This is one of the weaker books in the series. Maybe it should have been divided differently? I'm honestly not sure. I enjoyed parts of the Min/Rand interaction, and I thought the Salidar subplot was alright (too much dreamtime), but the Mat section was just dull until the literal end.
We will never know, but I'm curious what exactly was Robert Jordan thinking when he made this book? Was there a point where he consciously decided to just slow progress? Surely his early readers and editors told him that this was becoming tiresome. Just odd how unhurried this book feels.