Rating: A
Description: "The Last Battle has started. The seals on the Dark One’s prison are crumbling. The Pattern itself is unraveling, and the armies of the Shadow have begun to boil out of the Blight...It is time to toss the dice"
Length: 864 pages of Hardcover (no ebook for 1 more year)
Overview: This is the most hotly anticipated book of the year (currently on a number of Amazon Bestseller Lists)! As the penultimate book in the Wheel of Time series, Towers of Midnight is about a lot of things, but there are two main focuses here - Tying off several hanging stories and prophecies, AND bringing all the required players to the site of the Final Showdown. A very fast-paced novel, there were very few moments that I could bear to put this book down (I read till 4 AM!)
Plus: A lot of resolutions, several plot-lines were tied up nicely. Rand was more of 'hidden' character in this book. Not to say that he didn't have a lot to say and do, but Rand came in at pivotal moments in other character's stories and changed the game. We didn't see too many Rand POV chapters, if I recall. Still, the phenomenal amount of work he got done in this manner! Perrin, not one of my fav characters, had one of the key Moments of Awesome in the book - and it was about time!!
Brandon's writing has really improved from his previous work on the series (The Gathering Storm). His ability to enter a character's personality and write multiple timelines is clearly growing, and hopefully will hit the sweet spot in the Final novel.
Minus: While this peeve is not about the actual book itself, it is more of a publisher gripe - why is the ebook being released one year after the hardcover? Not sure what the logic is. People do get used to reading on the Kindle, and especially for long, heavy books like this, I would have loved to be able to have the ebook option.
The focus clearly was on timelines, plots and resolving several open threads. Brandon had to hustle to be able to fit it all in and bring the diverse characters upto speed. I don't blame him for this, and I know he is able to write thrilling, deep characters, as we saw in The Way of Kings.
Overall: A very, very, strong setup for the finale - The Last Battle.
You will like this if: You are a high/epic fantasy reader, or like anything by George R. R. Martin, Steven Erikson, Robert Jordan. If you have read Brandon Sanderson's books, this is for you. If you haven't picked up the series yet, what better time than now? The next and final book is coming, and you have 13 books to go for entertainment..Unlike poor souls like me who waited 15 years for the complete series and The Last Battle.
Buy from Amazon: by Jordan's, Sanderson's Towers of Midnight (Hardcover) (2010) (Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time))
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New to the series? Read my review of the entire series here.
My detailed analysis of the last book, The Gathering Storm, is here.
Watch the Trailer for Towers of Midnight here:
Trailer - Towers of Midnight (a.k.a Most Anticipated Book of the Year)
Trailer - Towers of Midnight (a.k.a Most Anticipated Book of the Year)
awesome review!! i've seen these around a lot!
ReplyDeleteYou're always introducing me to books I've never seen before...this sounds awesome! Thanks for bringing it to my attention, Deepali! :)
ReplyDeleteI haven't read any books of this series yet but I have read different opinions...as I liked the books of George R.R.Martin I might be tempted...on the other hand 13 parts and still a work in progress? Goodness, what this man thinks he is writing? The longest series in the world? Small wonder you don't remember the plot of the first ones (yes, I had a glance at your other review).
ReplyDeleteI really need to heed your advice and get stuck back into these. I keep meaning to get to The Gathering Storm but..I don't know! I think I decided to read one of Sanderson's other series so I could get used to his writing first. Although maybe that will confuse me...aargh!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDelete@anachronist - The series is nearly done, so go ahead and jump in! The final book will be out around when you finish 12 books here :)
@Lit Addicted Brit - Oh, reading another of Sanderson's books is a great idea. I did the same thing cause I was more or less going off the series ;). You can try to find Mistborn, or The Way of Kings.
I've decided that I'm going to have to read this series from the beginning now that we are getting to the final books. I was reading this series and another one as they came out and they were both so epic I was starting to get confused. I think reading them straight through so I can keep track of it all is going to be the better option for me!
ReplyDeleteOne of the books I've been waiting for. :-)
ReplyDelete