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The Shadow Rising (The Wheel of Time, #4)

Robert Jordan

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Oct 07, 2011 Chris McGrath rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, own-in-hardcover

This book had some of the coolest stuff in the series so far, and I was sure I would give it a five star rating. Unfortunately its long-windedness really worked against it -- whole chapters where nothing of value happened. I went from reading it for enjoyment to reading it to get it over with and move on to something else for a while. I still enjoyed quite a lot of it, though.

Tel'aran'rhiod is an incredibly cool place and every part of the story that took place there excited me. Perrin's story, This book had some of the coolest stuff in the series so far, and I was sure I would give it a five star rating. Unfortunately its long-windedness really worked against it -- whole chapters where nothing of value happened. I went from reading it for enjoyment to reading it to get it over with and move on to something else for a while. I still enjoyed quite a lot of it, though.

Tel'aran'rhiod is an incredibly cool place and every part of the story that took place there excited me. Perrin's story, while it dragged at times, was most satisfying. I was enjoying Mat's very well until he all but disappeared from the latter half of the book.

Oh yes, one other big complaint: Jordan cannot write a building romantic relationship to save his life. (view spoiler) For all his desire to describe every minute detail of this world, every journey, every mention of someone crossing their arms under their breasts or tugging their braid, he spends next to no time at all on developing the relationships between his characters in a realistic way. Much like how Rand is suddenly a good enough swordsman at the beginning of book 2 to battle swordmasters after only a few weeks of implied training.

I had hoped that this would be a series that benefits from being read straight through, since it seems to be written with that in mind (no catch-you-up explanations in the first chapters as many ongoing series do). Unfortunately I was wrong. I will need to read some other things and cleanse my palate before starting up book 5. A full month was just too long to read a single book. I'm sure the excitement of A Memory of Light being released soon will pull me back into it soon enough.

EDIT: I originally rated this book 4 stars, but I reserve 4 and 5 star ratings for books I would recommend to others and having finished the series I cannot recommend it as a whole, despite some of its parts being entertaining. This is one of the better books in a series that is overall not worth the effort. ...more

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Aug 04, 2009 Ashley added it

May 05, 2012 Julianna rated it really liked it

Dec 02, 2009 Alexandria rated it it was amazing

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