Just Finished Reading The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan

I just finished reading The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan, the third book in his fourteen-volume The Wheel of Time fantasy series.  In it, chief protagonist Rand is convinced he is the legendary "Dragon Reborn" after Moiraine of the Aes Sedai sect tells him so at the conclusion of the previous book.  Now, burdened with this realization, he wants to defeat his evil nemesis Ba'alzamon once and for all by claiming the sword Callandor in the Stone of Tear (yes, this all sounds like a humorous caricature of the fantasy genre, doesn't it) .  So he leaves his company of friends and allies to venture out on his own, rationalizing to himself that the evil forces are pursuing him and that separating himself from the others will make them safer (which only turns out to be partially true).  Instead, three different groups of "good guys" (1) Mat and Thom , (2) Perrin, Moiraine, Lan, and a new character Zarine, and (3) Egwene, Nunaeve, and Elayne, all go on to the same destination as Rand: the dreary city of Tear.  It is their adventures along the way that dominate the narrative in The Dragon Reborn; very little space is actually devoted to Rand.  So as a result, Jordan is able to develop other characters more fully...especially those of Mat and Perrin.  There is also an ominous trend revealed toward the end: the thirteen "Forsaken", who were the agents of the Dark One and had been imprisoned for centuries, are now showing up free and powerful all over the map...although in other guises. 

I enjoyed The Dragon Reborn more than the first two books in this series.  I expect more character development in the next book as well as the introduction of new characters.  This series is beginning to resemble more George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, with more and more sub-narratives simultaneously going on among disparate peoples.  I'm fine with all that, as long as it all comes back together at the end...