The author of the text is excited to report that N1QL, a new dialect of SQL, has been developed in Couchbase Server 4 to tackle the challenges posed by big data. Big data has velocity, variety, and volume, but SQL can only handle two of these "v"s - velocity and volume. However, N1QL can also handle variety by allowing it to easily traverse complex structures in JSON documents. This allows for powerful extensions such as querying over arrays embedded within JSON documents, using operators like ANY/EVERY, and commands like UNNEST & NEST that can flatten or unflatten nested arrays. One of the key advantages of N1QL is its ability to understand array types, which makes aggregation functions like MAX() more powerful. The author uses TSQL (the SQL dialect used by Microsoft) as an example to demonstrate how N1QL can outperform it in terms of performance and simplicity. Specifically, N1QL allows for a single FETCH operation that can perform the MAX() function without needing multiple FETCH operations, resulting in significant performance gains.