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Halfway through the series! Which is a good thing. You see, I made a mistake. Before I was too far into the book, I looked up the page count for the entire series, and tried to put it into perspective. By the time you finish The Fires of Heaven, you've read more pages than in Harry Potter, and have double that left to go. I'm starting to feel about daunted, but I'm going to keep on slogging on. Having three Brandon Sanderson books as my carrot has kept me moving at a fair speed so far. I mentioned this already, but reading through the battle again through another perspective. In fact, the perspective choices were the saving grace throughout the book in key places. Aviendha really lightened the mood between Elaine, Birgette, and Nynaeve, and I don't think I enjoyed any of the three girls' story archs as much as I did in this book. I think my favorite line in the entire book was from Aviendha: There were several times throughout the book that I was very thrilled with perspective choice. Choosing Min's perspective during the incident with Padan Fain instead of Rand's or Cadsuane's was a brilliant decision. It raised the tension so much, and that scene was made so much more compelling for it. On that topic (I've got the feeling already that I'm going to flit about madly this post. Don't judge me.) What was that? MorFain can summon crazy fog demons with his mad giggle? More seriously, it seems like a local manifestation of Mashadar caused by the connection between Fain, the dagger, and Shadar Logoth. But blood and bloody ashes! It's interesting how the wounds are being played out, that maybe the corruptions will fight each other. Not sure how accurate that prediction is going to be. That scene did annoy me though. I understand info dumps have to happen, but it really could have been more masked than: "Hope you don't mind if I tell you my life story since I've suddenly become a very important plot device." It seemed like it was take the bad with the good this book. For every scene that delighted me, there were almost as many that really felt useless, or completely unnecessary; the foremost of those being Mat and Tylin. It really felt to me that rape was being taken extremely lightly, and I'm just personally not ok with that. Elayne laughs and him, and Nynaeve comments about him tasting his own medicine, and in the end, Mat admits to himself that he'll miss the whole experience. Rape is rape, and it shouldn't be glossed over like this, and made out to be a non-issue, especially when it doesn't help drive the story forward in any way. Another was the Children of the Light. At the end of the day, everything that happened before that with Morgase, and Nial was pretty much whitewashed by this book. If Sebban Balwer becomes a major player in events, than I will happily eat my words, but otherwise, it felt very roundabout, and frustrating. The Kin will be an interesting addition to the boiling pot of Aes Sedai. I think if they all flock to it, that will secure Egwene's power absolutely, not that she hasn't gotten a fair start on her own. It was a disappointment when her arch didn't pick back up again. It seemed like she was caught back up to Rand, and now we're way behind on what's going on there. Especially when it ended with 'Halima' tending to her. I would have much preferred to have her story arch spread throughout the book, but with Lan being required to be in Ebou Dari, with what little we were given that couldn't have happened. Mat and Birgette becoming friends should have been obvious to me. I thought that maybe he might remember her from past lives too, and it will be interesting if that ever turns out to be the case, but still what a great friendship! Especially when Elayne got some blowby from their first encounter. Another one of those scenes that I particularly enjoyed. I was really frustrated by the Sammael/Graendal sequences. Sammael lies and their entire interaction paradigm shifts? What is it about their relationship that would make Graendal fall with him? Why did he even need her? It didn't seem like she really did anything, just observed. There hasn't been enough revealed about the Chosen's politics for me to really grasp anything of significance in those exchanges, and that really bothers me as a reader, even if it's explained more next book. It doesn't seem like the book would be any less without their chapters, and it might even had enhanced the mystery surrounding his visits with the Shaido. I suspect that Alanna is going to die, knowing what I do now about the way the warder bond works. It seems like that was a decision that could only end in disaster, and seeing what it did to Lan, I suspect that's another burden that's going to be placed on Rand's shoulder's. Cadsuane is my new favorite character. She's a boss. Apparently, Leanne was able to teach Min more than enough to get the job done. Elaida continues to astound me. She's so incredibly short sighted in regards to almost every decision she makes. Her doing something relatively competent actually was one of the biggest surprises in the book. I'm glad we've finally established what a gholam is. That was one that's been bugging me for a while. Now if a shocklance could make an appearance that would be great. I tried to keep an eye open for any hints about who killed Asmodean, and I didn't run into anything this book, but reading through the prologue for The Path of Daggers it seems likely to me that it was either Moridin or Shaidar Haran. It mentioned two soul traps with Moridin, and as Mogheidien was given to Moridin for being captured and teaching the enemy, the same punishment would be given to Asmodean. It seems more likely to me that it is Shaidar, as Asmodean recognized the killer, but Mogheiden did not recognize Moridin. That's my guess for now, As always, I'll post more if I think of it.