*SPOILERS* because it's hard to review these books without them.
At some point, I'm going to have to re-read the whole series uninterrupted from the beginning.(Duh. Every book reader does that with a compelling series and I've re-read several favorites.) But, I'm having a harder time with this series that seems to make re-reading not only desirable, but necessary. I finished this book back in January and not only have I only just started steadily into the fifth book, Fires of Heaven, within the last week (seven months later!), I've also not had any time to discuss this fourth entry. Having started these books at a point when I stopped having a lot of time on my hands to read, it's been slow going and you'd think a person would get lost in a long series like this, with days or weeks between snatches of reading one book to months between entire books.
However, one of the best parts of this series is that even though it's a big, complex world with a lot of characters - a lot of characters with new ones being added with each installment - and multiple story threads, it's written in a way that the reader never forgets what's going on. There are some gaps for me, but not as many as you might think thanks to the skillful writing. And it manages this without the recapping becoming too time consuming. It reminds me of the appreciation I have for classic soap opera writing. It's not just sequels to a singularly focused story but long-form storytelling that juggles very different stories within the world as they're weaved (no pun intended 😂) around the primary storyline. It's taken 4 books for the main character to fully accept his responsibility as the chosen one. It's taken 4 books for the main group to break out into separate groups. Well, they'd been in two distinct groups for a while, but they were all destined to end in the same places as essentially a whole unit in all the novels so far. It's taken 4 books to start to wrap up at least one loose end that needed to be addressed since the first book, as well as give direction to a couple of characters who hadn't really begun their character arcs yet. By doing it this way, it manages to stay busy (my goodness, busy... plot summaries can't do it justice) without leaving the readers behind or short changing secondary characters. After four books it's okay for the characters to separate in earnest for a while because we won't forget about them or what motivates them.
And it begins with a character that disappeared at the beginning of the previous book. Min was sent to report current events to the Amyrlin Seat and wasn't seen again. Neither was the Amyrlin for that matter. But this book, instead of opting for a prologue that propels the current main plot, elects to back up a bit and begin with Min reaching Tar Valon to tell the Amyrlin what's going on. And she only knows the current events as they were at the end of book two. This kind of sets up a theme for the rest of this book and likely the next two until everyone can get on the same page again. From this point on, the left hand will have no idea what the right hand is doing and in the case of Min and the Amyrlin, the consequences are devastating. Throughout the story it cuts back to them with Min becoming another kind of spy, searching for Black Ajah within the White Tower of Tar Valon and Siuan Sanche learning a little more of what went on at the Stone of Tear. What she learns is limited, but enough for her to feel confident in making a move that would have made Rand's task of uniting the many kingdoms much easier - support from the Aes Seadai. However, breathingly fast at the end, things take a turn for the worse as the Amyrlin is deposed in a coupe, stilled, and left on the run without being able to channel the One Power and with only Min, her second in command, Leane, also stilled from the Power, and a gentled false Dragon, Logain for help. The worst part is that none of the other characters know this has happened. Nor will they for the foreseeable future, as long as it took Min to turn up after the beginning of book three.
Rand still expects the Aes Sedai of Tar Valon will be behind him, although he sees it as a loss of his autonomy. So, he, in the main thrust of this book, decides to go to the homeland of his blood kindred to rally support from them since they aren't involved with the disputes and wars of the various kingdoms west of the Aiel Waste. And because they are fierce warriors who, in the distant past, nearly subdued the whole land west of their desert dwelling with only four of their twelve clans, he wishes to use their might to bring the other kingdoms under his banner. He doesn't go alone. Moraine stays with him, which he resents as always. Egwene is summoned along with one of the Aiel Spear Maidens to learn how to be a Dreamwalker with the Aiel Wise Ones, her own story continuing along side Rand's, yet separately for a while. Mat also accompanies them.
The character of Mat has been skirting the sides of the story up until now, only involved because he's drawn in by Rand's pull on the Wheel of Time, blessed and cursed with amazing good luck. This time he is given a reason to choose to follow Rand. His purpose isn't any more clearly defined at the end.. still a wild card... but his abilities finally catch up with Rand's and Perrin's, which will make him a pivotal figure in the end. First, he visits a powerful ter'angreal doorway from the Age of Legends that is found at the Stone. Rand and Moraine do too, but Mat's visit is all we get to see. He must ask questions of the reptilian race inside, but because of his bad temper he only finds out that if he doesn't follow Rand he'll die, cutting short his real destiny which is to marry the Daughter of the Nine Moons and make significant sacrifices to help save the world. Second, after he follows Rand into the Waste's mystical city of Rhuidean he steps into another ter'angreal doorway, twin of the one in Tear. Not understanding that the fox like race in this one bestows gifts rather than answers questions, he fumbles through it and manages to acquire the ability to speak fluently in the Ancient Tongue, the memories of his ancestors including intricate battle strategies, a strange spear, and a ter'angreal medallion that shields him from use of the One Power. I'm sure it'll all come him handy one day. What a tease.
Perrin, on the other hand, is able to tear himself away from Rand's party. After getting word that Whitecloaks are harassing people in Edmond's Field, he opts to go back home taking Loial, Faile, Verin, Alanna, and a few Aiel with him. The characters had been gone for a year now so their families were owed some explanation. The ever present thorn in the side of the heros, Padan Fain, has wormed his way into the Children of the Light under another name with the purpose of drawing Rand out by using the threat the Children pose to his family so he can kill him. Since the Children are so caught up in their own lust for power that they don't know an actual darkfriend when they see one, they let Fain lead this project. Not all of them are unaware of what Fain is though, and with help from those few, Fain begins letting Trollocs and Myrddraal into the Two Rivers area via the Way Gates so that the Whitecloaks can set up a protection racket while turning the local families against each other in effort to get information on Rand, Perrin, and Mat. By the time Perrin gets there. Fain has killed his entire family though it's believed that the Trollocs did it. To complicate matters, the Dark One has sent a Slayer into Tel'aran'rhiod to hunt Perrin in his wolf dreams. He is moving among them in the waking world as well under the guise of a fellow Hunter of the Horn. However, the end of this thread is a much needed win in contrast to the heartbreaking loss at the White Tower. Perrin, with the aid of Rand's and Mat's fathers, unites the people of Edmond's Field, teaches them to defend themselves, defeats the trollocs, unmasks and wounds his Slayer, drives away the Children of the Light and marries Faile. However, as with the fate of the Amyrlin, nobody will know about this victory for a while. It's a unique feature of the magic of this world that there's no way of quick communication as there is in other magic based stories. I love it when the rules of magic are unique to the series. This certainly makes things interesting.
Meanwhile, Nyneave and Elayne resume their search for the Black Ajah outside Tar Valon. They get a tip that they're situated in Tanchico in Tarabon, a city riddled with refugees and crime. Thom and Juilin respectively are sent along to help protect them. Along the way they book passage with another race of people, Atha'an Miere, the Sea Folk. Elayne learns Windfinding (helping to sail the ships faster by channeling water with the Power) from Jorin din Jubai White Wing, the ship's Windfinder. They also meet back up with the sea captain they'd dealt with in the second book after they reach their destination. They find the Black sisters, but more importantly they find a seal for the Dark One's prison and an artifact that would be dangerous to Rand - an a'dam that can enslave a male Power wielder like the a'dam the Seanchan used on Egwene in the second book. They also meet a Seanchan woman, Egeanin. After tempers cool Egeanin is disillusioned to learn the truth about Aes Sedai and her own people. The Seanchan had been enslaving women who could channel the Power for all this time but the only way it could work is if the woman controlling the a'dam could channel as well, and the women who can control the leash are kept ignorant of that fact. Upon this discovery and learning that the Aei Sedai and women who can channel aren't the subhuman creatures she'd been taught they were, she allies with them to help steal the male a'dam. This is a meeting that Egwene could have benefited from to help heal the trauma she'd been through as a damane. But, because of the breakdown in communications, I have a feeling that Egwene won't learn these facts about the Seanchan before she confronts another of their sul'dam one day. There's a twist, however, in this story arc when Nyneave ends up having to battle with one of the Forsaken one-on-one and she comes off the better in the fight showcasing her incredible power that she still can't control without anger.
But, there are other Forsaken hiding amongst a group of darkfriend peddlers traveling through the Aiel Waste as Rand pursues his goal of uniting the Aiel clans and leading them across the Dragonwall as his personal army. First he must go into Rhuidean, an abandoned city down in a vast hollow shrouded in clouds that serves as a proving ground for any Aiel man who is vying to be a clan chief. Going there means almost certain death, and they only become a clan chief if they can survive. After Mat discovers his doorway, Rand moves on to a forest of light pillars behind another man, Muradin, who is trying to become chief of the Shaido clan. The pillars take the men back in time to see the history of the Aiel people through the eyes of their ancestors, going back a generation further with each pillar of light. Rand learns that the Aiel were once pacifistic nomads akin to the Tuatha'an - the Tinkers... the pacifist gypsies from previous installments that wander through the lands in search of a lost song that will heal the world. Possibly the same song from the memories Rand experiences, in my opinion. Not only that, but the Aiel nomads were servants of the Aes Sedai after the Breaking of the World when the male Power wielders were driven mad. They had agreed to keep and protect the powerful ter'angreal, sa'angreal, and angreal objects in their travels, which explains why there was a pile of them down in the city, including Mat's doorway. Through the generations they stopped following the Way of the Leaf and became the aggressive, warring race that they are presently intensely proud of. Muradin, just ahead of Rand, can't accept the truth of the Aiel's origins and is driven insane unto death. Rand emerges the next morning marked with Dragons on his arms, confirming the Aiel's own prophecies regarding the Dragon Reborn. He is their Car'a'carn: the 'Chief of Chiefs' of the Aiel. The One Who Comes With the Dawn. There's resistance from the Shaido clan and their self-proclaimed leader, Couladin which causes a fight to break out after Rand reveals himself to the other clan chiefs. In the midst of that scuffle, another one of the Forsaken, Asmodean, who had been hiding as a gleeman with the peddlers takes this opportunity to try to steal lost san'greal objects that would make him more powerful than the Dark One. But Rand sensed his presence long ago and was waiting for him to come into the open. In their duel, Rand manages to cut him off from his connection to the Dark One and nearly gentles him before Lanfear shows up again. She'd been hiding as one of the peddler's companions. Convinced that Rand remembers his life as Lews Therin, the Dragon, she trys again to entice him claiming that he loved her as Therin. Seeing that Rand's intentions for Asmodean is to keep him prisoner so that he can learn how to properly channel the One Power, (women channelers can't teach men because their abilities are too different) Lanfear helps Rand by weaving a shield on him that will disable his raw power enough so that Rand can learn from him without being in danger. Her hope is to overthrow the Dark One with him and rule by his side; Lews Therin's side. He wants no part of it but he doesn't stop her since he needs Asmodean. It's a dangerous game he'll need to play, but finally, after 4 books, Rand can make real progress in his quest! The reader can only hope everyone can get caught up with each other's activities before any more damage is done.
As of now, a short ways into the 5th book I can tell you, nobody is caught up yet and nobody knows the dangers that are lurking where they least expect and it's still a nail-biter! And I'm still loving and recommending this series whole-heartedly. It's not had a dissapointing turn yet like the Dwarves series had after the first trilogy. I can't wait to see what happens next.
