Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time, #13)

by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

The Last Battle has started. The seals on the Dark One's prison are crumbling. The Pattern itself is unravelling, and the armies of the Shadow have begun to boil out of the Blight. Perrin Aybara is haunted by spectres from his past. To prevail, he must find a way to master the wolf within him or lose himself to it for ever. Meanwhile, Matrim Cauthon prepares for the most difficult challenge of his life. The Tower of Ghenjei awaits, and its secrets will reveal the fate of a friend long lost. The end draws near. It's time to roll the dice.

• ISBN10: 0765328127
• ISBN13: 9780765328120
• Publish Date: 2 November 2010
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 17 March 2021
• Imprint: Tor Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 864
• Language: English

Reviews

[thepunktheory]

Full review on my blog!

To be honest, don’t have a lot to say about this novel. It’s great!

I thoroughly enjoyed every page of this which marks such a stark contrast to with the last books Jordan had penned himself that were a chore to get through. Brandon Sanderson is an incredibly gifted writer. If I hadn’t been aware that he had taken over, I probably wouldn’t even have noticed that a different writer is at it now. Yes, the books have gotten better but the first couple of novels in the series had also been great. So, it would have been easy to assume that an editor or somebody else had a stern talk with Jordan and he somehow managed to get back to his roots. This was a very longwinded way of saying that Sanderson perfectly managed to channel Jordan’s voice and writing style which certainly is not an easy thing to do.

Sanderson took this epic fantasy tale, grabbed all the different strands of the story that had been developing at a glacial pace, and started braiding them together. We’ve reached a point where the reader can finally see how it all slots together, how the different puzzle pieces are meant to interlink. Just like in the previous novel (which was also penned by Sanderson), we are making so much progress with the plot and you can really tell that the end is drawing near. I cannot help but keep comparing this to Jordan’s final books where so little happened that it felt like there would be another 20 books before the end of the story, despite the climactic events being almost around the corner.

Despite being flawed (as they should be) the characters are now people you root for. People you can imagine others following. People who really should be in the positions they are in. After being so annoyed by pretty much everybody in this story, I’m amazed Sanderson managed to accomplish this while still staying true to every one of the characters. They simply developed rather than changed overnight. It feels so organic the way Sanderson lets it unfold!

[HekArtemis]

Like The Gathering Storm, I still really like this installment of WoT, it is just so much better than the other books. Or maybe it's more that it's so much less insufferable. The women aren't anywhere near what they were like in the other books. I don't know if it's that all the women in the series suddenly went through massive character growth in between one book and another, or if it's just that Sanderson writes the women better than Jordan did. I suspect the latter, but I might be wrong.

The thing about these last few books is that they can make you suddenly like characters that you couldn't stand throughout the series. Like Galad, he was so ugh through the whole series and thankfully you barely see him in the books - then suddenly, near the end, he grows up a lot and becomes an enjoyable character. Even Faile is less unlikable - not totally likable, but less unlikable at least. And we finally get some meetings and reunions that we've been waiting 10+ books for. Mat with the acorns and badger, for example, was just wonderful. This is not to say that it's all perfect, Egwene gets a bit stupid with her need to argue with Rand. Not that she shouldn't argue with him a little bit I suppose, but it's more her reasons and methods - like most Aes Sedai it seems to come down to the idea that she is Aes Sedai therefore he should obey her. And she just acts like a child about it. So, it's like she went through this great growth arc and then backtracked again. Still, in most cases, the characters are a million times better in this book than in the first 10 or so books.

One more book to go.

I was so sad to hear that Robert Jordan had died and was wondering if the series would ever finish. I was wondering how Brandon Sanderson would do and I was pleasantly surprised at how well he did and I'm glad that the series got finished and I was able to see what happened to the characters.