I’m entering a new era in this series, and want to start this review with some thoughts unencumbered by the knowledge of how thinks change. This is the point at which The Wheel of Time turns to the better, according to everyone I’ve ever talked to who has finished it. Following the death of Robert Jordan in 2007, his widow and editor, Harriet McDougal, selected Brandon Sanderson to finish this series based partly on his novel Elantris and partly on a eulogy written by Sanderson and published on his website.
Robert Jordan had planned one final volume in the series, titled A Memory of Light, and Sanderson made the decision (with the encouragement of the publisher) to split the final novel into three books. The Gathering Storm is the first of these.
I don’t know the specifics of what Jordan left Sanderson, but there were supposedly copious notes for how the book should end. I would love to know how much of these books is actually Jordan’s writing, and how much is Sanderson. How close does Sanderson get to Jordan’s writing, and how much of the book was written before Sanderson took over? Did Sanderson go back and edit some of Jordan’s writing to remove the overwhelmingly irrelevant detail or flesh out the characters? Did Sanderson have room to create and expand the story, or was he just breathing life into an outline?
Whatever the case, it’s a tall order for Sanderson. This series was absolutely massive – in more ways than one. It revolutionized the genre, and became a massive best selling franchise. But it was also unwieldy, ponderous, adrift, and stale. The characters were utterly devoid of any humanity under Jordan and were spread to the four winds. The world itself was more important than the story, and nothing was happening as the characters were stuck in a kind of holding pattern with little apparent consideration for what their purpose was.
The end goal of this series is Tarmon Gai’don, the Last Battle, where Rand would square off against the Dark Lord and either save humanity or oversee its destruction. But this seems an incidental, trivial thing to most of the characters. Instead of these characters looking towards their apocalyptic doom like someone battling Stage IV brain cancer, they are looking at the vague inevitability of death from the vantage point of invincible adolescence. Throughout this series, Tarmon Gai’don never achieves the doom it’s mean to portend. There are, in theory, vast hordes of Shadowspawn assembling just over the horizon….but we’re not even looking in that direction, and are instead focused on some other bullshit that doesn’t matter. The Forsaken are super-villains with nigh-unlimited power….but aren’t really doing anything to impede Rand or posing any real threat to the characters.
This series is going nowhere, and Jordan was juggling so many balls, I can’t even begin to imagine how Sanderson is going to clean all this up.
Just to give a quick rundown of where we’re at: Rand is lost. He controls numerous countries (and is even crowned King in Illian), but has no apparent plan on how to fight the Dark One. He never really even talks or thinks about it from what we see. Min is his constant companion, and she spends most of her time doing research – which we aren’t really privy to as it’s just mentioned in passing. All Rand does is fight with Lews Therin and push himself to become harder, colder, and less emotional….because he’ll be better at fighting the Dark One, somehow? I don’t know. Point is, he’s the main character, and isn’t really doing anything. He does figure out, however, that he needs to make peace with the Seanchan. They, in turn, have been left in shambles after thoroughly dominating the Western nations following their invasion back int he second book. They are deeply entrenched now, but their homeland has been utterly decimated by Semirhage (hey, look, the Forsaken can do things when it’s convenient to the story! It all happens off screen, though). The rest of the Forsaken are, and have been, largely invisible despite some vague hints at their machinations: there’s a Forsaken in Tar Valon (Mesaana), and Aran’gar is in the rebel Aes Sedai camp. Moridin is in control of Lanfear and Moghedian, though he doesn’t really have them doing anything. Graendal is in Arad Doman, manipulating the Whitecloaks and other tertiary characters. They have permission to kill Perrin and Mat – but no one is really doing anything to accomplish these goals. Seven of the most powerful people to ever live, virtual gods among men, and they do nothing of note.
But we aren’t done! Perrin has finally rescued Faile and apparently defeated the Shaido Aiel, and Faile killed Masema, ending the threat of the Dragonsworn – who were always kind of off-screen in the first place, so who cares. It’s unclear what he’s doing, where he’s going, or why he’s interesting. Mat is finally free from Ebou Dar (after being left there following Elayne and Nynaeve’s escape) and found the Daughter of the Nine Moons – who turns out to be Tuon, the heir to the Seanchan throne. Now, thanks to Semirhage killing everyone in the royal family and throwing Seanchan into chaos, Tuon is now the Empress. She and Mat marry, and then go their separate ways. Mat is (I guess) going back to join Rand? Egwene is trapped in Tar Valon and has spent a considerable part of the last book being spanked (because that’s how adult characters act in these books). Elayne is now Queen of Andor, after being kidnapped by the Black Ajah. Nynaeve drops Lan off in the borderlands to wage war against the Shadow, then begins mustering support for him (without his knowledge). Loial has left to address the Great Stump (kind of like the Ent Moot in The Lord of the Rings) in a bid to get the Ogier to fight alongside the Light in the Last Battle. Galad takes control of the Whitecloaks (after not really being present in these books) and pledges to focus the Whitecloaks on getting ready for Tarmon Gai’don instead of just randomly terrorizing everyone who disagrees with them.
Aviendha still exists, I guess. Moiraine is still set to return at some point. The Asha’man have largely been forgotten about, but Jordan seemed to hint at something finally being done with Mazrim Taim. The Sea Folk and the Kin have kind of been forgotten about, but I suppose they might have some role to play. Morgase has gotten a lot of attention in this series, for no real reason. So I suppose she’ll be important in some way. Gawyn still has some purpose (probably with Egwene and as a misguided antagonist for Rand).
I don’t know how it’s supposed to all get wrapped up. It’s like Jordan was building this massive rope while falling from the sky with the intent of finishing before he crashed into the earth, only he’s spent the entire time weaving intricate tapestries to hang from that rope and now finds himself 100 feet off the ground with nothing actually put together.
If Sanderson even come close to tying all of these loose threads into a pretty bow, it will be a miracle.
And that’s where I’m at, starting this book. I know it’s taken me over 1,200 words to simply start this review, but I’m hopefully done with my angst now. Big, deep breath now…
The Gathering Storm
….He did it. Brandon Sanderson did it. Somehow.
Not only did Brandon Sanderson make this story good, but he made Egwene’s story the centerpiece – and it worked completely. Throughout the entire book, I kept wanting to know what else was happening in the White Tower.
The starkest difference between Sanderson and Jordan is that Sanderson always seemed to start with the motivation for the characters – why they behave the way they do and what their goals are – and the narrative comes naturally from that. Jordan seemed to start from a place of what he wanted to write about (some minor cultural difference between groups, or some architectural flourish in a building, or the type of clothing people were wearing) and randomly sprinkled plot points around so that the story was still going somewhere. With Sanderson, the story is always going somewhere. The story exists. With Jordan, it simply didn’t. As narfna said in a comment to my last review, Robert Jordan was so caught up in worldbuilding that he forgot to tell the story. That perfectly sums up the problem with (most of) the first 11 books. Brandon Sanderson never loses sight of what he’s doing, and it makes a massive difference.
So much happens in this book. More, in fact, than probably happened in the last three books combined. And all of the characters are given a firm grounding that makes both believable and likable. As I said, Egwene is the star of this book, but even Perrin (who has never really been an interesting character) has his motivation laid out well enough to make him more than just wet cardboard.
Rand’s arc here is….well. The path he’s been set on is difficult. For eleven books he’s had to face the reality that he’s the Dragon Reborn, fated to fight (and die, so he thinks) the Dark One. He’s had to abandon everything he’s ever known, be feared by the entire world, rule nations and disrupt everything. A lot is put on his shoulders, and his response to this is to steel himself, emotionally. He also obsesses over every single woman who dies under his command. To top it all off, Rand has another person in his head, ranting and raving. The final result of all this is that he is becoming detached from everyone around him, sealed off from his emotions and out of touch with his own humanity. This has drawn him into an oppositional relationship with Cadsuane and the Wise Ones around him, which is played for tension, I guess. But because Robert Jordan is so incapable of writing believable and likable characters, it just makes for tedious reading.
In this book, this all comes to a head, and Rand is forced to confront his emotions. Which is good – because it (possibly – we don’t know the full outcome, yet) forces him to recognize that he can’t live that way, but it also makes him an unsympathetic character. I don’t think this is an indictment against Sanderson, though. He was constrained by the direction Jordan wanted this to go, and Sanderson grounds the character even while he’s being unsympathetic.
If Sanderson had written some of the earlier books, I fully believe he would’ve been able to lay a far stronger foundation for the actions of these characters. Considering he doesn’t, though, it’s pretty remarkable what he’s able to do. In this book, I felt their urgency. For the first time, I felt like Tarmon Gai’don was actually approaching. The chess pieces are moving. The end is nigh.
And with Brandon Sanderson at the helm, I’m actually excited to see it unfold.
4.5 stars