Book Review: The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan

The Shadow Rising is the 4th book of The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I've been slowly re-reading the books and have watched the new TV series as well. While there is a much I didn't remember, some aspects of Book 4 I did actually recall to some degree. Also, having recently re-read Dune by Frank Herbert, I can't help but see all the parallels between these two series.

Read on for my spoiler-free review. Note that as part of a series, the prior books are considered fair game for spoiler material.

Overall Impression

The past 3 books can be considered a bit of a trilogy all focused on the prophecy of the Dragon Reborn. Now that the Dragon has been revealed, the story shifts into the dangers of the world. This is probably one of my favorite books of the series. All the characters have meaningful arcs so that there is a little something for everyone. We also get tantalizing hints at the past history of the world making it one of the most revelatory of the books.

Plot

The book starts with all the major characters in Tear, after Rand declared himself the Dragon and took the fabled sword Callandor. Most of the characters are idling, waiting for some sense of direction from the Dragon. Once that happens, though, the story explodes into three main plot lines- the young Accepted tracking the Black Ajah, the threat to the Two Rivers, and the journey into the Aiel Waste. I was most excited for the Aiel plot, since that's one I vaguely remembered, but the other two were also enjoyable.

Characters

Most of the characters have already been established by now, though a few, like Faile, Elayne, and Aviendha get more development. Mat and Perrin get huge advancements in their story. It's great seeing them become something more than a gambler and blacksmith, respectively. We also start seeing, or at least hearing about, more of the Forsaken. They are clearly out in the world now and key characters have started to discover who they are. The pieces are being set for future confrontations in later novels.

Setting / World Building

While most of the setting has already been established, we get to see some very cool aspects in this book. In the Aiel Waste we get revelations of the distant past, allowing us to see small snippets of how the world was in steps leading all the way back to before the Breaking of the World. That is one of the coolest parts of this book and something I remembered since the first time I read it. This book is also when we first see the Aelfinn and Eelfinn, though we'll learn more about these mysterious entities much later through Matt's arc.

While the nature of the story is very different, one can't help but be reminded of Dune when reading this book. The Aiel are analogs to the Fremen, the Aes Sedai are Bene Gessirit, and the Dragon is the Kwisatz Haderach. Even the focus on prophecy/foretelling is similar. It's clear that Dune was a strong influence in this book, or that they both drew from the same underling sources.

Final Thoughts

This is a great book in The Wheel of Time series. It picks up where The Dragon Reborn left off and sets the stage for a lot of cool things to happen with the various characters. It has a little bit of everything without focusing too much on a single group of characters, which will become increasingly hard as the cast of characters continues to grow.