I liked it much more than I thought I would; I was getting kind of bored with the series when I read the 9th book, I guess making a small break was a good idea :) I even thought it was a pretty short read - which, for 700+ pages is not bad.
The main characters of this book are Mat, Perrin, Egwene and Elayne; we don't see much of the others, including Rand. It is pretty slow-paced and most of the action is purely political, at quite large scales though. I really enjoyed the Mat/Tuon story, I thought it was funny and cute.
Not mind-blowing, but a nice read nonetheless.