THE GATHERING STORM: Initial Thoughts (caution!!! May be SPOILERS!)

[Clansman]

Well, tomorrow's the day! We get the first posthumous installment of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, The Gathering Storm. My Favourite Local Bookstore has a copy reserved for me, which I will pick up right after work, and then start reading after I put my kids to bed tomorrow night.

What do you think? Is Sanderson rescuing this series? Is he destroying it? Is it more of the same? Is Rand taking up break dancing?

 

[Talysia]

I just got back from town with my copy (the only one left on the shelf, and at a discount because of a storewide special offer), so I'll be reading through it this afternoon. I'll post up my opinions in a bit, but from what I've read on Dragonmount, it looks good, and there are some surprises in store!

And yes, I was trying to avoid spoilers before, but it proved a bit too difficult!

 

[Perpetual Man]

I'm sitting under a dark cloud as it looks like my copy is going to be delayed by the postal strike... bah.

I was slightly worried about another author finishing the job, but have managed to get hold of some of Sanderson's own stuff and have been blown away by it, so I'm very hopeful.

Finished my current book last night, so now sitting, working but waiting... waiting...

 

[Shingetsu]

Got my copy earlier today. Here are my thoughts:

When I go hunting (joking) I will not bring a rifle, a bow and arrows, or anything at all. I will find the largest bear in the world and set out after him with the greatest weapon of all: The Gathering Storm hardcover book. I will brain that bear into submission with the 500 pound book.

Seriously though, this is the largest hardcover book I own. Maybe the other WoT hardcovers were like this too, I don't know since mine were all paperback. I read the series two years ago not that long after I first started reading (Feist, then Goodkind, then Jordan).

The only problem is that I don't remember everything anymore. I thought about re-reading the series, but I just have way too many new books/series to read right now. I did find a website that had two sentence chapter summaries for all the books, but then didn't feel like reading those. I hope I can wing it and be all right.

 

[Clansman]

Got my copy today. It's a big 'un, but not as big as Martin's Storm of Swords or Wurts' US hardback of Ships of Merior that grace my shelves. It would be serviceable as a doorstop, nevertheless.

The reviews are coming in favourably, in that Sanderson has cut down on the braid pulling and the arms folded under breasts, etc. I have seen 3.5 stars from some fairly critical reviewers, which is a big improvement on the last several books. It will be a tough job to reign in this story that has gotten so out of control.

I'm in four chapters, and I already like how one annoying plot line has been tidily eliminated in the Prologue. A few more axed neatly like that, and my faith in the quality of this series will be restored.

 

[IlliferThePenniless]

I'm about 500 pages in and it seems clear that Sanderson maniac focus on tight plotting is more or less exactly what this series needed. Mat seems less fun though, which is too bad but totally worth it as the women all seem considerably less annoying then they've been for a while.

 

[Shingetsu]

I'm only 140 pages into the book, I'm a slow reader. But so far it seems pretty good, the writing style seems to fit well.

I could have went and got the book signed by Brandon Sanderson today, but didn't feel like spending the time doing it. Maybe I'll go next year.

 

[Talysia]

I finished it last night, and I was really pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed it - it's a vast improvement on the previous installments, and it's finally getting back on track. A lot of storylines were tidied up, and there were some pretty surprising revelations, too. I won't go into too many details until more people have read it, but here are a few of my favourite moments:

Egwene standing up to Elaida
Cadsuane and Semirhage
Siuan and Gareth Bryne
The reunification of the White Tower
Rand meeting Tam
and finally, Verin's revelation. That was one of the biggest surprises for me.

It was really odd to read all of Rand's PoVs, though. Seeing how dark and brutal he'd become (his conversation with Nynaeve, regarding Lan, for example) was quite an eye-opener. Conversely, I actually enjoyed Egwene's PoVs - I hadn't really liked her, up until Knife of Dreams.

I haven't read anything by Brandon Sanderson up until now, but I think I'll look for his other works if this is anything to go by. The story was a lot tighter, and whilst there were a few moments that didn't seem to fit with RJ's original (Mat's dialogue, for example), I thought it was more than a worthy addition to the series.

 

[IlliferThePenniless]

Talysia-

Sanderson's other stuff is good, the Mistborn trilogy is a lot of fun. He's a very careful plotter who ties things up really well (sometimes too tidily I think) but he's a perfect fit for a series that had started to stagnate like this...

I enjoyed this one a lot. And it showed a willingness to start tying things up that gives me hope for the next two.

That said, some quick thoughts... Spoilers


~Egwene was pretty much awesome throughout. It's really refreshing to have someone in this series know what the hell they're doing doing. Somebody over on dragonmount called it competency porn and I think that's exactly right.
~Semirhage breaking didn't really feel earned to me. The idea was right, not breaking her through pain but through humiliation (how very aiel), but one session hardly seemed enough.
~Everything about Verin was awesome... Where do you think those other others letters are headed? Once again, it was nice to see somebody just lay their cards on the table rather then keeping a bunch of pointless secrets.
~How long has it been since Perrin did anything interesting. I couldn't stand the rescuing Faile story line and now he's just as mopey...
~Matt seemed off, a little too jokey, zombie town was a little stupid, but I imagine we'll all be back to loving him in the next book, which I imagine will be largely about him.
~I wish they'd just rescue Moirane already, I've been waiting eagerly for Matt to meet back up with the Finns and her to come back since FoH.

 

[Noob1ett]

I've decided that a time machine would be very useful right now, so i could finish the dang series! I enjoyed it immensly, but see where the next book at least will have to cover alot of ground to meet where everyone can be ready for the Last Battle in the final book. But I soooo cannot wait for that to happen.

 

[murphy]

Finished it last night and absolutely loved it. Really looking forward to the next installment next year.

 

[Niolani]

I just got it today and was pleasantly surprised that they are splitting it into 3 rather than have a huge rush in the plot to jam it into i physical book. (I've been dealing with hectic motherhood so I haven't been round the sci-fi traps for quite a while).

I feel that it's been true to Jordan's style, I can't really tell that someone else has been involved. By coincidence I was already rereading the whole series until yesterday so I have fresh rememberance on all the other tomes.

I personally find the constant leaping about of POVs annoying, a lot of the chapters are too short as well IMO. In it's defense, it's probably that way in the effort of showing everything in a parrallel timeline so it/the characters can all come together nicely at the end without any time lapse.

I'm only half way through ATM so I'm looking forward to coming back here and picking over it.

 

[Shingetsu]

I just finished it. I thought it was a great book. It was a bit dissapointing not to have as much Mat and Perrin, but I personally found the stuff going on with the White Tower the most interesting. The stuff with Rand did start to get pretty annoying, but of course it was all worth it at the end of the book.

 

[Clansman]

I'm about half way through, and can happily say that this builds nicely on Knife of Dreams, and is a vast improvement over the dragging of books 7-10. VAST IMPROVEMENT.

 

[Graendal]

I have enjoyed the book, struggled to put it down. I was happy with the way it was written. I think Brendan Sanderson has done an excellent job.

It is going to be a very long wait until the next one.

 

[Niolani]

I've finished it now.


As part of the series, I thought it was really good though it still had that kind of rushed feeling to it, I think Jordan originally made the whole thing too intricate so I think there are a lot of little questions that will end up unanswered in the effort to get the series done.

I wasn't surprised about Verin, in TGH, she'd told Ingtar's group that Moiraine had sent her but Moiraine said she didn't, so Verin had lied. I was surprised at Sheriam though.

I too felt Semirhage's breaking was too quick, I just can't see how one spanking would defeat such a character as she. I also felt her destruction and Graendal's was too quick, but maybe after bringing 4 Forsaken back that had been knocked off, there were too many (9) still running around to waste more time dramatically dealing out their end.

Masema's end was too simple and lacked drama IMO, considering how long he'd been plaguing everyone.

I still have trouble with Siuan going from such a strong, determined women to a bit of a fool, ruled by her temper and being flustered over a man. But then, ever since the Aes Sedai all went from mysterious and always composed women to easily flustered women who throw up and faint all over the place from small things, I have been annoyed. I don't think they should have been made so "normal", actually weaker than normal, there is not much mention of other peoples swooning all over the place.

And Elaida got her just desserts. The main problem I have with her is that she's been poisoned by Padan Fain/Mordeth. So if previous books are to believed, she is a danger to anyone because of the taint that's in her and she can taint others. Look what she did to the White Tower. Doesn't it stand to reason that the taint of Aridhol is in a lot of the Aes Sedai now and can keep growing? Or will that never come up again?

At least there wasn't much hair pulling or huffing and sniffing.

Is anyone else irritated by Tuon/Fortuna? It'll be interesting to see how she is dealt with.

 

[Clansman]

Welcome, Graendal. Actually, the wait won't be long. The next two books are to be released in the fall of 2010 and 2011 respectively. Sanderson is a serious workaholic (and much of those books are already written), so there is no reason to not believe the release dates.

 

[Graendal]

Thanks Clansman I would like to think they were released early. But I will wait patiently.

 

[Talysia]

Thanks for the recommendation, Illifer - I'll be checking out some of Brandon's other works as soon as I can.

I must admit, Niolani, I was a bit irritated by Tuon/Fortuona, too. Really looking forward to Towers of Midnight now, to see how things continue to come together (not to mention, to solve a few mysteries - like Verin's letters).

Welcome to the Chronicles, Graendal!

 

[IlliferThePenniless]

Talysia-

Do you think that Verin had more letters for more people, I kind of assumed that she had multiple letters depending on who she ended up meeting and how that meeting went... Or maybe she just made up the whole story about getting stuck waiting...

I've been waiting for Matt's return to the Finns for like 6 books now, and I'm assuming we'll finally see in ToM. Finally.