Books with lots of characters and backstory are fine, but not to the point where you need a scorecard to keep track of whos who.

There are 3 main male and 3 main femal characters. Then add the head bad guy, his 12 forsaken, their varios minions. Next add a boyfriend or girfriend to each character. Finally add various officals, and people who join the team, people from history, a dozen evil `sisters’ and you are looking at close to 100 characters.

And just to make in more difficult, all the the ancient ones have multiple names, and several of the other character use aliases. The characters will use someones true or alias first or last name willy-nilly. I actually had to make a note sheet with all the characters, and who was in what group.

Considering that the book is near 1000 pages, that is a much one os R.A. Salvatores Dark Elf Trilogy, but not nearly as satifiying. The story hops around between all the characters. Is so bad that at one point that the mother of one of the girls who likes Ran, one of the main males, meets a ex-wife of one of the Lords from when Rand was King of a city (for about 300 pages) and one of the 12 forsaken. There was an enitre chapter of them meeting.

The story hops around so much that you barely get to no anyone. It wouldn’t be so bad but the book is so tedious. There is so much bloat in the book that the plot crawls along.

But the worst part of the book is its rampant sexism. Holy cow, if the author wrote a book treating women the way men are treat NOW would have a book burning party. The women are constatly making derogatory comments and treating men like slaves. (i.e. Male bodyguards are passed around from `owners’ and forced to marry whoever the owner says.) Everyone in power is female and they make rude and sexist remarks constantly. I am actually hoping that every woman in this book dies and slow and painful death.

The story picks up at the end. I’ve still got 2 more to go in my boxset. Oh, joy. Maybe I can get a root canal instead
Rating: 2 / 5

You all know how badly this series has been bashed. And all I can say is that its all very true. Those who still love it are a minority for a reason. Robert Jordan can be even more perverted than most authors who allegedly describe sexual activity. While Goddkind’s scenes are excessive, people like George R.R. Martin restrict it to a paragraph. Jordan writes about men who pursue women they think they love but throughout this series I have never seen a shred or act of true love. EVERYONE in his books is either handsome or beautiful (he emphasizes things like clothing, and treats people like scenery). He TRIES to make us feel happy or sorry when characters fall in or out of love, but no one really cares. He’s trying to use ideas out of sitcoms like “Friends” or soap operas. Of course its a very bad attempt. Now, each book is an episode of the most boring series ever. All of Jordan’s characters are the same piece of trash, recycled for each book. I don’t care if he has a wonderful skill with words. Anyone could do that. A real storyteller would have a better understanding of human nature. A real writer could at least be more original. Jordan is failure.

Nothing happens in the beginning. Or in the middle. Rand’s story only gets exciting at the end. Forget Elayne’s and Nynaeve’s chapters. Take my advice: skip pages when you feel the even slightest desire to do so. Heck, skip whole chapters! I’ll admit, the first 3 might be worth your time. But each book is 600-900 pages and for so much writing, there is not enough. And book 4 is when it crashes.

I’m tired of the stereotypes. Literature has endured all these “heroic epics.” Everything is so predictable. They say Wheel of Time is “one of the best works of fantasy.” Just go ahead and read all those other contemporary novels like “Sword of Truth” or “Sword of Shannara.” Pathetic. All I can say is that this entire genre is going downhill, and without its classics, its just wasted paper. I hope all you Jordanites actually find something worth reading. So you can see how bad Robert Jordan really is. I never personally attached myself to this series and I am glad I didn’t. Sometimes, stories of heroism are garbage. The most beautiful stories tell us our saddest and most realistic thoughts. I say get A Game of Thrones. Maybe George R.R. Martin can save the genre.
Rating: 1 / 5

However, it is easy to forget that the essay is a masterpiece in itself. Essentially Thoreau’s highly individual expression of his mentor Emerson’s self-reliance doctrine applied to government, it has a wealth of depth and nuance despite its brevity. The words are few but the implications endless; it has enough food for proverbial thought to last a lifetime. The gist is very clear, but the implications have spoken very differently to many different people. The work’s nature – and Thoreau’s generally – is such that it and he are championed by everyone from neocons to libertarians to liberals, and the truly notable thing is that all are justified. This underscores the importance of reading the essay for ourselves.

Its main query is “What does the individual owe the state?,” the answer being a resounding “Nothing.” Thoreau takes the maxim that the government that governs least governs best to its logical conclusion by wishing for one that governs not at all – a brave wish very few have seriously dared to make or even conceive. He makes a highly principled stand for individual rights and autonomy, arguing very persuasively that people should be able to go about their business without interference. This of course sounds very much like current libertarians, and their position has indeed hardly ever been better argued. Many related and implied issues – protests against taxation, conscription, etc. – also seem to support them. However, it is important to remember that the essay’s crux and most famous section – Thoreau’s account of a night spent in jail for refusing to pay a poll tax because he did not want to support war or slavery – was and is immensely liberal. Few issues can be more central to current liberalism than an anti-war stance, and slavery was the era’s great liberal cause. All this must be kept firmly in mind amid the many attempts to reduce Thoreau to a current party platform. He was at once too simple and too complex for this and would not have suffered himself to be thus reduced; nor does the essay justify it.

Integral as all this is, the work’s core point is arguably a new self-reliance argument above and beyond immediate practical considerations. Thoreau certainly had a practical, political streak, especially compared to relative idealists like Emerson, but he thought individuality more sacred than anything. He articulated this more fully elsewhere, but it is very present here. His work is thus in many ways the best kind of self-help material – and, unlike the mass of current self-help tripe littering bookshelves, is intellectually and even aesthetically pleasing. Thoreau was the most thoroughly local writer that can be imagined, but his willingness to look deep inside himself for the eternal truths present in all people has made him an inspiration to millions and millions of people from across the political spectrum and indeed the world. This essay is a major part of his legacy and thus one of the very few works that literally everyone should read. Few can be the same afterward, and it will change many lives; it is nothing less than one of the most important documents ever written, and its value simply cannot be exaggerated. It is an excellent primer for those new to Thoreau, and those who have not already done so should open their minds to him immediately – and once done, they will never be closed again.

Rating: 5 / 5

One thing it did confirm for me, which I had long suspected, is that most conservative bloggers are paid writers or professional political operatives. While there are one or two of those on the Left of the political blogosphere, most of the Progressive Bloggers write on their own time and own dime.
Rating: 3 / 5

A famous quote from this work is “That government is best which governs least”. Today’s bloated government would literally drive him mad. I’ve also read “Walden” and it expresses similar sentiments.

This short pamphlet should be read by everyone. I would personally love to see less government and agree that civil disobedience is a very good way to encourage change. It sounds like politicians back then were similar to what we have today. Some things never change.

These kindle freebies have given me a great and easy way to review several items I have wanted to read for years.
Rating: 5 / 5