Goodreads Summary: The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become a legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is may yet fall under the Shadow.
The seals of Shayol Ghul are weak now, and the Dark One reaches out. The Shadow is rising to cover humankind.
In Tar Valon, Min sees portents of hideous doom. Will the White Tower itself be broken?
In the Two Rivers, the Whitecloaks ride in pursuit of a man with golden eyes and in pursuit of the Dragon Reborn.
In Cantorin, among the Sea Folk, High Lady Suroth plans the return of the Seanchan armies to the mainland.
In the Stone of Tear, the Lord Dragon considers his next move. It will be something no one expects, not the Black Ajah, not Tairen nobles, not Aes Sedai, not Egwene or Elayne or Nynaeve.
Against the Shadow Rising stands the Dragon Reborn... The seals of Shayol Ghul are weak now, and the Dark One reaches out. The Shadow is rising to cover humankind.
In Tar Valon, Min sees portents of hideous doom. Will the White Tower itself be broken?
In the Two Rivers, the Whitecloaks ride in pursuit of a man with golden eyes and in pursuit of the Dragon Reborn.
In Cantorin, among the Sea Folk, High Lady Suroth plans the return of the Seanchan armies to the mainland.
In the Stone of Tear, the Lord Dragon considers his next move. It will be something no one expects, not the Black Ajah, not Tairen nobles, not Aes Sedai, not Egwene or Elayne or Nynaeve.
Goodreads Ratings: 4.24 stars with over 183,000 ratings
Genre Listing: Fantasy, Fiction, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Adventure, Magic
Previous reviews on the series: Eye of the World, The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn
Goodreads Challenge: 30/50 (Hey! Only one book behind.)2021 Reading Challenge: #40 Read a book that uses the "Chosen One" trope (Find the entire challenge here)
Book Review:
Hi readers! I hope everyone has been doing well. July and August have been really busy for me, so I haven't gotten a chance to do any non-book review posts while reading The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan. I'm definitely ready for things to settle down, but I suspect it will continue this way until October. I'm a little surprised that as long as it felt like it took me to read this book, I'm only one book behind on the Goodreads challenge.
The way I go about reading Wheel of Time books is a little different and insane. So for those of you who are new to the blog, Challenge co-conspirator Tress is a huge Wheel of Time fan. She started a tradition of buying me the books for my birthday or Christmas. When I finally got around to reading Eye of the World, Tress provided screenshots of my thoughts. It is now time for me to explain my brain, or the strain of my thoughts in the Twitter threads will make no sense. It takes little to no effort to get a song stuck in my head. My internal thoughts are just basically the most random playlist ever on repeat. This is fitting because it's also my music taste. So the Twitter thread is predominantly my random theories/reactions, songs, and pop culture references. This year, I tweeted out my thoughts as I read them. So it took me a while to read Shadow Rising. If you'd like to read the Twitter feed, you can find it here. The previous threads should be linked to the blog reviews above.
Okay, so time for actual thoughts. There was a lot of information in Shadow Rising, and truthfully, I'm still trying to process a lot of it. I felt like there was a lot more explanation of what can be done with the magic in this series. It was discussed in the other books, but I had a hard time really understanding its depths. Shadow Rising made it seem more elemental and somewhat limitless (not including the whole madness thing.) I really liked the Dream Walking aspect and how it was used to tie the characters together. Nyn's ability to seek things out that she needs in it was fascinating. I'm intrigued to see what else they learn how to do both with Saidin and Dream Walking.
There were so many details about the Aiel culture. I was really surprised at the intricacies between the different clans and the customs. I don't feel like I really grasped most of them, and I'll probably forget them by the time I read the next book. That being said, it was still interesting to read, and I assume more will be explained later on. We also saw how the Aiel came to be and their previous relationship with the Tinkers. I liked seeing how everything connected.
I found myself wanting to read more about Perrin and Faile than the other characters. Not that I didn't like the others, but I felt like the back and forth between them was humorous. They seem well matched. I really wish we would have been told what was in Elayne's letters to Rand. Based on his reactions, I assume they were two very different things - one professing her love for him, and the other either downplaying their relationship or breaking it off. Mat annoyed me quite a bit in this book. He just comes across as whiny a lot of the time. I will say I'm intrigued to see where his small prophecy goes.
Verin is probably my favorite of reoccurring Aes Sedai that we encounter. For some reason, in my head, I always picture her as a really sassy Flora from Sleeping Beauty. The images in my head for characters rarely match the description provided in the books, and truthfully I don't remember how she was described. I'm not quite sure what to make of Alanna. I'd really like to know if we learn what happens to Moraine in Rhuidean. I don't think it was really discussed because she seemed so traumatized by whatever it was.
As always, I loved the book. I found myself negotiating one more chapter with my brain. There were definitely a lot of late nights because I didn't want to put it down. I'm excited about the next book, but it'll likely be a bit before I pick it up. I need time for my brain to decompress from this one. After my rating, there will be a list of songs that I've gotten in my head while reading this series.
The Shadow Rising is my favorite of the series, because of the way the world opens up - I adored learning so much about Aiel culture and history (and yes, there is much more to come), Dreamwalking, and meeting more of the Forsaken. I really enjoyed the two doorframe ter'angreal that Matt goes through, and seeing how he gets his questions answered and wishes granted that he... didn't quite intend to wish.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, and Rand's "nobody will expect this" plan was very cool.
This is also the first book where our intrepid crew that left the Two Rivers doesn't end up back together at the end after the big boss battle. Perrin is a married man who's becoming quite a leader, Mat's got some pretty big prophecies hanging over his head, and Rand has got himself a Saidin teacher. Nynaeve faced off against a Forsaken and held her own quite admirably... and Egwene's learning ALL THE THINGS.
These characters are leveling up, and I love to see it.
It's so good and so much detail. There was a lot more I could have gone on about, but I'd have been writing for a while.
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