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corrielle23. The Shadow Rising
This is the book where the reader really gets to know the Aiel as a people, Mat goes through the doorways to the lands of the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn, Elayne and Nynaeve traipse about Tanchico, and Perrin saves the Two Rivers.
Several of my favorite scenes in the whole series are in this book. I love both of the sequences where Mat meets the snakes and foxes, and Rand's vision of the history of the Aiel through the eyes of his ancestors in Rhuidean still blows me away every time I read it. This time through, I was also very moved by Perrin's leadership and the big battle with the Trollocs in Two Rivers. (And the idea of Mat's little sister and Egwene's mom ready to take Trollocs together because nothing threatens their home is kind of brilliant.)
This is also the book where Siuan gets deposed, which was a hard scene to re-read. I was reminded, though, of how much I admired her grit and determination considering what had just been done to her.
24. The Fires of Heaven
This is the one where Rand returns from the Waste with an Aiel army at his back, and things start to get really politically shaky on the "civilized" side of the Dragonwall. I really liked watching Rand come into his own a bit here, handling the Cairhienen and the Tariens ably, albeit with a little advice from Moiraine. I also love the battle for Cairhien where Mat ends up with the beginnings of the Band of the Red Hand. The moment where Talmanes (Light, but I adore that man...) offers to lead half the charge only if Mat leads the other and Mat grudgingly agrees still gives me chills.
This book also sees Nynaeve and Elayne touring with the ever-colorful Valan Luca, going after Moghedien, acquiring an out-of-time Hero of the Horn of Valere, and finding the Salidar Aes Sedai. This is also a place where we get to see pretty clearly that under all of Nynaeve's bluster and temper, there is a lot of fear and uncertainty that she wouldn't show to anyone for the world. However, in the end, she is the one who collars Moghedien in tel'aran'rhiod, and she helps Rand out with Rahvin much more than I remembered. So... facing off against two Forsaken in one book... not bad for a village healer from the middle of nowhere. ;-)
This is also the book where Moiraine disappears. Lanfear, too, but... I remember my heart stopping when she fell through that doorway the first time, and eighteen years and a lot of life experience doesn't make reading it any easier.
25. Lord of Chaos
First of all, after Eye of the World, I think that Lord of Chaos has the most internal cohesion when considered apart from the rest of the series. It's a critical point in the series, and the place where the balance of power between Rand and the Aes Sedai really starts to shift.
This is the book where I feel like RJ had really established the world and how it worked... and therefore felt comfortable massively altering the rules, confident that the audience will be entrenched enough in the way things were "supposed" to be that the enormity of the changes really resonates. This is the book where Nynaeve Heals stilling. Where Egwene al'Vere, innkeepers' daugther from Emond's Field, gets invited to be Amyrlin of the rebel Tower. Where men who have been taught their whole lives that to channel the One Power is to go mad and die begin to gather at what will become the Black Tower so that they can learn to do just that.
In the running for “most disturbing scene in all of Wheel of Time” is the part with Semirhage and the Aes Sedai and Warder pair she’s extracting information from. (It’s at the end of Ch. 6 of LoC) Her cool scientific interest is bone chilling, and the fact that she accidentally lets the Warder die from overstimulating the pleasure centers in his brain is especially horrifying to me for some reason. And she’s not even doing anything particularly important like talking to another Forsaken or Shaidar Haran at the time… she’s just… thinking about who’s doing what and how to get ahead. And the poor Aes Sedai she caught… Cabriana. That was her name. Being in that much pain and feeling her Warder die from inexplicably intense pleasure at the same time is probably one of the most horrific things from a psychological standpoint that this series has ever come up with.
Of other random interest… NONE of the Forsaken understand the Aes Sedai/Warder bond? This must mean that it just wasn’t done during the Age of Legends, or even during the Breaking… The female Aes Sedai that were left when the dust settled must have come up with it AFTER the Dark One and the Forsaken were sealed in the Prison.
Other points of random interest: Semirhage calls what “modern” Aes Sedai would call a “weave” a “net” instead. I think she also called “Air” “Wind” at one point. Darn you RJ for filling this completely horrifying scene with fascinating AoL details…
The other super-disturbing scene here is the one where the Shaido Wise Ones kill one of their own with the Power and don't seem particularly upset by it. That was... not ok, and even after all of the other things the Shaido (mostly Sevanna) do, that is still the one that makes me most disgusted.
This is also the book where Rand gets kidnapped by the delegation from the White Tower, and the psychological suffering he undergoes while they have him is, I think, partially to blame for the fact that Rand feels he has to harden himself to the extent that he can't feel anything any more and all of the trouble that ends of causing. It is also, obviously, the reason that Rand doesn't trust Aes Sedai any farther than he can throw them for a good long time. Stupid decision though it was... it gets us the battle of Dumai's Wells, which while horrific for the characters involved, was one of the most badass things I've ever read. When the Asha'man started coming through those gateways, it was so epic I almost couldn't stand it.
26. Crown of Swords
This is the first book of the series that I waited for, the book that had me giddy in line at the book store because there was a chapter called Mashiara, and I knew that meant that Lan and Nynaeve were most likely going to get to see each other again finally. (Not only does he see her again, but she breaks that pesky block of hers...) It's also a book that introduces new complexities into an already tangled situation--the Kin, the Seanchan in Ebou Dar, the Sea Folk Bargain, the Black Ajah hunters in the White Tower (who, I had forgotten, completely misunderstood their mandate from Elaida, who just wanted them to prove that Alviarain was committing treason...) The book also introduces that marvelous complication that is Cadsuanne, who I can't help but love, even if she is a bit of a misandrist.
This is a book with a lot of Mat in Ebou Dar since a lot of this book is occupied with Elayne and Nynaeve's search for the Bowl of the Winds. I think I grinned every time Mat was on the page... especially if Tylin was involved, though the blossoming of Mat and Birgette's Old-Tongue-Speaking, Ogling-Barmaids-and-Ugly-Men-in-Bars friendship is priceless as well.
Though Rand definitely fights some big battles here, earning him the second of his unhealable wounds from Padan Fain's dagger and the crown of Illian in the process, Nynaenve and Elayne's work with the weather and Egwene's managing to establish herself as more than just a figurehead Amyrlin are just as important.
I also remember this as The One Where A Wall Falls on Mat at the End and He Isn't In Book Eight. Spending four years wondering if RJ might just have faked us all out and killed off one of my favorite fictional characters ever was not fun. Now, I know I needn't have worried. Hindsight tells me that RJ would never have killed off one of his main cast so abruptly, seeing as how no one we are supposed to care about has actually died yet. This means that book 14 is either going to be an "everybody lives" scenario (yay!), or he was just saving the bloodbath for Tarmon Gaidon. I can't decide which I think is more likely, and that really worries me.