"I’m a Borderlander. And that storm means the end is coming, Renald. We need to be there when it arrives.” He stopped, then turned and looked to the north, watching those building clouds as a farmhand might watch a poisonous snake he found in the middle of the field. “Light preserve us, my friend. We need to be there.”

Mysterious clouds, desperate statements, eye opening revelations and a pervading feeling of darkness and action soon to come mark What the Storm Means.

The story begins with a random farmer and his decision to give up his well settled life and go north to battle the storm. Richly symbolic, the atmosphere of this opening scene is of hopeless determination and a realization that the end is near.

We hear of an army gathering "up north", to which large numbers of common men, women and even children are headed, to be there when the end comes.

Next, we move back to a scene we saw in KoD, Rand sending the sul'dam back to the Seanchan. Seen through the eyes of a sul'dam, we see nothing new here, except that Rand is determined to have peace with the Seanchan, and intends to stop the war at Arad Doman to achieve it. However, it was refreshing to see Rand from the eyes of a total stranger, to see how much fear he inspires, how he seems more a tyrant than a leader.

We move next to another Seanchan PoV, Tylee Khirgan. Again, we see nothing much that is new or surprising, except that Tylee has the same thoughts as Rand... the Seanchan need allies, and the true threat is the Shadow. The PoV has a pretty unexpected ending, with Trollocs attacking the Seanchan, a day's ride from Ebou Dar.

We next move to one of my favorite PoVs from the series. Graenal. Moridin sends an Asha'man to summon Graendal to meet him. I think many will agree that this is significantly important in proving that Moridin is indeed Taim. She steps into a black tower, and I was shocked silly when she recognizes the Blight outside. Mesaana and Demandred appear, surprised at Graendal's presence. Mesaana makes a plea for Semirhage's rescue, but Moridin denies it, stating that she had failed to do as ordered and had had the guts to harm Rand. Mesaana then reports that she is confident that the Aes Sedai will be fighting for the Shadow this time, one way or another. Demandred, the ever mysterious Demandred, says, "My rule is secure. I gather for war. We will be ready."

Like Graendal, I was itching to know more, but of course, no go. Moridin then does the rare feat of complimenting Graendal, and says that if she succeeds, she will be assistant Nae'blis, or something like that. All she has to do is prevent Rand from restoring order in Arad Doman. Oh, and by the by...

"“The end is near,” Moridin said. “The Wheel has groaned its final rotation, the clock has lost its spring, the serpent heaves its final gasps. He must know pain of heart. He must know frustration, and he must know anguish. Bring these to him. And you will be rewarded.”

Chilling. And definitely, this is what the storm means. Psychological destruction for Rand. Clearly, Arad Doman is the battle ground where Rand is going to face his toughest opponent to date, probably the worst till he meets the Dark One.

Incidentally, Moridin's left hand is stiff, mirroring Rand. And its certain that this is why he's so pissed at Semirhage (no matter that some Darkfriend in the group told Mesaana that the fireball was a refle. Clearly, he wants Rand alive till the Last Battle.

We move now to our favorite General Rodel Ituralde. He continues to confound the Seanchan, and its a great pleasure to read. I don't know why the other Great Captains are called Great Captains. None of them seem to be as wily and clever as Rodel.

Finally, we have a mad PoV, very clearly written by Jordan. I was so surprised to get a PoV of Masema that I almost missed the hint that it was Moridn (or some other Forsaken) who was the master of his madness, ordering him to kill Perrin. His madness is pretty well written, but nothing sets the tone for the book better than how the Prologue ends.

Faile gives us the reason why she had to be rescued. In a chilling foreshadowing of the book's tone, Faile ambushes and kills Masema's men before finally driving her knife through his heart in thanks for helping in her rescue. And Perrin mustn't know. Of course. Brrr.

I must say that it was much more difficult to notice where Brandon Sanderson was doing the writing. Odd phrases like medical aid did jar my reading, but Sanderson was almost undetectable in the text, maybe because most of it was RJ's.

With a pretty decent body count for a prologue, Jordan seems to have given us the hint that this story ain't ending clean. As I always expected.

I realize this ended up being more a synopsis than a review, but I couldn't help myself! If this prologue is any sign of how the rest of the series is going to progress, then I can certainly say that Jordan knew where he was going, and it was some place great.