The Shadow Rising

Book 4, The Shadow Rising, is (so far) the longest in the series at 1001 pages. This read for me was via audio-book and was 40.5 hours of bookiness. I think that in writing this volume, RJ must have decided: "Fuck it" and gone all in with the detail, scope, and length of the series. This one represents a real turning point in what would happen in the series and how many characters would be integral to the story. Whew, a biggun. Here are my thoughts in no particular order:

• Major plot points in this volume: The Tower is broken; Nynaeve proves that she is strong as hell, and can overcome a Foresaken; Rand is He Who Comes With The Dawn without a doubt; Rand captures Asmodean and now has a teacher and proves that he is unwilling to kill a woman; Egwene begins learning to be a dreamer; Perrin becomes a "lord" and marries Faile

• Min is more important to the plot of the series than I thought and I'm paying more attention to her role

• Siuan and Leane are hilarious

• Is Rand's breaking the Aiel bigger than his telling their historical secret?

Next up, The Fires of Heaven