[Books] The Wheel of Time: the Dragon Reborn

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, and Age yet to come, and Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.

It seems that my read-through of 'The Wheel of Time' is accelerating as I get into it! This third volume in the series proper took me only a couple of weeks to finish, and marks a bit of a change for the series. The 'epicness' of the series seems to have ramped up, and the scope and scale, not to mention the stakes, and becoming bigger and bigger.

'The Dragon Reborn' seems to mark somewhat of a sea change in the series, at least from my perspective. It's almost as though the last vestiges of the influence of 'The Lord of the Rings' have been finally discarded, and Robert Jordan is free to finally give free reign to his own creation. Yes, in book two we had the appearance of the Seanchan and their otherworldly nature (at least as far as the denizens of the world are concerned), and we started to see more of the lore. But I felt that all of that really kicked into overdrive here. We start to see Rand al'Thor embracing his destiny, the stress and strain that it puts him under, and the machinations that are going on on both sides to force him towards certain outcomes.

Several of the 'supporting' (and I use the term loosely, as in some ways they're more the focus of the story) characters really get a chance to shine this time around. While Perrin got his chance in 'The Eye of the World', and Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve were important in 'The Great Hunt', Jordan really gives all of his cast their moment in the spotlight. Perrin has the start of a developing plot with his new lady love, and the three Aes Sedai in training get to chase after the Black Ajah in an engaging, if incredibly frustrating storyline. I say frustrating, because there are several points where I just want to knock their heads together and tell them to stop being so stupid. It's funny actually how much they go on about men being stubborn and slow to see the best way, when they're just as bad! It's a recurring theme actually in the series so far, with Jordan seeming to delight in his characters being somewhat hypocritical as far as personal characteristics go.

Darrell K Sweet's cover art for 'The Dragon Reborn', giving an impression of the climactic event of the novel: the fall of Tear. (Credit: bejaminrose.com)

As well as those story lines though it's nice to see a fair bit of the book from Matt's perspective. He was the forgotten man somewhat in the first two books, spending a lot of it ill and under the influence of the dagger from Shadar Logoth. But in 'The Dragon Reborn' we finally get a glimpse of his character from his own perspective rather than that of the people around him. I have to admit that I'm not particularly enamoured, finding him whiny, irritating, and frustratingly stupid/unwilling to see the truth. But at least it's a different viewpoint.

Once again this book gives both a self-contained story as well as a chapter in the greater whole that is 'The Wheel of Time'. But the chase mechanism that was used to great effect in books one and two is ditched here in favour of a multi-layered plot that I think works very well. There are basically three separate threads to the story: Moirain, Lan, Loial, Perrin and Faile chasing down Rand; Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve hunting the Black Ajah, and Matt and Thom delivering a letter and then trying to rescue the aforementioned women. What's great is the way that these threads interweave before converging on Tear in the final few chapters for this book's rousing conclusion. It seems that in each thread there are nods to the others that you can pick up on if you're paying attention, which I loved.

I'm still getting moments of 'I remember that', and can still recall the overall arc of the story and the major plot points such as the fall of Tear. But the details of the plot, and some fairly major events as well, are increasingly fuzzy. There are a few more things that I remember happening that I can't place in a particular book, so it will be interesting to see where they fall in the story.

The cover of the American version of 'The Dragon Reborn' (Credit: wot.wikia.com)

The Wheel of Time continues to turn; the series continues to go from strength to strength, and shows no sign of slowing down yet. The next book is one and half times as the longest so far, and I can't wait to see what gets thrown at our heroes next.