Book Review: The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan

 

Goodreads Summary: The Dragon Reborn--the leader long prophesied who will save the world, but in the saving destroy it; the savior who will run mad and kill all those dearest to him--is on the run from his destiny.Able to touch the One Power, but unable to control it, and with no one to teach him how--for no man has done it in three thousand years--Rand al'Thor knows only that he must face the Dark One. But how?

Winter has stopped the war-almost-yet men are dying, calling out for the Dragon. But where is he?

Perrin Aybara is in pursuit with Moiraine Sedai, her Warder Lan, and the Loial the Ogier. Bedeviled by dreams, Perrin is grappling with another deadly problem--how is her to escape the loss of his own humanity.

Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve are approaching Tar Valon, where Mat will be healed--if he lives until they arrive. But who will tell the Amyrlin their news--that the Black Ajah, long thought only a hideous rumor, is all too real? They cannot know that in Tar Valon far worse awaits...

Ahead, for all of them, in the Heart of the Stone, lies the next great test of the Dragon reborn....

Goodreads Rating: 4.25 stars with over 213,000 ratings

Genre Listing: Fantasy, Fiction, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Magic

Previous Reviews on the series: Eye of the World, The Great Hunt

Goodreads Challenge: 38/60 books 

2020 Reading Challenge: #55 Read a book that involves travel

Book Review:

Well, another Wheel of Time book is down. I'm mildly surprised that I've read all three this year. It doesn't feel like it. It feels like ages ago that I read both Eye of the World and The Great Hunt. As always, Tress tweeted my thoughts that I sent her on it. You can find the thread here. I don't really know if my end of the conversation can really be classified as thoughts as much as just random songs and pop culture references that won't leave my head while reading. There are some predictions, however. I don't recommend reading it if you haven't read WOT, as it may contain spoilers.

I was surprised that The Dragon Reborn focused more on Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne, Perrin, and Mat. Not that I mind. I really enjoy reading about the three ladies being in the Tower studying to become Aes Sedai. I don't think I got as much out of Mat and Perrin's scenes this time around. I really liked how much of the WOT world was explained in The Dragon Reborn. This was definitely a good one for the Travel category.

There was a short description of the Green Ajah, which made me happy. I really want to learn more about the different Ajah (or Sisterhood of the Traveling Scarves as I started calling them on Twitter), their values, if their powers differ, etc. The Dragon Reborn gave a bit more of a glimpse of the magic. I think this, combined with the Ajah intricacies, is what I'm mostly looking forward to in the next books.

I think I would have liked to see more Rand, Moraine, and Lan in this book. They were present but definitely didn't feel like they were front and center. Loial seemed like he sort of took a backseat as well. He was there and commented about how he could have stayed in the stedding, which I thought was kind of annoying because he could have gone home at any time. No one was forcing him to be with Moraine and Lan. I definitely didn't get the same Loial vibe that he previously had.

I had other things I had planned to say, but I've mostly forgotten them. This is the downside of me reading large books. I forget half of what I wanted to write about, which is super great when conducting reviews. I used up all five of my brain cells at work today, so this may take a minute for me to regroup.

I just had to refer back to the Twitter thread to try and collect my thoughts. I think I remembered what I wanted to talk about now. I enjoyed reading about Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne's portion of the adventure. However, I think I would have liked more interaction with the thirteen they sought. There was still a lot of adventure and a good story for their adventure, but it just seemed a little disconnected from their purpose of leaving the tower in the first place. 

The final battle of the book also felt a little understated. I was reading it, enjoying it. But then it just ended, and there were some pages to finish the story after that. I was actually shocked it ended there because I forgot there'd be like 30 pages of glossary and what not. So when the story actually concluded, I was looking for more. 

Overall, I enjoyed The Dragon Reborn. A lot of the fun in me reading this is just the sheer goofiness from the interaction between Tress and I while I read it. It makes reading it more memorable to share with a friend, I think. I liked seeing the different areas of the WOT world. I enjoyed getting to experience things through Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne, Mat, and Perrin. There were interactions from the whole group being together that I missed in the Dragon Reborn. The dynamic just felt off without Nynaeve and Lan being around each other or she and Egwene giving Rand, Mat, and Perrin hell. What I look to most is finding out about the magic and the different Ajah. I am a sucker for the details surrounding a book's magic.  This is more a 3.5 for me, but I don't give half-moons, so four it is.