For some reason this book is smaller than the others - less pages - and the print is bigger. I guess the publishers must have been hassling Jordan to relase the next tome. Events are still crawling forwards at the slowest rate of knots with hammer heavy hints of what is to go wrong in the near future. Rand has ceased to be a likeable character and I have given up trying to keep everyone's name in my head. The best part of this book, I think, is the near sister ritual - it speaks to me as a deeply moving spiritual experience and I hope that Jordan read about it somewhere rather than just made it up. The end draws ever closer and I am excited to carry on - my book 9 and 10 are the last of my paperbacks so once we get that far things may slow as the hardback versions are rather large to carry around in your handbag!!