The Dragon Reborn
December 20, 2025
Rating 3 of 5
The Dragon Reborn is the Third book in Robert Jordans famous Wheel of Time book series.
My reviews of the series
As these stories are rather long, rather then review the plot I’m just going to refer Wikipedia
The Dragon Reborn is just ok, its more of a glue book then that deep a story on its own.
The fun part of the Dragon Reborn is we spend a lot of time with Perrin and Mat, less time with Rand.
The final battle for the stone of Tear and Rand taking hold of Callandor is just ok. The most exciting part is Egween, Elayne and Nynaeve being trapped in the dungeons below the stone, using the dream world to try to escape and Mat eventually coming to rescue them.
Perrin’s battle for his humanity vs becoming a wolf is explored a bit which is a nice plot point. His desire to give into his bestial instincts gives his character some depth. I found his journey into the dream world to rescue Faile kind of ho-hum. Their romance is too PG.
My feelings are mixed on the introduction of the Faile (Zarine Bashere) are mixed. Her main purpose at times feels as if she was introduced so that Perrin can have a girlfriend. I’m not sure how I feel about it. She’s an ok character but she often lacks depth and feels like she exists more for the Perrin character then herself. This part of the story feels more like your typical Fantasy/Romance novel that is so common.
In this book Siuan Sanche - the Amyrlin Seat gains a lot of depth. I enjoyed her role in the plot. Its fun how she talks about fish all the time. Her humble backstory in Tear matching with the adventures in Tear is good and gives the story a little perspective.
Learning the Forsaken are taking control of the Major cities Illian, Tear, and indirectly by seducing Queen Morganse Camelyn. Is a good story point. Mat sealing his way into the Palace and Camelyn is good for story advancement and an exciting moment.
I do think that the TV series is better written then the Dragon reborn. By combining the third and fourth books the TV authors gave the story better pacing and honestly improved it a bit. The relationship between Lanfear and Rand is better in the TV series and feels more real. The fact that Rand avoids Callandor gives the TV series more depth. Reading this book made me appreciate the screen writing job that was done with what was sadly the final season of the TV series.
All in all The Dragon Reborn is a ok book. It doesn’t quite have the climax of the Dragon reborn. In a lot of a ways its like Eye of The World where its more of a setup plot progression book then something that feels that deep on its own.