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Book ReviewThe Wheel of Time – The Gathering Storm
I love the WoT series. My nickname, Ayende Rahien, is based on that series. So you can imagine how happy I was to start reading the Gathering Storm.
There are no spoilers in this post, I a going to spend some time digesting the book and then post a review about the actual details of the book.
What make this book unique is that the author was changed (the original author died), which caused a huge delay for this book and caused sever worries whatever the new author would be as good as the original.
I can tell you that I personally had not been able to figure out the original scenes vs. new author scenes. It does seems like there are less feminine clothing discussion (which I consider to be a great plus).
It is probably hard to see, but the cover art is still as bad as the previous ones, which also make me nostalgic.
This book focuses mostly on Rand, with some really interesting developments. There hasn’t been enough Rand in the last two books, so that is good. On the other hand, I could do with more Matrim scenes.
Things are moving, rushing pretty fast, actually. The book is a page turner, it is a 784 pages book that I finished in one seating, taking about 12 hours.
I can’t wait to read the rest.
More posts in "Book Review" series:
- (05 Nov 2009) The Wheel of Time – The Gathering Storm
- (11 Aug 2009) Yellow Eyes
- (24 Jul 2009) Watch on the Rhine
- (23 Jul 2009) By Heresies Distressed
- (23 Jul 2008) By Schism Rent Asunder
- (04 Oct 2007) Making Money
- (30 Sep 2007) Empire of Ivory
- (08 Sep 2007) Empire Of Man
- (01 Sep 2007) March Upcountry
- (21 Feb 2007) Programming WCF Services
- (09 Feb 2007) Windows Developer Power Tools
- (25 Sep 2006) Old Man's War
- (03 Sep 2006) His Majesty's Dragon / Throne of Jade / Black Powder War
- (30 Aug 2006) Applying Domain-Driven Design and Patterns
- (18 Aug 2006) Dzur
- (15 Aug 2006) When Darkness Falls
- (22 Apr 2006) Data Binding with Windows Forms 2.0
- (17 Oct 2005) Knife Of Dreams
- (28 Aug 2005) Working Effectively With Legacy Code
- (25 Jul 2005) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- (14 Jul 2005) Sword of Ice
- (14 Jul 2005) Vows & Honor Trilogy
- (14 Jul 2005) The Mage Storms Trilogy
- (14 Jul 2005) Winds of Change
- (10 Jul 2005) Winds of Change
- (09 Jul 2005) Winds Of Fate
- (08 Jul 2005) Burning Water
- (08 Jul 2005) By The Sword
- (06 Jun 2005) Developer To Designer
- (05 Jun 2005) The Last Herald Mage
- (01 Jun 2005) Arrow's Fall
- (01 Jun 2005) Arrow's Flight
- (27 Apr 2005) Domain Driven Desing
- (01 Apr 2005) Exile's Valor
- (18 Jan 2005) Alta
- (16 Jan 2005) Coding Slave
- (13 Jan 2005) Hibernate In Action
- (25 Oct 2004) In Search of Stupidity
Comments
You're a fast reader :) >1 page/min, very nice :)
Do you read on Kindle? Or was this an actual book?
I'm reading it at the moment and loving it. The cover in Australia is very different, it's abstract clouds with just the symbol of the wheel and the serpent biting it's tail. Much nicer, i think.
www.sciencefictionandfantasy.co.uk/.../...torm.jpg
Very nice. Is this the last one, or did they decide to break it into two? I need to pick up a copy. I loved the series up to about book 6, then it sort of went in and out for me. I agree about needing more Rand, as well as with the desire for more Matrim scenes. I think Mat is my favorite character. The Trickster is always my favorite!
Igal,
An actual book
Ryan,
There are going to be two more
I've not read any of the WOT series, but I've read Brandon Sanderson's other books - Elantris and the Mistborn series. I can say without a single reservation that all 4 of those books are fantastic, and I'm quite certain that Mr. Sanderson will become one of the premier fantasy authors of my time. If I didn't have to slog through 11 other books to get to it, I'd probably read this book just because Sanderson wrote it.
With a cover like that, a book needs really, really strong recommendations....
I've actually met Brandon Sanderson, the new writer. He teaches writing at one of the local universities. His office is only like 15 minutes from mine. :)
I also had a hard time telling the difference between Jordan and Sanderson's writing styles. So far, I really liked what I have read.
"that I finished in one seating, taking about 12 hours"
Beat ya. I finished it in 10 hours. Top that.
We read all many of the same books. I am listening to it on audio during my walking commute. LOVE IT - can't wait for the next ones. I really liked Sanderson's other books except Warbreaker - which I just finished. It had too many similarities to the Mistborn series. It was OK - not awful, but not nearly as good as the Mistborn series.
Keep up the posts on scifi books.
I'll agree with everything you said, except that I think it was obvious the Mat scenes were not written by Robert Jordan. They were just "off." Which is a shame, but not unexpected.
Ex: RJ would never use "saidared"
Finished it earlier this week. It's made me want to back and re-read them all again. I'd rate this one as one of my favorite Wheel of Time books to date.
I love that certain characters have a tendency to "sniff" in this book. I don't know why but it always felt like Mr Sanderson was winking at me when that happened.
@Brian - I agree that Mat felt a little off but I wasn't totally horrified by it.
Let the crazy theories begin and bring on the final two.
Personally I am Really frightened to read this book.....IF the new author changes even the slightest thing I'm am going to be EXTREMELY MAD.
So he doesn't talk about Feminine clothing as much as Robert did?
WEll thats a strike against him! He should try his HARDEST to write Exactly how Robert did, and not change a single thing if he can help it.
I don't think he will be half the author Robert was so he shouldn't change anything as it will take away from Roberts amazing final book.
This is Roberts series and it should be finished just like he would have done it himself.
Katie,
I really liked it.
It was pretty obvious that the first parts (prologue, etc) were written by Robert Jordan, and there were fillers (Mat, etc.) which probably were written by the second guy. One of the things I liked about Jordan was that he didn't write like an American... I mean, the word "asset" appearing in the book was just plain awful. (I am thankful that the story was continued and all, but, C'mon... "asset" ??)
I hope that the other fragments of book 12 would contain more Jordan jewels and less filler-stuff... not to mention less pedantic wordiness in the conversation between characters ... Mat was particularly unnatural...
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