Landrin201 reviewed The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #4)
Review from a long-time fan (spoilers for previous books, not for this one)
5 stars
The Shadow Rising is where most fans really fall in love with this series, for good reason.
Firstly, and this is a mild spoiler: you're not getting an ending identical to the last 3 books again. This ending is radically different, and significantly better.
Second, the character development in this book is absolutely amazing. Every single character develops in this book, and if you re-read The Dragon Reborn the development becomes VERY apparent. This is also where you start to really see the scope of what Jordan is writing; he develops the world enormously in this book, in ways you may not be expecting going in. The previous books made the world feel big; this one made it feel deep.
I think this book is among the best in the series for juggling the ensemble. There are 3 major plotlines in the book, all following different characters in different parts …
The Shadow Rising is where most fans really fall in love with this series, for good reason.
Firstly, and this is a mild spoiler: you're not getting an ending identical to the last 3 books again. This ending is radically different, and significantly better.
Second, the character development in this book is absolutely amazing. Every single character develops in this book, and if you re-read The Dragon Reborn the development becomes VERY apparent. This is also where you start to really see the scope of what Jordan is writing; he develops the world enormously in this book, in ways you may not be expecting going in. The previous books made the world feel big; this one made it feel deep.
I think this book is among the best in the series for juggling the ensemble. There are 3 major plotlines in the book, all following different characters in different parts of the world. No one plotline is given too much attention, and all of them mirror each other in really interesting ways. None of the plotlines feels shoehorned in or inorganic; they all work really well together.
This is easily in the top 6 of the series, without a doubt.
