Some people have said that this book focuses on developing the characters rather than action, but all Jordan really gives us is trite navel gazing and the endless regurgitation of his limited array of character traits and descriptive phrasings (aparently all Aes Sedai share one collective hive-mind consisting mostly of icy stares and dress-smoothing). Nothing at all happens, you could probably just read the last few pages and get the same effect. I'm probably not going to finish the series after this, I can't blame Jordan for milking the series for a bit of money, but this offering of mostly filler is just plain insulting.