I've just finished reading tGS and overall I thought it was great. I'll need to re-read it a time or two before I can write any kind of comprehensive review, but two things that I do want to write about now are the portrayal of Egwene and Semirhage.

When Semirhage was captured at the end of KoD, I was convinced that Rand would be an idiot and she would end up escaping due to his softheartedness and the Aes Sedai's incompetance. I was pleased to see this didn't happen. She was guarded well - though not stilled, which she should have been - and only escaped thanks to Shaidar Haran. But I found myself disappointed in her - this legendary figure, the Mistress of Pain, did nothing with her captivity except spout ridiculous threats. Where was the divide-and-conquer? Where was her subtle, clever plan to escape? I know that whole spanking scene with Cadsuane had been about showing her to be 'only human'. But I was still disappointed. I would have expected more from the newest-raised Aes Sedai.

And at the other end of the spectrum was Egwene. A lot of the book was devoted to her undermining of Elaida, and it was a tense, gripping plot from beginning to end. Throughout it all, Egwene bore near-intolerable pain, indignity and fear. She plotted and planned and played politics with a masterful skill far beyond her years. When the Seanchan attacked, Egwene fought them off with nothing more than a circle of novices and a sa'angreal. Oh, and in a spare moment, she destroyed the Black Ajah that had infested the Tower for over a thousand years.

In every page that was written about her, she was faultlessly noble and completely self-sacrificing. Her sections of the book were a thumping good read. But tGS has finished the job begun in CoT of making Egwene into a character who is simply too good to be true. She is wise, clever, never makes mistakes, and seems to utterly lack flaws. Beside Egwene, other characters start to become insignificant and washed-out. Elaida went from being a stubborn, blind megalomanic that you could still, somewhat, relate to and sympathise with, to simply violently insane. Two books of careful, nerve-shredding detective work by the BA hunters was made irrelevant in an instant.

In short, for all that I liked her sections of the book, she has become a Sue of the highest order, and I really hope Sanderson tones her down a bit in the next two books.