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The Dragon Reborn has a slow start that reminded me of what I disliked about the previous book. If you swap Rand with the Horn of Valere, it's like a repeat of the grand McGuffin chase. But only to start.

Once you get the first cut away from Perrin, the story picks up enormously and things rock solidly from there through to the very end—even in the Perrin storyline. I had forgotten how fun Faile is, to start (I can't recall why I get the feeling that I kind of dislike her later on). And, of course, Aviendha is introduced and I've always liked her. Her appearance in this book is easy to miss, though, as she is a side-character, at best.

The best character development in this book is with Mat, though. He's no longer too stupid to live or knocking at death's door. His flight from Tar Valon was great characterization showing both how he's grown and how he hasn't. It's good to know he isn't doomed to stupidity forever. Reckless, I'll grant, but that's not as completely off-putting as he was in the first book.

The worst character development in this book is with Perrin (barring Rand as he's really nothing more than a plot device at this point). Jordan lightly justifies Perrin's obsession with avoiding wolves by giving us the guy who lost himself to the wolf and seeing his feral state. But that's problematic because Perrin hasn't experienced anything like the loss of self evident in that case, at least not that the readers have seen. Further, we know from meeting Elyas in the first book that losing humanity isn't the only or inevitable option. And to cap it off, Jordan seems to have completely forgotten that Perrin experienced a multitude of lifetimes while exiting the other-world portal with Rand in book two. Perrin's comment at that time was only that there's no escaping what he is. It doesn't at all tell us that he's doomed to lose himself in the wolf. At the very least that experience should give him clues on how to manage his connection to wolves. And maybe that's why he's so careful now, because of what he experienced then, but if so, we the readers should be privy to that information. It isn't like a good part of this novel isn't from his viewpoint, after all.

The rest of the characters are more-or-less a smooth continuation of where they were and where they're going. Nynaeve continues to be completely irrational about Moiraine (and that continues to bug the crap out of me). The other girls are learning to harness their powers as they grow into them (and navigate tricky political waters while they're at it). And Jordan weaves familiar secondary characters into the story as well, lending credence to the theme of destiny and the more concrete manifestation of it as ta'veren.

Which, by the way, was a brilliant move on Jordan's part. With a story this epic and with movements this grand (they've crossed the map at least once each novel), having the same characters crop up over and over again strains credulity. Inventing ta'veren as a reason/excuse allows Jordan to keep up the cameos that engage fans without breaking his narrative trying to justify so much chance in their meetings. Fantastic idea, and one he introduced way before its absence might have become an issue.

Anyway, I'm way happier with this book than the previous, though with enough friction that I'll keep it at four, rather than five, stars. Still, that was close enough to the five that I look forward to the next with some hope and anticipation.