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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Khorod" data-source="post: 646600" data-attributes="member: 1636">Includes SpoilersWhile Elayne & Egwene had some good, and long, talking moments, with a book this size its not unreasonable to expect they follow up with some action- seeing the implementation of Elayne's plan to scare the other nobles with a controlled incursion of the borderlander armies would have been nice.  Or maybe interacting some with enemy nobles.  Some actual, direct politicking would have been nice.  All she did was hint at what she needed to do, and what she intended to do next.In a last 20-page shocker, a main character did something.  Egwene had an unspecified plan to do something involving the skill of making cuendlar (sp?).  Of course, she took no one to watch her back... and her line of business she should have realized the foolishness of that.  Earlier that day she was thinking about the dire necessity of having a hundred guards within 50 yards at all times...Mat was being very much himself, aside from actually trying to get Tuon to speak his name.  Based on the structure of his character, I was surprised at his near-complete focus on courting her.  His character has always been about avoiding destiny, and sometimes succeeding.  He should have run for the hills as soon as he realized her saying his name would lead to their prophecized joining.  Also, his role in the novels is that of the Great General of the Dragon or something.  Whatever else he does in this side-plot, his main purpose in the larger story is with the armies.Rand's decision to make a truce with the Seanchan was surprising.  In that he didn't realize its necessity earlier.  His job is championing the side of life and light against the eternal evil Dark One.  Anything the Seanchan might do is irrelevant if he fails that.  Its sad, but he's long since been nutty and cold enough to realize he needs to give away at least half the continent, maybe so he can subtely work on gaining control over the Seanchan forces to add to his own.*I like the idea of Jordan doing some off-epic stories in this world.  Not in the middle of the series mind you, but when else would this man do that?  It really shows that he might not have sold out so much as lost his direction.The first few books were great, and everything I read about Jordan's reactions to fans and their conspiracy theories pointed to him looking down at his thorough outline of the whole story and giving an evil little grin at all the wild pronouncements.  He has misplaced that outline...This book not only had a lot of padding, it feels like padding.  So much stuff was detailed for no apparent, meaningful reason.  I expect it was written to remind people of everyone and everything and make a little extra money while he tries to figure out where to go from here.  He can't advance the plot until he decides what that should be.Gawyn got a few nice pages reminding everyone that he was conflicted in his loyalties and in love with Egwene.  A darkfriend (Mellar?) who had so few pages before that I could barely remember him was revisited, to remind us he was evil.  He did have the most development of any character in the book though.  He actually killled someone.  That was the great action scene.  Perrin's cold effort at torture was not an action scene, it was built to remind us he has hardened into someone able to command an army, and then to remind us that he hates killing.The most aggravating thing about 'stuff which actually happened' in the book was Logain and Bashere spontaneously arriving together at Rand's secret hideaway.  Apparently this pair of men, soldier's and Aes Sedai warders in tow, had made their way to Cairhein, turned that city on its head, and sniffed out where Rand was, then showed up.  Until he was on Rand's doorstep, Bashere was with his army near Caemlyn.  And Logain was about to set out for a Asha'man recruitment trip.  So these key secondary characters did more adventuring than anyone else but it was not shown- it wasn't even hinted at that they were looking for Rand!A few new characters were introduced in this book- the Great Captain of Arad Doman, an Imperial Deathwatch General, and maybe one or two others.  Ituralde of Arad Doman is not important to anything as far as I can tell, just a competent man dealing with change who someone, probably Mat, will have to impress and dominate later.  The General is actually a cool character who I wouldn't mind seeing more of- once the main characters have been seen to.  The man seems to have a thing for Tuon, indicated only in his odd personal loyalty to her and his insistence on assignment protecting her.So, to recap, the book was reminders, padding, and set up for the real book, which will arrive sometime in years to come.This rant was much better than the one in the other thread... and I had thought I'd gotten it out of my system.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" /></blockquote>

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