The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson review

Ah, yes. Book 73 12 of Jordan's epic Wheel of Time series. I had almost given up on this series. Multiple times. The last five or six books were rather bad, and did little or nothing to advance the plot of the epic. But I had heard that Mr. Jordan had devoted an inordinate amount of time to completing the series before his death. Unfortunately, he died from cardiac amyloidosis before completing the series. His wife chose Brandon Sanderson to finish the work, and he seems to be doing an excellent job so far.

I won't say much about the plot of this novel, because it would be largely meaningless without having read the previous books. It centers, of course, on the battle against the Dark One - a presumably evil being who is attempting to break free of a prison after millenia - and his minions. This novel does pretty well in advancing the plot towards the inevitable Last Battle, especially in the characters of Rand and Egwene. Rand is the Dragon Reborn, the man destined to face the Dark One. He makes political and military moves throughout the land in order to prepare for the Last Battle. Egwene is the leader of the rebel Aes Sedai trying to reunite all of the Aes Sedai before it's too late.

This book has plenty of the things we're used to in the Wheel of Time series. For example, all of the women think that all men are wool-headed idiots, and all of the men think that all women are crazy. However, there seems to be a bit more to it this time. There's some actual character development going on. Even when the characters are ranting about the opposite sex, there's some reflection on how true that really is as well as some admission that perhaps not everyone fits into such a neat category.

So, all-in-all, this novel finally moves the Wheel of Time plot forward and we see some real character growth. That alone makes this the best novel of the series in a long time. And it was surprisingly enjoyable. I'd give it a 4, if it weren't for the fact that a reader needs to slog through multiple massive tomes that rate a 2 or less.
/ [Viking]

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