Review: Winter's Heart

Winter's Heart by Robert Jordan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**Contains spoilers for previous books.

As is becoming a pattern in this series, Winter's Heart advances two major plot-points (Rand, Mat) while the others move into the background and stall for a while (Perrin, Elayne) or are completely absent (Egwene this time). There is more action in this book than the last, though, and it's not too full of brooding and self-doubt, making it a significant improvement on the last book.

Mat is back, trying to escape Ebou Dar with the Seanchan everywhere, battling his conscience about leaving Aes Sedai and Sea Folk as damane, and he is more enslaved as Tylin's Pretty than ever. This part goes quite slowly, since we've already spent a whole book with him being Tylin's Pet and wanting to leave Ebou Dar, but the Seanchan being involved does change it up a little bit. And the escape actually does happen in this book, so we have a resolution or two in Mat's story, as well.

Rand's story is the one that moves the most. He finds himself caught in the same room with Min, Aviendha, and Elayne all at once, which finally advances the sister-wives' story. He introduces us to a new city where channeling is impossible and violence outlawed. His adventures there include dealing with the Asha'man who tried to kill him at the end of The Path of Daggers. And finally, there is a significant goal that Rand has been heading towards since about book 5. That goal is finally reached, and it's as climactic an ending as you could wish!

I would have to say this is the strongest of the slower-moving middle books in this series, even though it does feel bogged down in parts.



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