Now onto The Gathering Storm. As I picked up this book, I wondered how I would feel about it. As fans of the series know, Jordan died before he could write the final book (which has now been divided into three books). Brandon Sanderson was chosen to finish the series. I had never read anything by Sanderson, so there was no opinion based on his skill going into it. A new author could be a good or bad thing. In the opening of the book, Sanderson left a message saying that he used Jordan’s notes to write the story, but did not try to imitate Jordan’s writing style. As soon as I got to reading, it was clear that the quality had gone way up. Gone were the long, unending segments about characters we didn’t care about. Instead we changed every chapter (or sooner!), allowing us to enjoy the plot’s movement and follow our favorites. The writing itself felt smoother and less stiff. Until I read it, I didn’t realize that one of the things bothering me about Jordan’s work was how much it felt like he was trying to get the tone down. It shouldn’t feel like he’s trying, it should just BE right.
I love the number of twists brought into this story and while some surprises weren’t as surprising as perhaps they were meant to be (I have a friend who was particularly upset at Aviendha’s inability to figure out what the Wise Ones wanted), it didn’t bother me that much.
Egwene’s storyline in particular was masterfully handled and I am grateful that the final battle of the book revolved around her rather than Rand; we can only see Rand magically overcome the odds so many times–he beat the Dark One in book one, do we really think he’s going to lose to the Forsaken? At the same time, the moments we did get of Rand at the end of the book were probably some of the best we’ve ever gotten with him. It was one of the first times that I felt like I could connect to his character in some way. I kept wondering why no one ever said to him something like “What’s the point of stopping the Dark One if you destroy the world and all that’s worth living for in the process?” or something along the lines of “If you become like him, what makes you different from him?”
I would have liked to see Mat get closer to Morainne. I would have also liked to actually see Elayne (not just hear about her) and Birgitte; she’s one of my favorite characters and I don’t think her name was said a single time in the entire book). I’d also like Min to actually be interesting.
Ultimately, I think this book was one of the best, perhaps the best in the series so far and I am anxious to read book thirteen.
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