Perrin’s relationship with Faile was a lot of fun though. The girls really did feel left out of it. It’s really nice that Rand is actually in this book, unlike the last, but I think I would have liked a smoother distribution. Perrin and Rand are the focus of this book. Min is the first character to narrate the book, for example, and I had completely forgotten she was in it by the time she came back for a chapter (maybe it was two?) Which meant by the time the book got back, I’d forgotten what had happened. The “too little” was the fact that there’d bet a lot of chapters from one storyline and have to wait ages (sometimes through several switches between two) to get back to another. Goodness knows what was happening with Elayne and Nyaevae half the time – there was a new POV brought in there, another E- name character to make things even harder to tell them all apart! The “too much” was because the POVs always seemed to switch at the most inopportune moments, and I started to get very confused as things didn’t feel explained enough. The book both jumped around too much and too little between the characters for my interest. Then the characters separated into groups, and suddenly it all got a lot less engaging. Maybe it was the frustrations of the characters boiling up that was compelling? A few minor things by way of plot, and one big thing, but mostly it’s holding pattern scenes.Īnd yet it was the bit of the book I enjoyed the most? I got through it the fastest, wanting to see what would come next, even though there wasn’t really much. There is honestly not much happening at the start. It’s several hundred pages of Rand not doing anything, and everyone else not really being able to do anything around him. I found the beginning bizarrely compelling and I can’t explain why. This book, even by the standard of the others, was an odd one pacing wise. If he is to fight them, Rand must master the male half of the True Source, a power corrupted by the Dark One, a power that drives men to madness, a power that may save or damn the world. Callandor, the Sword That Is Not a Sword, is held by Rand al’Thor, the man proclaimed as the Dragon Reborn.īut still the shadows lengthen and still the Forsaken grow in strength. The Children of the Dragon have risen to the call of prophecy and march to the aid of the Light. The Stone of Tear, invulnerable fortress of legend, has fallen.

The shadow rising