The Fires of Heaven - Robert Jordan

 

THE FIRES OF HEAVEN

Book 5 of "The Wheel of Time"

Read about the other books of the series HERE

ISBN - 978-1-85723-209-7

FIRST PUBLISHED - 1993

PAGES - 912

GENRE -  Epic Fantasy

BINDING - Paperback

AUTHOR - Robert Jordan

BEST-SELLERS - The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, The Shadow Rising

SYNOPSIS - The bonds and wards that hold the Great Lord of the Dark are slowly fading, 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 their 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.

And the Fires of Heaven scour the world.

QUOTES - 

Schemes within schemes. The Great Serpent is a good sign for you Aes Sedai, I think. Someday you may swallow yourselves by accident.

• Melaine

The Creator made women to please the eye and trouble the mind.

• Two Rivers saying

Men always believe they are in control of everything around them. When they find out they are not, they think they have failed, instead of learning a simple truth women already know.

• Aviendha

When a woman says she will obey you, of her own will, it is time to sleep lightly and watch your back.

• Asmodean

All he wanted from life was some good wine, a game of dice, and a pretty girl or three.

• Matrim Cauthon

FL Speak -  This is where it was supposed to start all over again. This is where Rand fights back with the world as his soldiers....this is where Robert Jordan falters in his writing...[only a bit though, the book carries an explosive ending]

And we are back at the Aeil Waste with Rand, Mat and Egwene together with the Aeil. And Rand is doing a great job of making things harder for himself. Egwene on the other hand is still an apprentice to the Wise Ones, which means she gets her bottoms spanked more than once. Jokes aside, she has learned to move about the Dream World where she secretly meets with Nynaeve and Elayne.

Lets talk about the shockers from the last book. Asmodean, one of the Forsaken is Rand's captive and is teaching him how to make new weaves and The White Tower is broken internally. Siuan, the ex-Amrylin is on the run with young Min and of all people, Logain. Apparently there is a deal of some short.

Need more of Min...she's cute.

Aviendha is one awesome Aeil chick [Far Dareis Mai turned into apprentice Wise One] Its her scenes with Rand that actually provides the much needed comic relief to the book. Not to forget the fact that she's ALSO in love with Rand. Rand is turning out to be the stud. He's in love with 2 women...oh wait, Min might be the third one, if her viewing comes true.

Moiraine is acting weird. She has lost the edge and is practically begging Rand to listen to her counsel. As much as I'd like to see Rand tame the Aes Sedai, Moiraine's behavior suggests that there is a huge twist coming. Nynaeve and Elayne are still hunting the Black Ajah and now we have the Whitecloaks in the story as well. It looks like Galad and Gawyn are yet to join the label of main characters.

Of the boys, Perrin is blatantly absent from the book. So is Loial. Thom and Juilin are hitchhiking along with Nynaeve and Elayne. Mat, on the other hand, is getting more than he can chew. He desperately wants to be away from Rand when the madness hits him but is unable to. And to make matters worse, there are a lot of memories of other people long dead inside his head. And those memories make him a battle general. Not to mention his brilliant luck. [I've always loved Mat, specially because of the flaming language he uses. Oh yeah, Mat's the Man!]

I do admit that reading about Rand and then jumping to hunting the Black Ajah and then stumbling upon some Whitecloak plot and again to the half hearted plans of the rebel Aes Sedai in hiding, this book can give you a massive headache. And then Mr. Roberts brings back the magnificence. The battle with the Shaido Aeil where Mat displays his skill as a battle leader and the showdown with one of the Forsaken, Rahvin.

There is one huge, huge surprise as well. Something that even Rand hadn't predicted.

5 books down...9 more to go. A Memory of Light, here I come... 

PROPHECY : 

And it shall come to pass that what men made shall be shattered,

and the Shadow shall lie across the Pattern of the Age,
and the Dark One shall once more lay his hand upon the world of man.
Women shall weep and men quail as the nations of the earth are rent like rotting cloth.
Neither shall anything stand or abide... 

The Shadow shall rise across the world, and darken every land, even to the smallest corner, and there shall be neither Light nor safety. And he who shall be born of the Dawn, born of the Maiden, according to Prophecy, he shall stretch forth his hands to catch the Shadow, and the world shall scream in the pain of salvation. All Glory be to the Creator, and to the Light, and to he who shall be born again. May the Light save us from him.

RATING - 4/5 stars

PRICE - INR 350/-

Dovie'andi se tovya sagain