So due to... life... I've finally finished this one. This one that I started in September of 2023. Not due to lack of interest... I still love the series and this book is as exciting as the others. But it means I've had to look up synopses of it for a couple of days to remember all of what happened. And this review won't be as thorough as usual because some of the details have slipped my mind. But there'll still be spoilers.
I don't think this book was as action packed as the previous two. There was some character catching up to do and some problems to be addressed. It starts to thread in more of the Forsaken's perspectives. They interact more with each other, trying to manipulate and out maneuver each other to sit at the Dark One's right hand while the others are disposed of. There's also a creepy new Myrdraal with a name and personality introduced as a liaison between them and the Dark One. Since his strength is growing he brings back two more Forsaken with different bodies. Aran' gar goes on to have the most impact in this installment.
Queen Morgase is still in hiding and traveled to the king of Amadicia. But the White Cloaks are present and essentially keeping her there by force, albeit in comfort. They offer to help take back Andor with the price that she hand the kingdom over to them. They kill a couple of men that were trying to help her escape. She recognizes the threat is real so she signs a pact with them.
They thread Perrin and the Two Rivers bunch back in, but slowly. Perrin is compelled to go Rand. Faile doesn't approve but won't be left behind. A number of Two Rivers men go along too as Perrin's army and, of course, Loial. But it takes most of the book to travel to him. Verin and Alanna start out first with a group of Two Rivers girls that can channel, intending to take them to the Tower since they don't know it's been split. Loial's parents and the lady they've arranged for him to marry seek out Rand in order to find him. And all these groups find Rand at different points in the story. When Loial's family comes to Rand he offers to take them by his fast travel portal method to Two Rivers in return for them helping him to find the waygate to Shadar Logoth so he can ward it so that the Shadowspawn can't use it. Of course, everyone in Two Rivers is gone by then, so they'll have to continue their journey by foot and therefore can't be around for the rest of this book. When Alanna's group intersects with him, she bonds Rand as a warder without his permission. He spends most of the rest of the book staying as far away from her as possible and she has no sway with him the way other Aei Sedai have with their warders, most likely because he's a man that can channel which hasn't been done before. I was really hoping that he'd find a way to break the bond, but if it happens it won't be in this book. Perrin and Loial don't arrive until close to the end in order to play a key role in the climax.
That switches them out with Mat, who had been working with Rand on his plans to attack one of the Forsaken, Sammael. Mat is still back-burner for the most part. As he's trying to get Sammael's attention by moving his troops, he rescues a boy who is being abused by a Hunter of the Horn in a village and the boy ends up sneaking in with his men. So he makes him an errand boy for the company. Rand later sends Mat to Salidar to bring Elayne back to Andor to be crowned queen braiding his journey with the ladies'.
But, of course it's not that simple. The ladies' adventures take up a sizeable chunk of the narrative. They're reunited towards the end and then separate again. Egwene is still recovering from her fight with Lanfear and the Wise Ones will not allow her back into Tel'aran'rhiod but she sneaks in regularly anyway. She ends up in Gawyn's dreams and after seeing his feelings for her she pursues a relationship with him. She loves him but she's also protecting Rand because Gawyn is convinced that he killed Morgase and had intended to kill him if he found him. Meanwhile Elayne and Nyneve are in Salidar continuing to work on their specialties. Elayne made a ter'angreal to allow the Aei Sedai to enter a Tel'aran'rhiod, and naturally they treat it with arrogance and have no respect for the Wise Ones who Elayne introduces them to. Nyneve continues to try to heal Siuan Sanche. They take turns wearing the a'dam bracelet they're using to control Moghedien. Nyneve wants to leave but Elayne not so much. When they do their own sneaking into Tel'aran'rhiod, they find a powerful ter'angreal in Ebou Dar that will fix the problem of the weather becoming dangerously hot since the Dark One's seals have started to break. Thom and Julian turn up also in Salidar returning from hiding the a'dam that would control a male channeler, though it's not discussed.
Now, I admit I had a couple of events spoiled for me, but I didn't know they would happen this soon in the story and in the same book no less. The healing of Siuan Sanche and Egwene becoming the Amyrlin Seat. These both could have seemed forced and unearned but it's actually well done and it works. Nyneve succeeds in healing Logain first and then the former Amyrlin along with Leane, though not back to their full power. And I think that makes it make sense. It didn't restore Sanche's power entirely, so she can't just take her position back and start where she and Moiraine left off. After that Nyneve is unable to sneak away because she's a novelty among the Aei Sedai and she still can't channel without being angry so they abuse her to try to study how she accomplished it. When the Wise Ones allow Egwene to dream walk again, she's summoned back to Salidar by the Aei Sedai. Egwene earns respect from the Aiel Wise Ones before she leaves though by confessing that she walked in dreams while they weren't permitting her to and accepts the punishment of being flogged. They part with love and admiration. She then fast travels to Salidar by entering Tel'aran'rhiod while awake, the result of that working a lot like the portal stones from the second book. Sheriam and other leaders are in a power struggle at Salidar, so she decides to use a legal loophole to name Egwene the next Amyrlin Seat as a counter to Elaida's coup at the White Tower. But she's honest about the fact that she's basically using her and it's abundantly obvious that she means to control her like a political puppet, so it makes her rapid rise to the top make sense as well. Egwene pulls a few stunts though, like raising Nyneve and Elayne to full Sisters by executive fiat so they can keep counsel with her. She also meets with Siuan to learn how to manipulate people and circumstances to her favor. She gets Elayne and Nyneve's trip to Ebou Dar going and that's where Mat comes in. Elayne refuses to go back to Andor until she finds the Bowl and Egwene persuades Mat to accompany the group since she's sure he won't return to Rand without her. She then intends to use his remaining army to goad the Aei Sedai at Salidar to march on the white tower. Elayne and Nyneve find favor with the queen in Ebou Dar and begin searching for the Bowl.
So all the action is reserved for Rand in this book. But it's a slow build of tension because, like with all the rest, there are problems to be addressed before moving on through seven more books. Namely, the Aei Sedai. Elaida sends an embassy from the White Tower to meet with him as does the Little Tower in Salidar under the leadership of Merana. The latter refuse to let Elayne go on this trip and take Min instead which leads into another problem to address.
In the course of the story, a background storyline began with Min having a vision of being in love with the Dragon Reborn and having to share him with two other women. So this possible polyamorous relationship has been back-burner for quite some time. Elayne declared her love for and intentions to marry Rand in book three before leaving with Nynaeve and Egwene. He also meets Aviendha in that book and their relationship is consummated in book five. In this book, Aviendha confesses this to Elayne after Rand sends her with Mat's party to Salidar. Sharing a spouse is common in Aviendha's culture so there's no issue there. Elayne finds it shocking but she's heard Min's vision so she has to consider the possibility and holds nothing against Aviendha. So the only one who's behind is Min and this is her first interaction with Rand since the beginning of the second book I think. Maybe the beginning of the third. And I think it was a mistake to wait this long. She's throwing herself at Rand throughout this story in a way that seems to play against her character type. It's no more than rampant, childish flirting, but Min is a unique character and I thought she would be used a little differently. Of course she still may be... Another small spoiler I've stumbled on is that the three women bond Rand which doesn't make perfect sense yet since only two of the women can channel. It's a mystery to me right now, but I'm not put off enough by Min's behavior to be disappointed yet. I think their flirtation is just kind of jarring since they only met briefly in the beginning and spent very little time talking. A little more familiarization would have helped and it certainly would have been possible in the pacing of this book because the center conflict of the book is not what Rand intends it to be.
Rand intends to move on Sammael at the start. It's how he directs Mat's army. It's why he extended amnesty to men that could channel. It's why he's trying to force unity among the lords of the various kingdoms. He's been hot after this Forsaken since the end of the last book. But he's still trying to button things up by bringing Elayne back to secure Andor. He also has responsibilities to the young men who are now able to channel freely without being hunted by the Aei Sedai. One of the former False Dragons that had escaped, Mazrim Taim, comes to him with one of the Dark One's seals as proof of loyalty and offers to organize a school to recruit and train young men who can channel. Lews Therin doesn't approve of Taim and I'm sure his warnings will be valid in the end, but Rand doesn't have much choice since he can't spend his time training them himself. His idea for the school is more honorable than Taim's who trains the men brutally and goes on to christen it The Black Tower. Rand refers to the recruits as Asha'man as an Aiel reference and tries to impart wisdom to the men when he visits. He also has come to terms with the fact that he needs the endorsement of the Aei Sedai as well as loyalty from the surrounding kingdoms and most his time is spent speaking with the delegations from each Tower with Min by his side to use her visions to his advantage. For most of the meetings he is in control, limiting their numbers since they could overtake and gentle him. Lews Therin, again, fills Rand's thoughts with vengeance and warnings. But this time Rand is a touch arrogant in his dealings and it comes back to bite him. The Little Tower embassy puts forth a show of power that he's able to break. But as much as he never trusted the Aei Sedai in general, we knew they would not follow through on threats. Elaida's group, however, never had any intention of supporting him as the readers well know. They enchant a chest to sneak in enough of them to cut him off from the Power and incapacitate him. They lock him in the chest, kidnap Min as well, and immediately head back to the White Tower before anyone has a chance to realize he's missing. But Perrin and the Aiel do notice and gather to follow and rescue him. The Little Tower embassy goes with them along with Alanna and Verin, and Taim brings the Asha'man. This confrontation becomes the central conflict and climax. Elaida's Aei Sedai are allied with the Shaido Aiel and Gawyn's younglings. Rand manages to break the Aei Sedai block and escapes the chest to lead the attack on the Aei Sedai and Shaido. At Taim's urging he goes dark and orders the Asha'man to unleash complete destruction and then forces the allied Aei Sedai to swear fealty to him.
So, not a lot of outright battles but still a lot of intensity and plenty of loose ends to run with in the next installments like Rand parentage. He discovers that his mother is was a Daughter-heir of Andor, Tigraine, that fled to the Aiel waste because of a fortelling by Gitara Moroso. Aran'gar, one of the newly brought back Forsaken, frees Moghedien after Nynaeve and Elayne leave her in Egwene's charge. The ladies will undoubtedly have a challenge finding the bowl at Ebou Dar. And the Daughter of the Nine Moons is finally mentioned by one of the Forsaken at the end which is something I've been dying to know about since Mat's destiny to marry her was teased three books ago. Not a good sign... her being mentioned by the bad guys.
I'm still loving the series and I'll be purchasing the next three for sure... But maybe I'll work through some of the books from my 2022 Christmas haul first. They're shorter and not as complex. This is a good book to pause on since it's a break in the pace of the story anyway. And these books, for as detailed as they are, are still so easy to pick up again after a break. A long break in this case for me. Would recommend, as always.
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