The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan
Blurb
The seals of Shayol Ghul are weak now, and the Dark One reaches out. The Shadow is rising to cover humankind.
In Tar Valon, Min sees portents of hideous doom. Will the White Tower itself be broken?
In the Two Rivers, the Whitecloaks ride in pursuit of a man with golden eyes, and in pursuit of the Dragon Reborn.
In Cantorin, among the Sea Folk, High Lady Suroth plans the return of the Seanchan armies to the mainland.
In the Stone of Tear, the Lord Dragon considers his next move. It will be something no one expects, not the Black Ajah, not Tairen nobles, not Aes Sedai, not Egwene or Elayne or Nynaeve.
Against the Shadow rising stands the Dragon Reborn…..
Review
This was a reread for me but I will be honest I had forgotten a great deal and I definitely think I enjoyed this book more on the second read. At times I could not put this book down.
Perrin has always been my favourite character in the series and I loved the fact we got so much more of Perrin in this book and Perrin on his own without Rand all the time. I also loved how we ended up back in the Two Rivers and got to meet people from the first book again and see their characters develop further. Perrin’s chapters were definitely the chapters I couldn’t put down and flew through.
My least favourite character in the series so far is Mat. Mat has got to be one of the most annoying characters I have ever come across in a book series. I keep hoping he will improve and become less annoying. I have many books to read to see whether a less annoying Mat will ever happen.
I would have really liked to have seen a bit more of Egwene in this book but once she met the wise ones she kind of disappeared from the story and just became a background character. Thankfully, we got to see plenty of Nynaeve and Elayne in this book as I always love Nynaeve’s spirit and stubbornness. They had plenty of dangerous adventures of their own.
Rand is definitely growing up in this book. He accepts who he is and his destiny and he starts to plan and work out exactly what he needs to do to fulfil his destiny. I really enjoyed seeing this side of Rand and I liked how he integrated in with Aiel.
I absolutely loved this book but I am glad I decided to read it alongside other books. At being just over 1000 pages long it was a long slog at times and I needed some light relief. I give this book 5 out of 5 Dragons.
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About the author
James Oliver Rigney Jr. (1948-2007) was an American author of epic fantasy who wrote under the pen name Robert Jordan. Jordan also wrote historical fiction under the name of Reagan O’Neal, a western as Jackson O’Reilly, and dance criticism as Chang Lung.
Lady Book Dragon 
I’m so glad that you enjoyed this one so much. That gives me hope for my own reread of the series. It’s a shame that you don’t like Matt that much as I’m fairly sure he gets a book almost to himself later on. I think that was where I gave up originally .
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Oh dear I hope his characters grows like Rand’s did in this book otherwise Mat’s book will be a hard read for me I fear.
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