God bless him, he doesn't get it but he indulges me anyway. My super awesome husband got me tGS for Christmas. Opened it Christmas morning, started reading about 8:00 that night, finished it up around 3:00 this afternoon.

O. M. G.
STUFF HAPPENS IN THIS BOOK.
Truly amazing.

I admit freely that I have never liked Faile. I come as close to hating her as it's possible to hate a fictional character. That said, hands down the most awesome thing she's done IN THIS ENTIRE SERIES is kill that damn Masema!!! I kid you not, I whooped aloud and just about jumped out of my chair at that. Scared the crap outta my poor unsuspecting family, too. And that was just the prologue!

I know there are a lot of Egwene haters around here. *shrug* Whatever. Hate her if you want. Frankly she's my favorite character, aside from Rand himself. Flame me for it if you wish. I have enjoyed her storyline virtually from the beginning, and I must say that tGS is without doubt her best showing. THAT'S my girl! Kick those idiots into line and show them how they're supposed to behave! Maybe now that she's officially in charge, something can actually get accomplished.

Perrin is still a pussy. I still can't stand him. And that's all I have to say about THAT.

I was slightly disappointed that Mat and Company didn't at least begin their adventure to rescue Moiraine, but I suppose we can't cram all resolutions into one book. I've seen for several books already that Mat is going to have to be the one to do something about Rand and Tuon making happy with each other. I just wonder how it will fall out? Again, a story for another book.

Nynaeve - myeh. What can be said about her? The most admirable thing she's done the entire series is send Lan off to the Gap. Amazing how so much whining and pushiness can be stuffed into one dress. As for Elayne, I for one was glad not to even SEE her this time. And Aviendha? I could see what the Wise Ones were angling for the whole time, so maybe she IS slower than I thought?

Now, on to Verin. Dear, lovely Verin. OK, so I suspected for a long time that she was Black, and I hated the suspicion because frankly, I LIKED VERIN. Always did. I had a very hard time reconciling the idea that Verin was Black with the fact that I've always liked her. The revelation that Sheriam was Black, pfft. I was glad to see that hussy get her head lopped off. Never cared for her. Same goes for virtually ALL the Black sisters that were revealed. But Verin? Tough pill to swallow. So while I was sorry to see that she had to poison herself, I was extremely happy with the outcome of her story and the explanation of her life and work. I feel a lot better about her now.

I was soooo happy that a lot happened in tGS. A lot more that I would love to comment and review on, but those were the main points. *sigh* The only bad thing about so looking forward to a WoT book, then devouring the entire thing in something like 18 hours, is that NOW the waiting begins all over again!