a very solid book that i desperately wish did more for me

this book, and series as whole, is hard for me to properly review because there is so much done so well but so much that i would kill to have done better. i love the setting, i love the battles, i love rand’s arc, and i love a lot of the characters, but i so rarely can bring myself to truly care about anything happening. for being 6000 pages into this series, i should be so much more emotionally invested

you could make an argument books 4-6 were all near 5 star territory, and i think each did excel at a lot. but none of them truly gripped me down to my core, and for having spent so much time in this world i should be feeling so much more. i got so excited at the end of tsr because i actually felt something, and while foh & loc were probably done better, i am yet to even get a spark of what i felt there.

as with foh, i absolutely love rand's development, and, especially, his descent into madness. in loc specifically, i loved seeing him truly get a grip on the inner workings of the aiel, and was screaming at the end when he made the

Spoiler

aes sedai kneel to him.

i kinda have a suspicion that, since nynaeve can heal stilling, someone is going to find a way to stop/ reverse the effects of using saidin, which i would personally find the biggest asspull and hope i am wrong about. but that's a problem for another day.

some new-ish characters that shined for me here were morgase and gawyn (though his relationship with egwene, as it seems will be the case with all wot relationships, went from mild crush to ready to get married in about 2 seconds)

above all else, i ADORE mat. you know how my last few reviews have been yapping about how much i love reluctant heroes, the only thing i love more than that is when they have to reluctantly adopt a kid. i won so bad here oh my god. mat is the only character who i consistently love more and more and i cannot wait to see more of him. though i'm not a fan of

Spoiler

egwene being amyrlin (at least with her current age and disposition)

, i loved seeing mat defend her immediately and treat her with the respect no one else was giving her (even though she immediately went to elayne and said they need to fix his attitude, go to hell bro)

all in all, i am enjoying my time with this series, but am a little disappointed by how little i am feeling moved by it