Rating: 
Summary: If you love epic fantasy, and/or a superb story, here it is.
Review: Even if you haven't read the two books in the Wheel of Time series that precede The Dragon Reborn, this book should hook you. Jordan's writing style for an epic fantasy of this caliber is superb, his characters are as memorable as any other of the greats in the fantasy-genre, and his balance of detail, sweeping drama, and humanistic elements make the Dragon Reborn in no way inferior to its predescessors. Unlike most hack-and-slash/magic-and-monster books of the fantasy genre, Jordan has created something unique and certainly wonderful even to those who might never have read fantasy before. As with most series, however, the Dragon Reborn falls prey to a slight drifting from its earlier companions. The knowledge that Jordan intended this series to last only four books at the outset, and now plans on eight or nine, helps explain the finalistic tone of this book which is actually barely the middle volume of the Wheel of Time. If you have read The Eye of the World and The Great Hunt, then be prepared to learn more about characters that Jordan did not focus on as much when he begins to expand the scope of this epic fantasy in breathtaking but sometimes wearying fashion.
Rating: 
Summary: No More Nynaeve and Egwene!
Review: Even though the Wheel of Time series is essentially supermarket pop fiction, I really enjoyed the first two books. The continent and its legends, plus the great story of seeing the Dragon Reborn, make the series a lot of fun. You're just drawn to pick up the next book because it's a world you want to return to.That said, Robert Jordan is a frustrating writer who's capable of the most glaringly juvenile characterization and mannerisms in his writing. It can become very, very difficult to read someone who is utterly incapable of writing female characters. Half of The Dragon Reborn follows Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne, and their adventure at the White Tower (I'll avoid spoilers) as they progress to become Aes Sedai. This subplot really hurt the book, for me at least, keeping it from being anywhere near as good as the first two books. The White Tower mystery was excruciating. The primary conflict comes from the girls being faced by an Aes Sedai who looks at them crossly and scolds them. The girls curtsy and scrape, then leave, only to be faced with another cold Aes Sedai who looks down on them. Repeat again and again, ad nauseum. The feeling of being flustered before someone with position or respectability is a common scene in the WoT books. It happens on almost every page. In the Great Hunt, at least, Jordan uses it well by having Rand stand up for himself, earning the reader's respect. But in this third book, it annoyed the hell out of me. With Min gone, not a single woman in the White Tower was interesting. Is it just me? And the female characters the reader is stuck with have an annoying habit of "sniffing," as in "'Men are all fools,' she sniffed." I counted it used 23 times. 23 times! In addition to the sniffing, the Amyrlin Seat can't speak without using a fishing metaphor (she's a fisherman's daughter). Someone tell Jordan that a mannerism is a poor substitute for genuine character. And in this book, Jordan introduces Nynaeve's habit of tugging on her braid when she's angry or nervous, which is always. Again and again, Nynaeve tugs on her braid and sniffs. I missed Rand. He was hardly in the book. The path of Perrin and Moirane was enjoyable; I wish they'd been given more pages, and the White Tower less. But I was growing tired of the familiar scene of going to an inn and meeting the innkeeper, which has been done many many times in the first three books of the series. And then having to escape in the middle of the night. Since we're on the topic of repeating things, the ending of this book is the same ending we've seen in the first two books. Time for something new! So Robert Jordan repeats things a little too much. If you read this book, keep a running tally of the braid-tugs, sniffs, and fishing metaphors. And being flustered around someone glaring. The dream sequences in the first two WoT books were really boring to me, so I was dismayed to find out that now it's going to be a major point in the stories from now on. Ugh. Enough with the dreaming! Still, the WoT is a lot of fun despite Jordan's poor judgement. I've read on Amazon that Faile becomes another really annoying female character later on, but I can say she's a lot of fun in this volume. Let's hope the next book has more Rand and less White Tower. If you don't mind corny fantasy, you won't mind this third book in the WoT series.
Rating: 
Summary: BEST in the Series. Did Jordan peak too soon?
Review: I Promise: I'm going to be spoiler free. This is the third and BEST book in the Wheel of Time (WOT) series. All of the tenants of excellent fantasy are there. Jordan is a great writer who builds an incredible world with a compelling history. In this book, Jordan gets the balance of history, character, exposition and action right. Dragon Reborn is a treasure, but be warned: as of this writing Jordan hasn't finished WOT. By the end of this book, the series stands on its head and you are riding through this series at a great clip. You cannot WAIT to find out what happens next, so you HAVE to continue. My guess is the end of this series isn't going to happen until 2006 (I believe there are going to be 12 books, but I don't think there's an official word). Is it going to be worth it? I don't think so. WOT has gotten very complicated and is becoming turgid. Sometime around Book 6, the action began to crawl. Book 8 (the last one I read) was almost 700 pages and took place over three days! I've read the first five books twice now beacuse it is too difficult to wait a year between reading books. (And he's coming out with them once every other year at this point). My advice: Wait until Jordan's finished them all. It's best to read them one after another. By then we'll know if it was worth the wait. You've been warned! My grade for the series:
1. Wheel of Time: A-
2. Great Hunt: A
3. Dragon Reborn: A+
4. Shadow Rising: A+
5. Fires of Heaven: A
6. Lord of Chaos: B
7. Crown of Swords: C+
8. Path of Daggars: C
9. Winter's Heart (haven't read, waiting for Jordon to finish)
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the first two!
Review: I started reading The Dragon Reborn with high expectations, after reading the first two. It started out hopeful, I could tell that Jordan's writing has sort of become more original. The beginning was a little slow, as in all the books, but it still was hopeful. But then after I started reading on, I noticed that Rand is barely in the bood so far, but then I thought that maybe he's talked about a lot around the end, but I was wrong. Rand, who was my favorite character in the series, isn't hardly in ten pages of this book, and that's literally. But, there is a reason why. Rand was greatly developed in the first two books that Jordan wanted to develope the other characters in the series (i.e. Mat, Perrin, Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne.) But still, it's not a bad read. It really kicks off when the girls get sent awy from the White Tower to hunt the Black Ajah, which holds some very interesting characters. Then Rand runs away and Perrin, Moiraine, Lan, and Loial chase him. Mat is in the White Tower after being healed (he had gotten hold of a dagger from Shadar Logoth) and then he escapes. There's some memerable scenes in this book, such as the scenes where Mat finally finds out about his luck. It's great how he wins all that money from the dice games. The ending is the best part of the book, in my opinion, because it's full of action. Still, this book is a good read, but anyone who's starting to read the Wheel of Time series should start with the first book, it gives you a better feeling of the series. I'm now starting to read the fourth book, The Shadow Rising. See my review in that soon!
Rating:
Summary: A Step Below the First Two Books of the Series
Review: I was slightly disappointed with The Dragon Reborn as compared to The Eye of the World and The Great Hunt. According to the title, this book should be concerned with Rand, but in actuality, he is hardly mentioned in this book at all. Instead, Robert Jordan has concentrated on the other members of the group from the Two Rivers, namely Mat, Perrin, Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne. Mat has been taken to Tar Valon to be healed by the Aes Sedai after having the dagger from Shayol Ghul removed. He is then given a letter from Elayne to deliver to Elayne's mother, Queen Morgase. After delivering the letter, Mat learns that some of the Queen's guards intend to capture and kill Elayne, so he sets off to warn her. Meanwhile, Elayne, Egwene, and Nynaeve have continued their training to become Aes Sedai, but they have learned a disturbing secret; some of the Aes Sedai are members of the Black Ajah; serveants of the Dark One. The Amyrlin Seat has sent them off to track down the whereabouts of the Black Ajah. Their pursuits soon lead them to the city of Tear. Perrin is in pursuit of Rand along with Moiraine, Lan, and Loial. Bedeviled by dreams, Perrin is grappling with another deadly problem; how is he to escape the loss of his own humanity. Rand is in search of the great sword called Callandor. It is a crystal sword held in the Stone of Tear, in the chamber of the Heart of Stone. No hand can touch it except the Dragon Reborn. One of the signs of the Dragon's rebirth will be that the Dragon has taken Callandor. Overall, I did like this book, but not as well as the first two books of the series. The action throughout is good and kept me interested, but the title is somewhat misleading. Rand is the supposed Dragon Reborn, but, as I stated earlier, he is hardly mentioned in this book at all. I do recommend this book to fellow fantasy readers, but be aware of the misleading title and don't expect to read too much about Rand al'Thor in this volume.
Rating: 
Summary: Like A Bad Soap Opera
Review: It goes on and on. This is where it ended for me. After slogging through book one and two and enjoying some good ideas with spots of good and bad writing - I just could not make it through here. Jordan is not discriminating enough for me in his deciding what to relate to the reader. For some the details and descriptions appear to be of enormous interest but I think the dragging out of the plot is unexcusable and lead me to drop this series even though I wanted to enjoy it..
Rating:
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:
Summary: Almost a 9, but not quite.
Review: Robert Jordan is an excellent story-teller; easily one of the best I've seen in years. Unfortunately, his writing ability doesn't quite match his story telling. In contrast to the previous two volumes, this book had a quicker pace and didn't seem as wordy, even though it is about the same length. However, once again, Jordan's end to his story is anti-climatic. After carefully gathering his players in the Stone of Tear, he rushes through the climax in just a few scant pages. While providing descriptive action scenes earlier in the book, Jordan resorts once again to the horrible use of "forms" to describe Rand's battle. Instead of maintaining a quick and lively pace throughout the battle, Rand's chase through the Stone becomes terribly slow and ponderous. The fighters may as well have been slogging through the rain and mud near the docks of Tear for all the excitment it provided. This anti-climax indicates that Jordan simply doesn't understand how to use and maintain a cadance within his prose. Still, this book is much better than most in the genre and I look forward to the next in the series.
Rating:
Summary: READ THIS CLASSIC!!!!
Review: The Dragon Reborn is the third book in The Wheel of Time series, after The Eye of the World and The Great Hunt. This book is a great addition to this series. I enjoyed the whole book and thought that nothing in it was bad. If you like fantasy, you will definitely enjoy this series and this book. This book has action, mystery, and even magic.
Rand al'Thor is the Dragon Reborn, and he is unable to control his ability to channel the True Source, the power that turns The Wheel of Time. He knows he must face the Dark One when the Last Battle comes, but he is afraid. He also knows he must fulfill the prphecies written about him. This book also includes the corresponding adventures of the other characters:Mat, Perrin, Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne, Moiraine, Lan, Min, Thom, and Loial. This book is good throughout all of the pages, and the action at the end really ties the book together.
If you've read Tolkien and Harry Potter, pick this book up.
Rating:
Summary: The Dragon Reborn - A Bestseller, or Too Long to Enjoy?
Review: The Dragon Reborn really is a good book. Now, lots of people would be discoraged with this book, due to the fact that it's HUGE! Some have commented that the book needs a better editor. Now in past books, Robert's done some of that too. It's huge, but it's all neccary. I think Tolken is master of reduntant things, although Jordan can do some odd things. (In the Eye of the World, he screws around with time so bad my sense of the book was mangled!) Of course, this shouldn't discorage you. There are great FAQs, and the Guide book "The World of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time", which is amazingly helpful. Further more, the details are wonderful. The characters clash, and it gets pretty annoying at times, but they're in character. The only qualms I have about this book, and the whole series, is that as the books go by, Rand, Egwene, and Nyvane all get slowly meaner. Nyvane and Egwene have very good reasons, which you'll have to read about, but even if Rand is in character, he's awful! And he just gets worse. Other than that, the chracters are great, the story is great, the setting is wonderful. Read this, or I'll send the forsaken out after you!
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