A Memory Of Light: Book 14 of the Wheel of Time (Wheel of Time, #14)

by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

'And it came to pass in those days, as it had come before and would come again, that the Dark lay heavy on the land and weighed down the hearts of men, and the green things failed, and hope died.' - Charal Drianaan te Calamon, The Cycle of the Dragon. In the Field of Merrilor the rulers of the nations gather to join behind Rand al'Thor, or to stop him from his plan to break the seals on the Dark One's prison - which may be a sign of his madness, or the last hope of humankind. Egwene, the Amyrlin Seat, leans toward the former. In Andor, the Trollocs seize Caemlyn. In the wolf dream, Perrin Aybara battles Slayer. Approaching Ebou Dar, Mat Cauthon plans to visit his wife Tuon, now Fortuona, Empress of the Seanchan. All humanity is in peril - and the outcome will be decided in Shayol Ghul itself. The Wheel is turning, and the Age is coming to its end. The Last Battle will determine the fate of the world...For twenty years The Wheel of Time has enthralled more than forty million readers in over thirty-two languages. A Memory of Light brings this majestic fantasy creation to its richly satisfying conclusion.
Working from notes and partials left by Robert Jordan when he died in 2007, and consulting with Jordan's widow, who edited all of Jordan's books, established fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson has recreated the vision Jordan left behind.

• ISBN10: 1841498726
• ISBN13: 9781841498720
• Publish Date: 8 January 2013 (first published 1 January 2013)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 9 March 2017
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Orbit
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 912
• Language: English

Reviews

[thepunktheory]

Full review on my blog!


Wow. What a finale.
Remember when I kept complaining that Jordan’s novels weren’t going anywhere, that things were moving at a glacial pace? Interestingly, this last book in the series also only covers the span of a few days – the entirety of the last battle – but it never feels boring. Mind you, this book is almost a thousand pages long! I was really surprised how much of a contrast reading this was to Jordan’s final novels. We get to follow the events that unfold almost in real-time (well, close to it) while accompanying the characters we’ve grown fond of in the past 14 novels on their battlefields.

The final battle isn’t fought on just one front which means we jump between several different sites of confrontation with everybody making the last stand while Rand, the Dragon Reborn battles the Dark One over the fate of all of humanity. Considering that this is essentially close to 1,000 pages of nothing but war, fighting, and skirmishes, you’d expect things to get boring at some point. However, not once did I feel my interest wane nor did I want to put down the novel.

In fact, quite contrary to what I thought might happen, I almost couldn’t put the book down and felt like I was reading it at an incredible speed (especially when compared to how long it took me to finish some of the earlier books). Sanderson really is a gifted writer as he manages to convey what the battle feels like on so many levels. He incorporates not just the fighting but also the planning, the strategizing, the struggle with supplies, with fatigue, with coordination. There are so many moving elements to a war that you wouldn’t necessarily consider or depict in a book/movie. Well, Sanderson made sure to show us everything and it makes the story all the more fascinating.

What is also really important to the story is that the fighting feels realistic. Yes, there are some grand moments on the battlefield, but it’s very “Game of Thrones” in the sense that anything can happen and nobody is safe. Not everybody is going to make it out alive. And I don’t just mean unnamed soldier #257. So many things happen in this novel, it’s amazing!

I want to talk about a few things now that will definitely be spoilers for those who haven’t yet read any of the novels, so beware!

While I loved this book there are a couple of things I want to – not really criticize – but address. First of all, this one is probably my own fault, but because the series is so long, there are some small cogs that are turning, that move things in this final battle that I didn’t remember well. I’m saying it’s my fault because it took me a little over a year and a half to read these novels (I started the prequel on January 10th, 2022, and finished this book on September 3rd, 2023), and I read other things in between, so obviously it’s impossible to remember every detail. However, it’s definitely also in part due to the fact that somewhere in the middle Jordan’s books got boring which a) meant I wasn’t paying attention super well and b) it took me really long to get through those novels. So, when Demandred and the Sharans showed up for the final battle, I had no recollection whatsoever of the Sharans ever being mentioned before and only a vague grasp of who Demandred was. But again, this is not something that I can blame Sanderson for.

The epilogue in this felt more like just another chapter rather than an epilogue. It takes place right after the battle and we witness Rand’s funeral. Well, I would have loved an epilogue that takes place a bit after the events of the book, so we can see what the world looks like now. What are the Aiel up to now? Did Rand’s peace hold? How is the rebuilding going? Are new alliances made? What about the White Tower? Or the Black One? Are Elayne’s babes doing well? What about Malkier? Maybe Jordan didn’t leave any notes on this stuff and that’s why Sanderson ended the book the way he did, I don’t know.

As you can see, I have a lot of questions I would have loved an answer to. But it is what it is. Speaking of answers. I wish there had been more information on the Age of Legends. It gets mentioned here and there, they talk about some inventions at one point or the other, but we never get a full grasp of what this time looked like. I know that this is just me being super curious, but this is something I would have liked to read more about. You’d think that while doing so much world-building, Jordan would have found a couple more words to elaborate on this. But once more, this was not Sanderson’s job, and the final book definitely was not the place to talk about this.

[Ben Pick]

Millions of words across the series led to a mostly satisfying conclusion.

[elysium]

I'm both sad and relieved that I finished this series. Relieved because there's so many books and it took so many years to finish but also sad because there's no more!

I have to confess I've read spoilers so I pretty much who's gonna die and stuff. Bad me...

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.

[HekArtemis]

Five stars, that's not nostalgia. This is just great and I was sobbing through at least the last quarter but maybe even more. So many heartbreaking moments, but also many heart mending moments, and a couple lol moments too.

I had only read this once before, when it was first released. I remember liking it back then, but didn't remember a whole lot of what actually happened. Some big things, sure, but in several cases I misremembered things, thinking certain characters die but they actually don't, and worse, vice versa.

The last few books definitely make me glad I didn't give up on this reread. They truly are fantastic.

I don't know how good or faithful the TV show is going to be. But I hope the final season does this book justice. Imagining this book on screen... Pretty epic.