The Dragon Reborn is a key turning point in The Wheel of Time. After two books of disbelief and doubt, Rand al’Thor is finally ready to grasp (literally) his title and his future.

In book three, Robert Jordan continues to open his world up to readers, with characters traipsing across the map, from the Mountains of Mist and Tar Valon to Tear. And, of course, there’s the unusual landscape of Tel’aran’rhoid. As the characters all embrace their becoming, within the pull of ta’veren, the danger rises.

Like The Eye of the World and The Great Hunt, I re-encountered this book via audiobook absorbed at a leisurely pace during runs, at least two decades after I first read it. For a natural speed-reader, the slow pace of the narrative falling in sync with my footfalls brought a new vitality and life to this epic tale.

Jordan, Robert. The Dragon Reborn. TOR, 1991. The Wheel of Time 3.