This book confirms to me that Rand's story is really lame but that everyone else's story is great. I would die for Perrin, Matt, and Nynaeve. Egwene wasn't my favorite in this one, but book 2 really seemed to be her book, so that's okay. I love learning more about everyone and seeing where their stories might go. Except for Rand, that is.
I hope they do away with the contrived structure of the characters splitting up, spending the middle apart, and then conveniently coming back together for the climax. I get that there's a canon reason for it, but that doesn't make it a particularly enjoyable read.