The Shadow Rising

by Robert Jordan

Paperback, 960 pages

Published Oct. 2, 2012 by Tor Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-7653-3467-1

(161 reviews)

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow. The seals of Shayol Ghul are weak now, and the Dark One reaches out. The Shadow is rising to cover humankind. In Tar Valon, Min sees portents of hideous doom. Will the White Tower itself be broken? In the Two Rivers, the Whitecloaks ride in pursuit of a man with golden eyes, and in pursuit of the Dragon Reborn. In Cantorin, among the Sea Folk, High Lady Suroth plans the return of the Seanchan armies to the mainland. In the Stone of Tear, the Lord …

10 editions

Landrin201 reviewed The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #4)

Review from a long-time fan (spoilers for previous books, not for this one)

5 stars

The Shadow Rising is where most fans really fall in love with this series, for good reason.

Firstly, and this is a mild spoiler: you're not getting an ending identical to the last 3 books again. This ending is radically different, and significantly better.

Second, the character development in this book is absolutely amazing. Every single character develops in this book, and if you re-read The Dragon Reborn the development becomes VERY apparent. This is also where you start to really see the scope of what Jordan is writing; he develops the world enormously in this book, in ways you may not be expecting going in. The previous books made the world feel big; this one made it feel deep.

I think this book is among the best in the series for juggling the ensemble. There are 3 major plotlines in the book, all following different characters in different parts …

The Shadow Rising is where most fans really fall in love with this series, for good reason.

Firstly, and this is a mild spoiler: you're not getting an ending identical to the last 3 books again. This ending is radically different, and significantly better.

I think this book is among the best in the series for juggling the ensemble. There are 3 major plotlines in the book, all following different characters in different parts of the world. No one plotline is given too much attention, and all of them mirror each other in really interesting ways. None of the plotlines feels shoehorned in or inorganic; they all work really well together.

This is easily in the top 6 of the series, without a doubt.

Strakul reviewed The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #4)

Review of 'The Shadow Rising' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is a great book in The Wheel of Time series. It picks up where The Dragon Reborn left off and sets the stage for a lot of cool things to happen with the various characters. It has a little bit of everything without focusing too much on a single group of characters, which will become increasingly hard as the cast of characters continues to grow.

Check out my full review at my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2022/01/book-review-shadow-rising-by-robert.html

Strakul reviewed The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #4)

Review of 'The Shadow Rising' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Tavish reviewed The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (The Wheel Of Time, #5)

Review of 'The Shadow Rising' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Picking up some speed now.

Unruly Stacks reviewed The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (The Wheel Of Time, #5)

Review of 'The Shadow Rising' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I've been reading Leigh Butler's WOT Reread while reading these books, and it's added a lot of interesting insights to the experience. Happily, it hasn't lessened my appreciation of any of the books thus far. :)

stale cooper reviewed The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (The Wheel Of Time, #5)

Review of 'The Shadow Rising' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

As has generally been the case in this series, it got good and exciting at the end, but the ~35 hours (via audiobook) of buildup did not justify the payoff. When things are going down, this is a fun romp, but I have never understood Tolkien-esque fantasy's obsession with meticulous, but hollow, detail. Borges's worst nightmare. I'm taking a break from the series and am unsure if I'll return.

Sean Gursky reviewed The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (The Wheel Of Time, #5)

Review of 'The Shadow Rising' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

And the black tide rolled forward, howling wordlessly.

The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills and this story continues on. An enjoyable story but I think my biggest area of concern is that stories are bleeding together and what I thought was in book #3 was actually book #2, and the number of characters is increasing with each chapter.

The biggest area where I am having difficulty keeping the stories straight is with Rand and the Aiel. I hope that if any of those characters become prominent in future stories they are given a bit of an introduction to refresh my memory.

Still, I found all characters and chapters entertaining, there were some great battles (Goldeneyes) and I'm happily trucking along to book #5.

RxBrad reviewed The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (The Wheel Of Time, #5)

Review of 'The Shadow Rising' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This book started out rough. I came very, very close to giving up on this series when I had to endure 50-some odd pages of the female characters sitting around talking about boys.

Luckily, after that section of the book, it was actually halfway decent. Not great. Just tolerable. A battle here and there. Female characters still being awful nags, but at least that wasn't the majority of the book.

It's still going to be a chore to make it through all 14+ Wheel of Time books, I suspect. But, since I'm a masochist, bring on book 5.

Fulminata reviewed The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (The Wheel Of Time, #5)

Review of 'The Shadow Rising' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Note: I'm breaking my own rules by reviewing a book that I've not read recently. I read these books as they came out, so there's the possibility my opinions might change were I to read them again today, but I doubt it.

Still holding out hope at this point, but it's fading fast. I'm rapidly starting to hate nearly all the characters as they are proving to be a bunch of arrogant asshats that can't learn from their mistakes. Each and every one of them seems to always insist that they know what's best, despite nearly every one of their decisions so far being bad ones.

The Gnome King reviewed The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (The Wheel Of Time, #5)

Review of 'The Shadow Rising' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Book 4 of the wheel of time is pretty epic. there are a lot of things happening all over the place, i remember struggling to keep up with who was who and who was doing what, the scale of the story feels like is is almost out of the authors control. Luckily he does a grand job asserting his authority. I remember when I read this that i started writing notes, either cos I am dim or just OCD, who knows, but it helped.