Towers of Midnight
Ratings305
Average rating4.5
4.00/5.00 “Al dival al kiserai, al mashi!”, For light, glory and love! “Tai'daishar!” True Blood of Battle! “Carai manshimaya Tylin. Carai an manshimaya Nalesean. Carai an manshimaya ayend'an!” Honor of my blade for Tylin. Honor of my blade for Nalesean. Honor of my blade for the fallen.
Towers of Midnight, the penultimate volume of the Wheel of Time. This book reveals the mind bending, earth-shattering secret of this story. The horror of the Wheel of Time surfaces in one unholy scene. I will never forget reading this scene. It will forever remain one of the greatest worldbuilding moments of all time, in all of fantasy.
I wish I could declare this book as a masterpiece, but it is very far from it. Rand's plot is glory, shocking and amazing. Nynaeve's plot is very good and results in spectacular character development, wowza!
While Perrin's character development is good, consistent and does finally come to an end, the plot is not as engaging as the other stories in this book. I found myself hoping it will come to an end and I can move on to Rand, Mat and Nynaeve. So much of the Perrin plot lines are low quality compared to other plot lines in the Wheel of Time. Perrin's story started so well, with the Shadow Rising, but his character got stuck at the same place for a dozen books. Perrin's abilities were not developed in these books. And suddenly, his ability just rockets forward beyond others. This is a missed opportunity.
Overall a great read.
Emotional Impact -> Rand, Nynaeve great. Aviendha's Aiel scene is beyond awesome. Elayne sucks, Perrin is boring, predictable and stupidly out of place for a penultimate book. Egwene's anti-Mesaana plot is not good. Mixed, so mixed.... Still throwing a higher score for the good parts of the book. That prologue short story of Borderlander boy coming of age was fire!Characters -> Perrin's character arc concludes well. Gawyn-Egwene's arc is not bad. Rand's journey delights. Nynaeve's arc is great. Nynaeve is shaping up as my second fav to Rand. Egwene and mat follow. Nynaeve is so unique, so real, so interesting. I love her. You show them how to be Aes Sedai girl.Plot -> So weak here. I do not care about Elayne. I didn't care much for Moiraine's return, since the rescue was done very poorly. Lost opportunity on the Finn worldbuilding. Egwene is not good. Perrin is okay at best. I am going with a slightly higher score, as I am looping in the greatness of the worldbuilding moments (marginally) into the plot score. And because all these side-quests are over. Prose -> Its okay. No great standout lines. Well written dialogue for Rand and NynaeveWorldbuilding -> I was shaking in this revelation. The Aiel! The Seanchan! I want to burn all the Seanchan to the dust of history. The wheel has damned the Aiel to this horrible fate!! Save us Aviendha! Save us Lord Dragon! There will be no peace with the slavers! There will be no peace to those who commit genocide. NO NO NO NO NO this cannot be the fate of the Aiel! Great Rand moments! Rand Sedai! Great Egwene meeting with the women channelers! Perfect worldbuilding.
This is yet another great book in the serie, but left me a bit conflicted at the same time. Sanderson had the difficult job to tie up a lot of loose ends and it's when you read this book that you realize just how many of them there are. This means that this book sometimes focusses on boring characters that don't really matter or world building elements that were forgotten for 8 books.
However, there are many genius moments that made me hold my breath and some of those loose ends were really satisfying to see tied up. Everything is set up nicely for, what can't be anything other than, a grand and spectacular finale.
I can't believe there's only one book left! This one was excellent. I wish Brandon Sanderson had written all the books. On to the last!
This book was awesome. So many great scenes, such good character development and moments for every character. I read most of this book in two days because I just couldn't stop. It would easily be a 10/10 but the last chapter is one of the dumbest things of all time and even being spoiled on it early didn't stop me from hating it.
So 9/10, Robert Jordan shouldn't have been allowed to write romances by legally binded contracts
3.5/5
A lot happening, and mostly set-up for The Final Battle. There are a few gems in the opening chapters, then a lot of trudging. This is mostly due to Sanderson having to wrap the less interesting characters and storylines after the awesome story of TGS. The ending is strong, but I'm way more excited for the next book now that all the pieces are finally in place. 13 books (and a novella)! 13 months baby. Will finish The Wheel of Time by the end of November hopefully.
3.5
Nothing is more annoying than 3 chapters in a row of various characters doing their best Jon Snow “I do not want it” impressions. So over it, just accept your destiny that you're clearly skilled at and made for and eventually going to do anyway you idiots! Luckily that part short lived and things keep moving along nicely.
Perrin was the star of the show, finally getting back to being fun. Matrim continues his brutal suffering at the hands of Sanderson with a couple of multiple book plotlines tied off in a weirdly short time.
As far as I can see without having done book 14, this book also has one of the most unnecessary “you thought they died but they're actually alive” plot threads I've ever seen in my life.
The penultimate volume of this epic series really does feel like it. Brandon Sanderson is tying up plot lines and getting the remaining ones closer. The first half is somewhat slow, and latter half picks up the pace quite suddenly. It just feels like feet dragging earlier on, and then as the page count increases, things suddenly get resolved, sometimes too quickly.
The bulk of this volume is focused on Perrin, Mat, and Elayne. Their plot lines get wrapped up and their time lines finally get to catch to Rand's and Egwene's. All three get a lot of character development and I find myself finally “understanding” Perrin better as he struggles against machinations in both the real world and dream world. He still keeps mentioning Faile in just about every monologue that he gets.
Mat's chapters are fun to read as always, but the payoff, i.e. the Tower of Ghenjei, for the build-up the entire novel was pretty weak - it was over a bit too quickly compared to the build-up, and the nobody else knows what he has done yet, so it wasn't very satisfying.
Elayne's chapters were not fun at all. She came across as both a snobby queen and a spoiled brat - which she is I guess, but it just felt a bit overdone compared to when she was actually working alongside Egwene and Nynaeve. But then again, I didn't quite like Elayne's character anyway.
Some other things worth mentioning...
Aviendha's few chapters were really interesting. I really liked the way it was presented
Didn't quite like how Egwene just flat out opposes Rand. I guess that's just what the plot line needed, but still... a bit more POV from her would've helped rationalise it.
The Forsaken were absolutely pathetic in this book though. Gone was that feeling of dread and terror when it came to them. Egwene's much-hyped encounter with Mesaana was over too suddenly, and Graendal's scheming was just... amateurish.
The few Black Tower chapters (I liked them) that came towards the end made me think something is finally happening there, but they ultimately ended up nowhere. Just more set up for the next book.
Well, all in all, I'm glad that things are finally moving towards the end. I guess this book is the “wrap up” book, where Brandon Sanderson just brings all the individual subplots together to get ready for the final book. Too bad that's really all this book is. There isn't much in the way of a “big finale” here. I was kinda expecting a “first strike by the Shadow” battle to conclude this book darkly or an epic confrontation between all the forces of the Light to unite them all, or something. But guess that's all in the last book. And for a book titled the Towers of Midnight, it doesn't really haven't anything to do with said towers.
I have enjoyed this series so far, thoughit does seem repetitive especially every time it reintroduced a new character. Also it was prone to what I feel where sections of filler where they didn't really advance the story.
This one rivals Crossroads as my favorite of the series. I know I say they keep getting better, but I can't help it, it's totally true. I'm shocked how quickly I read through this. It's a bitter sweet feeling to know that now I will be starting the final book in my beloved series. I'm not sure how I am going to cope. The husband and close friends have been warned of the eventual fallout I'll go through.
This book perfectly sets up everything for the finale ending! A few more storylines are resolved, especially involving Perrin. It wasn't as fast-paced as The Gathering Storm, but it was still a page-turner with some great plot twists.
This is one and a half books bound under a single cover.
But, also, this is the book I've been waiting for: It's when everyone just has the simple conversations they should have had at least six books ago.
Having the talented Brandon Sanderson on your team is a big plus, the second book on this awesome team up, and story is getting near the end, everything from the pacing, actions of every character, even the villains!!!!
It has been nearly two years since I read The Gathering Storm, I have missed the different personalities be they the heroes or the villains, as usual being the heroes they seek to unite themselves to have a better chance at Tarmon Gai'don, and being the avatars of evil, treachery is in the air, sometimes being evil means you are always alone, always looking over your shoulder, always sizing up your nearest competition!!!!
Rand still as strong as ever, but a change has come upon him, now he accepts everything that happens and does not seek to undo it, Perrin the lone wolf(ahhhh pun not intended)finally accepts the reality that he is one of the better commanders in this Final Battle, no more whining of “I am a not a lord, only a blacksmith” and of course who does not love the pain in the butt and always ducking his head after doing something audacious Matrim or Mat, it so refreshing to see them so experienced and acting like the heroes that they are and legends to be, normally I try to find a middle ground regarding this story and try to highlight or put a spotlight on the villains, unfortunately everything is backstab here, envy there, and so forth and on, there were twelve chosen now they are down to 4 plus Moridin, if these were my opponents, I would wait and let them kill each other saves me the trouble and the energy that I will need in taking down the Dark One!!!! We still have Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve, Gawyn, Galad and Bashere, Tuon and the Seanchan, the Black Ajah, the Asha'man so many figures, but so little story to tell!!!!
And so it comes the end of An Age, Tarmon Gai'don, and every one is waiting at the fields of Merrilor!!!!
Smaller “moments of awesome” than TGS but just as satisfying.
update 7/10/12: WTF was I thinking the first time?! There were so many moments of awesome in this book that it blows TGS out of the water.
Robert Jordan had elf boeken geschreven, en hij was van plan om de hele reeks af te maken in één laatste boek. Dat was, had ik begrepen, ook in eerste instantie de instructie voor Brandon Sanderson: maak de reeks af, hier zijn de notities, op één boek moet dat zo ongeveer lukken.
Ik had er lange tijd geen flauw idee van hoe Jordan ooit aan het idee gekomen was dat hij op één boek die hele Wheel of Time af zou krijgen, maar nu ben ik er wel achter. Hij zou het waarschijnlijk gewoon afgehaspeld hebben met een aantal statische scènes.
Niet zo Sanderson. Hij maakt er drie boeken van, en dat is geen maar nét genoeg. In boek dertien nog minder fluff dan in boek twaalf, nog meer diepgang in de personages: daar kruipt ook tekst in. Kwalitatief veel betere tekst, en veel aangenamer om te lezen tekst dan hele riemen over allerlei karakters die ruzie maken en kledij glad strijken.
Want godzijdank: de hoofdpersonages hebben ondertussen zo ongeveer allemaal aanvaard dat ze wel degelijk belangrijk zijn en géén normale mensen. En ze hebben van de weerbots andere emoties dan vijftig tinten boos zijn op mekaar.
De wereld zit degelijk in mekaar, maar met de twee laatste boeken is toch wel erg pijnlijk duidelijk dat dit een fantastische serie had kunnen zijn met dit verhaal in handen van een betere schrijver dan Jordan.
Zucht.
Bloody hell! How does he do it? Brandon Sanderson, its a pleasure to be living in this age! Robert Jordan set very high standards and it to step into those boots to complete the franchise is a burden as heavy as a mountain. And what does Brandon do? He outstrips anything written so far by keeping tightly to Roberts characters but adding much more highpoints and conclusions within each book. Towers of Midnight is littered with so many gems that you get goosebumps every 2 chapters and that is bloody brilliant writing. The Taveran are the center of all the action and its Mat once again who emerges by far the coolest. So many of the open loop holes of the past are closed and you know that many more will get their due in the final book. The glaring omit is the Black Tower but I am sure that is for later. All in all my dreams are filled with this world and I need to finish this and look back at what has been a phenomenal 2 months of going where the Wheel wills!
Executive Summary: While I feel like [b:The Gathering Storm 1166599 The Gathering Storm (Wheel of Time, #12) Robert Jordan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442815923s/1166599.jpg 1920889] moved at a rapid pace, this one suffered a little bit from moving some pieces around, but nothing like the middle books of the series, and the end was fantastic.Audiobook: Another fantastic job by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. They're what's made this reread not only possible for me, but even more enjoyable.Full ReviewDuring my original read of this series, I found this book to be the weakest of those written by [a:Brandon Sanderson 38550 Brandon Sanderson https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1394044556p2/38550.jpg]. That doesn't mean it was bad, far from it. I just didn't love it as much as the other two books.This book has two huge highlights for me. The first is that Perrin is no longer annoying me. In fact his story is now where I thought it was going to be a few books ago. Perrin was my favorite character for most of the early books on my original read, and this book finally brings his storyline back to a really enjoyable place for me.The other major, highlight was Mat's story. Mat became my favorite later on in the series, and has remained so throughout my entire reread. I've been eagerly awaiting the events of this book since I first started my reread a year ago.But Mat and Perrin weren't all I enjoyed here. First there is Lan, whose long been a favorite secondary character, who gets an opportunity to shine here. In addition I found much of Egwayne and Rand's stories enjoyable.The parts that dragged more for me where anything to do with Elayne or her brothers. Gawyn especially, but Galad isn't much better. I still find them all pretty insufferable, even when they are doing remarkable things.Overall this is a pretty solid entry and sets things up nicely for the final book. I had planned to jump into that right away, but the timing didn't quite work out. I will be finally finally this reread soon however, and even though I know how it ends, I can't wait.
Sanderson continues to hold his own with this series. Really looking forward to seeing the next book.
I love how the pace speed up along the book and how all the characters sem to come together.
The only bad thing is I've trouble keeping track of all the characters, specially the Forsaken with their multiple names;
And I've to wait around 9 months for the last book to be published
This was the 13th book in this series, and I have been reading them off and on for the past four years. There is one more book to come out, I think later this year?, and every book has been leading up to it. The original author, Robert Jordan, died a few years ago. I have to be honest - his ghost writer is a FAR better writer. I have loved the two he's written more than the previous 11. This one was the best of the series so far. I'm glad I pushed through :-) It's been worth it!