The Gathering Storm

I have finally arrived at the end of the series - almost. Three books left, and they're the ones Sanderson wrote after Robert Jordan died. This book begins with a note from Sanderson, explaining his process and that he wasn't trying to imitate Jordan's style so much as do right by the characters and story. And I think he did a pretty excellent job of doing just that.

This book was a big step up from the last two. It flowed a lot better. A lot of the subplots I was tired of were left behind. More importantly, Sanderson did a better job of integrating the various stories. Jordan had gotten in the habit of dividing his books by different characters, essentially writing 3 or 4 books focused on different characters and then just stapling them together. Sanderson switches between everyone more often, which makes everything feel more connected.

The best part of this book, though, was the focus on Egwene. She and Rand have the two most important story-lines in this book, so Egwene gets nearly a quarter of the chapters all to herself. It's been so much fun watching her become the complete badass she was always destined to be. This book is all about that playing out, as she gains support, defends the White Tower against a Seanchan attack, and finally becomes to one and only Amyrlin seat. I love everything about her story, and getting so much of it made this easily one of my favorite books in the series.

Rand gets his turn to shine, too. After a slow, excruciating journey away from his humanity, Rand finally gets dragged back to it rather forcefully. It takes the entire book, but his journey does a good job of laying out how and why he became such a cold-hearted bastard, and then providing hope that he'll find his way back to who he's supposed to be.

There's only two books left now, and I'm already itching to pick up the next one. It's funny to think so this late in the series, but I'm almost starting to crave even more books. I wish Jordan had lived long enough to write the prequels he had planned. And I'm also starting to suspect that I'll revisit this whole series again at some point in the future. It's an amazing world, and while the journey has been plodding at times, it's really rewarding to reach this point. I hope the next two books are as good (I've heard they are.)

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