First off, I want to say, that I am so happy that the woman of this series are finally starting to show more depth and have their individual stories as opposed to the hot-headed, stern, (I kind of want to say emasculating?)  frustrating know it alls they have been for the last 4 books. It was infuriating that they held so much promise and yet had all the exact same personalities to the point it was boring.

But that is over, and I finally feel that I understand them, and they seem to be opening up, coming out their hard shells and frankly, making this the most enjoyable installment yet. 

The pace of this was so much better, although it still felt slow, it didn't feel as if things were at a standstill. Things were constantly in motion, with each party that our main protagists have split into, all having their own storylines. 

It's interesting to see the politics play out as each faction seems to be coming together slowly, and its so much less frustrating now that all the characters seem to have the same information, although distance still separates them. 

I can go on and on but this is book 5 in a 15 book series, and it was almost 1000 pages long so I'll be here all night. 

Needless to say, the characters grow so much more in this instalment, as do the relationships between them.  we get some interesting POVS - some characters we've met, others we haven't. The story sped along nicely and didn't feel like it was dragging. This has been my favourite so far and it's made me eager to pick up the next one, instead of dreading it. 

The only downside was that we didn't get any of Perrin in this book but we will no doubt see more of him in the next book.