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The Dragon Reborn (The Wheel of Time, Book 3)

The Dragon Reborn (The Wheel of Time, Book 3)

List Price: $7.99
Your Price: $7.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Really I rate it at 4 and 1/2 stars
Review: There are only 2 things that bug me so far about this series. I can skip whole books and still get the story. I read this one before I read The Great Hunt (book 2). And the second thing is that THEY ARE TOO GOOD!!! I have so much trouble putting the books down to do other things that I'm supposed to be doing! These are really good stories and I'm glad that I finally decided to try reading them even though I don't normally read this kind of SciFi/Fantasy. Only if you have a lot of time to commit to reading should you dive into this series! Because you won't want to stop reading them until the end of the series!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: very good
Review: Jordan has reached the peak of the story in this one, it starts out fast and keeps going about the same pace, but you can tell that the story will be slowing soon, but it's still is a wonderful read the characters are gaining more and more personality, and they seem like they could be real people, you find yourself wondering if this whole ordeal couldn't have really happened in some point in time.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Rand...Less
Review: Robert Jordan is a master storyteller - he is able to bind his audiences by drawing and encapsulating in the readers' minds every minute detail of his settings, and characters. We can smell the fear, we can feel frustration at characters (Nyaeve's temper!), we admire the great cities such as Caemlyn and we all hope that good will reign over evil! Book 3 of this series still shows much of Jordan's talents - he is admittedly, still quite verbose but every storyteller has his ways and his ability to draw intricate plots and varied - and growing - characters still shows him for what he is - a great author. _The Dragon Reborn_ takes its central focus away from Rand and instead throws readers into the worlds of the 3 budding Aes Sedai - Nyaeve, Elayne and Egwene, as well as Mat, and Perrin, and the return of Thom, Moraine and Lan into the more central plots. And from this - for the first time in the series, we are able to delve deeper into the character of Mat..I almost feared he would not be good but he shows that despite his weaknesses for women and the dice, he is still a 'hero' of sorts in the book. A feature which escalates this book to a star status includes the way Jordan is able to draw the distinct adventures of the different parties together - all told in an exciting fashion - toward the central goal of reaching Tear. Clearly we can see that the Pattern weaves these central characters to the destination that has been 'willed' and is thus 'weaved'. Excellent. After the disappointing sub climax of Book 1, any ending would be welcomed and this ending was not a disappointment - the logic flowed and it leaves the reader yearning to reach for Book 4 in the series. Some weaknesses in the plot included how Mat becomes a master fighter - there has never been any indication of this at all, the fact that the girls seem very one dimensional and show little warmth - a common thread for the portrayal of women in his books - and why Lan was not at Moraine's side when she was hurt at the end. But despite some small anomalies, this book is highly recommended. Master storytelling, excellent and intuitive character development, exciting - seemingly disparate - plots drawn into one thread, and an excellent culmination of plots and reunion of the characters at the end.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Gripping - better than the 1st book
Review: Jordan's writing style has considerably improved in 'The Great Hunt', the second book of the Wheel of Time series . The plot is tighter and the story is more fast paced compared to the meandering first book. He spends more time concentrating on the plot and characters and less on exposition. The female characters are still irritating, but in this book you do see another side to them other than the usual annoying feminist side. There is some real villainy done by women here and the Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne and Min get into some adventures of their own. The Wheel of Time may not be THE epic fantasy series, but it's still a darn good story. Looks like I have to save some money to buy the rest of the 6 books. I wish that this series wasn't so monumental - he could've just concluded the series with 4 or 5 books. Would've saved all his fans a lot of $$$.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Um...I don't know what to say!
Review: This book is great. Rand al'Thor isn't in this book as much as the other two. It focuses more on his friend's viewpoints, just to get to know them a little better. :)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Just keeps on getting better...
Review: _The Dragon Reborn_ is the first of the _Wheel of Time_ books that gets the perfect balance of history, plot, and character. The beginning chapters, in the Dragon's camp, are haunting, but the true story begins when Rand finally gains the independence to take his destiny in his own hands, without Moiraine. Truly on his own, Rand begins to develop the skills the Dragon Reborn will need. Perrin, chasing after him, gains a few new friends, and finally gets the backbone to stand up to the Aes Sedai. Nynaeve, Elayne, and Egwene journey to find the Black Ajah, but the quest creates a rift between Nynaeve and Egwene when Egwene tries to be more of a grown woman and Nynaeve insists on 'playing Wisdom,' even when she isn't anymore. The best addition to the book, though, is the re-emergence of the Mat we saw so briefly in _The Eye of the World_-- that is, the non-Shadar-Logoth Mat. Having gained a few bad habits in his travels, he quickly becomes the most humorous character in the series, and definitely the most fun to read. The ending of _The Dragon Reborn_ is filled with a ton of welcome action, especially since Rand finds the Forsaken at the end of his journey and becomes, indisputably (to the readers, at least) the Dragon Reborn. By _The Dragon Reborn_, you're either hooked on _The Wheel of Time_, or you're not, and if you're hooked, it's not a disappointment.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A little cloudy after Falme
Review: The masterpiece at Falme was quite a radiant display of epic fantasy. Gathered up in the massive whirlpool of Jordan's Seanchan, the ending to the Great Hunt left most drooling for the next book of the Wheel of Time series. The Dragon Reborn continues with Jordan's quite interesting story; yet here, some of the threads don't seem to run together so smoothly. When reading the Dragon Reborn, it felt as if I had missed something between the ending of The Great Hunt, and the beginning of this third part of the Wheel of Time.

In this book, the plot begins its divergence into quite a few different storylines. The title character, Rand, who we have known is the Dragon Reborn since the last sentences of Book 1, takes a backseat to the plot as the rest of the Emond's Fielders narrate through their own distinctive POVs. While this deviation from Rand allows Jordan to flesh out the rest of his main characters, it is not worked as cleanly as it could have. It is not to say that their storylines are uninteresting, for they give a nice twist to this series which has been mostly dominated by Rand, who is my opinion, is just an average character. Though Rand's presence is limited, the story does not feel like it is lacking without him.

The story is quite decent as you follow the characters on their journeys. The events in the white tower are impressive and hold you attention well with intricate detail and a bit of suspense as Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne receive quite a dangerous plot that leads them to question the loyalties of all around them. Their story is the most fleshed out and is designed well with a good pace and unpredictabililty. Perrin's narrative as well as Mat's both keep you reading, yet do not hold the drive of that of the women. The way the characters are all drawn to their final destination is believable, and as the book progresses an excited feeling builds. The most exciting part of the story is what happens in Illian. However, though this climax builds to an exciting high at the end, the final chapters seem to falter and don't seem to fulfill the hype they rose to.

The problem though is that the pieces don't fit together well. Jordan weaves his legends and subplots into the story along the way, and characters seem to be developing, but things don't seem to be presented very well. Situations like Perrin's encounter with the man who is turning into a wolf just seems not planned right. And Mat's 'luck' seems so contrived and doesn't flow into the story the way it should. The Trollocs come absolutely out of nowhere, and certain events just arrive awkwardly, with no explanation or purpose. All too obvious is how all of our characters seem just to do things without knowing how to do them. Totally inexperienced with the One Power, our channelers just happen to stumble upon ways of working their powers that should have taken them more time to figure out. Though their deeds all seem to be considered dangerous to others, they just seem to pick them up effortlessly and, in truth, it sounds to farfetched. Another quandary is that certain things, such as mass dreams or impossible events (like hundreds of marriages), which seem to twist around ta'veren and happen at abundance, are never mentioned and never seem to happen in later books.

The characters in this story seem to mature a bit from their previous selves. However, it is how they matured that doesn't fit. It is almost like there was a story between stories where characters like Egwene, Perrin, and Rand suddenly went through a transformation. In the Dragon Reborn, Egwene seems to be rather argumentative and very headstrong. She seems to have a problem with everyone and be in competition in Nynaeve. Perrin, the quiet, gentle blacksmith from Book 2, is now continuously confronting Moiraine and forcing her to answer questions constantly. Though I do like this 'Perrin with a backbone', he appears to have come out of nowhere compared to the Perrin we knew before. And the biggest transformation is Rand. He altogether seems so much older and serious. He seems so much unlike the farmboy we knew from Book 2. Though all these new character traits seem to have come out of nowhere, it doesn't mean that they aren't believable. I just think the transitions seem to fast.

Although there are a few things that definitely could use some explaining, the Dragon Reborn is a great book. In fact, it is one of the best in the series so far. The plot is woven quite well and it is a must read for Wheel of Time fans. Though some would say Jordan has been losing his touch in later Books such as Path of Daggers or Winter's Heart, The Dragon Reborn holds up to the high standards of the earlier Jordan works.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: HIGHLY UNDER-RATED
Review: Let me tell you how good this book is. My public library didn't have books one and two of the Wheel of Time series, so I was stuck with book three (a friend of mine had recommended the series to me). But even though I was missing out on roughly 2000 pages of material, Robert Jordan developed his characters and his world so well that I felt that I wasn't missing anything at all. I remember that I couldn't wait to come home so I could read this great book. I think the biggest thing that I liked about it was that it was ORIGINAL. No sorcerers (at least not by that name), no fire-breathing dragons. The characters treated the enemies as if they were REAL, causing me to further believe in the story. I like how RJ starts off the book by putting one of the characters in a wicked catch-22 situation. And RJ is very skilled when it comes to ending a chapter. Some authors are so boring that you have to push yourself to turn the page. Not so with this book. But most of all, I liked the part towards the end, where they're on the rooftop, which reminded me of that chimney-sweep dancing scene in Mary Poppins. Sorta. As for those of you who complain that Rand becomes the Dragon Reborn too quickly, I don't know what you're talking about. It takes him 2000+ pages to become the Dragon Reborn. All throughout the series we see how he is slowly making the transition from denial to acceptance. In this book he finally accepts who he is. Believe me, a slow transition like that is far more believable than one of those dumb books where the protagonist realizes that he's a prince on page 50 and kills the "ultimate" evil on page 300. Do yourself a favor, pick up this book and read it. I've read it FOUR times (and counting). In my mind, this is one of the top three Wheel of Time books. I'd rather read a bad (not that he's written any bad books) RJ book than read some stupid L. Sprague de Camp book who is a PASTICHE author, who can only make his living finishing uncompleted ROBERT E. HOWARD Conan stories!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very good
Review: THe first 3 books of the series are what its all about. After this book the series starts to go downhill slightly, but its still in full swing here. while not as good as the first two its still quite good. It shows what Rand has to go through in becoming the dragon reborn (and finally accepting that fact). It's really a fun read, and the last 150 pages or so go by in a blur. The one complaint I had while reading it was that it seemed to be a little repetitive, like the same thing was going to keep happening (the girls leave the white tower, accomplish a monumental task, return, repeat). But this monotony is broken and it is good. Highly Recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beware of Cheap Rip-Off versions Amazon calls hardbound
Review: I just ordered a nice "hardbound" version of Book 3 (to go with my other eight nice Wheel of Time hardbound volumes) and instead received a cheap 1992 paperback with what they apparently call (in the smallest print possible) an "econo-clad" cover. It's adverstised as the "hardbound" version (large print) but if you read deeply enough you'll spot "econo-clad" - which means cheap newsprint paperback edition with a silly stiff cover in tricky-book-speak, I guess.

Don't be fooled. It IS NOT the hardbound edition of this great book. It's simply a tiny massmarket paperback with a cheap stiff paper-covered cardboard cover put on it. You'll be REALLY unhappy when it arrives. I was!!!


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