Whew! I'm worn out. Sanderson really hit his stride with this one. The 'voice' of the story seems like Jordan, but Sanderson's influence has really added to the story. ( )

Fantasy

Not totally sure how I feel about this one. Parts of it I really enjoyed. And it's engaging and well written. Sanderson definitely figured out his pacing better here than in The Gathering Storm.

But. All the heavy-handed Rand=Jesus stuff is really boring and unoriginal. The tech and such from Aviendha's visions of the future felt too much like the Alloy of Law Mistborn books (also by Sanderson) making me wonder if maybe he's a bit short on ideas which isn't great considering he's started his own 10 part epic fantasy series in the Stormlight Chronicles... idk. I'm still looking forward to seeing how this all ends. But I'm also more resolute than ever in my stance of never recommending this series to anyone and actively discouraging from reading it those who ask me about it specifically. There's better uses of ~12,000 pages worth of reading time. ( )

http://pro-libertate.net/20120103/180-read-towers-midnight ( )

The epiphany achieved by Rand, the Dragon Reborn, at the climax of the last volume returns humility and humanity, as well as nobility and empathy, to his character. After so many volumes where the boy we first met in the small rural village of Emond's Field in volume one we became so dour and dark, this "lightening" (enlightening) of his character is like opening a window and letting fresh air into the story. It is a challenge to engage a reader when your protagonist, your "hero," becomes so unlikeable and/or is suffering so painfully for more than one or two million words of your story. The many story threads sustained over the last twelve doorstop volumes begin to come together in preparation for the series climax in the next and final volume. Sanderson, working from Jordan's notes and outlines and guided by Jordan's wife and WOT team, has written a near-seamless continuation that entertains, contents, and builds anticipation (and hope -- which has been long-lacking) for the series climax. The lighter tone and tenor of this book as, paradoxically, the story world grows darker and more threatening and hopeless, reaffirms Tolkien's own assessment in his "On Fairy Tales" -- contrary to Martin's grimdark "A Song of Ice and Fire" -- that:

"... the 'consolation' of fairy-tales has another aspect than the imaginative satisfaction of ancient desires: ... the Consolation of the Happy Ending. Almost I would venture to assert that all complete fairy-stories must have it. ... I ... call it Eucatastrophe. The eucatastrophic tale is the true form of fairy-tale, and its highest function. ... It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat.

... It is the mark of a good fairy-story, of the higher or more complete kind, that however wild its events, however fantastic or terrible the adventures, it can give to child or man that hears it, when the “turn” comes, a catch of the breath, a beat and lifting of the heart, near to (or indeed accompanied by) tears, as keen as that given by any form of literary art, and having a peculiar quality."

A final note, my assumption in my "review" of the previous volume that the sudden marked decrease in aphorisms suggested where Jordan's words ended and Sanderson's began is proven erroneous in this present text (as demonstrated in my "COMMENTS" below). ( )