Since this is the fourth book in the series, I won't go into explanations of characters or places. There will be spoilers (especially if you haven't read the first 3 books). Let's see if I can sum this up for you. To make things fun, I'm going to do it in list form. 

Rand al'thor:
Callandor
Lanfear
Trollocs
Aiel
Aviendha
Rhuidean
Car'a'carn
Al'Cair Dal
Origins
Asmodean


Mat Cauthon:
Tear 
Trollocs
Aiel
Rhuidean
Door
Hanged
Tinkers
Al'Cair Dal

Perrin:
Tear
Trollocs
Faile
The Ways
Two Rivers
Wolf Dreams
Lord Goldeneyes
White Cloaks
Wedding
Trollocs

Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne:
Tear
Black Ajah
Tanchico
Thom Merrilin
Egeanin
Ter'angreal
Moghedien

Min and Siuan Sanche:
Tar Valon
Elmindreda
Violent Visions
Elaida
Siuan Stilled
Elaida Amyrlin
Escape
Gawyn
Logain



To be honest, I'm pretty pleased with my list. I think I covered most of the main points. Let me know if you think I should add any others. 

Now on to the review:

Robert Jordan still has my attention. I want to know more about these characters and their particular paths. I have read the first 7 books before, but I am only remembering certain images and plot arcs. I'm missing chunks of the story. Rereading the books has been wonderful because it's mostly new again. One thing I really liked about this particular book is that you hear a lot about the main character, but you hear it from other people. Rand doesn't have many chapters where he is the voice. It's a nice change of pace. 

As I've mentioned in previous reviews, I have a problem with the women of books like these. The haughtiness in particular is a bother. With romances changing sides and new love interests being introduced... I don't think it's ever going to go away. Oh well. 

I remember the last time I read these books, I was in college. I was taking an history class about ancient Asia. The parallels I saw in that class and this book were really exciting. The Aiel are like  Mongols. There is even a Silk Road. I recommend looking in to it. It's really quite fascinating. 


Really enjoyed this book, looking forward to the next one! 

Gosh, these are getting more and more difficult to relate. Since this is the third book in the series, I am not going to summarize the books from here on out (Spoilers!). Since this book is titled "The Dragon Reborn" and assuming you have read the first two, I'll give you two guesses what this book is about. If you answer "the dragon reborn" you will be right.  Anyway, let's move on to the review. 

Review:

The story is not as connected as it was, not to say that the writing is not as connected, but each of the characters gets to go their own way, even if it is for only a short time. I like that the characters can come back together, but I enjoy it more when they go off on their own adventures and then come back together. 

I'm still listening to the audiobooks and am enjoying them immensely. When my attention wanders, the story progresses and I can pay attention again when I realize I haven't been. I was trying to figure out what I liked about this book so much. I think it may have something to do with the lack of story from Rand's point of view. I enjoy most of the characters stories, but when it comes time to tell Rand's, I'm just not that interested. This book actually tells the same story from many different sides. You keep getting updated about Rand, but it doesn't spend much time inside his head. 

One thing I love about these books is the parallels to our history. My brother has mentioned to me that he considers the different ages to be what we would consider a parallel universe. Things may be similar in some ways, but they are never quite exact. You can see this in the heroes of legend, Artur Hawkwing, Brigitte (who could totally be Sif). My brother also postulates that Matrim Cauthon could be Odin. There are many parallels, but it's too early in the series to mention all of them. As I get farther into the series I will come back to this point and my ideas about different characters. The point of this is that it is fun to try to puzzle out and I really appreciate that Robert Jordan took the time and the effort to put all those little details in place. 

Blood and bloody ashes, I don't know how I feel about the language in this book. There are times when I consider the analogies and comparisons to be unique and clever, but some things are completely overdone. If I hear Mat say, "blood and bloody ashes" one more time... ugh. Normally, I love the creativity in language. This book didn't have very much of that. I know that it changes with the different people groups that come in with different languages. So, I can't base my liking of the language on just one book. 

The idea of Tel'aran'rhiod is explored more in this book by several different characters in different ways. It's like introducing a completely different world to explore with different rules. It's almost as if Robert Jordan had several different stories in his head and he wanted to be able to make them all happen, but they couldn't because of the "rules" of the world he created. So, he created another world where all the stories could be told. I'm a fan. 

So, my response to this story. I liked the third book better than the first two. I have a feeling crazy Rand stories are going to take up a lot of the next book and I'm not sure I'm ready for that. We'll see. 

"The Great Hunt" is the second book in the "Wheel of Time" series. There characters are much the same in this book as they were in the last one. The first book in the series is "Eye of the World", and I have already reviewed it. 

In the first book, the Horn of Valere (when sounded, the dead heroes will come to the aid of he who sounded the horn, "The grave is no bar to my call") is located. The story starts out in Fal Dara where our characters rest. The Amyrlin Seat, the woman who is in charge of all aes sedai (women who can channel the One Power), rides to Fal Dara to meet with Rand, Mat, and Perrin (a wolf brother, which is a man who can communicate with wolves). These three boys are ta'veren, which means that the pattern of time and its events are woven around them, and they can even change the pattern if they are strong enough. While in Fal Dara, the Horn is stolen and so is Mat's tainted dagger (from Shadar Logoth, a place so corrupted that even the trollocs fear to enter) by Padan Fain, a darkfriend. Once Padan Fain takes the dagger, the evil of it seeps into him and he becomes an abomination. Without the dagger, however, Mat starts to get very sick. There is a bond between Mat and the dagger that only the aes sedai can break, but Mat must go to Tar Valon (the white tower, where aes sedai are trained). Rand, Mat, and Perrin go searching for Mat's dagger and the Horn of Valere. Egwene and Nynaeve go to Tar Valon to be trained. 

While in the tower, Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne (Daughter Heir of Andor), and Min are sneaked out of the tower on a "secret mission" and lead through the Ways by an Aes Sedai named Liandrin. On the other side they are ambushed. Egwene is captured and put into an a'dam, which acts as a sort of collar that is controlled by the sul'dam (leash holder). The idea is that women who can channel are to be controlled or destroyed. The woman in the collar cannot do anything that the sul'dam does not want her to. Nynaeve and Min escape capture, so they try to rescue Egwene. 

Review:

Well, this was a fun read... or rather listen. I am listening to the audiobook. I find it easier to get through the descriptions. There is a lot of talk of clothes and locations, and I enjoy it. Sometimes it can be a little too much. That being said, the story is fantastic. There characters are relatable, engaging, and fun. I want to learn what happens next, and I want to see what the characters will choose. I can only imagine that a writer would have a hard time trying to capture the lives of so many different characters. I am wondering why I never finished the series. Maybe this will be the time. I really enjoy the way that Robert Jordan writes. I like how he uses analogies that relate to the characters he's written. I'm always confused by the titles of the books. I have a hard time telling the books apart based on the titles. 

I think Robert Jordan's attention to detail is wonderful, but can be distracting. I love his loyalty to the characters, and how he keeps them true to themselves. I love the whole side story of the Seanchan and am interested to see how this story will progress. 

I'm not going to state if I would recommend this book or not because it is the second book in the series. Perhaps at the end of this series I will state if I recommend it or not. I already started listening to the third book, and it's kinda hard to keep them separate in my brain. 

This is probably the third time I've "read" this book. I read it twice before and I listened to it this time. Why would I read this book so many times? Well, there are a few reasons. The first of which is that I read a good chunk of this series (Wheel of Time), 5 or 6 books (ranging from 600-1000 pages)at a time. It is at this point that I get burnt out on it. The second reason is that, despite my complaints about Jordan's unnecessarily detailed descriptions of what people are wearing, it's a very good series. The third reason why I keep going back to rereading it is that I just want to finish the darned thing. 

Well, this time I listened to it, and do you know what? I think I enjoyed it more. If it weren't for the fact that it took around 30 hours to listen to one book, I would probably continue doing so. Maybe when I get stuck later on, I will go back to audiobooks. We'll see. 

Why did I choose to reread it now? Well, I had an interesting conversation with my brother. Most conversations I have with my brother are interesting, I'll be fair. He and I have similar taste in books. I guarantee I've read some books that he would roll his eyes at, and I'm sure he's read some books that I tune out when he talks about them. For the most part, however, we have similar enough interests where we can talk about books, movies, shows, music, etc for extended periods of time. 

Back to this conversation: he suggested that in the different Ages of the Wheel of Time, there are different times that could be written as our same "universe" but during a different age. I used the example of Planet of the Apes when Charlton Heston discovers that he's been on Earth all along, he has just been in the distant future. So, perhaps Jordan wrote this story as either an Age in our past or an Age in our future? Who knows? The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills. 

On to the book:

The story is about a sheepherder named Rand. He and his friends survive a trolloc (large Troll like critters) attack and, in order to save their families and their village, they leave with an Aes Sedai (a woman who can wield the One Power, like the Force) and her Warder (like a body guard but different). Rand is accompanied by his two best friends, Mat and Perrin. The three of them are wanted by the Dark One. Two women from their village also accompany them and eventually discover that they are both able to wield the One Power. A Gleeman (Mr Bojangles who can juggle) named Thom also joins them. Along the way, they are hunted by the minions of the Dark One who chases them by day and fills their dreams by night. They get separated and their paths in the pattern diverge. Perrin discovers something ancient about himself. Mat tangles with some dark stuff that changes him for life. Rand meets a princess and sees a false Dragon (a man who can wield the One Power, which can only end in madness, who also believes he is the answer to prophecy). This is the first book in a 14 book series. There is a lot of information to cover. I tried my best to summarize without giving anything away. 

My review of this book:

It was excellent to listen to. I love the characters, I love the language, I love the writing. There are paragraphs I find myself skimming, so maybe it is better for me to listen to these books. My favorite thing about this book (this time around) is finding all the little things that could potentially be from a different "age". Maybe something from our past is in these stories (just wait until the next few books and I can go further into depth on this one). So far, the one I am most excited to mention is the Green Man and Mount Dhoom. The Green Man is a tree like creature/man. Perhaps Middle Earth is a different age of this world... of our world! Where do the Ogier come from? Trollocs? I want to know. I got some insight into Mat that is also exciting, but it is too early in the series to bring it up. 

Would I recommend this book to someone? Only if I thought they were willing to hang in there for 14 long books. You know what, I would recommend this book to anyone who is capable of reading a 700+ page book. So, reader, can you read? (see what I did there? Of course you can read, you're reading this blog!) Read the book. If you don't like it, you can yell at me or whatever, but I would rather you tell me why you didn't like it and maybe start a discussion. I like talking about books. I'd happily have a conversation about it with you. 

What didn't I like about the book? I've said it before and I'll say it again. I hate it when independent, spunky, rebellious female characters are portrayed as being solid as a diamond on the outside, but are super fragile when it comes to emotions. Haughty is a word I often use to describe characters like this. All the women that I can think of in the story are like this. Unnecessary. Also, the descriptions can get a little tedious at times. 

Anyway, this book left me really excited to read more of this series. Just trying to puzzle out the different Ages is going to be super fun! It's like Myst, but not interactive.