The Dragon Reborn—the leader long prophesied who will save the world, but in the saving destroy it; the savior who will run mad and kill all those dearest to him—is on the run from his destiny.

Able to touch the One Power, but unable to control it, and with no one to teach him how—for no man has done it in three thousand years—Rand al’Thor knows only that he must face the Dark One. But how?

Winter has stopped the war—almost—yet men are dying, calling out for the Dragon. But where is he?

Perrin Aybara is in pursuit with Moiraine Sedai, her Warder Lan, and Loial the Ogier. Bedeviled by dreams, Perrin is grappling with another deadly problem—how is he to escape the loss of his own humanity?

Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve are approaching Tar Valon, where Mat will be healed—if he lives until they arrive. But who will tell the Amyrlin their news—that the Black Ajah, long thought only a hideous rumor, is all too real? They cannot know that in Tar Valon far worse awaits…

Ahead, for all of them, in the Heart of the Stone, lies the next great test of the Dragon reborn….

How was it?

I started the Wheel of Time book series by Robert Jordan when I saw the first clips for the Prime Video adaptation, coincidently The Eye of the World – the first book in the series – was already on my reading list – I don’t know when it got there, for how long it was or who recommended it to me. I liked it enough but the Wheel of Time S1 is what pushed me to read The Great Hunt. My liking for the book series increased a bit with the second entry but with this third entry, I had my best reading experience so far.

It took me writing this review to realize why The Dragon Reborn was more engaging and entertaining to me than the previous two books. For one, it heavily features my favorite characters Perrin, Egwene, and Nynaeve even if the title suggests that Rand would take center stage. Out of the Two Rivers crew Rand is not a favorite of mine, they ALL annoy me at times but Rand is consistent with it. So imagine my delight at seeing Perrin, Egwene, and even Mat blossom into people that they themselves didn’t think they could be. Rand still has a presence in the book but he’s more of a looming shadow than a full-on presence, I guess it’s not easy writing someone who’s losing their mind but his particular brand of stubbornness just erks me.

As I alluded to, the characters’ development in this entry is quite good, Mat managed to grow on me while Nynaeve is a tad annoying as is Egwene. The author seems to have a knack for writing characters with trust issues and major bouts of stubbornness. They all kept secrets from each other, or from people they know to have more of an expertise than they do, their attitude doesn’t always make sense but I guess they can’t always make smart choices.

Just like the other installments, there’s a lot of traveling in this novel but it turns out to be more entertaining this time around. I wasn’t zombie Reading* as much or pausing with a hitch to read something else in the middle. I wouldn’t qualify those sections as filler because they help with the world-building and the scale of that world, however, they weren’t the most entertaining passages in the previous two books.

I’m starting to get in the groove, and really enjoying the series, spending time on other characters than the titular hero was a great move.

*Zombie reading: reading something without really processing any of the words on the page. One often wonders how they got a particular section, with little to no recollection of what came before, after zombie reading.

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