The seals of Shayol Ghul are weak now, and the Dark One reaches out. The Shadow is rising to cover humankind.

In Tar Valon, Min sees portents of hideous doom. Will the White Tower itself be broken?

In the Two Rivers, the Whitecloaks ride in pursuit of a man with golden eyes, and in pursuit of the Dragon Reborn.

In Cantorin, among the Sea Folk, High Lady Suroth plans the return of the Seanchan armies to the mainland.

In the Stone of Tear, the Lord Dragon considers his next move. It will be something no one expects, not the Black Ajah, not Tairen nobles, not Aes Sedai, not Egwene or Elayne or Nynaeve.

Against the Shadow rising stands the Dragon Reborn…..

How was it?

The Shadow Rising, the fourth book in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, seems to deviate from the structure of the first three books – The Eye of The World, The Great Hunt, and The Dragon Reborn – where there’s a lot of time spent on characters traveling with the fun and more interesting stuff happening in the beginning and toward the end of the novel. For the first two, it was a weird U-shaped experience where the excitement was high at first then dropped considerably before picking up at the end. Book three didn’t have as big of a dip in entertaining elements but the structure was the same. Here it seems someone finally told the author that the focus could shift to another group of characters while some were traveling, that said a lot of the more unfortunate aspects of the series remain.

Some characters have become shells, stock characters, acting in ways that don’t match what was established before, leaving you puzzled at how stupid/careless/annoying take your pick one or more applies to most characters at some point. I get it most of them have trust issues and they’re stubborn but it’s as if they never really learned from their experiences. There are hints of growth but then they’ll do or say something that’ll suggest they’re regressing. It’s very annoying to read. Perrin and Elayne might be the most steady in terms of growth and staying true to themselves, with Egwene they might be the ones that annoyed me the least.

The overall plot is still interesting, and developing faster here than in the previous books – thank goodness. We’re introduced to a lot of people and places that add substance to this ever-growing world, yet I’m managing not to get lost in the minutia. I loved some of the reveals, particularly the ones in “The City in the Clouds,” but boy did the author take his sweet sweet time in revealing some of the most obvious things. I did develop a coping mechanism, whenever something or someone was getting on my nerves I’d look at how much was left to read and convince myself that things had time to turn around.

I’m still rating this book four stars because I managed to get through it without considering pausing to read another book.

If you like this content, please consider supporting the site by getting me a Coffee to keep it going: