• Author: Robert Jordan
• Series: The Wheel of Time #2
• No. of pages: 698
• Dates read: 15.03.20 – 28.03.20
• Rating: 5 stars and FAVOURITE!
• Reading Challenge: 2020 Sequels

This is going to be a spoiler filled review this time round as I have too many thoughts! So, if you have not read this book do not read further!

Plot: The Forsaken are loose, the Horn of Valere has been found and the Dead are rising from their dreamless sleep. The Prophecies are being fulfilled – but Rand al’Thor, the shepherd the Aes Sedai have proclaimed as the Dragon Reborn, desperately seeks to escape his destiny. Rand cannot run for ever. With every passing day the Dark One grows in strength and strives to shatter his ancient prison, to break the Wheel, to bring an end to Time and sunder the weave of the Pattern. And the Pattern demands the Dragon.

I loved all the Aes Sedai scenes, literally anything which involved the Aes Sedai I loved! I loved exploring the different Ajah. I enjoyed learning about the different alliances and who was feuding with who both on a macro level like Ajah vs Ajah and then on an individual level. I especially enjoyed it when it came to the Amrylin and her originally being from the Blue Ajah and what that means politically within the White Tower. I also enjoyed learning about the Aes Sedai training, I don’t know whether I would be very good with the visualising the flower.

Nynaeve’s test broke my heart! If you read my The Eye of the World Review you will know I love Nynaeve but I specifically love Nynaeve and Lan!!! That scene with them in the field where he is saying how much he loves her killed me! I want to seem them together at the end of this series! I personally felt that we didn’t get enough Lan and Nynaeve for my liking.

We also had some incredibly strong female characters which I loved!!!!! Not enough Moiraine but we did get more Min and Elayne which I loved. I love the friendship between these two and Egwene and Nynaeve. I think the first book was way more focused on the friendship between Mat, Perrin and Rand so it was great to see a strong focus on female friendship and the lengths they would go to help each other out.

I really enjoyed the Darkfriend scenes and anything with Padan Fain. Again, with The Eye of the World we only really saw one side of the story. We were focused on Rand and his story while in this book we get more insight into the innerworkings of the dark side, if you will. Padan Fain is by far one of my favourite characters, not due to his morals at all, but I find his hunger for power and trying to remain alongside the most powerful person really intriguing. You can slowly see his humanity fading away. I get strong Peter Pettigrew vibes from him.

I really enjoyed The Great Game, the introduction of the Game saved the book for a bit because I wasn’t loving the scenes with Selene and the Mirror World. I would love to read anything which just focuses on the Great Game, I think Game of Thrones is like that but I don’t wanna read or watch it. I want to read the history of The Great Game, what major things have happened previously.

One thing I noticed was this book felt a lot slower for the majority than the first book. I think this is due to the 1st book having to set up so much. All the different storylines for each individual character e.g. Perrin being able to talk to wolves, Rand’s channelling and Mat with the bloody dagger! All the different relationships between characters e.g. Egwene and Rand, Moiraine and Lan, Nynaeve and Lan, and the world-building/history and lore needed to be set up and given detail early on. So, initially we found ourselves moving very quickly through the first book and visiting a variety of new places. This didn’t need to happen as much in this book, as the main points had been already set up, so I felt the focus was more on the detail of the story and setting itself up for the rest of the series and I did not have a problem with that. I enjoyed it.

I did have a couple of things which I didn’t hate but I didn’t love either. I felt very on the fence about it.

There were not enough Perrin and the wolves scenes but that’s my own personal preference.

I did not enjoy any of the scenes with Rand, Loial and Hurin and eventually Selene, in the Mirror World. I found them pretty boring, to be honest. Probably the weakest part of the book for me. But I know it’s important as it introduced Selene. Selene also makes me uncomfortable which is probably why I didn’t enjoy the scenes as much.

I also do not really care for this weird love square with Rand, Min, Egwene and Elayne. I think that’s because while I like Rand he is not my favourite character and I don’t see what the fuss is about. I sometimes find him to be boring at times. I think his storyline is so interesting but I just cannot connect to him at all. I’m hoping this will change in the coming books.

Finally, my predictions for the series. I wanted to add something new to this review as this is a series I am now fully committed to. So it’s just a couple of things I have been thinking of.

• Moiraine will die at the end of the series.
• Lan will be bonded to Nynaeve and they can be together.
• Rand will die at the end of the series.
• Egwene and Rand will get together but obviously be torn apart due to his death, I only think they will get together in the final books. This is backed up due to Min saying to Rand that they won’t be together forever based on what she read about him. Also…
• Selene is Lanfear and she is going to get in the way.
• Egwene will have a thing with Galad.
• Mat is the King of Matheren in some way.

I am a massive fan of this series and I can’t wait to read the next book!

The next book I will be reviewing is The Paris Mysteries by Edgar Allan Poe.