It felt to me that much more happened in this book than in the previous two combined -- between the entire Semhirage arc, Aviendha becoming a Wise One, Tuon becoming Empress, Rand reuniting with Tam and almost losing himself to his inner rage and finally breaking free of it, Egwene's conflict with Elaida, the Seanchan attack on the White Tower, Egwene reuniting the Tower and becoming the real Amyrlin, Verin revealing her secret and giving up the names of the Black Ajah, two Forsaken being killed by Rand ... and those are just the major plot highlights. Everything between the major highlights felt more infused with meaning as well.

As the first of three final-book parts, I was very pleased. Though, my opinion may be biased by the fact that there was no Elayne storyline in this book, thank Jiminy. Her arc in CoT and KoD was some of the most mind-numbing, pointless stuff in the entire series.