I know he was one of the Forsaken, but what are we ever told about him as a Forsaken? That he liked to bide his time and not do anything too risky. And that he originally joined the Shadow for the chance to live forever and make music for eternity. Oh, I'm sure he was probably as evil as they come, but we're given such a sympathetic view of the guy. And how he was literally ripped from everything he knew and held to be true and placed at the side of the man who should have been a mortal enemy. He was a drowning man grasping at straws and he took it all with such good grace that I couldn't possibly not feel sympathy for him. And we never even find out what the fuck exactly happened to him at the end. That's just not... That shit is just not acceptable. I'm sorry, Mr Jordan, but I'll probably never forgive you for this.
Ah well. And to think that this is nothing - nothing! - compared to the amount of frustration that awaits me once Taim appears. However much I might try to fixate on Logain instead, Taim has always been and probably will always be my favourite character in the series, and from what I've seen in discussions about the later books (that I haven't read yet at all) it looks more and more inevitable that he'll just turn out to have been a freaking Darkfriend all along. I will hate Jordan so much if and when that happens.
Anyway moving on with this book here. Mat. He's becoming more interesting still. I loved that scene with him and Lan going over the battle plan against the Shaido. And then later him taking charge of that battle when all he wanted was to get the fuck away from everything. And later yet, after the battle, the Tairen and the Cairhienin commander both wanting to follow him where ever he would lead. Oh, and him teaching the soldiers the lyrics of that song to distract himself from the fact that he was halfway bleeding to death.
So what else? Moiraine and Lanfear are out of the equation for now. Lan is on his way to Myrelle. Nynaeve is in Salidar, studying stilling and gentling and will accidentally Heal Logain in not too long. Egwene still hasn't confessed to the Aiel Wise Ones that she's not in fact Aes Sedai yet. Nynaeve collaring Moghedien. Davram Bashere showing up, only to be told that he can't have Taim.
Anyway this is probably enough for now. I'll be back to rant some more about Mazrim Taim when it becomes relevant.
Oh, almost forgot! I found this awesome pic of Logain on deviantArt. *purrrr*