Author: Robert Jordan
Publisher: Tor
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: 1990
Well, they always say sequels are weak. Back to the Future II. Rocky II. The Great Hunt. You get the picture.
From the start, I got the distinct impression that Jordan had his brains a bit scrambled. The storyline jumped from plot to plot, character to character. Very little of the overall story made sense until the last 3 CDs (yes, I listened to the audio version of this one as well). But Jordan wasn’t the only one that was a slice of bread short of a full picnic.
Rand is nearly (if not completely) off his rocker. He continues to fight the Aes Sedai in everything they try to get him to do. But in not doing what they want him to do, he ends up doing what they want him to do. I’m going crazy just trying to make sense of that. The good news is, he (once again) fought Ba’alzamon and (once again) defeated him. He also bested another blade master, so maybe he actually learned something from his lessons with Lan.
Mat, well, he’s always been a bit crazy since he got his grubby hands wrapped around that dagger. He finally recovers it, but alas, hasn’t been healed yet. Looks like he’ll be heading back to the White Tower.
Ingtar became Mat’s clone. Except he went crazy when he had the Horn of Valere instead of the dagger. Turns out he was a Darkfriend, but he eventually redeemed himself.
Selene shows up for a chapter or two then vanishes. Who she is or who she sides with is hard to tell. And other than wanting to control Rand because of his power, she was a regular woman. Manipulative.
The Seanchan are all crazy. I can see not liking people that can channel the One Power, but putting the women in chains is a bit much. And the leash holders have the ability to channel too? And what’s with the slurred speech? Oh well, glad to see the bug-heads got beat.
Overall, Jordan does a good job in continuing the story of Rand and crew. I may be crazy, but I think the spirit of the first book was lost a bit in the sequel. Jumping around and around didn’t help the plot line (like introducing the Seanchan sooner that needed) and having characters drop in and out of the story (like Selene) was confusing.
As usual, the audio version was great to listen too. Jordan once again follows the same pattern of writing a slow story so the reader (or listener) has time to catch up. I’m noticing he’s lacking in his fight scenes and some of his use of magic and religion. Especially when I compare it to Salvatore’s sword battles and the magic and religion in the Demon Wars series. And while others may think his female characters (or all of his characters) are a bit one-dimensional, I actually agree. But I don’t feel that it’s something bad. I read the characters as being one-dimensional in the sense that we just don’t know their whole story yet. We’ve already seen a bit more of Rand and company come out, and I think more will come to light further in the series.
But for now, The Dragon Reborn must wait. Okay, that was long enough.
