The Shadow Rising

What's inside (8 sections)

1. After Callandor and the split
2. Rhuidean and the glass columns
3. Home to the Two Rivers
4. Tanchico and the Panarch
5. The White Tower breaks
6. The end and where it sags
7. Key takeaways
8. FAQ

I came to this book right after the Stone of Tear fell and I needed to know what a Dragon does the morning after. The first three books kept Rand, Perrin, Mat, Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne mostly on the same road. This one splits them wide. If you are new here, start with this picture. Rand alThor just pulled Callandor, the crystal sword in the Stone, and proved he is the Dragon Reborn. The edition I used was the Tor Books hardback, about 704 pages, first published in 1992, fourth in The Wheel of Time after The Dragon Reborn. Prophecy says he will break nations and save the world and maybe go mad doing it. His friends believe him and fear him at once. That split shapes every chapter.

The shape helps if you track four threads. Rand and Egwene go with the Aiel into the Waste toward Rhuidean. Perrin goes home to the Two Rivers with Faile, Loial, and Gaul. Elayne and Nynaeve sail to Tanchico with Thom and Juilin to hunt the Black Ajah. Min, Siuan, Leane, and Gawyn hold Tar Valon until the Tower breaks. They stay apart for most of the book and only touch at the end through dreams and news. I kept a scrap of paper with names while I read. It helped.

After Callandor and the split

The Stone still smells of smoke when we start. Tairen High Lords kneel to Rand because they must, not because they trust him. Aes Sedai test him. Common folk stare. Moiraine tries to guide him without leashing him, and Lan watches her back. Perrin wants to go home because Trollocs burn farms there. Mat wants dice and quiet and cannot get either. Egwene studies dreams with the Wise Ones through Telaranrhiod, the World of Dreams, and learns how thin sleep is.

Rand hates being handled. He lived as a shepherd in Emonds Field two years back. Now men call him Lord Dragon and flinch when he channels saidin, the male half of the Power that drives men toward madness because the Dark One poisoned it. He decides to move before Tear politics swallow him. The Aiel invite him to Rhuidean, their forbidden city in the Waste, where chiefs and Wise Ones are tested. He accepts because prophecy points there and because staying still feels worse.

Moiraine warns him about the Forsaken still loose, especially Lanfear and Asmodean and Rahvin working through courts and whispers. She cannot tell him plain orders anymore. He outranks her in power if not in knowledge. Their talks are tense and polite. I liked those scenes. Two stubborn people trying to use each other for the good, both afraid of the cost.

Mat follows Rand for mixed reasons. A twisted redstone doorway in Tear gave him answers before, at the price of memories that are not his. He speaks battle talk from dead ages and hates it. He also hangs a foxhead medal around his neck that blocks channeling aimed at him. He does not want glory. He wants coin and a soft bed. The Pattern keeps pushing him toward danger anyway.

Egwene goes because the Wise Ones call and because she wants to learn dreaming without Tower rules. Aviendha, an Aiel Maiden of the Spear, goes with sharp words and sharper guilt. She likes Rand and hates liking him. Their friction starts here and runs for books. I found it fresh at first, then wearing in spots, which I will get to later.

The march out of the Stone feels like a caravan and a funeral. Banners, mules, Aiel in cadinsor moving like dust. Perrin turns west instead of east. Elayne and Nynaeve board a ship south. Siuan stays in the Tower and sends letters she cannot protect. The party that survived Fal Dara and Falme and Tear is now four parties. Jordan tracks them by place, not by time, so days overlap. Once I accepted that, the size felt less scary.

Rhuidean and the glass columns

The Waste is dry, bright, and hard. Small holds, fierce honor, water as wealth. The Aiel took Rand in because prophecy says the Stone that never falls did fall, and now he must prove more. Rhuarc and other clan chiefs watch him. Wise Ones like Melaine and Bair and Amys test Egwene and Aviendha. Couladin of the Shaido hates Rand on sight and wants the honors for himself.

Rhuidean itself is empty and huge, full of pale spires and broad avenues no one uses. In its heart stand rings of glass columns and metal rings that test those who enter. Chiefs walk among the columns. Women who would be Wise Ones walk among the rings. Many do not return, or return marked in ways that change them.

Rand enters the columns, and those chapters are the best in the book. Each step shows him the past through the eyes of his ancestors, back and back. He sees the Aiel before they were Aiel, when they served Aes Sedai in the Age of Legends and swore never to use violence, carrying wagons as Daishain Aiel. He sees the Breaking of the World, when male channelers gone mad tore mountains and seas. He sees Jenn Aiel wall themselves off with carts and seeds while other groups pick up spears to protect them. He sees the split grow, the loss of the Way of the Leaf, the slow walk to the Waste, the first blood over water. Names repeat with small changes. Faces age. Carts break. Children die. Oaths hold and then fail.

The writing stays plain and lets the images pile. A green field turned to dust. A sister killed over a bucket. A spear taken up with shaking hands. I did not skim these pages the way I skimmed some court talk. They explain why the Aiel veil, why they hate swords, why they guard Rhuidean with silence. They also show that history the Aiel tell themselves left out the soft start.

When Rand walks out he carries dragon marks on both forearms, red and gold beasts coiling around the skin. Prophecy said the Dragon would be marked. Now no one can argue the sign. Couladin claims he also went through and shows marks gained by a different path, which splits the clans and lights a feud. Muradin, Couladin brother, died inside. That loss feeds Shaido rage.

Mat goes through the twisted doorway in Rhuidean too, a second door like the one in Tear, and asks to be free of the Power and memories and his own luck. He gets answers in the Old Tongue from snakelike folk. He leaves hung by the neck until Rand cuts him down, his neck scarred, his head full of other men wars, his pockets full of dice that still roll wrong. He also gains a black spear with ravens etched on it. I laughed when he woke complaining, then felt sick at the rope burns. Jordan mixes low humor and harm well here.

Egwene and Aviendha learn from the Wise Ones and enter Telaranrhiod to study. Egwene meets Nynaeve there and trades news. Aviendha is told she will be a Wise One and hates the news because she loves the spear. Their lessons show Aiel law, punishment, marriage ties, roof custom. Some of it slows the pace, but the core lands. Power has rules here that the White Tower never taught.

The finale in the Waste comes when Trollocs and Draghkar and Darkfriends strike Rhuidean through fog and treachery, and Asmodean, who posed as a gleeman named Jasin Natael to spy on Rand, reveals himself. Rand fights him with saidin and balefire and cuts him off from the Dark One, a shielding that stuns both sides. The clans see Rand marked and bloody and alive. Most kneel. The Shaido do not. War waits, but the test is passed.

Home to the Two Rivers

Perrin thread broke my heart in the best way. He rides west with Faile, Loial the Ogier, Gaul the Aiel, and later Tam and Abell, because Trollocs raid the Two Rivers and Whitecloaks bully villages. He does not want to be a lord. He keeps saying he is a blacksmith. People keep asking him to lead anyway.

Emonds Field is changed. The inn is crowded with refugees. Watch Hill and Deven Ride argue. The Congars and Coplins blame Perrin for trouble. Cenn Buie shouts. Tam, Perrin father in all but blood, stands steady. Abell Cauthon organizes bows. Faile pushes Perrin to act instead of brood. Loial writes notes and swings an axe when he must. Aram, a Tinker boy who took up the sword after Trollocs killed his family, follows Perrin with bright eyes that worry me.

Perrin learns to plan like a soldier he never wanted to be. He sets scouts, digs pits, builds a wall around the village, trains boys and old men with bows, forges his own hammer instead of an axe because he fears what anger makes him do with a blade. The wolf dream pulls him nightly. Hopper is dead yet runs there. Wolves call him Young Bull and show him Trolloc camps. He resists, then uses them, then hates using them. That push and pull is written with care. He smells fear, hears heartbeats, fights the urge to growl.

Faile and Perrin marry in their fashion before the worst fighting, with Bain and Chiad standing witness and teasing. Their quarrels continue, and I admit I tired of some jealous scenes. Faile thinks Perrin cold. Perrin thinks Faile reckless. Berelain, a Cairhien lady chasing Rand favor, smiles at Perrin and makes it worse. Still, when Faile rides for Watch Hill to fetch help and is caught, Perrin focus sharpens. Love here is not speeches. It is Perrin hammering late and Faile refusing to leave a sinking village.

The Whitecloaks under Dain Bornhald camp near and demand Perrin for trial over deaths at Falme. Ordeith, who whispers to Bornhald, is really Padan Fain, the peddler turned by the Shadow into something worse than Trolloc or man. He smells wrong to wolves and smiles too much. Bornhald arrests Perrin and Egwene once held, and only Trolloc attack saves them from a hanging. Later Perrin bargains, fights beside Whitecloaks against a common foe, then watches them leave without thanks. The Children mean well in their own story and do harm in everyone else. Jordan keeps them human enough to hate and pity.

The big battle at Emonds Field earns its pages. Trollocs come in waves with Myrddraal urging them. Bows from rooftops. Pitch on the green. Loial huge in the line. Tam calm. Faile riding back with Watch Hill men at the right minute. Perrin with hammer, yellow eyes in lamplight, shouting to hold. When the last Trolloc falls, the village calls him Lord Perrin whether he likes it or not. He accepts the burden to protect, not to rule. I closed that section proud and tired, as if I had stood watch too.

Tanchico and the Panarch

Elayne and Nynaeve sail south with Thom Merrilin and Juilin Sandar, the thief catcher with his bamboo staff and strict rules about contracts. Their orders from the Tower are secret. Find Liandrin and the other Black Ajah sisters who fled with stolen seals and tools, including a twisted bracelet and collar that can bind a channeler. Stop them before they hand power to the Shadow.

Tanchico is hot, pale walled, full of veils and tea and thieves. The Panarch Amathera sits in the palace, young and unsure, while her court plays the Game of Houses with smiles. Egeanin, a Seanchan officer stranded far from home, walks the streets with Bayle Domon, the smuggler turned honest in his rough way. Their plot crosses the girls without joining it yet. I liked Egeanin honesty about duty even when her cause sickens her. Domon jokes hide good sense.

Elayne plays a lady in silks to get into parties and listen. Nynaeve plays a Wisdom with her braid tugged tight, still blocked from channeling unless angry, still fierce when she gets there. Thom sings and steals letters. Juilin picks locks and shadows marks. They track Black sisters to a house with guards and dogs, find proof of compulsion weaves on the Panarch court, free Amathera in a messy night raid, and face Moghedien, one of the Forsaken, who slips among them as a servant and nearly kills them with a weave none of them know.

Nynaeve fights Moghedien in the Panarch palace with nothing but anger and need, matching her for a breath because rage opens her block. Elayne frees Egeanin from the bracelet that would make her damane in all but name, and gains a friend where she expected a foe. Thom is hurt. Juilin is hurt. Amathera abdicates in shame and fear after being used. The Black sisters scatter, not all caught, which feels true to a hunt. The girls do not win clean. They survive and learn.

These chapters run long on dresses and customs. Veils, tea pours, bows. Some readers will skim. I skimmed a little, then was glad I stayed for the palace fight. The stakes are clear even when the pace sags. A city of thousands can be bent by a few women who know how to twist minds. Stopping even part of it matters.

One note for newcomers. The Black Ajah are Aes Sedai who secretly serve the Dark One while wearing the Tower ring. Liandrin led thirteen out. Their names blur, Joiya, Amico, Chesmal, Temaile. You do not need to memorize all thirteen. Remember the theft, the seals that can lock the Dark One prison, and that Moghedien watches. That is enough to follow the fear.

The White Tower breaks

While the young fight far away, Tar Valon cracks. Siuan Sanche, the Amyrlin Seat, works in secret with Moiraine letters and keeps Rand moves hidden from the Hall. She heals Mat past death, sends girls on hidden errands, dreams of uniting lands. She trusts few. Leane, her Keeper, guards her door and her temper. Min, who sees images around people that come true, reads soldiers and servants and tries to warn Siuan that a storm comes from inside.

Elaida arrives from Andor with pride and rules and gathers allies who fear a man who channels. She charges Siuan with hiding the Dragon and breaking Tower law. The Hall votes. The vote is close and hard. Gawyn, who loves Egwene and hates Rand, leads his practice swords against Warders in a bloody hall fight he does not understand. Galad stands apart with Whitecloak talk. Leane is stilled, cut off from the Power in a way worse than death for most sisters. Siuan is stilled too and thrown in a cell with bloody face and unbroken will.

Min frees Siuan and Leane with help from a thief taker friend and Gawyn guilt, and they flee through the river gate while hounds bark. Logain, the false Dragon gentled and caged, laughs in his cell as the Tower burns its own heart. The scene where Siuan, once the most feared woman in the city, scrubs pots in a farmhouse and learns to live without the Power is one of the most human in the book. She grieves, rages, then plans again with what is left.

This break matters for the whole series. The Tower that claimed to guide the world now has two heads forming, Elaida in Tar Valon and rebels gathering elsewhere. Egwene is far away and does not know she will be pulled into that split. Rand cannot count on Aes Sedai help as one voice. Perrin cannot send for aid. The girls in Tanchico lose their orders and must judge alone. I felt the ground shift here more than in any battle. Armies can regroup. Trust, once stilled, heals slow.

Gawyn choice stains him for me. He acted from love and pride and did harm he did not weigh. Min choice lifts her. She risks herself for friends without channeling or swords, using sight and nerve. Leane holds humor in a cell where most would break. Those small acts balance the Hall politics that can drag with names and votes.

The end and where it sags

All threads tighten without meeting. Rand, marked and proven, claims the Aiel and turns his eyes to Cairhien and Andor where Rahvin and others pull strings. Perrin, now lord in fact if not in taste, stays to rebuild and guard the Two Rivers with Faile at his side. Elayne and Nynaeve sail on with proof of Moghedien alive and the seals still loose. Siuan, Min, Leane, and Logain ride toward exile and a new camp. Egwene walks between Wise Ones and dreams, closer to power that will find her soon. Moiraine watches Rand with pride and fear, knowing Asmodean shielded is still a snake caged, not dead.

The last fights satisfy. Perrin hammer work, Nynaeve raw defiance, Rand cold fire against a Forsaken. No single duel ends the war. Each win costs. That feels right for book four of a long tale. The Wheel turns, no one gets clean rest.

Fair criticism is owed, because size brings drag.

First, the book is bloated in the middle. Tanchico customs, Tower votes, and Two Rivers meetings repeat points. I counted too many scenes where someone explains veils or votes or bows again for newcomers. Helpful once, heavy the third time. Jordan loves process, how a camp is set, how tea is poured, how a vote is called. I love that care in small doses. Here it stalls motion for fifty pages at a stretch.

Second, the braid subplots stall. Nynaeve tugs her braid and snaps at Elayne, Elayne sniffs and lectures Nynaeve, Faile glares at Berelain, Aviendha glares at Egwene about Rand. The pattern repeats until the women feel written from one template. Each has skill and spine in action, then falls into the same quarrel at rest. Readers who dislike gender friction written as comedy will tire fast. Some barbs charmed me. Many did not, and they date the book more than the battles or clothes.

Third, Rand learns fast while others circle. He gains marks, an army, and a shielded Forsaken to teach him, while Perrin relearns leadership he already earned and the Tower repeats debates from book three. That gap is by design, since he is the Dragon, but it makes Perrin and Tower chapters feel slow beside Rhuidean light. Mat almost escapes this by winning humor from pain, yet even he spends chapters traveling to reach the place where his luck matters.

Still, the highs are very high. The glass columns history, the dragon marks reveal, the Emonds Field defense, Moghedien sudden strike, Siuan fall and flight. Those scenes justify the weight. I finished the last page and wanted book five at once, not because every page sang but because the split parties now stand where they must. Rand has a people. Perrin has a home worth holding. The girls have a hunt worth finishing. The Tower has a wound worth healing. I will follow to see who pays for each.

FAQ

Is The Shadow Rising the fourth Wheel of Time book?

Yes, it is fourth in The Wheel of Time after The Dragon Reborn. It was published in 1992 by Tor Books and follows Rand from Callandor to Rhuidean.

What are the dragon marks Rand gains?

After walking the glass columns in Rhuidean he bears red and gold dragons coiling around both forearms. The marks match prophecy and force the Aiel to accept him.

Why is Siuan deposed?

Elaida leads the Hall to depose Siuan Sanche for hiding the Dragon. Siuan and Leane are stilled and flee with Min toward exile while the Tower splits.