She's not a character I've ever warmed to, mostly because of her female chauvinism, arrogance and lack of self-awareness. That said, I have few, if any, complaints about the role her character has played in the plot; it's more about her personality along the way. She could have been made more sympathetic with some pretty minor tweaks in the writing.

For example, in TDR, she starts being a bitch to Nynaeve. The two of them have been close for years, Nynaeve saved her from the Seanchan and pretty much hasn't put a foot wrong since, and then out of the blue Egwene starts thinking she has just as much right to be in charge and becomes pretty unpleasant about it. Making that transition smoother through conversation or internal reflection would have made it more believable and sympathetic; as it is, she just seems like an ungrateful, spoilt brat. Yet the story needs her to start growing in assertiveness and taking on leadership roles.

Likewise in TOM, with the Bloodknives debacle. Some internal pondering along the lines of "Am I right, am I wrong, there might be real consequences for the people in my care if I've reasoned wrong" would have softened what came across as pigheaded arrogance and blind stupidity. Yet the story needs her to be making decisions and having an impact in the Tower.

So while she's one of my least favourite characters in WOT, I'm sure Jordan didn't mean her to be so unpopular and it wouldn't have taken much to make her far less so. Unfortunately, Sanderson has just made the situation worse as far as I'm concerned, though this isn't the place to get into that.

Reading Death and the Dancing Footman, by Ngaio Marsh - 1940s country house murder mystery. Like a few other mysteries in the pile, it'll tide me over till the next lot of science-fiction and fantasy arrives (Jack McDevitt and Anne Lyle).

Some interesting books mentioned here.

Thanks for your responses. I guess I was just wondering if it was supposed to turn into something larger than it has so far.

In one of the later books (can't recall which one, sorry), some of the Asha'man at the Black Tower are talking amongst themselves about their discomfort at how boys from the Two Rivers are being treated. Has anything come to light about what this means or what the implications might be?

A few questions on completely unrelated topics:

1) Is there anything that mandates Logain's future glory being in service of the Light?

2) When Moridin went into the land of the Finns, was retrieving Lanfear his main aim or just a bonus? I was wondering whether investigating Moiraine's condition and trying to close off access to her in Finnland by destroying the remaining doorway was part of his aim. He seems to have the monopoly on access to Dark prophecy and might have had some hint that her time there is important.

3) The Sea Folk Aes Sedai are all librarians with access to White Tower secrets, which can hardly be a coincidence, but why did they pick that role? They aren't Black Ajah and they don't seem to be leaking information to their own people (or to be in contact with them at all).

Does anyone know if Robert Jordan's drafts and notes for The Wheel of Time will be published, like Christopher Tolkien has done over the years for all his father's writings? I found it really interesting to read the unfinished material and see the difference between the drafts and what was eventually published for the Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion, and I'd definitely be interested in a similar approach for TWoT.

First post! Hurrah!