** spoiler alert ** 
 The second in the books 4-6 stride in this series is just as good as book 4, and hopefully I'll still feel the same way after I listen to book 6. Books 1-3 are great, but different from the rest of the series because so many major plot elements we haven't gotten to yet are missing. We get those in 4-6, and they move along at a decent pace. Nothing is done quickly in Jordan's world, but it isn't agonizingly slow in these three. Starting with book 7, the story has gotten so huge that it's impossible for it to move forward any faster than andante at best, maybe adagio. 4-6 are like baby bear's accoutrements: just right. 
 This one has one of my favorite scenes in it: the Lanfear/Moiraine battle, and we find out just how awesome Moiraine really is. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she would not come out alive, and went into it anyway without blinking a whit. She knew for months ahead of time, and still advanced without hesitation. She didn't have to do it; she could've gotten herself gone at any time during those months, and still... Well, you get the idea. 
 Something that upsets me is that Asmodean gets the axe in this one, and "Who killed Asmodean" is just as important to us WOT dorks as "Who shot JR" was to Dallas fans in 1980. (I'm afraid I fall squarely into both camps). I did find out that the secret is revealed in one of the 3 books I haven't read yet, so that's cool. Maybe we'll also find out why, though that's probably pretty easy to guess. Since Asmodean was the weakest of the forsaken, and had betrayed his boss who is the only one who can reverse death, I'm pretty sure he won't be back. I always liked him because he was a musician, was always plucking away on his harp, and playing great mood music around Rand which sometimes pissed him off. I've always felt I need a soundtrack running with me; someone to pluck out the phrase "If I Only Had a Brain" when I made a boneheaded maneuver, or Joe Esposito's "You're the Best Around" when I'm steeling myself for a difficult task. That would be pretty awesome. Oh, Asmodean, why didn't you land here as my minstrel after you died? 
 One of my favorite minor scenes also occurs in this book. In fact, I'm not even sure if it can be considered a scene. It's just something seen that sums up a historical event so succinctly and showcases Jordan at his best in crafting a story. 3,000 years ago the world was broken over the course of approximately 300 years by power users who had been driven mad by the dark one at the moment of his imprisonment. It's often stated that oceans and seas covered where land once was, mountain ranges stood where flat lands or oceans had been, etc. That's all fine and good to say, but it never had as much of an impact as when Rand and the Aiel are leaving the Aiel Waste through a gap in the mountains called The Spine of the World, and Rand sees something. Halfway through the path, and about a half mile, or perhaps even a mile, up the side of one mountain one can just make out a bunch of ruined buildings which were obviously once part of a pretty great city. One wonders why anybody would ever have built a city in such a silly place, and then he notices the docks at one end of it. Sea docks and piers nearly a mile up the side of a mountain... Suddenly the full picture of the Breaking of the World materializes in the reader's mind. Nice fucking touch, RJ. (Side note: Buildings made during the Age of Legends were stronger than anything made in current times due to several factors. If you really want to know more about it, just aspire to my own level of uber-dorkiness and spend hours on wot.wikia.com or www.encyclopaedia-wot.org). 
 This is the first book where one of the major characters is absent for the entire tale, and that character is Perrin. Thankfully we got to see a lot of him in the last book, and he'll be back. Mat's character continues to develop in a most satisfactory manner, and he begins to come into his own in this volume. His storyline is easily the most entertaining throughout the series, though Nynaeve is my favorite narrator, and I'm glad we see so much through her eyes in this one. 
 Egwene... She's always been a bitch since the first book, but its during this one that I begin to hope she gets killed before the end of the series. This is another mark of Jordan's high-marks as a writer: his ability to create a character that I simultaneously want to succeed and see murdered in a most heinous manner. I love it when she gets the best of some of the bad guys, but really wish one or all of the other protagonists would just smack the taste out of her mouth on a regular basis. Still, I can see why she needs to be the way she is if she's going to do what she needs to do in future books. Argh, she's so infuriating. 
 Other matters are settled, but it'd be better if you just read the book for those; I think I've said all I want to for this one. 
 Now, onto Lord of Chaos which has my favorite chapter in the series: "Dumai's Wells." Well, it's my favorite of books 1-11 and the prequel novel. 12-14 might have a better one, but that one is pretty hard to top, though a scene in Knife of Dreams comes close. Oooooooh, I can't wait to get to it.