Reviews

Second read: 02/11/20 - 05/11/20

Rating: (still) 5 stars

Man, the series would be so short if Semirhage got free first.

First read: 20/05/20 - 27/05/20

Rating: 5 stars

So Robert Jordan goes out on a high. I want to seem like a critical reader and say that I had my doubts, but I honestly never did. I had faith that RJ would finish strong, and finish strong he did.

Finally, Min is getting the recognition she deserves. She is in pretty much every Rand chapter, and it's amazing. While I do love her perspective, I think it's also really interesting seeing Min's reactions from other people's point of view. Like when she and Rand meet these boys, and as they leave we get this from Rand's perspective: "Min gazed after them with an expression of misery that the bond echoed even after she shook her head and smoothed her face. What had she seen? Death, probably." It really adds another depth to the story, and to the whole idea of the Wheel and Pattern, which makes the series so much more intriguing.

Aviendha and Elayne have split up which will be... different. And kind of annoying. Elayne's relationship with Aviendha is one of the only redeeming points of her character (well, not really, that's slightly exaggerated). Usually, without Aviendha, Elayne really frustrates me, but Aviendha brings out the best in her, I think, and I don't hate her as much. So I say that, but then WHY THE HECK IS ELAYNE BLAMING RAND FOR HER PREGNANCY WHEN SHE WAS THE ONE THAT REFUSED TO TAKE THE WEIRD CONTRACEPTIVE TEA. Yeeeeeah, she bugs me.

I don't really like it when people get captured in books. I didn't like it when Vin was captured in The Hero of Ages (the part I am up to in my reread unfortunately), and I didn't really like it that Egwene is captured here at first. Strangely though, I actually found her perspective more interesting as I kept reading. She's probably going to be in the White Tower for a while now, because she basically is staying there on her own accord (refusing to escape and all). I am getting used to it, and coming to actually enjoy it.

Spoiler stuff now.

Spoiler

So Rand lost a hand. It was shocking and all, but it would have been even more impactful if I didn't know it was going to happen beforehand! It was because of the original cover for The Gathering Storm, which looks like this:

So I saw this cover way back at the start of my WoT journey, and didn't think anything of it. Then, while I was a considerable way into The Shadow Rising, (when Rand got the first dragon up his arm) I was looking at the cover again, now knowing who it was depicting, and noticed this huge spoiler:

Rand obviously had no hand! And he had to have lost it between books 8 and 11 (because he is on the cover of book 8 and has both hands). So Rand lost his hand, and not only that but he looses it in his last official chapter (except for the epilogue of A Memory of Light) that is fully written by Robert Jordan. Chapter 27 is the last chapter from Rand's point of view that is written entirely by RJ, and he looses his freaking hand!

And Faile was rescued. That was a great scene. I really hope Perrin goes back to being interesting now because he's been sulking around about Faile, which is understandable. Losing your wife is a tricky thing to deal with, but it really took away from all the best parts of his chapters. Because he was looking for her, his story felt disconnected from all the others, like he was on a side quest or something.

Speaking of wives, Mat is now married. I can only see this going terribly wrong, because Mat is not the person to be held down by anyone. He even said that he's still going to look at woman and chase after them, but only when Tuon isn't looking. This could never end well. It's going to be a complete disaster. And it's hilarious.

I'm sad that there's no more books written fully by Robert Jordan. It would have been very difficult for him to realise that he was never going to finish the series he had put so much work into, but I have faith in Brandon Sanderson and boy do I look forward to reading the last three books.