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A review by thefussyreader
The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
4.0
The Fussy Reader
TLDR
Characters - 4.5/5
Plot - 1/5
Setting - 3.5/5
Writing - 3.5/5
Final Impression - 4/5
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In terms of plot, this is my least favourite so far. But in terms of characters, this is easily the best. I'm conflicted, to say the least. Yet despite how incredibly boring this book was plot-wise, I strangely found it the most interesting of the three in terms of the characters. I loved how much Mat we get in this novel. And I love this development with Mat and his luck. He's quickly becoming one of my favourites in the series.
Full Review
Characters
So this book is very much Mat, Perrin, and Egwene's story, and let me tell you
I loved how much Mat we get in this novel. Being called The Dragon Reborn, I assumed it would focus mainly on Rand, but there's very little of Rand and a shit-ton of Mat, which I was well on-board for. He's quickly becoming one of my favourites in the series. And I love this development with Mat and his luck. He's becoming one of the most interesting characters in the series. I wish he was the main character tbh. Fuck Rand.
Egwene and Perrin's storylines were also interesting but for me, I was just living for those Mat chapters.
P.S. NEEDS MORE LAN!
Plot
I'm going to say very little about the plot because NOTHING ACTUALLY HAPPENED!
Yet despite how incredibly boring this book was plot-wise, I strangely found it the most interesting of the three in terms of the characters. They're just better written. Jordan was really starting to find his groove with characterisation here.
Shame he didn't also find his groove with pacing.
The ending I liked, but just sort of found it all very confusing. Though I loved how all the scattered characters ended up in the same place for different reasons. It felt very clever and well-thought-out. But still, I've no clue what the hell happened, lol.
Setting
Once again, Jordan makes great use of the world he's created. Man's got a map and he's not afraid to use it. We visit an entirely new city in this book. Tear felt very distinctively different to the other cities we've seen so far and I'm just enjoying exploring this world with the characters.
Writing Style
So I think I prefer the way this one is written. Instead of jumping to a different character every few pages, we stay with the same characters for several chapters to allow time for their storyline to develop and give us, the readers, time to invest in them. Through this new method, I found I connected more with each character, and despite how slow the book was, it didn't matter as much to me because the prolonged period I got to spend with the characters made it feel more interesting than it has in the past.
I definitely hope, this writing style continues into the next book cause I found it far more engaging.
There's a bad habit of head-hopping here, something that nowadays, is considered a no-no. Understandably so. It's distracting jumping between the thoughts of multiple characters.
But back to pros, I also far preferred having fewer POV's. Despite my love of multi-pov books, I'm so glad we didn't get a dozen different POV's from side-characters we'll never see again. The main characters, a villain character maybe, but I can't be dealing with POV chapters from characters I either don't remember because that's just how bloody important they are, or ones I'm literally never going to see again. Fingers crossed this style somewhat continues.
Final Impression
In terms of plot, this is my least favourite so far. But in terms of characters, this is easily the best. I'm conflicted, to say the least. What I will say is that I liked it and I will be continuing.
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TLDR
Characters - 4.5/5
Plot - 1/5
Setting - 3.5/5
Writing - 3.5/5
Final Impression - 4/5
-
In terms of plot, this is my least favourite so far. But in terms of characters, this is easily the best. I'm conflicted, to say the least. Yet despite how incredibly boring this book was plot-wise, I strangely found it the most interesting of the three in terms of the characters. I loved how much Mat we get in this novel. And I love this development with Mat and his luck. He's quickly becoming one of my favourites in the series.
Full Review
Characters
So this book is very much Mat, Perrin, and Egwene's story, and let me tell you
I loved how much Mat we get in this novel. Being called The Dragon Reborn, I assumed it would focus mainly on Rand, but there's very little of Rand and a shit-ton of Mat, which I was well on-board for. He's quickly becoming one of my favourites in the series. And I love this development with Mat and his luck. He's becoming one of the most interesting characters in the series. I wish he was the main character tbh. Fuck Rand.
Egwene and Perrin's storylines were also interesting but for me, I was just living for those Mat chapters.
P.S. NEEDS MORE LAN!
Plot
I'm going to say very little about the plot because NOTHING ACTUALLY HAPPENED!
Yet despite how incredibly boring this book was plot-wise, I strangely found it the most interesting of the three in terms of the characters. They're just better written. Jordan was really starting to find his groove with characterisation here.
Shame he didn't also find his groove with pacing.
The ending I liked, but just sort of found it all very confusing. Though I loved how all the scattered characters ended up in the same place for different reasons. It felt very clever and well-thought-out. But still, I've no clue what the hell happened, lol.
Setting
Once again, Jordan makes great use of the world he's created. Man's got a map and he's not afraid to use it. We visit an entirely new city in this book. Tear felt very distinctively different to the other cities we've seen so far and I'm just enjoying exploring this world with the characters.
Writing Style
So I think I prefer the way this one is written. Instead of jumping to a different character every few pages, we stay with the same characters for several chapters to allow time for their storyline to develop and give us, the readers, time to invest in them. Through this new method, I found I connected more with each character, and despite how slow the book was, it didn't matter as much to me because the prolonged period I got to spend with the characters made it feel more interesting than it has in the past.
I definitely hope, this writing style continues into the next book cause I found it far more engaging.
There's a bad habit of head-hopping here, something that nowadays, is considered a no-no. Understandably so. It's distracting jumping between the thoughts of multiple characters.
But back to pros, I also far preferred having fewer POV's. Despite my love of multi-pov books, I'm so glad we didn't get a dozen different POV's from side-characters we'll never see again. The main characters, a villain character maybe, but I can't be dealing with POV chapters from characters I either don't remember because that's just how bloody important they are, or ones I'm literally never going to see again. Fingers crossed this style somewhat continues.
Final Impression
In terms of plot, this is my least favourite so far. But in terms of characters, this is easily the best. I'm conflicted, to say the least. What I will say is that I liked it and I will be continuing.