I read this book on the heels of finishing The Great Hunt and was rewarded with further disappointment. In fact, after finishing The Dragon Reborn I had to take a break from the series and read a few other books before returning to this story. Perhaps waiting a year or two as the books came out helped earlier readers of this series as they were able to overlook the issues found from book to book. Alas, I gave this book a 3-star rating on Goodreads though I am in the minority on that site.
Video Game Repetition
I began noticing the repetition in this series in Book Two, but The Dragon Reborn leaned heavily on this repetition. I began to feel like I was playing Diablo, clearing dungeons of zombies and skeletons before proceeding to much of the same. Then finally killing Diablo only to do the whole thing over again… and again. But I wasn’t rewarded with gold or legendary pieces of armor; I was instead rewarded with small moments of greatness and little revelations of the story.
The Story
Our young heroes are still pursued by the forces of the Dark One in this novel, and the Fellowship of Emond’s Field continues to move forward along separate quests. By this point I am hating Rand as a character and unable to distinguish between Nynaeve, Elayne, and Egwene. Seriously, those three are the same person down to every dress smoothing, hair tugging, and sniffing in consternation. Oh yea, repetition. You’ll hear those phrases a lot.
Mat becomes a badass in this book and really develops as a character. Meanwhile Perrin…well, Perrin is Perrin. We also learn more about the politics in the world and, once again, this book has a spectacular ending. It would seem that the storyline for each book follows the same outline. Heroes start from the ending of the last book, wander aimlessly, then come together to fight a big, glorious — but ultimately meaningless — battle before setting the stage for doing it again in the next one.
This is where I took a break, and where some folks quit the series altogether. However, on the other hand, most folks on Goodreads claim that this was their favorite book and the best book of the series. So, take that for what it’s worth.