I still have the last few remaining to go, but damn that was one long, brilliant emotional rollercoaster. I felt Sanderson got a little lost in the weeds at points of this book overall; however, this book within a book (chapter lol) was spectacularly paced from beginning to end.

Egwyne: Once she became Amyrlyn I found her story trite and boring. No not as boring as the Elayne stuff, but boring in an oversold her power and toughness way. This sendoff though made it all worth it. Yes I think they could've expressed her fortitude more deftly in previous books, but the way he wrote her sacrifice was stunning.

Lan: One of the best characters of the entire series had an absolute epic finale. To end this exhausting chapter like that was powerful. fricking pimp!

With that said I thought the Suan and Brenn deaths were throwaways and deserved more care and attention. Same goes for the others that died. Gawan is the exception; his and Galad scenes were good.

Question: Where was Tom during all of this? There's so much to process I am sure I missed something somewhere. Morraine is with Naineve and Rand, but I never saw anything about Tom anywhere. Does anyone remember where he was before this chapter started?

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Posted by auyushu

Surprise, AZ

Member since Jan 2011

9972 posts

Posted on 2/25/22 at 12:02 pm to Midget Death Squad

quote:
Where was Tom during all of this?

He's sitting outside guarding the cave watching the last battle happen. He kills Jeane Caide (black ajah) at one point when she is trying to impersonate Cadsuane and sneak past.

The final book is solid overall, but has a ton of weak points, mainly the ultimate ending of numerous characters and the lack of epilogue action. But some of that is understandable since he was planning on continuing to write Matt and Tuon stories next.

And I agree about Siuan, that whole love story storyline wound up being pointless.

And yeah, the Lan vs Demandred fight was freaking fantastic.

And agreed on Egwene. Her white tower ascension is one of the highlights of the series, but in the last two books she is insufferable, though her ending is good.

This post was edited on 2/25/22 at 12:16 pm

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