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A review by isabellarobinson7
The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
5.0
Second read: 10/08/20 - 14/08/20
Rating: (still) 5 stars
I enjoyed The Dragon Reborn so much more the second time around! And it's not like I didn't like it the first time I read it. I still gave it 5 stars, but a lower 5 stars than I gave The Great Hunt, perhaps. I guess when I read The Dragon Reborn for the first time, I was annoyed at the lack of page time the actual Dragon Reborn got. This time, because I was prepared for Rand's partial absence, I ended up appreciating the story other characters more so.
This new appreciation of characters particularly applies to Elayne. When reading The Wheel of Time for the first time, Elayne annoyed me in some books, but not others. Unfortunately, whenever she wasn't irritating, I was still thinking about previous instances where she was, and so when I reflected on her character, my negative feelings towards her were intensified overall. In this reread, I seem to be able to isolate Elayne's scenes apart from each other, and can judge her character purely based on where she is currently, rather than being tainted by reactions I had to her in the past.
Another thing rereading Wheel of Time has brought to my attention was (as expected) RJ's incredible work with foreshadowing. One instance that stood out to me in The Dragon Reborn was when Perrin briefly works in a blacksmith's forge, and that blacksmith gives him a hammer in hopes that he will forge something again. That made me think of the scene in Towers of Midnight with Perrin that I will not say because spoilers.
Now I am on to my favourite Wheel of Time book, The Shadow Rising. Yay!
First read: 21/03/20 - 29/03/20
Rating: 5 stars
Somehow Robert Jordan manages to write an entire book centered around Rand while barely writing from his perspective in the novel.
After two books of Rand having over 50% of the total word count, we get a book - named after him no less - were his point of view takes up a measly 2%. Jarring to say the least, but Jordan makes it work.
I liked how Robert Jordan showed consequences for Mat taking the dagger throughout The Dragon Reborn. If Mat had been healed without much hassle, it could be said that everyone might as well steal something from Shadar Logoth because they can just get healed by the Aes Sedai later. Instead, the struggle Mat goes through to be separated from the dagger shows that his situation is truly an anomaly.
Jordan made the rank of Aes Sedai seem difficult to reach, even though he was focusing on three really powerful characters that are moving up fast through the rankings.
I will be honest, the ending was not as mind blowing and intriguing as those of the past two books. That is not to say it was bad in any way, I just didn't personally prefer it compared to the other endings.
Again, Min was amazing. I wish she had had more page time than she did, but when she was there I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The introduction of some Aiel characters, like Aviendha, suggests that the world is about to get muuuuuuch bigger.
My plan to go slowly through The Wheel of Time has pretty much gone out the window. I say I am going to take a break between books, but then I miss being in the world and I just start the next. So it is no mystery what book I will be picking up next...
Rating: (still) 5 stars
I enjoyed The Dragon Reborn so much more the second time around! And it's not like I didn't like it the first time I read it. I still gave it 5 stars, but a lower 5 stars than I gave The Great Hunt, perhaps. I guess when I read The Dragon Reborn for the first time, I was annoyed at the lack of page time the actual Dragon Reborn got. This time, because I was prepared for Rand's partial absence, I ended up appreciating the story other characters more so.
This new appreciation of characters particularly applies to Elayne. When reading The Wheel of Time for the first time, Elayne annoyed me in some books, but not others. Unfortunately, whenever she wasn't irritating, I was still thinking about previous instances where she was, and so when I reflected on her character, my negative feelings towards her were intensified overall. In this reread, I seem to be able to isolate Elayne's scenes apart from each other, and can judge her character purely based on where she is currently, rather than being tainted by reactions I had to her in the past.
Another thing rereading Wheel of Time has brought to my attention was (as expected) RJ's incredible work with foreshadowing. One instance that stood out to me in The Dragon Reborn was when Perrin briefly works in a blacksmith's forge, and that blacksmith gives him a hammer in hopes that he will forge something again. That made me think of the scene in Towers of Midnight with Perrin that I will not say because spoilers.
Now I am on to my favourite Wheel of Time book, The Shadow Rising. Yay!
First read: 21/03/20 - 29/03/20
Rating: 5 stars
Somehow Robert Jordan manages to write an entire book centered around Rand while barely writing from his perspective in the novel.
After two books of Rand having over 50% of the total word count, we get a book - named after him no less - were his point of view takes up a measly 2%. Jarring to say the least, but Jordan makes it work.
I liked how Robert Jordan showed consequences for Mat taking the dagger throughout The Dragon Reborn. If Mat had been healed without much hassle, it could be said that everyone might as well steal something from Shadar Logoth because they can just get healed by the Aes Sedai later. Instead, the struggle Mat goes through to be separated from the dagger shows that his situation is truly an anomaly.
Jordan made the rank of Aes Sedai seem difficult to reach, even though he was focusing on three really powerful characters that are moving up fast through the rankings.
I will be honest, the ending was not as mind blowing and intriguing as those of the past two books. That is not to say it was bad in any way, I just didn't personally prefer it compared to the other endings.
Again, Min was amazing. I wish she had had more page time than she did, but when she was there I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The introduction of some Aiel characters, like Aviendha, suggests that the world is about to get muuuuuuch bigger.
My plan to go slowly through The Wheel of Time has pretty much gone out the window. I say I am going to take a break between books, but then I miss being in the world and I just start the next. So it is no mystery what book I will be picking up next...