Having conquered Caemlyn and Cairhien in the previous book, Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, begins to build an administration, but there are so many things to occupy his attentions. He has opened a new school in Cairhien, to do research and development in any and every field. He has opened another school near Caemlyn to train men to channel. Meanwhile, he's preparing a nasty surprise for his current nemesis, Sammael, who's hiding out in Illian these days and he just needs Mat there for it to be completely ready.
Meanwhile, rival factions of the Aes Sedai are sending embassies to him. He's pretty sure he knows which side he should trust, but before the end, he'll wonder if he should trust either side.
Mat heads down to Illian, but at the last minute gets diverted to an important mission, that ends up being pretty much the most frustrating one he has ever faced.
Meanwhile, Perrin, showing up again for the first time in two (or three?) books, returns from the Two Rivers where he defeated the Trolloc Hordes (well, not exactly hordes, but, you know...), and shows up on Rand's doorstep, offering to help. Now, if only Perrin could figure out what his wife wants.
Egwene gets called back to Salidar from where she's been learning from the Aiel dreamwalkers, and she suspects that she's going to be punished for passing herself off as Aes Sedai all these past months. Nynaeve and Elayne are holding Moghedien captive between the two of them, and may have just found out how to break the nasty heat wave that's been plaguing them. The only hitch is, they've got to go to Ebou Dar to do it. Whatever, though, they've been itching to get out of Salidar for a long time now, well, Nynaeve has, Elayne is not so sure.
The Forsaken are up to their usual sneaking around and plotting. Finally, it looks like they might get some success, with two more added to their numbers incognito. But they can't trust each other long enough to put together any kind of collective plan, so their plotting against each other as much as they are against Rand.
And the drama continues...
What I liked
The intrigue, the detail, the character development, the suspense. One of my favourite books of this series so far. The writing and story telling both seem to have improved. A solid addition to the series.
What I didn't like
Although the drama in this book was more palatable than in many of the previous books, it was still present. Elayne, Aviendha, and Min can't decide whether to fight over Rand or share him; Rand isn't sure he wants to be shared or forget about any kind of relationship altogether, if only he knew what was going on... Perrin can't figure out what's up with his wife, Faile. She's angry at him, but why? And a good many pages are devoted to that particular piece of soap opera... Gawyn thinks Rand killed his mother, and even though he's madly in love with Egwene, who tells him Rand hasn't killed Morgase, he still wants to kill Rand, maybe just on principle. And he won't listen to reason. Actually, none of the characters seem able to listen to reason... Anyways, yeah. It's just weird and mostly pointless drama.
Conclusion
Fun, adventurous, suspenseful, interesting. I pretty much tore right through this one. It's gripping. Some boring parts, and lots of explanations, but overall, packed with suspense. A real page turner. I'll give it 4.5/5 tricky witches. I can't recommend starting anywhere but at the beginning of the series, but so far, it does seem to get better and more interesting and more suspenseful as it goes along.
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