Rand al'Thor has been proclaimed the Dragon Reborn, but not everyone knows or believes. In Tear, where channeling and anything to do with the One Power is outlawed, lies the Heart of the Stone, an impregnable fortress housing the mysterious sword Callandor - the taking of Callandor and the fall of the Stone are two of the many signs of the return of the Dragon. It is to Tear that Rand travels alone, abandoning the friends he fears to harm, along the way battling the forces of the Dark, both in his dreams and in real life. Moiraine, Lan, and Perrin follow Rand to Tear, hoping to meet him there. On the other side of the world, Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne are in the White Tower training as Accepted, but soon they find themselves journeying to Tear, as well, on the trail of the Black Ajah and most certainly headed for a trap.

Jordan's third book in his Wheel of Time series finds the cast of characters again traveling the world over as they move ever forward in their destinies of fighting the Shadow. Rand is still conflicted, as are Perrin and Matt, but all three seem to be slowly succombing to their fates. New characters are introduced, such as the Aiel, who will play much bigger roles in the coming books. Although still the central character, Rand appear much less in this book than in previous ones. ( )

Book three of the wheel of time is fairly concise and pacy. See book 1 for longer review. ( )

As I go through my 2009 reread before the publication of the Gathering Storm, I have been noting how this series really could have been the Trilogy we were led to believe that it was going to be. Let me reiterate that concept. Those of us who were there when the books were initially released back in 1990 to begin with, had hoped that such a series with so much depth would have been finished in 3 books.

Here in book 3 you can still see how that is possible, but you can also see how the ever growing popularity led away from that. There is a giant world that Jordan created and as we continue on we begin to believe that the man wanted to ensure that every country, every culture got some time on the page. As he was getting a great deal of money for the success of his writing he let this go to his head.

He committed the sin of Vanity. How else do you account for his constant saying RAFO when many readers tear apart sentences and individual words looking for clues. Clues that it seems obvious after his death that he had no idea where he was going in many parts of the story.

With a critical eye to my many previous impressions of this book, I see its faults. Where was our protagonist. Throughout most of the book the story builds up the secondary characters and leaves out the main hero from the previous two books.

The final battle, another final battle, once again has the hero thinking he kills the ultimate evil once more. Well, with a few more pages of writing that could have been the case. Instead we have writing that adds new prophecy that was not in The Eye of The World and thus gives Jordan the reasons he seeks to continue the story. But again that was a mercenary decision.

So having got the qualms out of the way. The discussion of how this series could have ended at 3 books and between 2000 and 2500 pages, a very respectable page count. How the writer with trying to include so much detail ends up contradicting the details, what is wonderful about this book and series.

Well we do see the world from the eyes of the secondary characters who now become protagonists also. The series becomes so large that each of the characters become major protagonists with their own full stories within the entirety of the encompassing series.

We find a world so rich and vibrant that it is like traveling throughout Europe and finding many cultures that are different and giving you the feeling that you have visited each one. Not like a homogenized America where it is just shades of color of the same thing.

You get such a large perspective that you find that within the whole of the series, this book works to further the series. As a stand alone book, not many of these will hold up. But if you had one series to read and reread, this is still by far the best fantasy series to do so.

Briefly the story takes us from where our Hero, Rand has come to terms with being the ultimate Good guy destined to fight the ultimate Bad guy to dealing with the rest of the road that will take him to the final battle. He runs away from his friends and companions to go face the next part of the prophecy on his own. His friends Mat, Perrin, Nyneave, Egwene and all the others, have adventures of their own but all roads lead to Tear.

Are those stories that turn our secondary characters into major characters worth their own book. Well for the many who dropped the series because it would not ever end, perhaps not. But for everyone else who has the patience and puts the effort in, their is no disappointment with the material we are actually given. This is a series that is worth reading. And thus this book is a great part of the Wheel of Time Canon. ( )

As I go through my 2009 reread before the publication of the Gathering Storm, I have been noting how this series really could have been the Trilogy we were led to believe that it was going to be. Let me reiterate that concept. Those of us who were there when the books were initially released back in 1990 to begin with, had hoped that such a series with so much depth would have been finished in 3 books.

Here in book 3 you can still see how that is possible, but you can also see how the ever growing popularity led away from that. There is a giant world that Jordan created and as we continue on we begin to believe that the man wanted to ensure that every country, every culture got some time on the page. As he was getting a great deal of money for the success of his writing he let this go to his head.

He committed the sin of Vanity. How else do you account for his constant saying RAFO when many readers tear apart sentences and individual words looking for clues. Clues that it seems obvious after his death that he had no idea where he was going in many parts of the story.

With a critical eye to my many previous impressions of this book, I see its faults. Where was our protagonist. Throughout most of the book the story builds up the secondary characters and leaves out the main hero from the previous two books.

The final battle, another final battle, once again has the hero thinking he kills the ultimate evil once more. Well, with a few more pages of writing that could have been the case. Instead we have writing that adds new prophecy that was not in The Eye of The World and thus gives Jordan the reasons he seeks to continue the story. But again that was a mercenary decision.

So having got the qualms out of the way. The discussion of how this series could have ended at 3 books and between 2000 and 2500 pages, a very respectable page count. How the writer with trying to include so much detail ends up contradicting the details, what is wonderful about this book and series.

Well we do see the world from the eyes of the secondary characters who now become protagonists also. The series becomes so large that each of the characters become major protagonists with their own full stories within the entirety of the encompassing series.

We find a world so rich and vibrant that it is like traveling throughout Europe and finding many cultures that are different and giving you the feeling that you have visited each one. Not like a homogenized America where it is just shades of color of the same thing.

You get such a large perspective that you find that within the whole of the series, this book works to further the series. As a stand alone book, not many of these will hold up. But if you had one series to read and reread, this is still by far the best fantasy series to do so.

Briefly the story takes us from where our Hero, Rand has come to terms with being the ultimate Good guy destined to fight the ultimate Bad guy to dealing with the rest of the road that will take him to the final battle. He runs away from his friends and companions to go face the next part of the prophecy on his own. His friends Mat, Perrin, Nyneave, Egwene and all the others, have adventures of their own but all roads lead to Tear.

Are those stories that turn our secondary characters into major characters worth their own book. Well for the many who dropped the series because it would not ever end, perhaps not. But for everyone else who has the patience and puts the effort in, their is no disappointment with the material we are actually given. This is a series that is worth reading. And thus this book is a great part of the Wheel of Time Canon. ( )

This is my favorite in the series so far. I know there are a lot of people out there who aren't fans of this series, but so far I have been pleasantly surprised. This one kept the pace moving very nicely, and I have so far enjoyed Jordan's writing. I think each book has been better then the ones before it, but I have heard some of the later books lose their way. I will definately continue on in the series, so I suppose I will find out soon enough. The only thing that has bothered me thus far in the books would be the interactions between some of the characters, mostly between males and females. ( )