So....do you want the good news or the bad news?

Ok, bad news first.

1) This is mostly a really dull read. The first two-thirds of this book are completely superfluous. Nothing much happens until Chapter 19, which is more than 2/3 of the way through.

2) A large portion of this book has to do with Aes Sedai politics and in-fighting. This is completely unremarkable, especially as it typically does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to advance the plot. Prepare yourself for lots of passive-aggressive insults and dress-smoothing.

3) Something huge happens at the end of Winter's Heart. I won't say what it is here, because spoilers, but it is monumental. It changes the direction of the plot and the fates of many characters entirely. Instead of continuing with this very interesting development, however, Jordan barely mentions it here.

4) Mat, Elayne, and Perrin are wasted here. Their storylines are not interesting and pretty poorly written. Rand barely appears.

The good news:

1) Nynaeve DOES NOT APPEAR IN THIS BOOK!!! She is mentioned a couple of times but we are spared her braid pulling, her incompetence, and her bitchery. Unfortunately, this also means that Lan is absent, but that's something I'm willing to accept.

2) Once things start happening, they REALLY happen. The last third of this book contained two amazingly good WTF moments that hold a lot of promise for upcoming volumes.

3) When Rand does finally appear, it is very good. His character becomes more and more complicated and interesting with each entry in this series.

4) Very little time is spent in the dream world, which means we are do not have to read extensive descriptions of dresses and Egwene's sex life.

5) Speaking of Egwene: when the book starts cooking, she really comes into her own for (possibly) the first time in the series. She stops being a caricature of a caricature of a woman and becomes a powerful, interesting, intelligent female character. This book is largely about her, and that focus pays off in spades.

So, overall, not a book I ever need to read again, but I still look forward to the next installment.