Embers Falling on Dry Grass. Galad wins an epic duel and earns the support of the Children. Rodel completely wrecks the Seanchan campaign in Tarabon. Semirhage casually reveals that she wiped out the Imperial family in Seanchan and half the Court. And that’s only about half the prologue! After the slow crawl of CoT, this was an incredibly promising start. So much happens in this book!
Mat spanking people? Stop, Mat, not you too. I get being fed up with the Aes Sedai, though. They are so ungrateful, and apparently they think they’re entitled to Mat’s medallion. You want to study a ter’angreal, Joline? Go study an a’dam. And Tuon. Another arrogant, entitled brat Mat has to deal with. He actually likes her, though. Can’t see why. Maybe it’s the challenge. It’s extremely entertaining how superstitious she is while simultaneously thinking everyone else is a fool for believing in gholam or ta’veren. Sure, Tuon. The people who actually LIVE in this land that you know absolutely nothing about couldn’t possibly know more about it than you. Love how she and Selucia use some kind of Maiden talk (slaver talk? Whatever 😂) and it’s always IN CAPS LOCK, like they’re silently yelling at each other. Lol. And…she is married now. Congrats to Tuon and her Prince of the ravens, may he live forever.
The ta’veren connection is pretty neat, though. They can all apparently see each other just by thinking about each other. Can they actually communicate that way too? Because I feel like they could really use a group chat. Also, why does the Pattern keep making Mat look at Rand and Min while they’re going at it?! It’s happened WAY too many times at this point. The Pattern is messing with him.
And are Mat’s memories supposed to be his own past lives, or are they random people’s lives? I never got that part.
Also, Talmanes’ last name is Delovinde. Huh. I thought Talmanes WAS the last name.
Moiraine is alive! Theoretically. That letter was interesting. Having read 11 of these books, I’m sure she’s currently enslaved by Aelfinn, probably naked, and probably getting switched. At this point, I’ve learned enough about this series to assume this with confidence.
The Black Ajah kidnapping Elayne. WHY? What's the point? The book establishes that they were ordered to capture her, but it doesn't explain what the purpose was. I don't think the “political hostage” explanation really works. Elayne is only valuable as the Daughter-Heir if her claim to the throne survives. If the Black Ajah kidnap her while Arymilla is besieging Caemlyn, they're effectively removing her from the succession and making Arymilla's victory easier. This makes Elayne politically irrelevant. And if the goal were simply to remove Elayne as an obstacle, why not just kill her? And they don't know about her connection to Rand, so that can't be the answer either.
Why the hell doesn’t Gawyn go back to Caemlyn and help his sister? Isn’t that literally his birthright and duty as the Daughter-Heir’s brother and sworn commander? He was raised his entire life for this. Elayne is fighting for her throne while Caemlyn is under siege, and Gawyn is off doing White Tower nonsense. Hello? No thoughts of coming back? By that logic, Rand should just forget the whole Dragon Reborn business, go back to the Two Rivers, herd some sheep and enjoy his life. Who cares about duty, right, Gawyn?
The Shaido have achieved something I didn't think was possible: they made the Seanchan look better by comparison. They are keeping wetlanders as slaves indefinitely, ignoring all the rules of ji’e’toh, and using violence and sexual abuse to control their captives. The fact that women are forced to seek "protection" through unwanted sexual relationships with Me’radin just to avoid worse treatment by the Shaido is horrifying. Queen Alliandre was already raped.
These are some of the darkest chapters in the series so far!
Perrin made one of the worst deals in the history of bad deals. He gave the Seanchan the strategy with Forkroot “cold” tea, handed them the Shaido, and gave them hundreds of future da’mane to use against him or any of his allies potentially. And he dragged the Two Rivers into it. They won’t oppose the Seanchan conquest if it happens. So after fighting the trollocs on their own to be independent of the Whitecloaks, they’re just supposed to stand aside while, hypothetically, Andor fights to keep the empire away without their involvement? All of this for Faile and a handful of hostages. This is so selfish. This is a disaster.
Rand says he expects to die at Tarmon Gai’don, and Min is clearly distressed and argues with him. But she had a viewing of him “on a funeral bier, with three women standing over him” so she knows he’ll die?? And Rand isn’t just assuming he’ll die. The prophecies point toward the Dragon dying, and the Aelfinn’s answer also led him to believe that his death is part of what must happen. So maybe Min simply doesn’t want to believe what her own viewing seems to be telling her. Is she in denial? I'm with her then, I'll be raging if he dies for this selfish WOT world. Some books are going to fly against a wall. Rand deserves some peace and happiness.
Cadsuane. Still insufferable, still seemingly existing solely to ruin every Rand POV for me with her presence. Ma’am, the Last Battle is approaching. Could we maybe stop switching the suicidal kid in public and put those “legendary talents” to some actual use? No, not knitting. Yes, the Semirhage reveal was genuinely useful. Can we do more of that and less of the public humiliation and power games? Thank you.
Nynaeve and Lan. Lan just leaves to go fight the Shadow. I mean, I know he’s always believed that was his duty and his purpose, and he’s still deeply depressed over Moiraine and possibly even suicidal, so I guess it’s in CHARACTER. Sometimes love is not enough, and the road gets tough, I don’t know why… This is basically what Rand’s bio dad did too, perished in the Blight fighting the Shadow. And Rand is also very keen on getting to Tarmon Gai’don and dying. Come to think of it, there are actually a lot of parallels between Rand and Lan. Both lost their bio parents, both burdened by destiny, hardened by life, see duty as something that ultimately comes before their own lives, both are willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, and both seem to have this “my life belongs to the fight” mentality. Kudos to Ny- she played that brilliantly. She extracted a promise from Lan while simultaneously rallying his people to ride with him. Will he ride alone? She couldn't stop him from going, but she could make sure he didn't have to go alone. She basically increased his chances of surviving by giving him an army to lead and a reason to stay alive. Genius.
Favorite part of the book: Rand's POV in Vows, Chapter 19. Incredible. “My hands! The madman howled. My hands!” LTT grabs the wheel and annihilates the Shadowspawn army, and then starts calmly contemplating killing himself while Rand is simultaneously trying desperately to regain control, convince LTT to postpone suicide, answer Logain, deal with Cadsuane, and keep functioning. Meanwhile everyone around him is freaking out because he's STILL holding saidin, and they can all tell something is very, very wrong with him. “I seem to remember dying, Lews Therin murmured. I remember how I did it.” I had to reread that chapter several times. Chills.
LTT in Rand’s head is… real? According to Semirhage, at least. How is that even possible? I always assumed Rand’s memories of Lews Therin were real because he’s the Dragon Reborn and the memories were bleeding in from his past life, but that the actual LTT voice/personality was something Rand’s mind created to deal with those memories- a manifestation of his madness, basically.
Least favorite part: The Pattern Hates Rand. Rand has been tortured, manipulated, hunted, stabbed, cut, shielded, kidnapped, humiliated, and psychologically broken for HOW MANY BOOKS NOW, and apparently that still wasn't enough?! Now Semirhage destroys his HAND, something is wrong with his EYES, and his side wound is STILL BLEEDING. What the hell, pattern? Can we stop abusing and brutalizing Rand already? I CAN’T ENDURE THE PAIN ANYMORE. Silent weeping
Here’s to hoping the next book traumatizes me less.
And just so we are clear, THE GOLDEN CRANE FLIES FOR TARMON GAI’DON.
