The opening wears its traditional quest influences openly: a rural home, an unsettling stranger, danger arriving from outside. I don't find that familiarity fatal. What gives the journey life is the suspicion running through it. Moiraine may know more than everyone else, but knowing more does not automatically make her trustworthy to the people whose lives she has disrupted.
Rand's attachment to ordinary things grounds the scale. Egwene is more willing to imagine a larger life, while Nynaeve carries her authority and her worry with her like baggage she has no intention of putting down. I especially like the friction between Nynaeve and Moiraine. Both want to protect people; neither accepts the other's right to decide what protection requires.
The road can become repetitive, and the final movement is less clear than I want from a climax. Those are real weaknesses. But the texture of the world—its half-understood history, local prejudices, and fear of power—makes the journey feel inhabited. This is an invitation, not a demonstration of everything the series will eventually become. Judge it as an opening and there is a great deal to enjoy.
— Cory Lane