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Galloping along. Civil war time!

Is this entire book just an high level narrative of the events of the Stuart dynasty? Nothing wrong with that but not necessarily what I was expecting.

Teasing us with a Mat and Elayne odd couple adventure? For shame.

We are really yada-yada-jng through a lot here. Apparently Rand and Lews Therin and reintegrated in some way now too? 🤣

Next chapter is the final battle then the next three and a half books are just epilogue 😄

One sentence is all it takes to unify the tower, put Egwene on the Amlyrin seat for good and have Elaida captured by the Seanchan.

Quite the sentence 🤣

The first chapter is only 5%? It’s like Sanderson isn’t even trying 🤣

Good stuff so far though, nicely setting the tone.

Well, that was an abrupt and slightly unsatisfying ending for Aran’gar 🤣

Of course the Chosen can just be reincarnated apparently, so not quite as impactful a death.

An odd epilogue.

Suroth being made a slave still leaves her somewhat on table, but Liandrin might still be the biggest threat there.

The Reds bonding Asha’man is interesting but doesn’t the Small Tower also have an agreement to bond warders? Possibly via Rand / Logain.

Ituralde and Egwene’s plots minimal again in this instalment 🤣

A somewhat breathless narrative so far following the repercussions of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots.

Enjoying the narrators forays into foreign accents. Subtle but enjoyable!

Oh, epilogue already?

Was expecting more Rand. More Ituralde. Or something.

Mat murdered a bunch of foolhardy idiots and Perrin got Faile back… but still, a little light on drama compared to previous instalments 🤣

Low key as celebrity weddings go, but I liked it.

A consistently fantastic and interesting read.

Very well told, describing the context, accident, immediate and long term impact and the subsequent investigations before summing up and revisiting the lives of the cast of characters.

The mechanics of balefire are so hand wavy. It destroys things back in time, but people still remember them? Alrighty then.

I really liked my theory about Vandene being a Darkfriend who killed her own sister, but I’m glad it was wrong 🤣

Well into the disaster now.

Very readable, a good mix of dramatisation and factual narrative.

Interesting and engaging start, huge list of names excepted 🤣

As a counterpoint to Aram’s story’s half-assed conclusion, the presumed end of Galina’s story is pretty satisfying!

If the whole Aram plotline had not been so thinly sketched its conclusion would feel like a huge anticlimax. As it is? Meh 🤣

Poor Rolan though.

Looking forward to Masema getting his comeuppance.

A game I like to play with the later WoT books is guessing how people are going to miss each other or how Rand is going to intervene.

Considering he was the main POV not so long ago he’s almost peripheral now.

This has been a thoroughly enjoyable look at Roman culture for their first 1,000 years.

Did I need to hear the narrator, Phyllida Nash, say “I fucked the landlady”? Probably not, but here we are 🤣

Rand is going to be a limbless, sightless lump by the time we get to the final battle, isn’t he? Wheeled out by Aes Sidai as a weapon.

Who biffed the illusion around Semirhage? They’re going to be in trouble. Unless it was Cadauane, in which case nicely done 👍🤣

We seem to be heading towards Dumai’s Wells redux, with everyone converging on Malden with different plans. Chaos will no doubt ensue 🤣

The weakening of saidar in Tar Valon seeming to affect some things (food) and not others (the harbour towers) suggests it could be targeted.


Interesting to see if the effect stops at the Little Tower now that Delana and Halima are gone.

Very entertaining and informative so far. Avoids the traps of talking about one “great man” after another and instead focuses mostly on culture and politics.

Pausing this for now.

Interesting, yes. But also very of the moment and the moment sucks, so let’s not dwell on it in our leisure time 😂

I have never noticed before, but the word “reader” is replaced with “listener” on audiobooks - or in this one least!

The only place that saidar failing has been mentioned, I think, is Egwene’s camp. And maybe the White Tower?

This makes it seem localised. So could be weakening the weaves using saidin? Chief suspect would be Halima.

“Let’s assume no progress is made…”

Safe assumption.