The Dragon Reborn
Robert Jordan
699 pages
published in 1991

The Dragon Reborn is the third book in the Wheel of Time series and as such it does not quite have the worst artwork in the series. That honour is reserved for either the previous book The Great Hunt, with its depiction of Trollocs as humans with curved helmets or the sixth book, The Lord of Chaos, with its incompetent romance novel cover. No book in the series however has what you can call good art, or even art that bears much resemblence to the books its used on. That's not unusual for any book of course and normally I don't care too much about what's on a cover, but the Darrell Sweet artwork on these is just too embarassing, especially when read in public. But never mind eh? It's still much, much better than reading Dan Brown where people can see you.

Moving on to what's between the covers, The Dragon Reborn is the last book in the series to duplicate the quest structure of The Lord of the Rings and also the last book in which the various storylines neatly come together in the end. It's not the end of the series, as the series has no end, but it's a end. From the next book, The Shadow Rising onward, things would be much more complicated. It's also a sort of beginning, as this is the first book which is not dominated by Rand as the main character; in fact he's hardly in it, with much of the action focussing on Perrin, Mat and Egwene/Nynaeve/Elayne in three different storylines, which come together at the climax of the book, just as with the previous two books.

The book starts some considerable time after the events of The Great Hunt, with Rand, Perrin, Moiraine, Lan and company holed up in the Mountains of Mist, when Rand sneaks away one night after a Trolloc attack. Rand has more and more withdrawn from his friends after his experiences at the end of the last book, feeling the burden of prophecy on him as the supposed Dragon Reborn. He knowns one of the major requirements of proving himself to be the Dragon Reborn to the world is to remove Callandor, the sword that isn't a sword, but a powerful conduit for the One Power, from the Stone of Tear, a fortress never conquered, before it has fallen. Perrin, Moiraine and Lan chase after Rand, during which Perrin falls in with an Aiel he frees from imprisonment by two hunters for the Horn of Valere as well as with Faile, another hunter for the Horn, who may turn out to be the love of his life.

Meanwhile Egwene, Nynaeve and Elayne have taken a rapidly worsening Mat, still suffering from his long attachment to a dagger brought back from Shador Logoth to Tar Valon, where he's finally cured after having spent the first two books falling more and more under the dagger's spell. As for the three girls, they're in big trouble having gotten themselves kidnapped from the White Tower in the previous book but nonetheless are entrusted by the Amyrlin Seat, Siuan Sanche, herself with hunting down the Black Ajah, who had revealed themselves to really exist with the kidnapping and the subsequent disappearance of thirteen Black sisters. Since Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve were victims of the Black Ajah, they're the only ones the Amyrlin Seat can trust, so n between their studying and their punishments the three have to look for clues as to where the Black sisters fled to, all of which seem to point to Tear. Well aware it's a trap the three head to that city as well.

Mat meanwhile, having recouperated from his healing as well as having defeated Elaynes two brothers Gawyn and Galad in a practise sword fight with him only using a quarterstaff, is asked by the three girls to bring a letter to Elayne's mother, queen Morgase of Andor. He does so, and runs into Thom Merrilin on the night he leaves, after which they are attacked by Darkfiends, who hunt them all the way to Caemlyn, where Mat hands over Elayne's letter to queen Morgase and by chance overhears a plot to kill Elayne and co, a plot set up by Morgase current lover, Gaebril. Mat therefore decides to travel on to Tear, to try and rescue the three girls. Whether they'll be grateful for it is another thing entirely...

This is one of my favourite installments in the series not in the least because it's the first time we get to see things from Mats point of view. Mat's a rogue, a trickster and somewhat of a relief after the more overtly serious Rand and Perrin, or the sometimes very annoying women we've spent time with so far. Also, the action moves along nicely here and none of Jordan's tics have evolved into serious nuisances yet.

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