The Shadow Rising - Review

 The Shadow Rising (Book 4) is the best book in The Wheel of Time series so far. The book had good pacing, great action sequences, shocking reveals, a lot of emotional moments, and it caps off with a brilliant ending for each of the main storylines. The first 3 books in the series were good but this 4th book is where the series elevates to another level. I was initially worried about how Robert Jordan writes action but he’s proven me wrong with the amazing action and battle scenes in this book. Also, my problems and complaints with the ending of The Great Hunt (Book 2) were fixed in this book and it made me appreciate that 2nd book much more because I saw where those story threads were heading. This will be a non-spoiler review and it will be covered in 5 sections. Characters, Plot, Setting/World-Building, Pacing, & my final thoughts along with an overall rating.

Image: Lanfear.


[Characters]:

Perrin is the mainly featured character of this book (followed closely behind by Rand) along with Elayne, Mat, and Egwene. There’s a lot of great character development for Perrin and Rand especially. I wanted more Perrin POV’s and this book delivered. His character arc in this book was probably the best arc for a character in the series so far. He’s showing a lot of leadership qualities and is taking charge of his village, while also giving some inspiring speeches along the way. I can’t really talk about specifics without involving spoilers but a lot of the emotional and great personal moments came from his arc in this book.

Rand is in a very dark place. He was in a pretty bad state last book too, but he wasn’t featured in the story aside from a few short chapters or paragraphs. He tried so hard to deny his destiny for so long and now he’s having to accept it, but the cost is losing himself and thinking he’s lost his friends as well. After being dragged along by Moiraine or Selene for the first 3 books, Rand finally takes initiative and starts making his own decisions. He’s leading his group now and for once, Moiraine has no clue what he’s going to do and Rand won’t tell her anything. He learns more about his Aiel origins and he’s a drastically changed character by the end of the book.

I liked Elayne since the moment she appeared in the middle of The Eye of the World but then there wasn’t much for her after that, so I’m glad she got more POV chapters in this book. Her and Nynaeve make a great good cop/bad cop dynamic and it’s hilarious how they’re always contradicting each other and Elayne’s having to apologize to people for Nynaeve’s outbursts and tirades. Mat has a good amount of chapters in this book but he’s more so just tagging along with Rand rather than having his own story arc. However, there’s some big changes that happen to Mat in this book and he’s set up to have a great arc in the future. I still want Moiraine and Lan to be featured more in the story than they currently are. Moiraine is on the cover of the next book so I’m crossing my fingers.

Favorite Characters – Perrin, Rand, Elayne, Loial, & Faile.

Image: The Shattering of the Sharom.

[Plot]:

I enjoyed the 1st quarter of the book where all the characters were still in Tear. Rand rules Tear now and he’s dealing with the politics and headaches that come with ruling a nation, with some help from Thom and Elayne. It was fun to see a different side of Thom where he’s deceiving and turning the High Lords against each other, and his conversation (more like a war of words) with Moiraine was akin to Littlefinger and Varys from the A Song of Ice & Fire series. There’s some cool action sequences in this 1st quarter of the book and also a lot tension between everyone in Tear because they’re all waiting to see what Rand will do and where he goes next. After Tear, everyone splits up in groups and goes their own ways. The 3 main storylines are the Aiel Waste storyline, the Tanchico storyline, and the Two Rivers storyline.

Mat, Egwene, Moiraine, Lan, and others are following Rand to the Aiel Waste because he wants to fulfill the Aiel prophecies of He Who Comes With The Dawn and also attempting to unite all the different Aiel clans together to his side. The problem is that the Aiel clans are in an endless cycle of raids, battles, and feuds within each other. To fulfill the Aiel prophecies, Rand has to go to Rhuidean and the chapters that take place there were excellent. The flashback sequences with Rand that showed the Aiel’s history and their evolution throughout the years was beautifully structured, with Rand flashing back to his ancestor’s memories and each brief flashback kept going further back in time, starting from a certain Aiel, then jumping back to that Aiel’s grandfather’s time when he was younger, then to that grandfather’s grandfather when he was young and so on. I don’t know if I quite explained that right but when you read those chapters, it makes sense and it’s structured in a very nice pattern.

Nynaeve and Elayne are going to Tanchico to foil Liandrin’s and the other Black Ajah’s plans. I really enjoyed all these chapters. The girls are learning to enhance their abilities, major new characters are introduced, there’s some stunning revelations, and there was also a truly horrifying scene that I didn’t see coming. It was probably the most uncomfortable I’ve felt reading a scene in this series and I even felt more tense in this scene than from some of the previous battles in the series. For those who don’t know which scene I’m referring to, the only word I’ll say without giving any spoilers is.....Moghedien.

Perrin going back to Emond’s Field to confront the Children of the Light (and other forces) was my favorite storyline out of the main 3. There’s some fun reunions, great character interactions, suspenseful heist and action sequences, and a truly heartbreaking scene. There were also some great surprises and mysteries going on during this storyline that hint at a bigger plot in the future. The Tar Valon storyline is similar to the Dorne storyline in A Feast for Crows. It’s not a heavily featured plot point compared to the other stuff going on in the book but it was really impactful and it was a great, compact story told within a few chapters.

Image: A Trolloc horde led by a Myrddraal.


[Setting/World-Building]:

The main settings of this book are Tear, the Aiel Waste, Emond’s Field, and Tanchico. Tear was such a cool place that was built up so well throughout the first couple of books that I was glad the beginning of this book still took place there and it was great to see the High Lords of Tear featured. I enjoyed the Aiel Waste a lot and especially Rhuidean. The Aiel waste is such an interesting setting. It’s supposed to be a punishment for the Aiel’s past sins and a testing ground to harden their courage, with its poisonous snakes, lizards, and lions, water only being found in small springs, a wasteland surrounded by blazing heat, and no one being allowed to step foot there except gleemen and peddlers. Rhuidean is such a beautiful and vividly written place. A hidden city, entirely shrouded in fog except for a blue light. There’s nothing but huge buildings, palaces, and towers but the city itself was deserted and all those structures were only half-built. There’s also a bunch of Angreal, Sa’angreal, and Ter’angreal scattered throughout the city, which has a link to the Age of Legends.

The world-building is excellent as always. There were some in-depth and step-by-step explanations of the magic system with Saidin vs. Saidar. The Atha’an Miere aka the Sea Folk were introduced and some of their culture and traditions were shown. The Aiel were the stars of this book. It was nice to finally learn about their organizational structure such as the different clans, septs, and the important people within the Aiel such as the clan chiefs and the Wise Ones. The best aspect introduced about the Aiel was their history. The founding of the Aiel Waste/Three-Fold Land, the very first Maiden of the Spear, the secret deal they had with the Aes Sedai during the Age of Legends, and the shocking true origins of the Aiel were all revealed and it was outstanding.

[Pacing]:

Even with the massive size of this book, it had good pacing. The pacing in general for this series so far has its ebbs and flows with a great opening, then slows down, starts building up, then slows down again in the middle section, and then it starts building back up for an avalanche of great action and tension to end the book in a phenomenal way. I had some issues with the pacing in the previous books but I pretty much enjoyed the entirety of the pacing in this book. The story didn’t drag for me at any point and the middle section of this book was paced well, especially in comparison to the previous books in the series.

[Final Thoughts & Rating]:

This is the best entry in The Wheel of Time series so far and it’s the first book in the series that I put on the same tier as the A Song of Ice & Fire books, which is the gold standard for me. I can definitely see why a lot of people say this 4th book is where the true story comes into play. One of my worries about Robert Jordan’s writing style was that the first 3 books seemed formulaic with everyone being split up and all converging together at the same place for the ending, which effected the pacing at times because some storylines had to slow down in order for everyone else to catch up and to converge at the same place near the same time. But he did a fantastic job with having 3 big story threads happening in 3 separate places which all are woven together beautifully to have their own phenomenal endings. The ending of this book was so captivating, that I immediately started reading The Fires of Heaven (Book 5).

Rating: 9/10

My Book Rankings: https://jaytargaryen.blogspot.com/p/b...

*My Rating System*

5 Stars (9-10): Amazing
4 Stars (7-9): Really Good to Great
3 Stars (5-7): Average to Good
2 Stars (3-5): Bad to Mediocre
1 Star (1-3): Terrible 

 

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