The Dragon Reborn

Reviewed on 7th June 2025

I've rapidly reached book three in my Wheel of Time re-read, and this one is strikingly different from the first two. As readers, we're now cut off from Rand, the main character we'd been with so far, and instead get long chunks of narrative following the other four lead characters of the series, before some faster chopping between them as the climax approaches.

This style I think makes the story feel slower. There's a lot to get through that feels like exposition, or just lining characters up for things, rather than developing them and their action.

Again, there's a new character who I didn't remember appearing this early in the series. It still gives that feeling that Jordan intended for a six-book adventure, not the 15 books that this became. The overall plot feels like it's taking a bound forward in each book, reaching a key milestone at the end.

I am considering a longer break now before re-reading book four, but we shall see how that pans out.

Reviewed on 11th July 2009

The third book in the series is the best so far for the most part. The ensemble of characters get the majority of the focus, and this makes the plotlines more interesting.

The characters are reduced slightly down to the original core plus a few new hangers on, and this makes the reader feel more like par of the team. Like the earlier books however thus was structured in a split up, travel, coincidently end up back together structure.

My continuing criticism of the series is that the endive are rather abrupt. This one in particular had an anti-climatic feel after the final battle when there was a conference and very little in the way of cliffhanger to draw me back in when I come to book four.