It's quite a few weeks since I read this, and already I struggle to remember what happens in this one. At least some progress is made, though it's hard to see how much. The series has definitely got a bit bogged down in the middle. See book 1 for longer review. ( )

After the disappointments of the several books preceding this one, it came as a surprise to see that Jordan was returning to his A Game. There are still many problems even though this book was better then many of the last few in the series. Rereading them, especially when you can not get to the conclusion gives you a pause to really evaluate what each book is.

Again because we do not get to the end of the story, more can be found to fault the telling of the story. (You would know we had because some way 'THE END' would appear.) New details in the travelogue that is the The Wheel of Time occurs. Alton Brown cruising around the US on Asphalt, or Mark Twain in Roughing It. We have Jordan having created a map with a great many lands, so why not ensure we as the audience know how diverse it is.

The problem therein is that we don't care. The Map has never had the detail it needed to find a great many of the places mentioned. Battles can not be followed because they are impractical and are just literary voyeurisms. The battles could have been summed even more quickly, Good guys show up, have smaller force, use power to win. If you try to look at it in military context, it will do you no good, as will understanding logistics which Jordan tries to give a nod to.

Big armies need big food. Even the many thousands of Shaido need food, but they don't, and again with the contradictions when the Forsaken sent the septs all over to be destroyed, now they seem to be getting back together? Oh, Jordan smacks his head wanting a V-8, in revisionist writing, this is even better five or ten years after I originally wrote the other scenes that I'll just change things.

Another exploration of Tell, don't show is revisited in ever bigger details which as the writing started to be denser again, or the fonts tighter, showed that the travelogue needed to be expanded.

Screen time is also getting shorter and shorter for characters as each is fighting for time on camera. Including Rand. The Protagonist, but the series is so large, that he is not as important as he was before. We have to remember as early as book three we were already pushing off the center stage.

But as Rand points out, he is the one who has to show up at the final climax chapter to fight, everyone else we have grown fond of, does not really need to be there. Thus we get into the exploration of why they are on screen so much. They need to be ready.

In the early books of the Travelogue we saw how big the world was, and as the characters criss-crossed it, they were learning. But now they are as wise as I in the space of 3 years of book time and twenty years of reading time.

These last books Jordan accelerates the time scale and he should not have. For what our leaders want to accomplish, they do need more time and seasoning. One William Pitt the Younger in a generation please. Not six, seven, eight... Who can keep track.

But is there anything else to read as good with as much depth. No. On to the next. ( )

Nothing happened. It was approximately 684 pages too long. Rather than resolve any previous cliff hanger, he just created more. We're trapped between all of the previous books and the finish line in sight. ( )

Robert Jordan has truly lost grip of his story. Nothing, and I mean nothing, gets accomplished in this tome of a book. People talk endlessly and conspire, armies move in glacial fashion, and very little else. ( )

Climax. Well? It was small, but gave me the chills, and set the series up for number 11. A good read. Mat's story gets thicker than stew and gives the book flavor. Mat seems to do this to the whole series. ( )