The Dragon Reborn (Wheel of Time, #3)

by Robert Jordan

[HekArtemis]

Once again, 5 stars for nostalgia but 4 stars otherwise, actually maybe even 3.5 stars because oh were the women horrible in this one. Like so bad. And we spend so much time with Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne that it was almost unbearable. The Aes Sedai were awful as well - the way they completely cut Egwene off and don't even let her explain what happened to her, thus ignoring the very real trauma she has, as evidenced by her extreme reactions to later events.... And then set her and the other two up for further trauma. Damn it I hate that so much - which is hard since I recall liking Siuan in later books after certain events. And I forgot that Faile was introduced so early on in the series, ugh, Faile.

The worst part is that I know this isn't the worst of it when it comes to the female characters.

That said, the few and far between moments with Rand, and the beginning of Mat's real story were wonderful and somewhat make up for the awfulness elsewhere. I also always liked the idea of Tel'aran'rhiod so the introduction of that in this book was great. And of course we are introduced to the Aiel in this one and now I remember what the next book is all about and, yeeeeesss Rhuidean is coming!