I will warn those wishing a clear read of the series that spoilers follow.
I feel let down by Jordan. Really, I do. The Dragon Reborn followed the great volume (The Great Hunt) of this series (so far, as I’m reading it) and dropped the ball.
As many of the readers of the series know, the title characters in this series seem to be bound and determined to deny their growing destinies and wallow in angst. This wouldn’t be bad to me had the events in the Great Hunt not make me wonder where the story was going...
Rand, a major focal character, has faced up to his role in the world, but now as the book is named after him, he gets a total of about 45 pages (not a real count, but it certainly feels like it). I’m slightly upset that the titular character getting so little “stage” time, but the scenes that fill the book don’t follow the events of the second book with any sense of grandeur. “We’re here. We’re leaving. We’re gambling. blah blah blah.”
The opening of the book had some high points, but soon as the first third devoted itself to the three female characters in the White Tower, I was mad. These scenes drug on and on. Several “neat window” things were going on, but the majority seemed to be focused on their degrading relationships to each other.
The events forced on the female leads truly don’t seem to warrant their anger towards one another, and during several cut scenes, we return to find them more angry and pissed at their roles in the White Tower and the mission they chose to follow.
Several scenes between Nynaeve and Egwene make me feel for the male characters of Emond’s Field. The two characters bickering was undeveloped and a bit of a surprise after the events that should have made their relationship tighter in the second book.
Other bits made me come away from the novel thinking that the only difference between Jordan’s female and male characters were the fact that the female characters had breasts (constantly underlined by Jordan, “... arms crossed beneath her breasts.” If it had happened only once or twice, to wouldn’t have been so notable as every time he described a female character with her arms crossed in front of her, her arms were always “beneath her breasts.”).
Overall, I think that the ending saved the beginning, and the development of Mat and Perrin’s characters was better defined than that of the three in the White Tower (Egwene, Nynaeve and Elayne). The most disappointing aspect of development was that Rand was seen so little throughout the novel.
This novel was harder to get into because of its plodding beginning, and the excitement of the end makes me want to continue to check in on how the characters are doing, but not immediately as I did after reading the second volume. We’ll see if excite continues that blasted pattern (3/4 stuff, 1/4 advancement) as the series develops.
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(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)