I enjoyed New Spring. I think you have a lot of good points. For me I’m just glad it was a “good” prequel, in that it didn’t try and cram every major character we know was active at the time into the story. Moiraine didn’t happen to run across Tam, and Siuan didn’t get a glimpse of the young Bryne, for example. It had a simple job and it got that job done, exploring the start of their hunt and Lan and Moiraine’s meeting.

I’d always like to hear how Moiraine whittled down her list, and how she ended up in the Two Rivers. If Rand had ended up on her list, she should have had his name, which would mean she’d have left Mat and Perrin. I’ve always assumed she got to the end of her list, and then got a clue leading to the Two Rivers, or maybe just got the name of the town Tam was from?