The Wheel of Time turns, and Robert Jordan gives us the eleventh volume of his extraordinary masterwork of fantasy.
The dead are walking, men die
impossible deaths, and it seems as though reality itself has become
unstable: All are signs of the imminence of Tarmon Gai’don, the Last
Battle, when Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, must confront the Dark One
as humanity’s only hope. But Rand dares not fight until he possesses
all the surviving seals on the Dark One’s prison and has dealt with the
Seanchan, who threaten to overrun all nations this side of the Aryth
Ocean and increasingly seem too entrenched to be fought off. But his
attempt to make a truce with the Seanchan is shadowed by treachery that
may cost him everything. Whatever the price, though, he must have that
truce. And he faces other dangers. There are those among the Forsaken
who will go to any length to see him dead—and the Black Ajah is at his
side....
Unbeknownst to Rand, Perrin has
made his own truce with the Seanchan. It is a deal made with the Dark
One, in his eyes, but he will do whatever is needed to rescue his wife,
Faile, and destroy the Shaido who captured her. Among the Shaido, Faile
works to free herself while hiding a secret that might give her her
freedom or cause her destruction. And at a town called Malden, the Two
Rivers longbow will be matched against Shaido spears.
Fleeing Ebou Dar through
Seanchan-controlled Altara with the kidnapped Daughter of the Nine
Moons, Mat attempts to court the woman to whom he is half-married,
knowing that she will complete that ceremony eventually. But Tuon coolly
leads him on a merry chase as he learns that even a gift can have deep
significance among the Seanchan Blood and what he thinks he knows of
women is not enough to save him. For reasons of her own, which she will
not reveal until a time of her choosing, she has pledged not to escape,
but Mat still sweats whenever there are Seanchan soldiers near. Then he
learns that Tuon herself is in deadly danger from those very soldiers.
To get her to safety, he must do what he hates worse than work....
In Caemlyn, Elayne fights to gain
the Lion Throne while trying to avert what seems a certain civil war
should she win the crown....
In the White Tower, Egwene struggles to undermine the sisters loyal to Elaida from within....
The winds of time have become a
storm, and things that everyone believes are fixed in place forever are
changing before their eyes. Even the White Tower itself is no longer a
place of safety. Now Rand, Perrin and Mat, Egwene and Elayne, Nynaeve
and Lan, and even Loial, must ride those storm winds, or the Dark One
will triumph.