Genre: Epic Fantasy
Hardcover: 864 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication Date: November 2, 2010
ISBN-10: 0765325942
ISBN-13: 978-0765325945
Author Website: Robert Jordan; Brandon Sanderson
Some minor plot spoilers!
Show me a fantasy reader who hasn’t heard of The Wheel of Time, and I’ll show you a liar. The series, and its latest novel, Towers of Midnight, needs little introduction. Book 13 of the bestselling series, the work is Brandon Sanderson’s second book based on the notes of originating author Robert Jordan. It is also the second to last novel in the entire epic, full of the conclusions of subplots, the bringing together of characters separated by time, space, and several books, and the reintroduction of the minions of the Dark One.
Where The Gathering Storm followed Rand al’Thor, and Egwene al’Vere as its chief protagonists, with some deviations into Perrin Aybara and Mat Cauthon, Towers of Midnight focuses on Mat and Perrin’s tales; with a heavy dollop of Egwene and a smattering of Rand. In truth the book is mostly Perrin’s. However, each of the three character’s tales is a conclusion to some smaller villain/hero subplots woven into the grand scope of the epic.
Mat, hiding in Caemlyn from Verin’s letter and trying to discover how to enter the Tower of Ghenjei, finally confronts the gholam which had haunted him for so long. Perrin faces Slayer in the wolf dream and the consequences of his own murder of two Children of the Light. And Egwene, the Amyrlin Seat, must find Messana the Forsaken hiding somewhere among the sisters of the White Tower. Each confrontation is highly significant and written so that the tension is built carefully and slowly, so each climax is mostly fulfilling. A significant number of subplots and character arcs are either resolved or very nearly so, including various romances, political maneuverings and even some long held fan suspicions about Tel’aran’rhiod. Though some of the subplot conclusions lack emotional punch, others are chock full of it, so the book is uneven dramatically, but satisfying overall.
Rand, meanwhile, has stopped trying to be steel and has learned to love and laugh again. Readers of “Apples First” will have seen a hint of this, which blossoms as the story progresses. Rodel Ituralde reappears, and several key chapters highlight his battle against the Trollocs and Mydraaal – highlighting just how close the Last Battle is and providing significant action to a novel that is primarily concerned with troop movements and characters being placed properly for Tarmon Gai’don. Lan also has a significant presence in these pages, but sadly Sanderson doesn’t quite capture him in speech as well as he does in thought and deed.
Though Towers of Midnight is fairly well-written and certainly entertaining, I did not find it fit either descriptor as well The Gathering Storm. It is obvious that Sanderson is working with more notes and fewer written scenes from what Jordan left him. Sanderson inserts more of his own writing style into the narrative (such as his occasional tendency to end sentences with a preposition, and his overuse of “to be” verbs). Mat Cauthon still lacks the cleverness and wit Jordan originally endowed him with, coming across as a whiny schoolboy, not a leader of men and a ta’veren. So Sanderson still fails to grasp Jordan’s Mat. Lan is a mixed bag as mentioned before, though Sanderson certainly ramps up the action and speed of this novel, as compared to the slow rising action approach Jordan adopted.
There is also a significant issue with a character’s placement in the timeline. Tam al’Thor seems to be in two places without explanation. In one scene he is with Perrin Aybara as part of the Two Rivers contingent of Perrin’s army in Ghealdan. In another chapter just a hundred pages later, Rand falls at his feet in Tear. There is no adequate explanation in the text for Tam being in these two places, though it is possible that I have forgotten something from the previous book, or that the reader is to assume a gateway was used.
But the greatest flaw of the book falls on the shoulders of more than just the author. This novel, one of the most anticipated and talked about of the year, is riddled with grammatical errors. And not just one or two, but one approximately every twenty pages of a 850+ page book. Misplaced punctuation, sentence fragments, missing and repeated words are common. It’s like taking a Van Gogh masterwork and shooting holes in it. Perhaps I’m being too much of a stickler, but in a book that is going to be analyzed and talked about as much as this one, I would have thought the editing would have been of higher quality.
However, these are mostly nitpicky issues, ones that better minds than mine are going to think about, analyze, rehash and write about at length. The truth is, I liked Towers of Midnight. I didn’t like it as much as The Gathering Storm, but I was pleased with the resolution to some subplots, the fact that the nonhuman races of the world get more page space, and that so many characters had significant turning points that shifted them from selfish, unthinking, near anti-heroes into noble, selfless, thoughtful leaders. There are some truly moving scenes and a more complex interweaving of plotline than in The Gathering Storm. It is also darker in tone than The Gathering Storm, due mostly to the fact that The Last Battle is drawing ever closer, and I’m still wondering just how this whole thing will be resolved.
Ultimately, Towers of Midnight is a significant departure from The Gathering Storm in terms of narrative style that moves with more alacrity than its predecessor, yet that has fewer reveals and poignant scenes. It is not going to be considered the best book of the series, but neither is it the worst. At the very least, the reader will feel a real sense of closure to some longstanding elements, with enough left over that A Memory of Light still has lots of material to cover.
Related posts:
- Book Review: The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
- Book Trailer: Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
- Interview: Brandon Sanderson on Towers of Midnight
- Book Review: Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan
- Giveaway: 3 sets of Eye of the World by Robert Jordan and Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
[...] Grasping for the Wind Ultimately, Towers of Midnight is a significant departure from The Gathering Storm in terms of narrative style that moves with more alacrity than its predecessor, yet that has fewer reveals and poignant scenes. It is not going to be considered the best book of the series, but neither is it the worst. At the very least, the reader will feel a real sense of closure to some longstanding elements, with enough left over that A Memory of Light still has lots of material to cover. [...]
I have to agree about Matt. He isn’t written very well in this book, but I think as the story moves along he does do a better job with him. I think he injects some of his personal moral’s into him and it just doesn’t quite fit. The constant comparison of other women to his wife and excusing himself when he looks by wanting to pair them up with an associate instead of his normal ogling of them doesn’t sit well with me.
I realize he doesn’t get the speech patterns right for several characters, but on the same token, who would do it as well as Jordan could have. I have to give Brandon a pass on that, and just read the book and enjoy it without being overly critical. “At least he doesn’t include all the descriptors of twitchy women adjusting their dress’s every other sentence like Jordan wound up doing in later books; he drove me nuts over that”.
All in all I have to give Brandon credit. Its a good book, and he’s doing the best that he can with the crap sandwich he was given. I’m still angry at Jordan for not finishing the series, books like Winters Heart was a waste with a few small exceptions “the cleansing sadin part”. He also wrote the prequels and wasted what life he had on not finishing his could be masterpiece. Again, good job Brandon! You don’t really mess around in the books, and you can’t.
Guys, Brandon has said that the Mat sections were mainly written by RJ and the Perrin sections were mostly his writing.
I felt that Mat’s sections suited him perfectly. He is now a conflicted, married, womanizer. On one hand he is attracted to Tuon, but on the other he’s finding it hard to give up his womanizing ways. His POV’s were my favorite in the book.
Amen to how Brandon included less descriptors about twitchy women adjusting their dresses. I actually quit reading Crossroads halfway through because of this kind of stuff.
All in all, ToM was a good read but didn’t blow me away like tGS.
I completely disagree with the critic’s assessment of Mat. I thought he was MUCH more whiny in Jordan’s books than Sanderson’s. I find Mat to be much more humorous in the more recent books. Sometimes I thought Jordan’s writing style was a little too sober while Sanderson is a little more whimsical. The dialogue between Mat, Talmanes, and Thom are very enjoyable indeed.
Hey there! I hope you don’t mind, but I linked to your review on my weekly New Release Tuesday post.
Nice work here!
Hope you’ll stop by and check The Book Frog out.
Beckyu
PS My name is actually Becky…not Beckyu. That’s my sausage fingers at work again.
More than welcome Becky, feel free to link me anytime!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by John Ottinger and John Ottinger, DaveBrendon. DaveBrendon said: RT @johnottinger: Book Review: Towers of Midnight http://bit.ly/cvDo8B #TOM #WOT #brandonsanderson #robertjordan [...]
Funny how you mention the faulty editing, then forget to edit your own post.
Vincent, what did I miss? I try to do my own editing, but when it’s just you doing everything, you can have blind spots. I’d appreciate if you pointed put what I did wrong so I can go in and fix it.
Things like:
“In truth m the book is mostly Perrin’s.” Paragraph 2 -m?-
“slowly, sand each climax” P3 -sand?-
“Lanalso has a significant presence” P4 -run together words-
“Too, Mat Cauthon still lacks” P5 -Grammatically incorrect to start a sentence with too-
“issue with a character placement” P6 -should be “character’s placement”-
“But perhaps I’m being too much of a stickler, but in a” P7 -first “but” is bad grammar as well as completely unnecessary-
Those are just off the top of my head. I didn’t have time to go through line by line as the grammar and comma usage are atrocious through much of the review (especially the overuse of commas). Normally I wouldn’t nitpick (or even care). Your own abundant mistakes, however, completely destroy your credibility when you spend so much time bashing Sanderson’s grammar and punctuation.
Fair points, but I don’t have a professional book publisher backing me. It does hurt my credibility, I agree, but not as much as a major writer, with a major publishing house, with award-winning editors, making the same mistakes.
Ooops, there is that awful grammar again!
Agreed, the publisher should have taken more care with the proofing, though this fault is not on Sanderson’s shoulders. Props to you, however, for owning up to your own errors
While I have yet to read this novel, I felt in the last book that Sanderson had turned Mat back into a likable rogue. I had been feeling for a while that Rand, Mat and Perrin had all been turning into, um…total jerks. I felt no empathy towards them in Jordan’s last few novels. In fact, I feel that Sanderson has dispensed with the internal whining that was present through many characters in Jordan’s narrative. Note: I’m not knocking Jordan’s work, merely commenting on some of the positive differences rather than the negative. I look forward to picking this up this weekend and forming my own opinion.
Thanks for the props! Sanderson has certainly turned the characters more likable, but I think that was always Jordan’s intent anyway. He wanted to take empathetic characters, put them through the wringer, and have them come out stronger for it. Sanderson has taken that ball and run with it, I must say that. I think you will like this one.
I think I fixed all the ones you mentioned, plus some others. This is what comes from not being taught nuances of grammar in high school, and only having a middle school memory to work with (which still doesn’t excuse my grammatical laziness). I actually know more about grammar now that I teach it than I ever did as a student. Though I do comma splice and use WAY to much passive voice. I’m working on it, I really am.
Yes, I have to admit that the only reason I recognize the comma failings of others so easily is because they are my own personal kryptonite
I’m about 125 pages into the book and so far I haven’t seen that many errors. Then again, many publishers seem to be getting lazy with the proofing recently. Perhaps I’m just getting used to it…
Keep working at it, sir. If we “comma challenged” individuals support each other, maybe we can defeat this horrendous affliction!
I am of the understanding that first prinitings are riddled with errors, both grammatically and spelling. If I am correct, many of the books in the series have been edited signifigantly after the first printing to fix mistakes, continuity errors and spelling. When dealing with a novel that is equal to 2-3 normal novels, I think nearly any first printing will be laden with mistakes. Just not enough time and eyes to fix it all in one round and meet deadline. Of course, once it is printed in this day and age the whole world will let you know how bad it is and where in a matter of days.
Relax, comma haters! While “to be” verb usage contributes to boring writing, use of commas by some to fashion the flow of a sentence on paper as found in the authors mind is not a terrible crime. I have never found myself disinclined to enjoy someones writing simply because of a few extra commas. I often found the standard comma diatribe a cheap excuse for professors and TAs to use the red pen and avoid delving into conversations of content.
The book is rife with editing errors. Hopefully, that will be fixed in subsequent editions. I personall grow tired of everyone not understanding the opposite sex. It is a lame joke that falls flat 12 books into the series. If Lanfear comes back as well, I will be severely disappointed. Death has no meaning in this story and that diminishes every contest. I understand the Wheel turns and all, but let the characters wait until the next Age to return!
[...] Grasping for the wind: Book Review: Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson [...]
I have to disagree with you on Mat. He’s far better in this book than in the last one. Most of Mat’s humor came from his internal dialogue, rather than external. That alone makes me love this take on him. Any childishness on his part i put down to the fact that he knows the adds are extremely against him returning form rescuing Moraine, and him wanting to have a bit of fun cause life’s too damn short. Especially now.
And Tam being in two places narriatively, I’m sure you’ve learned by now that Rand and Egwene’s story arcs were ahead of both Mat and Perrin’s. We learned in the last book that Perrin and Galad were due to to meet and that Tam knew Morgause was alive. Those two points not happening yet was the biggest clue that Perrin arc wasn’t on the same timeline. Though they do offer alot of signposts with the swirling colors that the Wonderboys see, and Perrin seeing Rand at Dragonmount in the World of Dreams.
not aware of the time disjunction. I was operating on the premise the timelines were reasonably in sync.
Seeing as how the conclusion of TGS in Perrin’s story arc occurred about 2/3 of the way through ToM, it should have been fairly obvious after the complete read through. This is especially true with all the weight put on Perrin’s importance to Rand’s epiphany and the summoning of Tam to Tear at the end of TGS. He used the swirling colors to find him near the busted statue with the sword!
I don’t disagree that this is the case. Do you think it was a good or bad idea?
Neither good nor bad. I think it was simply the only way that Sanderson could find to split the book and retain a satisfying story arc for both TGS and ToM. It does create some temporal disorientation, but I think it was a necessary evil.
This may have been because the last 3 books were intended to be just 1 book. Perin’s encounters with the Children was happening together with the events in TGS. Maybe it was hard to separate them into two books
The Tam thing was bothering me as well as I read through the first part of the book. Googling for information about the discrepancy is what led me to this blog.
There is an in-text explanation for it though. The Perrin story is taking place before Tam’s meeting with Rand at the end of The Gathering Storm. In the chapter A Terrible Feeling (page 462 for those keeping score) Tam even comes to Perrin and says that he has to leave. That’s a pretty open and shut in-text explanation for the discrepancy.
I remember that he says he has to leave, and if what the prior commenter says is true, then this is because the timelines are not in sync. I think not having the timelines ins sync is a very bad idea, as it leads to confusion like mine, but it does explain the problem, It is just weird to have the leaving take place AFTER the meeting of Rand and Tam. And at the leave-taking, Tam mentions nothing about where he is going, and later in the book we find out something about him raising troops in the Two Rivers. He is everywhere and nowhere without explanation.
I agree that a disjointed time line within a book, without clearly stating the break, hurt the overall narrative. Whenever I would come across a reference to Tam in either Perrin’s or Rand’s arcs I would stop because I had just read about him being with the other. I toughed it out though so that I could look it up after finishing the book without being exposed to spoilers.
solid review in my opinion. I thought that the paced harked back to the Robert Jordan days during this book. I was expecting more action and explosive chapters like The Gathering Storm, but a lot of the chapters seemed to be more a about a steady build of of tensions building to towards ultimately book 14. This was just like when Robert Jordan wrote the books for me, the pace seeming to slow incredibly from one book to the next.
But i think this is a good think and Brandon Sanderson should be congratulated for it, it would be easy for any fan to fill every chapter with exciting action, to only leave a hollow unsatisfied feeling after putting the book down
thanks!
P.S. i agree about the grammar! Terrible! I make no claims for my own, but why should I? I’m not a published author! It did ruin parts of the book, taking you away from the action when they had clearly not checked something because spell check had not flagged it up. Who proof read this book!
That’s what I say!
I agree with almost every review I’ve read of ToM so far. And while I do feel that Sanderson is the polar opposite of Jordan, maybe that’s what we need right now.
Would I prefer Jordan finish the series? Sure. It might have taken five more books, but I would have read them. Sanderson was a fan first and was then given the task of wrapping it up. Even with notes it’s a monumental task.
While I agree that it seems like his handling of some events is weak and irreverent to some of the characters, it probably has to be done this way. Can you think of any way to fit this much action into as few books as Sanderson? I sure can’t. In this book he took on the daunting task of: making Perrin like-able again, and Elayne interesting again, wrapping up the incredibly drawn out “Morgase” storyline, and making Rand the center of it all again instead of an emo kid whining about how harsh and unfair it all has become.
Could the editing have been better? Absolutely. But that’s not Sanderson’s responsibility. Could he have made it more Jordan-esque? Possibly, but not in so few books.
Here’s to hoping that Sanderson’s Perrin and Jordan’s Mat make it into A Memory of Light next year.
I never said the editing was Sanderson’s responsibility. I it his and the editors conjointly. And you are right that he took on a daunting task, and did fairly well with it. It is still a very entertaining novel that works well in the series overall, it just wasn’t as good as TGS. MOL will likely be stunning by comparison.
And I am appreciative that Rand is no longer emo.
I’m certainly anxious to check this book out and see what I think.
If nothing else, as good as TGS was, it is probably hard to follow in its footsteps. But the fact this probably had less Jordan-written scenes and more notes like you said has worried me. I hope it doesn’t come off as too much of a departure when I get a chance to check it out.
I always find it odd when I see grammar errors in a professional book. I doubt I will find it any different in this one. Is it perhaps a slight compliment? Indicating that the copy editor (and others) were too engaged with the story to catch the little details of misaligned text? I wonder…
Interesting thought about the compliment, I hadn’t thought of it that way. However, enjoying the book is not the editors job – that is the readers. And the reader has a right to minimal errors. If it had been one or two, it would be no big deal and I wouldn’t have mentioned it. 40 or more…that is just lax work.
It came to me later that possibly an early draft went to press instead of the final version. Who knows?
An early draft? That would be quite amusing. I don’t think publishing a book like ToM is as simple to do as: “Oops, my finger slipped and I clicked ‘Post’.”
So that would be a doozy of a mistake.
But it happens. In fact, it happened just last month for Franzen’s UK book.
http://bestdamncreativewritingblog.com/2010/10/02/uk-prints-wrong-draft-of-franzens-freedom/
Wow, with as many different checks in the rest of the process you’d think that would get caught.
Clifton – you would, but it doesn’t always happen – hence my comment. We’ll see what Tor does in response to the outcry of bad grammar.
Better review than the one up on the TOR website. Too many plotlines have just dragged on for too long. I’m so sick of the know it all Aes Sedai and Egwene. The egomanical POV of the White Tower has been overplayed, I just want to be through with that storyline. If Rand says the seals need to be removed they need to be removed. Who does Egwene think she is to argue with The Dragon Reborn, the prophecies aren’t about Egwene and she never seems to get that! In any event, my problem was the sequence of events. I wanted Mo rescued and found that placing it at the end of the book made the book harder to read. We’ve been waiting for how many years and books to get Mo rescued and it has to be near the end of this book.
Thanks for the compliment Lilyannerose! I kinda got that way too. But it does mean that Jordan’s epic is different from others that tend toward patriarchal societies.
Agreed on Egwene. I really, really want her to be shown how wrong she is on so many things. I love the character, but she needs a dose of humility since she became Amrylin. I thought being a captive of the Tower would do that, but it didn’t, and while it was awesome, I was annoyed by how she just turned it around to her advantage.
I’ll admit I’m not done with the book yet (about one fourth to go), but I really hope it happens.
Oh my gosh yes. I really really hate how Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne, and pretty much any and EVERY Aes Sedai are complete and utter hypocrites! They are hypocritical, arrogant, blow hards! I find it funny when everyone is all like… at least Jordan writes women in powerful positions. Yea he does…. and makes them look like irrational, arrogant blowhards. They feel men have no business anywhere and say they dont need men, all the while forgetting the many many times that MEN have saved their asses. Its getting rather old at this point.
Egwene was better in TGS than she was in TOM. I have just really started to dislike Elayne though. To me, those have always been by far the most boring parts of the books. Does anyone actually enjoy reading about the politics of Caemlyn? And when she first talks to Perrin and Faile, she says something like “Give me a reason why I shouldn’t execute you two as traitors”. ???? Just seemed dumb, I dislike her. Nynaeve totally did a 180. She is WAY more likeable in these last 2 books. I never thought that would have happened, she was the worst, now one of my favorites!
I liked mat a lot. He was pretty funny when it came to all the women that he kept seeing after being married. Why was someone complaining about that..? I’m confused.
Well I liked this book a lot more than maybe books 7-11.. TGS was better, but this was still good. Maybe my version had less grammar mistakes? Its been out for a year. I did notice a few, though.
I feel like the Towers of Midnight was an excellent addition. I noticed the different grammatical errors, but I refused to let myself be distracted by them. It just wasn’t worth it to me to let them detract from, what I thought, was an excellent story.
I think that the delay in making the characters likable again really added to the satisfaction of the book. We spent, What? Three or four novels seeing those beloved characters go down roads that we felt were obviously bad choices. So when they turned right we, or at least I, felt better about it.
But wait! I have more! I find that the most frustrating part of these books is the overabundance of people who are absolutely certain that they know what is best. Despite the fact that they are obviously poorly equipped to deal with it. The White Tower annoys me the most, they feel like they have run things for so long that they have acquired the sense that it is the way the world should work.
Overall I felt that ToM was just as good as TGS. It had the changes that I felt were the most necessary to the series, and some plots that I had been waiting for forever. I just wish A Memory of Light would come out sooner. Because that book, I have no doubt, will be one of the greatest things most of us have ever read.
Totally with you on the overabundance of sel-indulgent, self-satisfied, arrogant people in the books. At least this looks to be turning for the better. FINALLY!
[...] Review: Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson @ Grasping for the Wind [...]
I feel that you were overly harsh on the ToM as an overall book. I felt that for that few books before TGS, Jordan was introducing too many sub-plots while hardly wraping up the ones that one already in play. I feel while the Tam story thread was dis-conjoining, I believe that Sanderson, quite neatly advanced all of the story arc’s to a place that will setup a fantastic final book. While I think that Sanderson had a slow start getting the character’s voices correct in TGS, I believe he knocked Mat’s character out of the park in ToM.
Let me just say, I for one could not be more pleased that, finally, all of the character’s are sounding like adults and not 7th graders.
On your last point I totally agree. And Sanderson did manage to get everyone all in one place by the end of the book – something very hard to do indeed.
Awesome review, and I agree with it 100%.
I don’t have anything new to add, as everything’s been said, but did anyone else notice Sanderson’s love for the color red?
Great Review,
Despite the aforementioned grammatical errors, I truly enjoyed the book. I like the new Rand, Mat, and Perrin. Elayne is beginning to be a likeable character again after the mood swings of recent books. Egwene should be able to come around in short order as long as Rand isn’t too arrogant in his explanation of his motives. Moraine should be able to help in that regard, especially considering how much Egwene and Rand looked up to her. I think the Camelyn, Seanchan, and Aiel story lines will be important in MoL. Granted it is in no way up to me, but I would really like to see the Seanchan story wrapped up in a satisfying way quickly.
I was horrified by the number of grammatical mistakes! I am by no means a master of grammar or punctuation… But seriously!!! I could edit this book and leave it with fewer mistakes than it has! It irritates me that every few pages I have to read a sentence twice before I realize that a word was misspelled or left out entirely! It is ridiculous!!! And how about the use of the word “ain’t” early in the book??? What was that!?!?!?
I don’t remember the ain’t, but it wouldn’t suprise me in dialogue as some of the characters are from small towns with certain colooquialisms. I don’t think the “aint” can be equated with the other grammar mistakes, so long as it wa used in dialogue for the right type of character. Do you remember the page number or scene? I’d like to look that up.
Excellent review.
I am about 400 pages in, and so far I am quite disappointed. Well, I was EXTREMELY disappointed with The Gathering Storm, so this isn’t much of a change for me. I find Sanderson’s style very lacking, in almost every possible way. Of course, there were the grammar errors (The Gathering Storm was rife with them too, by the way), however, my biggest problem is how he handles the characters. He’s completely done away with the various side characters, the Maidens, the Wise Ones, the various lords and ladies that filled Jordan’s narrative, each lovingly mentioned and fleshed out. It’s like these people don’t exist anymore. He’s slowly but surely ruining the matriarchal slant of the novel – Jordan’s women, while very flawed, were also smart and strong, and Sanderson is the describing the lot of them as complete gooses, Egwene, Elayne and Faile being the worst offenders. The strong female characters were one of the main reasons I was drawn to this series, and to see this aspect of the book ruined in such a way is downright painful and infuriating. And as if ruining the women wasn’t enough, Sanderson’s giving it a homophobic vibe too. WoT used to be full of various bi and homosexual characters, and suddenly all these people stopped being mentioned, except for the depraved bisexual who was killed off the prologue. If Sanderson couldn’t keep his Mormon views on women and homosexuality away from someone else’s work he should’ve never agreed to finish it. Right now, I’d rather see WoT remain unfinished than this hack to keep massacring Jordan’s legacy.
‘Jordan’s women, while very flawed, were also smart and strong, and Sanderson is the describing the lot of them as complete gooses”
Sorry to break it to you… but they are complete gooses. Remember Egwene is all of what? 17? 18? and she is Aes Sedai and very powerful channeler. SHe is now Amyrlin. I mean here is a young child still, and she has power over the entire world. IMO Elayne and Egwene both are completely arrogant, hypocritical, and more than a little childish. They think they know everything about the world after what? 18 years of life? Ha, just like every other spoiled teenager Ive ever heard of. That doesnt make them “strong”. Just strong willed. Which is just another way to say a word I probably shouldnt write down here.
I’m sorry to inform you that the only strong women in these books are Faile, the Forsaken and possible Aviendha, Elayne and Egwene have always been incredible childish and foolish.
Sanderson does a good job with an impossible task. This installment solidified for me that Rand represents mankind, Perrin the natural world, and Mat the wheel itself. Without one, all three would fail. Deeply impressed with Rands transformation into an actual savior. An epic series of cliffhangers at the end. The world of the Wheel and our world holds it’s breath for the final installment. Well done.
P.s. Grammatical errors show poor form on the editors part, not the authors. I flew threw reading this so fast it didn’t bother me a whit. No one could ever replace Jordan, and people that compare the two authors do both a disservice.
Interesting note on what each of the Ta’veren represents. Is that something you’ve picked up on in this book? Or just a general feel as you’ve read the series? (I have yet to read this one.)
As the series has gone on I have wondered at the significance of both Mat and Perrin. The story tells us right off that the Dragon is mankinds savior, but I often wondered why there was so much significance placed on the other two. We know little from Lews Therins time other than his decent into madness and the fact that he could not hold an alliance (of both men and women channelers) to help him seal the bore. Certainly we would like to think that if he had friends like Mat and Perrin, legends would have been told about them. Instead, most of Lews Therins friends die, or turn to the shadow. This time seems different, and we are led to believe that if Mat or Perrin were to die, Rands attempt at saving the world would fail. It’s a loose theory at best but one I hold to. I look forward to finding out how the series ends to see how much of my theory plays out.
Whether you’re right or wrong to Jordan’s intent, I certainly like the connection.
I never took it in that manner, I merely felt that with Rand’s ascension to god-like powers, with concerns beyond the realm of us mere mortals that he would lose himself if he didn’t have his two best friends. Friends that could help ground him and keep him from flying off the deep end like Lews Therrin.
Making a metaphysical connection in addition to the friend aspect would be very rewarding.
The two biggest things for me were the grammar and the hatchet style writing. That was one of the worst books I have ever read for grammar. At times it totally ruined the plot, and I fould myself having to reread the entire paragraph to figure out what he was trying to say.
Also, consider this analogy. Jordan’s writing style was about the route it took to get there, like a meandering river. You’ll get there eventually, but you’re not in a hurry. But with Sanderson, I felt like we were walking up to a thick jungle and we needed to get to the other side, “straight through the middle” with no side detours to check out the rest of the jungle. I understand he was given a lot of work to do, but for me it’s not how fast you get there, it’s the quality of the plot and characters that count. I would rather draw out the story and enjoy everything, than just chop and slash your way to the end.
Unfortunately for Sanderson, no matter how well he writes, he will always be compared to Jordan and what “could’ve been.” Don’t get me wrong, Jordan wrote some awful books during this series, but in my opinion Sanderson is zero for two.
I personally liked TGS and came away very dissatisfied after reading TOM. I spent a lot of time trying to understand why TOM felt disjointed from TGS but after reading the various comments, I realize its not the writing style but really the arcing timelines that was throwing me off. knowing what I know now I am going to take a second read of the book.
Its funny only because all three gents have always been on their own timelines. I believe it was the purpose of Jordan putting in their ability to see one another in real time in their minds as a means to let us guess what is happening for whom and when. It wasn’t until this book, however, that an author makes it blatantly clear that that’s what’s been going on.
I never noticed it until TOM either, but looking back now that I know, it seems fairly obvious :p Not sure how I let that slip by.
Brandon Sanderson is ruining the wheel of time. Cliched and out of character dialogue, chunky, fan fiction style prose, and a complete and utter fuck up of Jordan’s methodical, encompassing, icy tone. They might as well have had dan brown finish this goddamn series, given that there doesn’t seem to be a difference in the flat affect-less style between sanderson’s hack job of a novel and any of those fucking da vinci code books. You know I’m right. Go back and read the first sentence of the eye of the world and compare it to the opening of this book: “Mandarb’s hooves beat a familiar rhythm on broken ground as Lan Mandragoran rode toward his death.” That is about as interesting and stylish as my ass. Lan then goes on to spout dialogue that sounds like it was written by tommy wiseau for JCVD to say in a made for tv miniseries. Overall, I’d say this shit is about on par with the way george lucas fucked up the world of star wars forever with the godawful prequels. You need to read these like you need a hole in your forehead, if you want anything like what Jordan had been doing for the last two decades. Disappointment.
While I won’t be quite as harsh, I agree with most of your points. Sanderson replaced the intelligent, old-world style dialogue of RJ’s originals with cliched, uninspired crap. Not just the conversation (thought that has to be what rankled me the most), but his descriptions of people and places. I went back and started reading EotW, particularly to reread one of my favorite passages, the fall of Manetheren. Based on ToM, I don’t believe BS has a chance in hell of writing a passage anywhere near that beautiful and inspiring. While I realize that it’s unrealistic to hope for a writing style as extraordinary as Jordan’s, I can’t help but be disappointed.
Geoff’s hatchet analogy below is an excellent one, both for storyline and dialogue. Sanderson falls far, far short of the mark set by RJ; I can’t help but anticipate the conclusion, however, knowing that the overarching story remains Jordan’s.
One more thing: what’s with the addition of “bloody ashes” as a repeated expletive? I can’t remember a single time it was “bloody ashes” as opposed to either “blood and ashes”, or “blood and bloody ashes”. Small example, but it still got to me, and it definitely goes along with Sanderson taking the easy way out as far as dialogue is concerned.
I expect that no one can duplicate another man’s thoughts. To be fair to BS, he’s doing a difficult job. Were this his own work I imagine we’d find less fault. But it goes to show that RJ had honed his writing into something that all of us could love.
All the way through ToM I couldn’t over look BS’s voice. TGS was very disappointing. At least in ToM Mat stopped some of the whiny crap that made him sound like a henpecked woos.
I do wonder if BS isn’t hurrying this too much, it does feel like hatchet work to read.
Its a lesson to all of us though, if you have something to finish, better do it before something hap
Excellent review — many thanks.
It is hard to believe it’s been 20 years since Eye of the World was published. I remember finding it in the library in early 1991, scoffing at the cover art, not liking the first 50 pages or so, and then being changed forever by world it revealed. I can only imagine how I’d regard the series had I been able to read it all the way through while still a teenager. (I probably wouldn’t have finished high school on time if I’d had all 14 books to plow through!)
It’s hard not to enjoy these final books, but as an adult, I’m continually left with the thought that I’d have enjoyed them far more if I were younger. I found the pacing to be a little trying, even during the fairly fast-moving climatic sequences. The grammatical errors were astonishing; this seems a painfully obvious thing to fix and wholly inconsistent with Sanderson’s otherwise disciplined and professional approach to this potentially thankless task.
But perhaps because he’s close to my own age, I find myself sympathizing with what it must be like to sift through the notes and recordings of someone as protean as Robert Jordan. (I’m sure there are many things Jordan probably felt he made perfectly clear in his notes that remain complete ciphers to Sanderson.) Sanderson seems to be doing the best anyone could, and probably a good deal better than anyone could. Suffice to say, I feel like I can’t not like the penultimate volume of WOT because it’s all we’re going to get.
But all that being said, when viewed independent of the complex and tragic history of Jordan and his successors, I must confess I do not like the book. The series, to me, took a fatal turn after Winter’s Heart. The next book should have ended it, with as many sweeping gestures to resolve minor and often pointless plotlines as needed. The protracted plot of these last two books (if not last four books) seems to be relevant only because it came from the masterful early books (especially EOTW, TGH, TSR). Put another way, the Last Battle could have occurred just after that last scene in Winter’s Heart and I don’t think anyone would bemoan the loss of the pointless and/or derivative plot developments of these last four books.
Sanderson cannot, of course, do anything other than execute Jordan’s last wishes, serving more as a beautician in a mortuary than as a writer. My hope is that, someday, a screenwriter takes these soon-to-be 14 books and crafts a three-film screenplay that, almost like a metaphor, captures the wonder and profundity of the Wheel of Time in a single, streamlined story. Now that would be worth waiting for…
Josiah
Great review; it summed up my feelings on the book very well. I liked the book overall (it is a WoT book, after all), but I’m disppointed in a lot of the little things. While I realized the jumping timelines and I agree that they may have been a necessary evil, it did make this book more disjointed. Some of that could have been improved by just moving things around just a bit within this book (like the Rand/Tam reunification).
In regard to Equals42′s comment: “…If Lanfear comes back as well, I will be severely disappointed. Death has no meaning in this story and that diminishes every contest. I understand the Wheel turns and all, but let the characters wait until the next Age to return!”
I would remind that the characters are not coming back willy-nilly. There is a specific reason. The Forsaken are held in the grasp of the Dark One and those that die can be brought back. However if balefire is used they are burned out of the pattern and lost to the Dark One’s power. This element seems too integral to the story to be added as an afterthought.
Yeah, I get the balefire distinction but it cheapens resolutions and brings back story lines that had been closed when there are quite enough threads to tie up. My initial reaction to Lanfear reappearing at the end was essentially to roll my eyes.
With that I’ll agree. In the fashion of Epic Fantasy, Wheel of Time is one of the quintessential examples; for breadth, characters and story. So there are certainly enough little tidbits to resolve and bring to a close. I’ll assume Jordan and thereby Sanderson has a plan to do so despite the open-ended plots available via the Dark Ones power over the immortal souls of the Forsaken.
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John,
I really like your thoughts (and I really don’t care if you had grammatical errors; you’re not writing a book here).
I think the series has lost its edge and its way about four or five books ago. When I began reading Jordan when I was, I think, an eighth grader, I was amazed at how wonderful and creative Jordan was. Then he became Dickens and started babbling, “Light! What shapely calves!” every stupid page. Then the crazy names, pointless subplots…no thanks.
This ending seems trite. Everyone is gathering for the “Last Battle”? I mean, does it really work like that? Rand and his allies are just going to seemingly wait in one place for the “Dark Lord” and the trollocs?? Please.
Over the course of Jordan’s last few books, the only parts I truly enjoyed was when the Forsaken were depicted, and being punished. I also enjoyed the battle scenes, which Jordan really had a gift to write. Now, Sanderson seems to just hurry through the battles so he can have characters talk some more. And the conversations are so unrealistic, to boot. I found the scene where Egwene is convincing Wise Ones, the Sea Folk, and the Kinswomen in less than five pages to send everyone to the Tower – an organization they feared for millenia – unreadable. Yea, ok. Egwene was able to get her way, again, just like that. It’s amusing that a 20 year old woman can get anything she wants and somehow outsmarts women centuries old. Besides, who gives a crap anymore? The only more unbearable subplots are the ones with Elayne. She’s consolidating power. Without any Jordanesque political subplots. Yay.
I just feel like I’m watching Star Wars all over again. it goes from a dark, wonderfully thought out series (for two, maaaaaaybe three movies), and then quickly devolves into idiocy.
If I knew how the books would descend into (1) Jordan’s quest for making as much money as possible and laughing at us fans, and then (2) Sanderson’s quest for squeezing every bit of action scenes out of them so that the characters can chat some more, I never would have picked the books up. All the interesting characters have been neglected: Mat was gone for several books, Moraine and Lanfear have been gone forever, and Padan Fain and the Dark One are never around.
I’ve tried to read Sanderson’s “Mistborne” series as well. I just don’t think he’s that gifted a writer. As bad as Jordan had become, at least his characters had more depth. Sanderson gives his characters everything they want and need as well as singularity of purpose.
Perhaps, you are right about the battle scenes, ( I haven’t read a lot yet ) and about the ‘ Last Battle’, it’s a bit too unrealistic, I have to agree…
Also, I almost got bored at the 7th or 8th book, but ( I don’t know about you, this just applies to myself ) I believe that if you truly are a fan, you have to read all the series once you begin it. Maybe some parts of the books are boring, but aren’t you at least curious to see how it ends ?
All in all, my opinion is that you shouldn’t be such a stickler and read the book for what it is. ( Not trying to offense anyone ). Please write back…
Did you notice that everyone was freezing every few pages? That seemed to be the standard response to almost everything. “Perrin froze”…”Egwene froze”… “Mat froze..” “She looked up, then froze…”
Well it seems it was freezing cold that time of year…
No, seriously now, it is ridiculous…
Sanderson ( many times ) wites the same things over and over…
I mean… a writer is supposed to have a variety, right ?
( is it ”a variety” or ”variety” )
I enjoyed the complete series thus far and Sanderson has proven that he is an exceptional writer. I don’t think it is fair to criticize him for trying to complete a masterpiece from the thoughts of another. Try it and see how you fare. Sanderson done the series proud and I cannot wait for the final chapter.
I do agree that from book five onward Jordan’s creativity was challenged to its maximum. The books became less magical but that was also with the introduction of politics surrounding Elayne and Egwene. Too little fantasy, too close to reality. I don’t like politics, it’s boring regardless of what name you try to give it. Strangely it wasn’t enough to make me criticize it the way Charley did. If I got to that point I would’ve stopped reading and moved on. It’s one of the reasons I stopped reading books from David Eddings because he cannot seem to recapture the magic since teaming up with Leigh Eddings. Why read it just to slam it? Idiot.
The time sync is not that much of an issue if you manage to pick up on it early but even then it makes sense. That is all that matters in the end. It’s nothing unlike Pulp Fiction or Crash … it makes sense if you are paying attention.
With regards to the grammar … well maybe they should just fire the editor. What happened to the proof readers? Anyway, your pants have to be extremely tight fitting if this makes you believe that it spoils the story. It doesn’t.
All in all, as long as the story includes the three ta’veren then it’s exciting because their tales are what makes this fantasy what it is. Brilliant! I personally think that Egwene and Elayne should have had lesser roles.
Jordan is in league with Tolkein and Brooks and he will forever stand out among the greatest fantasy writers of our time.
I skimmed through the book quickly and enjoyed it. I knew that being critical would make me angry (I did that for the last one). Lanfear is back and Rand is more Lewis Therin than ever, that will be interesting. I’m sure moiraine will know what to do for the last battle. But I can’t see how the whole seanchan mess will be resolved. I’d say this book is the most interesting since the 6th or 7th.
Really guys, I am completely annoyed and frustrated with the grammatical errors and the missing sentences.It’s not that important, I know, but I am reading the book while listenning to the audiobook ( it’s perfect, I recommend that you try it ) and the readers say sth but the book writes sth else ! However, I really love this book because of the changes Rand has been through… Before, I had begun not to like him, but now that he ( FINALLY !!!) understood, I think that I’m going to enjoy his part more… And one more thing… Do you have any clues if there is going to be some sudden appearence of the Seanchan, the Sharans or the Madmen at the Last Battle ? The Madmen are the occupants of the Land of Madmen, in case you didn’t understand. I mean.. are they going to help Rand or will they fight their own battles or will they not be affected at all ?
I believe that they (Seanchan) will somehow participate in the last battle…. but, what bothers me most is their demands to do so. Aviendha’s viewings of the future suggests that Rand must have come to an agreement of some sort with the Seanchan. I guess, He must have agreed to take the empress as his liege or something, because i remember that part being clearly mentioned in one of the viewings. Maybe he must have thought that, the only way to finaly get seanchan help for the last battle was to be a subject of the empress. It’s a possibility especially considering the fact that Rand has mellowed down a little bit now. However, Maybe Its just to give us readers a little fright!!!!!!! Aviendha might make sure that things happen differently…… but, you never know….. have to wait and see………
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I don’t believe that Tam being in two places at once actually occurs, I think that there is a time difference between the chapters for instance in one chapter Rand has left Tear to go to Bandar Eben and met Tam in Tear. In the next chapter Perrin sees the colours swirling in his head and sees Rand still in Tear looking angry, during that chapter Tam comes to Perrin and tells him that Aes Sedai need to take him to Tear… it could be that this takes place before Rand has his epiphany at the end of The Gathering Storm or that it happens during the beginning of TOM where Rand returns to Tear after his wanderings…
sorry for posting this .. I did not have a chance to read all of the myriad of comments from above, but while I was scrolling through right now i noticed that my Idea had already been mentioned several times…
I have one thing to add though I believe that the timelines had to be out of sync as the important bits in Perrins timeline happen earlier.. if they were in time for most of ToM he would just be marching his army including the whitecloaks to Andor, this way he can be a major part of this book yet when all the timelines syncronize at the end he can be in the right place at the right time
Hey guys, I finished the book and found the last scene with Lanfear very confusing… What in the name of the Light
happened there? I can’t understand if she is alive or dead…Also, what annoys me completely is the STUPIDNESS of some characters, such as Gawyn and Egwene, who, want to do some good, but try to prevent Rand from doing his job… When I read what they think, I say OMG !!!!
Seeing lanfear at the end was confusing for me also. One theory i was thinking about is maybe she is trapped in the dream world being punished by the dark one… but who can say. What i wanna see is how rand is going to react to all this. Gawyn was another character that like rand, was getting tough to read. Hopefully it gets better!
Sanderson did his best but i just can’t get over what he did to matt. Some of the things are alright such as the banters between thom talmanes and him, but he just over does it a lot. I love what bs has done with rand though i’m sure rj had a lot of notes on how rand turnes from “dark and dangerous” to a true savior. I enjoyed this book all in all, but i can’t help thinking how much better it would be if rj was here to finish it.
indded,i hate the maiming of the protagonists too, but in thta there is also realism….imagine sb who didn’t even get a scratch..totally unreal.
I believe that Mat’s maiming was part of RJ’s plan as from when he entered the Terangreal in book 4(maybe 5), he was told that he would lose half the light of the world… what other meaning can you see for this???
Rand was also hurt before Sanderson took over.
Fastzr
correct i agree that it was RJ’S plan from the beginning but i still dont like it
Yeah I don’t like it either. I do like some darker novels but I’d prefer it if my main characters dont lose hands and eyes…
the maiming of matt doesn’t bother me all that much. What blows is bs’s time restraints that made the whole scenario in the tereangreal good when it could have been great.. i’m interested to see matt and tuan’s next meeting, it should be good.
yeah, and i guess the last book will be huge..
The grammar issues are much worse than you indicate. You mention one every twenty pages. I think that I found one on every page and I am not one to look for errors they just became so obvious.
I would guess that the biggest issue with Tam is that RJ wrote entire sections together. There would be ten chapters focused on one character before switching to another. BS seems to be unwilling to do this and changes characters every chapter. In RJ’s outline I am sure that there were no issues with TAM but because BS split up the chapters he appears to be in two places at once.
The best part about BS taking over is that it definately improved the pacing of the book. RJ for all he said he would only write one more book would have taken at least 6 more to actually get through the story with the mired pace he was moving at. RJ has made the books push forward again like the early books in the series did. The Gathering Storm was a refreshing new book in the series and now Towers of Midnight follows that up with the same pacing though admittedly missing something that The Gathering Storm had.
Like most other commentors here, I started the WoT series number of years ago and gave up around book 9 or 10. It was just too fraught with overly descriptive passages about what people were wearing with too little actual plot advancement for my patience to endure. At the urging of my nephew, who insisted that the series gets better, I decided to give the WoT another try. I bought the entire series and re-read the whole lot, just finishing tGS today.
To anyone who has timeline or plot sync issues, by re-reading with no breaks of years between books, the time jumps are obvious and there are no issues with who is where or when. For those who were surprised that Moiraine or Lanfear returns, and so on, I can tell you that all of these clues and hints were there from Robert Jordan in the earlier books. Perhaps time and the sheer volume of detail in RJ’s style of writing made these smaller hints and details less memorable from earlier books in the series.
In reading the whole thing again in one fell swoop, I have discovered that the story has a complete and inevitable flow to a bottleneck that Brandon Sanderson is doing a fine job of funnelling us through to the Last Battle. I think he does an admirable job of keeping the feel and rhythm of the story as close to Jordan’s as possible, even though their writing styles are different.
To clear-up some of the confusion or frustruation at Lanefear’s reappearance: at the very beginning of book 12 the Forsaken (Chosen) meet and Graendhal reveals her belief that Moridin is actually Ishamael reincarnated; which we learn later on is correct. In a previous meeting of the Forsaken in an earlier novel (sorry, I can’t find the actual passage at the moment) Graendal speculated that Cyndane, Moridin’s mysterious sycopahant along with Moghedien, is actually Lanfear reincarnted by the Dark One into a different body. Robert Jordan let us know long before Thom’s letter from Moraine was revealed to Mat, that Lanfear was still part of the story. Anyone who paid attention while reading the series should have been anticipating Lanfear’s return. Once it was known that Moraine survived and would probably be rescued in the 13th instalment; of course it follows that her nemisis must also return for the closure of this character conflict.
I have to say that I enjoyed The Gathering Storm, and will probably enjoy the Towers of Midnight. I’m glad the reviews mention the grammatical and typographical errors, since this is a major pet peeve of mine. Now I won’t be too disappointed when I come across them! My thanks for that and I look forward to the The Towers of Midnght!
I agree with you in every part of your review but I would like to point out that even though I
(sorry cut comment by mistake
)… So, even though I paid a lot of attention to the reapperances of the ”lost” characters and I already knew about the reincarnations and so on, the reasons about my confusion concerning Lanfear’s torment in Rand’s dream are 1.) why does BS show us this specific scene at the end of the book where I myself find no hidden meaning and 2.) as we already knew about Lanfear’s tortures and punishments why present her again?
Is it to remind us that she still is part of the plot or what? PLease enlighten me…
Wow really enjoyed this book. There was so much more action than I felt TGS dished out, but maybe that’s just because I had put down tgs for almost a year before picking it back up a quarter way through. Either way, except for a few parts with the dialogue being a little off, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The interplay between Perrin, Egwene, Mat and the Whitecloaks had me glued.
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