The Fires of Heaven
Robert Jordan
989 pages
published in 1993
The Fires of Heaven is the fifth book in the Wheel of Time series, following on directly from The Shadow Rising. It’s the first book of the series not to star all three of the main protagonists, with the Perrin storyline in the Two Rivers left until the next book in the series. As such it’s another indication of how out of control the series has grown by this point, with only three out of the four (!) storylines from The Shadow Rising continued here, none of which come to a real conclusion here either.
However, this is still one of my favourite volumes in the series, as it shows Rand and Mat kicking some serious ass and while plotlines don’t conclude here, they do seem to progress, something missing in the next few volumes. Reading this only took me two days or so, which is testament to the way Jordan was able to keep your attention if you’re willing to be drawn in.