The Wheel of Time: The Dragon Reborn

Even though the book is titled The Dragon Reborn, it almost completely lacks Rand's (The Dragon) point of view. Which is slightly unexpected. Rand goes solo from the start to journey alone to Tear to get his hands on Callandor, the Sword That Cannot Be Touched (except by the Dragon), and the story is told mainly from the points of view of everyone else following him or travelling to Tear for their own goals.

The Aes Sedai heal Mat from his link to the nasty dagger and he gains his amazing (Dark One's own) luck I've been waiting for. He also seems be able to speak the Old Tongue and is apparently very adept with quarterstaff. The Old Blood runs strong in him, indeed.

Perrin tries to avoid contact with the wolves, fearing he will lose himself if he continues to see the 'wolf dreams'. Large cities and being on a moving ship seem to keep the wolves at bay yet Perrin founds trying to contact the wolves nonetheless. I think his inner struggle will continue on the next book but I doubt he'll go mad, though; Elays didn't.

I like the names the wolves give to people and things. The Dragon is Shadowkiller, Ba'alzamon is Heartfang, and a myrddraal is Neverborn etc. Actually, all the nations seem to have their own names for the Dragon and all the evil things. A very nich touch by Robert Jordan, I must say.

Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne return to the White Tower after the last book's events to continue becoming Aes Sedai. Egwene and Elayne are raised to Accepted like Nynaeve was in the previous book. Still the three women can't stay in the White Tower for long, however, for they are secretly sent to get back the artifacts taken by the 13 black Aes Sedai who left the tower.

The Dragon Reborn introduces again new minions of the Dark One; the Gray Men and Darkhounds (Notdead and Shadowbrothers as the wolves call them), and some sort of all-destroying way of channeling the True Source; balefire (a very cool name!), which is introduced rather adruptly. It seems to be able to destroy even the Forsaken.

In addition, Tel'aran'rhiod -- a some sort of dream world -- has a big role in the novel. The wolves seem to live in both worlds and thus Perrin goes there everytime he sleeps. Egwene also spends some major time there, with the aid of a ter'angreal she is given by one the brown Aes Sedai, trying to find clues about the black sisters.

Tel'aran'rhiod is s'posed to have stuff that may or may not happen, but to me it seems everything Egwene and Perrin dreams always comes true. It's like the novel is shoving you spoilers left and right, although the dreams are not always overly clear. "Everything is fixed / There's no chance / There's no choice" as is sung in Wheel of Time by Blind Guardian; the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills.

I didn't like The Dragon Reborn as much as did of the previous installation. I think that is mostly because of Rand's absence in the book. He's my favorite character and I want to read about him. He's the Dragon Reborn afterall! It seems this trend will continue, though.

Later books evince a trend toward more "worldwide" points of view, with Rand receiving comparatively little focus, although his presence (or absence) is still widely noted. [Wikipedia]

One random quote that should be picked from the novel and is said by Thom Merrilin (not by Robert Jordan; what a character thinks is not necessarily the same as the author!). It is about the difference of men and women (one of the major themes in The Wheel of Time): "Men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget."

Also, I think I finally figured out what's wrong Darrell K. Sweet's cover art -- his style looks old... and German. Especially Rand looks like some German man from the 80's. I prefer modern looking cover art and Todd Lockwood, for instance, is one great artist who makes such things.