I miss the wolves, but other than that, this was by far better than the first book in the series. Maybe I'm boosting it unnecessarily because I recently read Mistborn, but the women in this book slayed. More importantly, there was ACTION! There was INTRIGUE! At least in the last 200 pages, I actually felt pulled in. Sadly, Rand is still on his "I don't want to do anything" shtick, but I have hope that will change in the next one. On further reflection, it seems pretty obvious that the biggest change is that they actually had a quest in this one, instead of just wandering around the world like lost little sheep. All hail the Horn of Valere!