In this book, Rand al'Thor, now hailed as the Dragon Reborn, decides to attack Illian. Rand does not know that he is being lured into a trap by the nine remaining forsaken. One of them, Sammael by name, is the ruler of Illian. Meanwhile, in the White tower, the new Amyrlin, the head honcho of the Aes Sedai, is concocting weird new plans for Rand. Nothing comes of it in this book, but I'll bet money something will happen later because of those plans. Siaun Sanche, the deposed and stilled Amyrlin, is arrested in Andor for barn burning. Literally.

Rand is just getting ready to attack Illian and wipe it from the face of the earth, when he receives word that Queen Morgase, his girlfriend Elaine's mother, has been killed in Caemlyn. Several seconds later, Moraine, one of his teachers, dies in a kamikaze mission as she kills one of the forsaken that showed up to harass Rand. Rand becomes very angry because Caemlyn, the capitol city in Andor, is being controlled by the foresaken. This will be a major hindrance as his girlfriend, Elayne, is going to be Queen an

Anyway, Rand follows Rahvin into tel'aran'rhiod and kills him with balefire. Balefire basically erases people from before now. The stronger the balefire, the farther back the events that person caused are erased.

We see Elayne a lot more in this book. Sure, she's a spoiled brat. And, she's also energetic and adventurous. She has been growing on me, and she holds my attention in the scenes around Birgitte's reappearance in this world, and in particular by her dealings with Thom and Juilin. Those guys will follow her anywhere, and that's a good start to becoming Queen of Andor.

The main conflict in this story is man VS. man. Man VS. self also comes into play as Rand starts to go mad. Man VS. man is obvious when Rand attacks Caemlyn and his thousands of Aiel fight the army of Rahvin in Caemlyn. There are about 500 Aiel, who have their way with the 10,000 "kings guards" in Caemlyn, at little loss for themselves. There are only about 1,000 prisoners of the kings guard. Rand holds his sanity remarkably well, except for the voice of Lews Therin, which pops into his head. Lews Therin was the previous Dragon Reborn, and is a completely different volume of books for a different day.

The Fires of Heaven is an amazing story. I've just read it for the umpteenth time, and I found it as engaging as ever before. The main character, Rand, shows an incredible growth in strength in response to the position he finds himself in. He seems to understand full well how everybody else has ulterior motives or hidden agendas where he is concerned. He alone seems to have a good view of the struggle, and he steels himself to do, or cause to be done, that which will give the best chance of success. If he seems arrogant or "full of himself," - well that's sometimes what it takes to be a leader. Yet having to be that way is hurtful to him. He is after all, just 20 years old, and most of the world wants to use him or to kill him. That's a lo

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1304
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)