The Dragon Reborn

Oh man, this one was a bit of a struggle. I've heard if people don't like this one, it's usually because of the lack of Rand. But that was a feature, not a bug, for me. Bland could be his Rand self off screen just fine. But the stuff we did get had a lot that didn't work for me. The Aiel are super interesting, and I'm glad Mat and Perrin got some much needed development, but that's my major positives here.

The inter-gender relationships in this series are beginning to really bother me. The yada-yada of action/important scenes after long chapters of nothing happening was disappointing. I fundamentally don't believe any of these characters act like friends at any point and either Jordan didn't have friends or he had bad friends because I'm not willing to pretend these people are actually friends at this point.

The ending of all three books up to this point has been exactly the same, to a laughable level. All the villains of this series are chumps that are built up to be frightening and then as soon as they see a main character, they slip on a banana peel or something and are immediately dispatched.

Finally, the character of Faile is the worst and made it hard for me to enjoy anything happening in the second half.

The first two books of WoT I enjoyed, and I'm told the series reached new levels in book 4, so I will definitely be continuing. There was a lot of character development and world-building in this one (Jordan's continued highlight is worldbuilding) and I think in retrospect, I could appreciate what it does for the long term.

5.5/10

The shifting in perspectives, and the particular absence of one, was enough to pique interest all throughout. There are also certain scenes (spoilers, spoilers!) that had me rooting. Robert Jordan has this knack for spreading out the different chapters in a manner where, even if you don't necessarily like the POV that you're reading, you continue to read in order to get back to the chapters you do. And I'm not disappointed yet. I am a bit uncertain about certain character arcs, not quite sure how some (who are lagging behind) are going to catch up, but I suppose that's what the rest of the books are for.

4.25. my favourite so far.

Aside from a few obvious plot-wagons, I enjoyed this one. It is lovely to be in Nynaeve's POV - she is exactly the ass-kicking lady I like to see in my fantasy. I loved that we barely saw Rand at all, and I wonder how unusual this device was when Jordan wrote the book. I also really enjoyed getting POVs from Mat, since he was a really unlikeable character in the first two novels because of Plot Device. Surprisingly, his 'luck' didn't bother me either even with the potential for it to become an abused trope. In fact, I'm interested to see how both Jordan and Mat handle it's removal in the future.

The only part that really stood out was that, having come through the whole book without Rand, he gets the climactic scene. The rest of Rand's story in this book was told by other people, and it would have been cool if they could have told his fight and 'killing' of Ba'alzamon. Maybe it didn't make sense to do it that way, but it really annoyed me that I had come so far with everyone else, only to have Rand have the ‘glory' at the end, rather than everyone else's reactions to it.

wolves, falcons, lucky rogues, evil sorceresses, dream magic, relics, corrupt city-states... there's a lot going on in this third volume and I am now fully on board.

A master piece.

I love this series. It's not perfect at all, it has its flaws but I love this world so damn much!
The formula of this one is exactly the same of book 1 and 2. There were a few odd choices during this journey, specifically regarding Rand, but that ending... EPIC!

6/10

More of a journey book

I've used the word “journey” rather than filler because there is good world building and a lot of character building in this book. But this does not feel like a book where Jordan intended to tell a complete tale. It feels more like he wanted to introduce us to more cultures, lands, towns, peoples and then in the last 200/150 pages he wanted to wrap it up so started making it really interesting. I'm not keen on the whole “ooh I've killed Ba'alzamon” “ooooh no you haven't” thing that's happened three times now. These happen with little reason either.

However, I like Jordan's writing style and its very immersive.

THE WHEEL OF TIME

1) The Eye of the World ★★★★
2) The Great Hunt ★★★★★
3) The Dragon Reborn ★★★★★
4) The Shadow Rising ★★★★★
5) The Fires of Heaven ★★★★★
6) Lord of Chaos ★★★★★
7) A Crown of Swords ★★★★

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So this one surprised me by being very light on the Rand side of things and very heavy on the other characters. We really got to know Mat and Perrin in this one, but I think my favourite part was following Nynaeve, Egwene and Elayne!

Incredible.

This book was everything I wanted it to be and more. Less broody Rand and more of Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne being badasses. Of course Rand and Mat are wool-headed at the end thinking it's all over (there are still 11 more books!)

I'm really starting to like Perrin, and I'm looking forward to how he evolves in the next books.

Very excited to read book 4.

I'd already read through this series four times and with the Amazon series beginning to gain some traction I figured now was as good a time as any for a fifth!

Seeing as the first 3/14 are kind-of sort-of seen as a mini trilogy before the world truly explodes in book 4 I wanted to say I am just as bowled over and invested on this fifth time as I was reading this for the first time 8 years ago. I think I'll always be absolutely in love with the Wheel of Time.

“Remember that any meal can be your last. You chose to travel with us, so tonight you will eat fish. Tomorrow, you may die.”

How many ways can I say I love the Wheel of time? Three books in (four with the prequel) and each one builds more and more on the last, the characters are brilliant (each with there own flaws) the plot is one well traveled but has never been done to this level before (in my opinion).

Read the Wheel of time, read it now!

Loved it! The pace of the last half dozen chapters almost gave me whiplash. The characters are definitely explored more in depth throughout this book, minus maybe Rand, who's more like a supporting character. Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve all definitely come more into their own, learning new things about their powers with every obstacle they tackle. Perrin and Mat are shown to quickly be turning from boys to men; though both do have quite a bit more maturing to do. I feel really that Mat shines in this book. It's nice to finally have him doing something other than being coke-addict level paranoid or knocking on death's door.

Book three, similar to the second book. Everyone gets separated and then it is a race to reunite at a big battle. Still solid, however. Looking forward to Book 4.

This book was amazing! Unlike the previous two books this one caught me from the prologue. I loved how Jordan finally focused on Mat and Perrin more, showcasing their abilities! Rand had such a large part by the end of the book I wish he had been focused on a bit more. It was kind of a quick and exciting ending but satisfying nonetheless. It is very hard to take the amount of characters Jordan has and give them a sizable piece in each book. I think Jordan does a decent job juggling them. I am looking forward to the next!

Boek één was op de keper beschouwd echt niet zo goed, boek twee viel beter mee dan verwacht, en dit is het boek waarvan ik dacht: het wordt écht iets met deze reeks.

Het nominale hoofdpersonage, Rand al'Thor, komt niet eens zo enorm veel in het stuk voor, maar de nevenpersonages – en dan vooral Matt, Perrin en Nynaeve, worden behoorlijk degelijk uitgevleesd.

Geen verkeerd boek. Ik weet dat het binnenkort minder wordt, maar hey. 

Robert Jordan has a formula going and it still works into the third book. Each of the protagonists we have been following journey across the world heading towards the next place linked to the prophecy. We follow them separately and the plot keeps building till we reach the climax. The Dragon Reborn is no different. We follow everyone except Rand and we end at the Tear. This book though is more light primarily because we follow Mat through his easy going ways. As usual at the end of it we now wait for the next book to tell us the direction of the prophecy and watch as the Wheel weaves. The ride goes onward and go along we must!

Percy Jackson’s saga continues! I started this series because it was E’s favorite when he was younger, plus there is also a fun podcast bookclub to go along with it. This is definitely my favorite book of the series so far - as with Harry Potter the books get more interesting (to me) as the characters get older and the stakes get higher. I have high hopes for the final book!

Executive Summary: This one didn't quite live up to my memory, or maybe it's just that my criteria for giving out 5 stars has become more stringent. There were a few slow parts earlier on, but the latter half of the book just flew by. 4.5 stars.Audiobook: Another excellent job by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. One of my main reasons for doing this reread is to experience the audio book version, and it has yet to disappoint.Full ReviewOn my first read, this was one of my favorites in the series, certainly top 5. It still remains there after my reread. It just wasn't quite up to my current standards for 5 star reads, so unlike [b:The Eye of the World 228665 The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time, #1) Robert Jordan https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1337818095s/228665.jpg 2008238], I couldn't justify keeping it at 5 stars.For a book named The Dragon Reborn, there is very little of the Dragon himself. Instead it focuses on several of the characters that were more secondary in the first two books. Apart from Perrin, the others didn't get nearly so much page time as they do in this book.My personal favorite, at least on this reread is Mat. I still found him kind of annoying and whiny at the start of the series, but in this book he finally starts down the path on his way to my favorite character. There are parts I'm just itching to get to again, but I'm enjoying the journey there a lot sooner than I did on my first read.Perrin was my clear favorite for much of my first read, and I again enjoyed his sections here. However, some of the things that came to annoy me about him later in the series were more noticeable this time around.Nynaeve is already displaying both some of her most obnoxious tendencies (tugging the braid), but I also found she's showing some of the characteristics that made me come to really like her by the end of the series too. I hope that continues with my reread, because I found her one of the worst parts of the middle books the first time through.Overall the pace of this book is still pretty good compared to my recollection of later books, and there is a lot of great character development for the supporting cast, in particular Mat.I'm still going strong for my reread and plan to jump into the 4th book at some point soon.

The third book is where you start getting a preview of the warning I gave in the first book's review. The plot is still very epic in nature and immense in scope, so that's still a plus. The pacing is starting to stagger a little, where Robert Jordan seems to start going off in tangents away from the main plot. The overall progress in terms of the storyline is still pretty evident, and his flowing style still reads smoothly. Readers with a better memory or who read the books back to back will find that there are very many things in here that the author keeps highlighting and repeating in very many sections of the book - this is likely annoying to those who've already read them in the 2 books. But as I've read them months apart, it's wasn't particularly noticeable - I'd say it's just the way he does it and at this point, I didn't have any problems with it.