I was listening to an audiobook of this book and I've been quite enjoying it. A lot of people have said that they found the books increasingly dull and had I been reading them as a traditional book I'm afraid I would have felt the same and given up. The story lends itself well to the audio book format though, and is good enough entertainment to listen to while cooking, doing housework, walking or doing a jigsaw puzzle.

I will say these two things about the audiobook, though.

1. Why did both the male and the female narrator suddenly after SIX WHOLE BOOKS decide to change the pronounciation of Moghedien's name? It took me upwards of 30 chapters to get used to that and to not automatically correct the pronounciation in my head every time she was mentioned. I suspect they may have found out that Robert Jordan had thought it was pronounced this new way, but then why, oh why, did he wait until the reading of book seven to say something? I found the change distracting and annoying. Especially when I don't really think that Egwene is supposed to rhyme with Elayne either... Not in my head anyway, but I sincerely hope they don't decide to change pronounciation of that as well.

2. Speaking of Elayne and the male narrator. Where did she suddenly get such an exaggerated phoney British accent from, which by the way is very badly done. I married an Englishman, alright? This has given me PLENTY of exposure to British English as spoken. I know what it sounds like. It does NOT sound like that. The funny thing is the female narrator doesn't give the character this sort of accent at all, so I really don't know where it came from.

As for the story itself, as mentioned it's slow moving, but I'm okay with that, because to me it doesn't feel bloated or deliberately prolonged. I listened to an audiobook that really did this very much not too long ago, and the Wheel of Time is nothing compared to that. Yes there are many things going on here, but at least they all have some relevance to the story and the characters. So far I haven't yet come across several chapters describing a 'really important siege of a really important city' which is then never mentioned again ever, just because the author thought it would give the character in question Cool Points.. THAT is bloating. THAT is deliberately prolonging. So yes, it's plodding on slowly, but that's okay, because I trust it will all become relevant. In seven books Robert Jordan has not yet managed to get completely lost in his own subplots and I trust him to continue to keep all his notes in order in the future.

Spoilers below this point.

Lan and Nyneave finally got married! FINALLY! I've been waiting for that since book one and I'm only sorry it happened off-screen. I should have liked to have been a first-hand witness to that, like with Perrin and Faile. But I'm willing to settle for this as long as they actually did get hitched at last. I got so giddy I had to run in and tell Husband that 'Lan and Nyneave got married!' even though he has no clue who they are.

Mat continues to be, well frankly, a pig. Everything is gambling and boobies with him when it isn't sulky teenager complaining or constantly swearing. He's a terrible misogynist and women in his eyes are only worth something as objects of desire, because whenever he gets to know a woman beyond that, they're always annoying him to no end and barely considered capable of thinking their own thoughts.

That said, though, Tylin's aggressive pursuit of him in Ebou Dar amounts to little less than sexual harrassment and rape, and it annoys me greatly to see this treated as a joke. Elayne gets all prissy with him when she thinks HE has seduced Tylin, but laughs her head off when he tells her it was the other way around. Okay, so he's getting a taste of his own medicine, but so far we haven't actually seen him or heard of him force anybody to his bed, which makes it an entirely different kettle of fish. Sexual harrassment is not a joke. Not ever. No means no, and it doesn't matter if the person being told no is a man or a woman, and it really annoys me that this is not addressed in any way. It's not okay.

Come to think of it, Berelain annoys me greatly for the same reason whenever she's in sniffing distance of Perrin, who's MARRIED for crying out loud and she will happily try to jump his bones right under the nose of his wife.

Tylin and Berelain, two women who strongly need a good, large dose of karma.