3.5 or 3.75 Stars.

This was a weird one. If I’d stopped reading halfway through, I would have given this one star. About midway, though, it suddenly picked up and became a page turner.

The usual cast of characters is here, more or less: Mat and Perrin (and Faile) seem largely wasted, as their chapters consist of page after page after page of strategizing. Nynave and Lan barely appear in this book, which isn’t such a bad thing. Neither do Min or Aviendha, which is. Thom is likewise sidelined, serving largely as a supporting character to Mat.

Elayne has a substantial number of pages devoted to her plight, but for the most part absolutely nothing happens. When something did finally happen, I’m afraid I rolled my eyes in disbelief. Also, I’m reasonably sure that pregnant women aren’t filled with rage every minute of every day but, having never been pregnant, perhaps I’m wrong.

Egwene, on the other hand, has an incredibly compelling storyline in this book and has become (I can’t believe I’m saying this) perhaps my favorite character. Rand is also pretty interesting and takes part in a crazy battle that really shocked me. Lews has definitely overstayed his welcome though.

Essentially, this was two books in one: the first terrible and the second fantastic. All of this, I suspect, really points toward Jordan’s inconsistency as a writer, but it mainly just makes me wish he’d had a better editor.