A Crown of Swords

This book is frustrating. I'd venture to say that at most 20% of the book are actual material that advances the plot. Which is really disappointing, as those parts are still very well-written. The rest of it are repetitive and reused filler material. Nynaeve's still tugging her braids, Elaynes smoothes her skirt, Egwene folds her arms under her breasts... and breasts, that word strangely comes up lot - a lot of implied nudity and sexuality too, as the book focuses very much on the females.

All the main characters are getting some spotlight, there's also some character development, but it's the same thing. Each of the main characters thinks the others are better at something - it was overused.

There's also a huge number of new characters because each main character is now with several more. The problem with this is that while Jordan describes and re-describes the main characters is painstaking repetitive (but one-dimensional) detail, the supporting casts are rarely described in a way to remind you who they were... ironic. It's a pretty tedious read. There are sections which are good, but you'll have to trudge through lots of filler material to get them all.