The Shadow Rising

by Robert Jordan
Fic Jordan, Robert

At the end of the last book, The Dragon Reborn, we find Rand al'Thor weilding the mystical Callandor, a powerful sa'angreal, that fullfills a major capstone in the prophecy of announcing himself the Dragon Reborn. In a way, the first three books work as a trilogy. Their job was to essentially introduce you to this world, its people, and the main cast as they grow into their roles within the book series.

Before I started this task of reading all of the Wheel of Time books, I had read in an interview that fantasy author Brent Weeks, Night Angel Trilogy, that the Shadow Rising was one of his favorite books. Even with high expectations going in it was still my favorite so far even if it is far from perfect. What is good about this book first and foremost was the plotting. At the end of book 3, all of our main characters end up in Tear and at the start of book 4 they are still there. The book takes the first two hundred or so pages to set up a sense of strife and urgency in the group so that the quests can begin. From there three quests emerge with Perrin, Faile, Loial, and three Aiel companions head back to the Two Rivers were rumors of Whitecloaks and Trollocs have been reported; Elayne, Nynaeve, Thom and Julian head to Tanchico where agents of the Black Ajah may be; Rand, Mat, Egwene, Moraine and Lan with the rest of the Aiel head to the Waste. From there the reader gets several chapters with each group to build up the plot and turmoil in each part with it usually switching over to the next quest as the tension has built to a breaking point. This from what I have read of reviews has been a criticism on Jordan and the book series. I on the otherhand enjoy this aspect of his writing style because when he does venture more into the action scenes it usually falls flat and comes off a little muddled. I will be interested when I get to the Brandon Sanderson authored books if this is the same since he is known for his excellent action prose. There is a side story with Min in the White Tower spying for the Amyrlin, Siuan, in the book. I consider this a side story because very few chapters are dedicated to this. I assume that this will become a bigger part of later books with maybe Min and Siuan becoming more prominant characters than they have been.

Another reason why this one is my favorite so far is that Jordan also didn't try to throw in some adventure like in the other three books. There is a large evil in this world and nothing simple like throwing a ring into a volcano pit will get rid of it. A war is being fought and many people have ideas on how to stop it or fail to realize the threat. Jordan keeps a rather black and white scale when it comes to good and evil with very little shades of grey. For that, a reader should pursue the likes of George R. R. Martin. The three quests take in The Shadow Rising are small battles that are encompassing this war. My big question is when will the dark side win one.

Destiny has a large role in this series as characters often speak of the pattern. I bring this up because to me the growth of the characters seems to hinder on how much each character is willing to succomb to their own destiny. Rand is no longer the sheepherder he was in Book 1, and much of his personality now comes from accepting his role as the Dragon Reborn. Though a few characters, like Egwene and Perrin, seem to have changed due to their experience on their travels, which becomes clear as each display a level of maturity in The Shadow Rising. Others, like Mat, have not changed at all in personality or maturity inspite of all he has gone through because he seems to be the only one still fighting his fate. Jordan though atleast ackowledges this and often seems to be having fun teasing Mat.

One last observation on this book that I am a little undecided about is at a few parts in the book for a short section he switches into the rare perspective of a character that hasn't been done before. As a reader I enjoyed this because during these short sections a lot of information in terms of intentions of that character though forsaking a little mystery in the long run. This is big in terms of the character of Moraine as all further attitudes of the character shown throughout the rest of the book reflect what you learn in the small glimpse. Which is in turn my problem with it. It is only a small glimpse and seems odd when looking at the book as a whole to have this short bit stuck in with the more usual central figures.