Is The Shadow Rising the best Wheel of Time book? A newbie and veteran break it down

Two guys named Dan, one of whom is reading The Wheel of Time books for the first time and the other who has read the whole series, discuss the highs and lows of The Shadow Rising:

A group of Aiel with Rand (Josha Stradowski), Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) and Lan (Daniel Henney), which includes Bair (Nukâka Coster-Waldau) and Rhuarc (Björn Landberg). Image: Prime Video.
A group of Aiel with Rand (Josha Stradowski), Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) and Lan (Daniel Henney), which includes Bair (Nukâka Coster-Waldau) and Rhuarc (Björn Landberg). Image: Prime Video.

The Wheel of Time is one of the most famous epic fantasy series in all of literature. Author Robert Jordan put out the first book, The Eye of the World, in 1990. Ten books and one prequel novel later, he released Knife of Dreams, the last book he would write in the series, in 2005. Jordan died before he could finish the books, but author Brandon Sanderson picked up where he left off and completed the saga.

Fantasy nerds have loved The Wheel of Time for years, but now it's getting a bigger audience thanks to Prime Video's The Wheel of Time TV show, which is about to air its third season. Season 3 will mainly adapt The Shadow Rising, the fourth book in the franchise and usually near or at the head of the pack when fans start ranking the novels. Does the book hold up?

That's the question we set out to answer in a new episode of Take the Black, our weekly chat show about all things sci-fi, fantasy, movies, books and TV. I, Dan Selcke, am reading The Wheel of Time books for the first time. Co-host Daniel Roman has read the entire series. What do we think of The Shaodw Rising? What are the high points? The low points? Has anything aged weird? What are we looking forward to seeing adapted on TV? What are we dreading? And is this indeed the best book from The Wheel of Time series?

We dig into all that and more in the new episode. Watch it below!

We prerecorded this episode of Take the Black because our producer is busy covering the Super Bowl, which I guess is at least as important as The Wheel of Time, but usually we stream our chats live every Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. CST on the WinterIsComing YouTube and Facebook pages. Join the discussion!

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.