Author: Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
Genre: High Fantasy
Length: 909 Pages (Hardback)
Release: January 2012
Review
My journey with the Wheel of Time series is drawing to an end. The prequel is the only thing between me and this completed series. What an odd feeling. I started this in January 2016, reading one book a month. How did an entire year pass already?
While this final Wheel of Time book was not quite as good as its predecessor Towers of Midnight it was a very satisfactory conclusion. All of the major story arcs were tied up, the main characters given direction, and the death toll wasn't nearly as high as I expected.
Androl was definitely my favorite character in this final installment. His and Pevara's portions were always exciting and full of character exploration. Since he was a late addition to the series there was still plenty of background to be uncovered. And the fact that he was weak in the One Power but extremely skilled in certain areas made him a character that you could really root for.
Another of my favorite characters arcs is Logain. He was such an underplayed character, but he was given these moments to shine that really worked. His snippets of progression from the beginning of the series to this conclusion were amazing.
Perrin and Faile became somewhat less irritating in this final chapter, working more toward the overall outcome than their own selfish whims. Part of this is probably that they weren't together much in this one, which allowed Perrin to be more the Perrin that I liked in the beginning.
Mat and Tuon are one of my favorite pairings in this series. And there was plenty left open where that is concerned. I know that some people think Mat's character was completely destoryed when Sanderson took over the series, but I disagree. He was working his way into my good graces toward the end of Jordan's novels and with Sanderson's additions he continued to do so. He ended the series as one of my favorites.
Nynaeve and Lan were always two of my favorites and I really like how their story ended. It was much better than I expected and I liked that I was surprised by how well that was wrapped up.
Egwene was never my favorite character and unfortunately she never quite managed to make me like her. She had her moments, there for a while, but she digressed in this book. She had some heroic moments, but I still coulnd't really warm to her. And I really don't like Gawyn, so their pairing just compounded my issues. There were some sad moments with these two though and even I felt bad for them.
I was not at all happy with how things played out with Siuan and Bryne. This was the biggest disappointment for me and felt more like something that needed to be done for the emotional factor than that it actually made sense. So very upset with how their story played out. But they did have some nice moments here that I appreciated.
Galad is a character that I would have liked to see more. I wish there had been more of his character through the entire series. He had so much potential and never really reached it. And there could have been some great bromances with him and our main guys. We got glimpses of this with Perrin, I just wish we had more.
Rand and his three loves had an interesting story arc in this one. Min was mostly with Tuon and the Seanchan, Elayne was heading her armies in the main fight against the shadow, and Aviendha was in charge of the fortifications around Rand's position. If only Elayne could have been killed off...Ooops, did I say that out loud? I just found her character useless and annoying the entire series. Oh well. The main story of Rand's epic battle had an interesting, if somewhat confusing, conclusion and left plenty open where the three women are concerned.
I'm sure there are many little things I would like to mention, but those hit the main highlights. While I am not in love with this series, I very much enjoyed reading it and am glad I did so.
While this final Wheel of Time book was not quite as good as its predecessor Towers of Midnight it was a very satisfactory conclusion. All of the major story arcs were tied up, the main characters given direction, and the death toll wasn't nearly as high as I expected.
Androl was definitely my favorite character in this final installment. His and Pevara's portions were always exciting and full of character exploration. Since he was a late addition to the series there was still plenty of background to be uncovered. And the fact that he was weak in the One Power but extremely skilled in certain areas made him a character that you could really root for.
Another of my favorite characters arcs is Logain. He was such an underplayed character, but he was given these moments to shine that really worked. His snippets of progression from the beginning of the series to this conclusion were amazing.
Perrin and Faile became somewhat less irritating in this final chapter, working more toward the overall outcome than their own selfish whims. Part of this is probably that they weren't together much in this one, which allowed Perrin to be more the Perrin that I liked in the beginning.
Mat and Tuon are one of my favorite pairings in this series. And there was plenty left open where that is concerned. I know that some people think Mat's character was completely destoryed when Sanderson took over the series, but I disagree. He was working his way into my good graces toward the end of Jordan's novels and with Sanderson's additions he continued to do so. He ended the series as one of my favorites.
Nynaeve and Lan were always two of my favorites and I really like how their story ended. It was much better than I expected and I liked that I was surprised by how well that was wrapped up.
Egwene was never my favorite character and unfortunately she never quite managed to make me like her. She had her moments, there for a while, but she digressed in this book. She had some heroic moments, but I still coulnd't really warm to her. And I really don't like Gawyn, so their pairing just compounded my issues. There were some sad moments with these two though and even I felt bad for them.
I was not at all happy with how things played out with Siuan and Bryne. This was the biggest disappointment for me and felt more like something that needed to be done for the emotional factor than that it actually made sense. So very upset with how their story played out. But they did have some nice moments here that I appreciated.
Galad is a character that I would have liked to see more. I wish there had been more of his character through the entire series. He had so much potential and never really reached it. And there could have been some great bromances with him and our main guys. We got glimpses of this with Perrin, I just wish we had more.
Rand and his three loves had an interesting story arc in this one. Min was mostly with Tuon and the Seanchan, Elayne was heading her armies in the main fight against the shadow, and Aviendha was in charge of the fortifications around Rand's position. If only Elayne could have been killed off...Ooops, did I say that out loud? I just found her character useless and annoying the entire series. Oh well. The main story of Rand's epic battle had an interesting, if somewhat confusing, conclusion and left plenty open where the three women are concerned.
I'm sure there are many little things I would like to mention, but those hit the main highlights. While I am not in love with this series, I very much enjoyed reading it and am glad I did so.
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