In one word, DISAPPOINTING. RJ has stretched the plot so thin, eight (!) different sub-plots going on in parallel, that after you've gone through the 680 pages you realize nothing much has happened! There was more action packed into one chapter in the first few books than the whole of this one. I can't help suspecting that RJ is stretching (milking?) The Wheel of Time on and on so he can get to book Twenty and we will still all be waiting for Taimon Gideon.....