This is the eleventh Wheel of Time novel, and one with the sad distinction of being the last one to be published during Robert Jordan’s life, and therefore the last one that he wrote by himself before Brandon Sanderson finished the series. It’s also has the sad distinction of being a real low point for the series.
Not much of interest really happens, outside of the usual big bit of conflict that happens right at the end. It’s just all prepping for battle and talks about what needs to be done – very little that we haven’t already heard many times over in the books that lead up to this one. Yes, I mostly like the characters, aside from a few annoying traits, but it just starts to feel frustrating when most of the chapters lack any meaningful continuation of the plot, but are instead filled with spank scenes and the women getting naked for no reason.
It’s a real shame because the two novels before this one felt like a significant step up. Here you’ve just got allusions to the idea that something exciting will happen in the near future, and some characters getting married, but the romance was always the worst part of the Wheel of Time anyway, so that doesn’t do much for me.
Maybe Robert Jordan wasn’t really sure what to do with the series at this point, I don’t know. The best I can say is that things were better in the following novel, so you should read through this one so you can get to its sequel, which is a lot better and a return to form for the series.
Rating: 4.7/10
