Started to feel more sucked into the series again with this volume.

Rand sets a plan in motion to deal with Sammael (and meanwhile develops his relationship with Min, rawr).

Egwene begins to understand more of what it means to take command as Amyrlin of the rebel Aes Sedai (and oh noes! "Halima"! Gotta do something about "her" soon).

Nynaeve and Elayne finally find the Bowl of the Winds with the help of the Kin, a hidden group of women who never made it all the way through their training in the White Tower and who--surprise!--vastly outnumber full Aes Sedai. That was a cool revelation.

Overall, this book's pacing was better than some of the longer ones. Rand faces some real threats, and the Seanchan presence grows as a serious enemy that will require a coordinated response. The scene in which High Lady Suroth confronts Queen Morgase with "Thera," the former leader Amathera of Tarabon who is now just a dancing toy for the Seanchan, was intense, and the choice Morgase makes as a consequence equally climactic.

I didn't really buy at the end that Rand would have recovered enough from Padan Fain's attack to be able to face Sammael, but okay. Also, Rand is quickly running out of male Forsaken to fight, so he'd better get over his squeamishness about killing women soon, or the female Forsaken are going to completely own him. Maybe Arangar (male Forsaken resurrected in a female body) will blow his mind enough to shake him out of that.

I didn't get why Sammael and Graendal tricked Sevanna and scattered her Shaido clan all over. Seems like that helped Rand. Maybe it will become clear later.

Moghedien was freed from Egwene's captivity, but is now a puppet, so we'll see how that goes.

Mat got some turnabout with Queen Tylin of Ebou Dar who ahhh... went after him rather insistently. I found this part of the storyline troubling. I think it was supposed to be comical, but essentially with the power difference involved, Tylin was raping Mat. Had the genders been reversed, this would have been even more obviously not okay and the instigator would have been portrayed as a full-on villain, so I didn't think a woman doing the "chasing" made it funny. When I say turnabout, I mean that's how Mat's female companions saw it, but I didn't think their views were fair. Mat may be a rake, but I never got the impression that he pressured women to agree to sex, let alone raped them.

This issue of consent was also disturbing in Lan and Nynaeve's relationship. Lan has suffered a magical psychic wound in the death of Moiraine, who passed his bond to Myrelle against his will in order to save him from death when she knew she would die. The Aes Sedai consider passing a bond/bonding a Warder against their will to be akin to rape, although I get why Moiraine did it. The bigger problem comes in when Myrelle sends him to act as Nynaeve's Warder until Myrelle can officially pass his bond to her. Since he and Nynaeve love each other, this may very well save him eventually--I just found it really disturbing that Nynaeve decided they would get married. He wasn't in a mental/emotional state to consent to much of anything, much less marriage.

The scene where Nynaeve almost dies, finally loses her block, and gets rescued by Lan was excellent, though. The breaking of her block was a long time coming. Maybe as one of the most powerful Aes Sedai living, she will have to help save Rand's ass again if he can't bring himself to kill female Forsaken. ( )

3.5 *

More happened in the book, but so slowly. The last few chapters seemed to contain all the action, or at least most of it.

I still struggle with why all, or at least most, of the male/female relationships are so juvenile. I was as frustrated as Perrin with the way Faile was acting. Rand seems to have come to terms with the fact that he loves 3 women, and with 2 of them away, the relationship with Min can flourish he is most comfortable with her, anyway, so that relationship seems more natural. And then you have Mat with his queen--what a twisted, coerced deal that is!

I continue to be frustrated with the numbers and names of the Aes Sedai and Wise Ones, and all their factions. A cast of characters listing (something more helpful than what's in the back of each book) would be nice. And then there are the Forsaken with their factions/coalitions, and their numerous names and incarnations.

But the story, while told in excruciating detail at times, is wide and deep. I am content to slog along because the good parts are very good. There is a lot of creativity in the weaving of the Wheel. ( )

audiobook ( )

Harder to get through but very good. ( )

Sammael morto ( )