So. The Pattern truly was loosening. That meant the Dark One was touching the world more than he had since the War of the Shadow. If it loosened too much before Tarmon Gai’don, the Age Lace might unravel. An end to time and reality and creation. Somehow he had to bring about the Last Battle before that happened. Only he did not dare. Not yet.

Mat continues to travel through Altara with Valan Luca’s traveling circus. Along the way he grows closer with Tuon. Thom reveals to Mat that Moiraine is alive and being held captive by the Aelfinn and Eelfinn. They formulate a plan to infiltrate the Finn’s world using the Tower of Ghenjei thanks to Olver’s knowledge of the game of Snakes and Foxes. Mat and Noal agree to accompany Thom on his mission to save Moiraine. Mat: The star of yet another of the layer WoT books. We got to see him display a bit of his military expertise and got plenty of humour as his hilarious courtship of the Daughter of the Nine Moons continued. While attempting to escape Altara, Mat meets his supporter and comedic foil Talmanes, who has brought a large number of Mat's personal army the Band of the Red Hand south after working briefly for the King of Murandy. Mat is surprised to learn that the Band has grown in size considerably since he last left it.Knowing he cannot defeat the Dark One while at war with the Seanchan, Rand brokers for a truce with the Daughter of the Nine Moons. Unaware of Tuon’s actual location, the Dragon Reborn walks into a trap set by the Forsaken Semirhage, who possesses knowledge about his powers that will either shatter or steel his resolve in the forthcoming conflict. After reading this instalment, I finally had an impression that the action has leapt forward. And that it is tight. The events are definitely happening faster and take sharper turns. Some threads were cut short, others looped even more. Some of the heroes even managed to achieve their intermediate goals (oh, and good riddance, some of those sub-plots were nauseating!). The only reason for sadness is the death of the tertiary character, who saved the life of the secondary character, only to be killed by the primary character. That was written rather noncommittally. My name is Nynaeve ti al’Meara Mandragoran. The message I want sent is this. My husband rides from World’s End toward Tarwin’s Gap, toward Tarmon Gai’don. Will he ride alone?”

The eleventh novel in the Wheel of Time series - one of the most influential and popular fantasy epics ever published. Then there is the continuing shallowness of all scenes featuring our supposed villains. I've come to dread these, because they boil down to one of two scenes: A) A baddie kowtows to a higher-ranking baddie, who in turn kowtows to an even higher-ranking one, and so forth up the line, with all conversations consisting of "Obey me or else!" "Y-y-yes, Master/Mistress. . . ." or B) A group of baddies gets together, apparently to plot or give progress reports, but it boils down to abovementioned one-upmanship, without having any effect on the plot. Some might.” Tuon let it rest there, though she usually enjoyed her private conversations with the woman. Mistress Anan argued against leashing marath’damane, as might be expected, and even against keeping da’covale of all things, yet they were discussions rather than arguments, and Tuon had made her concede a few points. She had hopes of bringing the woman around eventually. Not today, though.The Elayne the Daughter Heir finally finding her place. Whether it is on the Lion throne or not you will just have to read to see. Her arc is actually my least favorite maybe because so much time is spent on the pregnancy and sometimes she is so smart and THEN she does that very stupid thing towards the end that just leads me to believe she isn’t even close to ready to be a Queen. Jordan’s writing is so amazing! The characterization, the attention to detail!” —Clint McElroy, co-creator of the #1 podcast The Adventure Zone Birgetta being awesome as always. Why would we need Galad or Gawyn again to protect Elayne??? I just don’t know. I’m pretty sure I know who Gaidal Cain is reincarnated as *crosses fingers* that is my favorite deviant in training Olver