Tyranicus

Book Seven opens with the dust still settling after Dumai's Wells. We see that Rand hasn't really taken his captivity well. Most of it is from Perrin's POV. We switch over to Egwene, who's solidifying her position as Amyrlin, getting oaths of fealty, sometimes though blackmail. Good stuff so far. Then we switch Ebou Dari.

For the few of you who don't know, this book has one of the male main characters being pursued by a cougar, who also happens to be a queen. Alright, nothing wrong with that being in a book. And then the queen starts trapping him in the palace, and later pulls a knife on him.

Let me make one thing clear. I am not against rape being depicted in literature, as long as the topic is given the weight it deserves (and yes, rape; lack of consent -> rape). And this bit? Played for laughs. And it's not like Jordan can't deal with the topic of rape. Faile almost gets raped in Book Ten, and it's dealt with... adequately (I won't say well). Morgase gets raped by Valda in this book (off-screen), as well as Rahvin earlier, and there's a good chance her relationship with Elayne's father wasn't that great either. But apparently things are different when the victim is male.

What makes me more upset is how some of the other characters view this as justified comeuppance. Mat's all about casual sex, but (correct me if I'm wrong) he never pursued anyone who didn't express interest, and he certainly never forced himself on anyone.

But what really boggles my mind is Mat's thoughts on things. It seems that Jordan was trying to depict Mat as just being baffled by Tylin; he just wasn't used to women pursuing men, that's all. I respond to that with one word: Melindhra. Mat seemed pretty fine with assertive women then.

(And while we're on the subject of Melindhra, I'm going to answer a common rebuttal: no, Mat wasn't going to "do more" to defend himself, not when he will do anything before letting another woman be harmed by his hands.)

Anyway, yeah. I consider this to be the nadir of the series, for this part alone. How on earth did this get past the editor... oh, right. The editor was the author's wife.

I don't want to know.

There's not too much to talk about with the Ebou Dari subplot. The Kin is discovered, and they end up finding the MacGuffin they were looking for. Oh, and Mat saves their ungrateful asses again, but that's sort of a thing for him.

Oh, almost forgot! Moggy ends up killing two of Nynaeve's bodyguards. And Nyn tries to hide this from Mat. I understand that Nynaeve is supposed to be a flawed character, like every other character in the series, but hiding soldiers' deaths from their commanding officer is a whole new level of horribleness. I could maybe see this from other characters, but from someone who used to be in a position of civic authority?

Let's switch back to Rand, hopefully we don't get anyone annoying in this subplo- oh, hello, Cadsuane!

Actually, Cads doesn't bother me as much as she used to. I was never sure if Jordan meant for her domineering arrogance to be a good thing, or if she was just another flawed character. But Book Twelve made it clear it was the latter. Again, I don't mind flawed, 'annoying' characters, so long as there's some redemptive arc involved.

After Rand gets his moping done, the rest of his subplot reads like a to-do list. He parleys with the Sea Folk, then he checks out the Cairhienin and Tairen rebels. During which he get his ass handed to him by Padan Fain (who apparently can summon Mashadar wherever now). Once he recovers, he blitzes Illian, and kills Sammael.

I had a recent discussion with a friend, and he said that the series went downhill once teleportation was discovered. He said that Jordan started packing all his action into the last few chapters of each book, and I can see his point -- perhaps not for every book in the series, but at least for this one.

I consider this book, along with Books Five and Ten, to be the three bad ones (and the prequel, of course). But while Books Five and Ten are bad because of their pace, Book Seven is mostly bad because of those flies in the Shiraz that I was talking about.

Don't lose hope though, things do look up with Book Eight (which, ironically, is a book all about losing hope).

VITAL STATISTICS:
Achievements for Team Light: The Bowl of Winds is retrieved, the rebel claimants are dispersed, Sammael is toast.

Forsaken count: Two rezzed, total of one dead, two erased.

Seals count: Total of four destroyed, three intact.