I'm also on a re-read.

Read books 1 - 6 no problem. But was hesitant about picking up book 7.

So I took a break and read some other stuff for 6 weeks.

I started aCoS this week and it's going well so far (because I haven't had any Elayne chapters yet).

One thing that annoyed me was Perrin's POV at the beginning when we see that Colavere has been named Queen. This is where his very annoying "NOTHING is more important than Faile" theme starts.

I think it was the 13th Depository where I read this. I claim none of this as an original idea. But the series seems to be structured as a series of thematic trilogies. The first three books are about Rand coming to terms with being the Dragon Reborn and accepting his fate. These books are probably more closely linked anyways, since Jordan originally planned the events covered by them to make up the first book of the series. The second trilogy, which ends with LoC, is about the world coming to terms with Rand being the Dragon.  The rest of the series, up to KoD, cannot be so easily grouped. So ACoS is the first book that doesn't have a thematic element connect it to the others in the series.

I agree.

aCoS is where the books open up alot more, bringing in whats happening in the rest of the world in the build up for the Last Battle. The Kin, the Seafolk, the Seanchan, Elayne and Camelyn...

But I'm currently reading aCoS and found the theme that this is where everything kind of goes downhill and gets very complicated for Rand and the Light.

Having been kidnapped by the Aes Sedai he returns to find that nobels are rebelling and things are moving faster than he can manage.

So in my mind, the next few books will be easier (I generally struggle with books 8 - 10 because of Perrin, Elayne and the Seafolk) if I look at it from a world-setting-itself-up-for-the-last-battle and all-the-political intrigues-and-necessary-actions POV instead of a Rand-kicks-ass POV.

Yeah, I'm on a re-re-read and its in The Great Hunt when Verin wants Rand to use the Portal Stone to bring them to Toman Head.

Just before she says that, she said something to Rand about gambling/guessing which symbol to pick - to which he replied somthing like "Mat's the gambler!"

It all struck me as very strange...