Welcome! After many months of chapter-by-chapter re-read and reaction blogging of Robert Jordan’s The Fires of Heaven – the fifth book of The Wheel of Time series – I have made it to yet another end and another beginning in this circle-themed series. You can find my chapter recaps HERE.
Now I will endeavor to review the entire book as a completed project. There will be no spoilers beyond this book in my review. There will be spoilers for *this* book and the first three volumes, though.
“With his coming are the dread fires born again. The hills burn, and the land turns sere. The tides of men run out, and the hours dwindle. The wall is pierced, and the veil of parting raised. Storms rumble beyond the horizon, and the fires of heaven purge the earth. There is no salvation without destruction, no hope this side of death.”
— fragment from The Prophecies of the Dragon believed translated by N’Delia Basolaine First Maid and Swordfast to Raidhen of Hoi Cuchone (circa 400 AB)
The Plot
via wiki
In Rhuidean, worried by news that Aiel from other clans join the cause of his enemy Couladin, Rand al’Thor confers with the Clan Chiefs who have recognised him as the Car’a’carn – Chief of Chiefs – on how to win over the four remaining Clans. Darkhounds attack and he kills them with balefire, a powerful weave that burns a person’s thread backwards through the Pattern, undoing their past actions for a short time prior to being consumed by balefire. Egwene al’Vere continues to chafe under the instruction of Aiel Wise Ones, eager to learn faster than they think is wise, and Moiraine Damodred grows increasingly desperate to find her way into Rand’s circle of trust.
In Tanchico, Nynaeve and Elayne set out for the White Tower—only to receive news that it has suffered a schism. Elaida, a Red sister and former advisor to Queen Morgase Trakand, has deposed and replaced the Former Amyrlin Seat and ally Siuan Sanche.
Unwilling to accept an outsider as their prophesied hero, the Shaido and their allies follow Couladin across the Dragonwall to conquer the “treekillers” and wetlanders. Rand leads the seven Aiel Clans who have recognised him in pursuit and is followed in turn by the four of the undecided Aiel Clans. Along the way they are ambushed by Darkfriends and Shadowspawn but arrive in time to save the city of Cairhien and defeat the Shaido, in part thanks to the memories of long dead generals the Eelfinn have placed in Matrim Cauthon’s mind. Couladin is killed in single combat by Mat, while Rand is attacked from afar by either Rahvin or Sammael during the course of the battle.
As Rand establishes his control of Cairhien, a nation torn apart by scheming and war, he learns that the Forsaken Rahvin has deposed Queen Morgase who is presumed dead. Furious at himself for not acting sooner, Rand prepares to travel to Andor personally and kill Rahvin in revenge, but is delayed by Moiraine. Lanfear attacks Rand who is unwilling to fight back. Rand is saved by the sacrifice of Moirane who foresaw Lanfear’s attack.
Siuan, Leane and Min make way to Salidar, where the Aes Sedai who have escaped the Tower after Elaida’s coup have made a temporary base. Siuan subtly convinces Sheriam and the other Aes Sedai there that they must support Rand. Gareth Bryne follows shortly after, in pursuit of Siuan, and the Aes Sedai have him agree to help build an army for them.
Meanwhile, Nynaeve and Elayne seek out the rebel Aes Sedai accompanied by Thom and Juilin, discovering the forkroot herb that incapacitates channelers. Stuck in cities that are occupied by the Whitecloaks and with Elaida’s agents trying to capture Elayne, they disguise themselves and join a travelling circus menagerie, performing acts through villages and towns. Despite Egwene warning Nynaeve through a dream about the dangers of the world of dreams, Nynaeve still visits Tel’aran’rhiod alone trying to work with Birgitte to track the forsaken Moghedien. Eventually Moghedien traps Nynaeve and Birigitte in the world of dreams, and the pair narrowly escapes, however at the cost of Birigitte being pushed into the waking world severely injured. Elayne bonds Birigitte as her warder to help save her life.
The girls make way to Samara, which is rife with troubles. Masema – who has named himself the prophet and taken over the city with zealous followers of the dragon reborn – and the Whitecloaks who have entered the town are on the brink of war. Nynaeve meets Galad there again, who has joined the Whitecloaks. Both he and Masema promise to help them get a ship to escape the city. After much trouble, Nynaeve, Elayne, Thom and Juilin, now accompanied by a band of Shienaran soldiers, make way to Salidar.
Nynaeve confronts Moghedien in a dream again, but this time she is successful in ensnaring her with an a’dam. Finding out that Rand may be in danger, she drags the forsaken along to help save him through the world of dreams.
Rand Skims to Caemlyn, where his forces enter a trap laid by Rahvin. Lightning bolts triggered by Rahvin kill Mat, Asmodean and Aviendha, which causes Rand to recklessly attack the Forsaken. His battle with Rahvin leads him into the world of dreams, where with the assistance of Nynaeve he destroys Rahvin with Balefire. Upon returning to the waking world, he discovers that his balefire undid Rahvin’s killings of Mat, Aviendha and Asmodean. Before waking, Nynaeve realises Moghedien is posing as a refugee in the rebel Aes Sedai camp and doses her with forkroot, allowing her to be captured in the real world.
WHAT I LIKED
Nynaeve
I think one could fairly argue that this is *her* book. More than any other character, Nynaeve is given an individual character arc as she learns to manage her feelings of fear, helplessness, and a dangerous enemy. Around midway through the book, Moghedien gives Nynaeve a pretty thorough defeat, though one Nynaeve manages to escape from. The book ends with the former Wisdom of Emond’s Field getting the best of Moghedien in their third confrontation as well as then saving Rand in his fight against Rahvin.
Nynaeve is not a completed character even at the end of the book. She still has a channeling block and she undoubtedly has anger and control issues that are tied into that. However, more than any other character in this book, she tackled her deficiencies head on and overcame them. I do not think Jordan tops her fight against the Spider (from The Shadow Rising) in this one, but he gives her a completely differently and equally satisfying victory. In the first fight, Nynaeve really had a realization moment regarding her own strength. This time, when strength was not enough by itself, she found within herself an immense amount of cleverness, too. She overcame an enemy that matched her for strength and outshone her in knowledge, by outwitting her.
Pefection.
Moiraine
For most of the series, I have not particularly enjoyed this character. She is Jordan’s female Gandalf-type character, but without the humor and love that underpinned Tolkien’s ancient wizard. Moiraine is a manipulative bully. She is often short-sighted and short-tempered. She has made it clear on multiple occasions that she’d sacrifice the lives of her Emond’s Field flock to achieve her big aim. As a reader, those qualities made it hard to like her, even when she was in the right.
In The Fires of Heaven, Moiraine finds humility, success, and love. I particularly liked how Jordan cleverly paired her change with the parallel of how women are said to channel saidar. They paradoxically control it by surrendering to it. The moment she surrendered to Rand, she began exerting enormous influence over him and he welcomed it. Within that “surrender” to Rand, though, is that she finally begins to show him respect. He wanted help, but he wanted respect first. He refused her help until he got it.
Related to this change of mindset in Moiraine, we see change in her to others as well. She’s kinder to everyone as well, keeping Egwene’s secret and helping and directing her where possible. We see the biggest part of her change after her self-sacrifice. First, we learn that she had a LOT of foreknowlege about that self-sacrifice and she walked into it anyway, because it was the best thing for the world. That was moving and heroic. She also leaves behind a caring and encouraging note to Rand. She admits her own past mistakes and tells him he will do well. This is massive character growth. She also thinks to leave a note for Thom, with Rand, promising to give him information the White Tower has long withheld from him. All things considered, that is a very thoughtful thing to remember to do.
Her big heroic moment in the confrontation with Lanfear was handled perfectly and plausibly by Jordan. She was not remotely a match, but she manages to catch the Forsaken by surprise. The foreshadowing earlier in the book, regarding Moiraine’s obsessive visiting of the red doorframe ter’angreal is made clear in that scene. She knew what she had to do, how it would happen, and she had to act out her part.
She did. She was a hero.
Mat
While he did not have a lot to do in this book, what he did was incredible. We get in this book the real payoff of Mat’s trip to Rhuidean in the previous installment, with Mat unintentionally (but due to necessity) starting his own Army and then winning several battles against the Shaido. These scenes were highlight moments in the book. We need MOAR Mat going forward.
My only real complaint with his story was that Jordan had him fight and kill Couladin “off screen.” The flashback memory of what happened was cool, but not a sufficient replacement for what we missed.
Rand
He is the main character of the series. He also continues to get by primarily with the help of his friends and allies. That trend continued in this book, with Mat defeating Couldadin, Moiraine defeating Lanfear, and Nynaeve doing most of the world against Rahvin. I like this about him.
Jordan has done a great job of writing a slow descent into madness. Rand took overt steps toward insanity in this book, almost completely forgetting who he is during a long stretch of the battle in Caemlyn. The enjoyment of the character is that from inside his head, his insanity is kind of easy to follow. If you imagine Rand from the outside, he’s increasingly emotionally erratic, he knows things he shouldn’t know, and he talks to himself. This unnerves both his friends and his enemies. This makes Rand a unique and interesting protagonist for the very well-worn epic fantasy turf.
Lanfear
In some ways, the confrontation with Lanfear reminded me of Rand’s fight with Ishamael in The Dragon Reborn. Like Ishamael in that book, Lanfear was largely not present in this one. The difference between the two though is that this fight was a slow build over multiple books, not a repeat of the same two guys for a third book in a row. Even while not present on the page, Lanfear was present in this book as a looming threat. That’s something Jordan did not quite get right with Ishamael in the third book.
Lanfear has been a ticking timebomb in Rand’s life since her character was introduced. Her slow-build discovery of Rand’s sexual relationship with Aviendha in this book was done extraordinarily well. Then when the scariest woman of all time (arguably) finally finds out Rand has been with another woman, she goes berserk. It was satisfying because the Readers have been waiting to see what an unhinged Lanfear might look like.
Throughout the series, Lanfear was my favorite villain. She was unpredictable. Her motivations are layered in that she has some apparent internal conflicts. Those conflicts – and how she resolves them – make sense. In The Fires of Heaven, we find out at last that she absolutely deserves a nickname like “The Daughter of the Night.” The way she killed Hadnan Kadere and then casually tortured multiple very strong channelers, all at once, was terrifying. Rand’s inability to bring himself to fight back was also revelatory in the best and worst (but most enjoyable to read) way.
This character was great because you can absolutely make a case that she would have rejoined the Light, if she could have done so for selfish reasons (i.e. ‘with’ Rand and ruling the world.) We haven’t met any other villains as interesting.
WHAT I DID NOT LIKE
Elayne
The main purpose of Elayne in this book was to be the bickering sparring partner of Nynaeve. Those scenes were irritating to read, and made some chapters of this book a slog to get through. While Nynaeve was given a lot of redemptive scenes apart from these moments, Elayne really wasn’t. Her big moment was saving Birgitte, via bonding her as a Warder, but that moment lacked any emotional heft because Jordan didn’t really give us a sense that Elayne was risking herself in any way while doing that.
Part of my issue with the character more broadly is that she seems designed to be two things that come across as in conflict with each other. On the one hand, she is politically savvy and worldly due to growing up in a Royal Palace. On the other hand, she is spoiled and ignorant of how human beings should be led. (For example, her attempt to bully the Seanchan woman into coming with them was absurd – so much so I celebrated Birgitte for standing down and letting the woman twist Elayne’s arm until it hurt her quite a bit.) The Daughter-Heir is always kind of out of control, whether that be writing Rand contradictory letters (with very little justification for doing so), strongly flirting with Thom while allegedly pining for Rand, or screaming at the sky in frustration – while their party was trying to flee the circus near the end of her time there.
Elayne needed *something* kind of big and redeeming to happen for her in this book and that moment never really came.
The Tight Rope Walking Plot
I want to be clear here. I enjoyed the Valan Luca character a lot and I absolutely did not mind the girls hiding out in his show. Thom transitioning gleeman skills into circus perforamnce skills makes sense. Birgitte doing the same makes sense. Nynaeve standing still and being fired at makes sense. What bothered me, to the point of great annoyance, was Elayne and Juilin learning to be legitimate tight-rope walkers in a matter of weeks. I think Jordan just got carried away with this subplot and needed Elayne to have something to do.
But wait, you say, didn’t Rand and Mat learn skills in a few weeks during The Eye of the World? Yes they did. However, Rand learning to play notes on a flute, and Mat juggling, are both FAR cries from Elayne and Juilin having a tight-rope walk set at the circus.
The Flight from the Tower
Siuan and Co. traveling cross-country was just never that interesting to me. In a series with so much else going on, it’s just hard to take on another major character five books in, and then to get into Aes Sedai politics at the same time. Siuan and Leane pretending to be enemies needed a hook for me as a reader. I don’t know what that needed to be… maybe leading the Readers to believe the beef between then was real? That would have given Nynaeve’s moment of noticing more weight, too. There also isn’t really a sense of stakes for this subterfuge. What will happen if the Aes Sedai find out? They’ll get excluded from meetings and probably switched or something. I need to be invested with a sense of it being important that those two are steering the Salidar ship. It was never really impressed upon me that it was vital for Siuan to be in leadership so I don’t really care yet if she succeeds or fails in manipulating them.
Jordan doesn’t really disguise the Siuan / Bryne love plot, either. I just don’t enjoy it that much. I don’t think romance arcs are Jordan’s strength. I never really found the hook in this subplot to really make me care about these two being together. I think a lot of that is not really knowing or being invested in either prior to this book. It was essentially “instant love” with Bryne following a pair of eyes across the continent.
Yawn.
INTERESTING NEW STORY ELEMENTS
The scope of the story is now global.
For the first time, nearly all of the remaining Forsaken are involved – or soon will be. We know Rand still has to deal with a lot of his own continent, and that the Seanchan Empire, the Sea Folk, and the lands beyond the Aiel Waste are still out there, too. As a result, the series really starts to feel like it *needs* to be massive in this book.
Balefire
Jordan really cleverly used and unleashed his version of time travel in this one by having Rand deploy so much balefire on a character that it undid that character’s recent actions. We have been introduced to this One Power weave, previously, but this book gave us that power being used along with its potential ramifications. This scene, despite being a victory for Rand, made it pretty clear why this weave was ultimately banned and ceased to by used by both Darkfriends and the Light during the War of Power. The ramification of this power are immense, far-reaching, and a threat to reality itself.
I particularly liked as a Reader that since balefire was used successfully by Rand that the lesson of “don’t use this weave” was almost certainly not learned by him. I feel as though a harder lesson will be learned later and now that moment is set up well here.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was a solid installment of the series, with a particularly strong and plot-moving ending. Nynaeve was the real star of this book and Jordan did her justice, with a really fun arc. Series mainstays Moiraine and Lanfear both now appear to be off the board, but they left in one of the best scenes of the series. Rand is moving toward his destiny, but growing increasingly insane in the process – which makes him an increasingly interesting protagonist, particularly in his own point of view scenes. The scope expands dramatically in this book in all respects, including making its in-story plot more global and adding more POV characters.
The book also suffers some of the weaker moments in the series to date, too, notably the long slog of bickering between Nynaeve and Elayne while the two were hiding among Valan Luca’s menageries. Those were the first chapters of the series which felt difficult to get through. The book also expands the scope of its point of view characters to include Morgase and Siuan, and neither really were particularly compelling.
The good far outweighs the bad, though, and I fully recommend The Fires of Heaven as another excellent installment in The Wheel of Time series.
