With book six of Jordan's giant Wheel of Time fantasy saga, it becomes obvious that one more book is certain and two are probable. This quite excellent volume gives, however, a clearer notion of what the final set of conflicts will be, if not necessarily their resolutions.

Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, is teaching men to use magic. He is pursued by three excellent women, captured by and then freed from hostile Aes Sedai, and all the while he tries to be a savior who does not destroy everything in his path. Rand's comrades face similar situations: Egwene al'Vere becomes leader of the dissident Aes Sedai while not yet out of her teens, Mat Cauthon blunders into some high-comedy mistakes in spite of advice from the spirits of a hundred long-dead generals, Nynaeve learns how to restore magical powers, and so on.

The number of subplots and characters that Jordan is resolutely carrying forward will both reward longtime readers of the saga and frustrate newcomers. The latter, at least, will also be challenged, perhaps to the outer limits of tolerance, by the multiple shifts in viewpoint. But really, no one should expect to start a work of this size except at the beginning, and if libraries purchase this title as well as its companions, no one will have to.

Review from Amazon.com .

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