The Dragon Reborn

It took awhile, but I finally finished The Dragon Reborn, the third book in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.  It has nothing to do with how good the book was, more to do with the fact that I spent most of my free time playing NHL11.  Now that my season is finished though, I decided to finish the book.

It was a great book and I guess I have noticed a trend in these books:  stuff happens for awhile, little adventures and then everything gets a little crazy at the end.  It is a cool thing.  Most of my predictions are still a possibility, which is a good thing (it shows how smart I am).

There were only a few complaints I had about the book and most of them were pretty minor.  The first one is the whole Mat being this awesome quarterstaff wielder.  I get that most of his fights later in the book revolve around his luck, but the first one seemed kind of silly.  Also, I hated how the teacher tossed out the story about how the greatest swordsman of all time lost only once to a quarterstaff wielding farmer.  Oh and then Mat remembers how his father always won during the festivals, unless Tam beat him.  It just seemed so...pointless and convenient? 

There is really no need to make Mat a great fighter.  Rand and Perrin make sense, but Mat is the trickster, he relies on his wits.  Also, after awhile he started to seem like a similar character to Rand and Perrin.  I did enjoy that he started to deduce that his luck worked when things were more random.

The other thing I did not like was how Egwene read about the ter'angreal that influences the holders luck and she thinks how it would really help Mat.  And then, just like that all of Mat's luck seems to be good.  I am guessing that when Selene visited him she gave him something...and yes I still think that Selene is Lanfear.  I noticed that all the other Foresaken all use a similar phrase:  "so-called Aes Sedai." 

My favorite part was at the end when Rand takes the sword and decides to follow Ba'alzamon by creating a portal (he has no clue to where or how he did it) and before he steps in he says "Now I am the hunter."  That was a very cool part, as was the Aiel saying they were the People of the Dragon. 

I will change a prediction though.  Mat will end up with Elayne.  He is going to constantly rub it in to the three girls about them not really thanking him for saving him.  Their relationship will start off a little rocky.  They will be mean to each other and then they will realize they have feelings for each other.  Why do I think that?  It will basically copy Zarine and Perrin's start.