The Dragon Reborn

4.00/5.00

The Dragon Reborn is a journey of the characters, their self-discovery, their emotional growth, of adventure, and of learning their own power. It is in this part of the book where Robert Jordan has delivered an exceptional story. The worldbuilding/magic system development has some jaw dropping moments, just as I hoped. The story of Nyneave, Egwene and Elayne is the most interesting and the most satisfying, with Mat's character development being quite spectacular.

On the down side, Robert Jordan really cannot write Romance.... and I didn't get the glorious ending that I wanted, it was good, but not as glorious as the Great Hunt.

WorldbuildingThere is a ton of magic system development in this, balefire, the FUCKING quantum mechanics of Mat!, Black Ajah, dream world, tar-angreal... there is so much here! This book deserves the high score. Story/PlotWhile I think Nyneave-Egwene-Elayne and Mat-Thom story lines were very impressive, I think the Perrin plot is a big miss. It started off great but went into boring territory and slid into downright cringe moments where the Falcon romance started.. Ughhhh... Robert Jordan cannot write romance. And how many are we going to "kill" Ba'alzamon? And how many will we split and rejoin and try again ? Dialogue/ProseThe prose in this book is similar to the books before, but I didn't feel any particular example stood out to me. I also noticed a lot of repetitive descriptions..... I always enjoy Robert Jordan's painting a picture with words approach, and I get that he wants us to experience this story as we would if we were a third person observer of events. I am mostly okay with this.. but the writing could have been better.. the last couple chapters could have been more glorious and more poetic.. Character DevSolid character development for all character development for all! Even if Rand's POV is like only 3% of the book I though his state of mind and his "madness" was so well depicted. I loved the scene where he just attacks some people with a flaming sword in paranoia! I also totally get his anger and frustration at the end and how his defeat of Ishamael finally made him accept himself. "I am the Dragon Reborn!" MAT MAT MAT, I loved this character! no more words needed. Emotional ImpactI would say my emotional impact is a bit low, I was really thrown off by the Perrin storyline and the cringe-worthy romance, and the repetitive killing of Ba'alzamon... And I am a bit disappointed at how the last few chapters didn't really deliver the glory of the Great Hunt, but it could have!