content: I acutally spoke to Robert Jordan at a book signing at the time this book came out. At that point I asked him:"how many books there were going to be in the series?" 7 to 9 he says, not quite sure yet."about the plot - do you have it worked out?" Making it up as I go.My heart sank when I got these answers and it probably explains why the series has got so bad from this point onwards. I stopped reading this series when I heard these answers, because I knew it wasn't going to end up well plotted out and was just drifting on and on.This may explain a few mysteries as to why this series has declined in quality so badly. He's got 2 stars because the books were still readable at this time - but there was/is no end in sight still.