Reviewed by thepunktheory on
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!
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 9 August, 2023: Finished reading
- 9 August, 2023: Reviewed