The Final Book in the Wheel of Time Wheel of Time, #14
A MEMORY OF LIGHT
Book Fourteen of THE WHEEL OF TIME®
And it came to pass in those days, as it had come before and would come again, that the Dark lay heavy on the land and weighed down the hearts of men, and the green things failed, and hope died.
From Charal Drianaan te Calamon, The Cycle of the Dragon
In the Field of Merrilor the rulers of the nations gather to join behind Rand al'Thor, or to stop him from his plan to break the seals on the Dark One's prison - which may be a sign of his madness, or the last hope of humankind. Egwene, the Amyrlin Seat, leans toward the former.
In Andor, the Trollocs seize Caemlyn.
In the wolf dream, Perrin Aybara battles Slayer.
Approaching Ebou Dar, Mat Cauthon plans to visit his wife Tuon, now Fortuona, Empress of the Seanchan.
All humanity is …
A MEMORY OF LIGHT
Book Fourteen of THE WHEEL OF TIME®
And it came to pass in those days, as it had come before and would come again, that the Dark lay heavy on the land and weighed down the hearts of men, and the green things failed, and hope died.
From Charal Drianaan te Calamon, The Cycle of the Dragon
In the Field of Merrilor the rulers of the nations gather to join behind Rand al'Thor, or to stop him from his plan to break the seals on the Dark One's prison - which may be a sign of his madness, or the last hope of humankind. Egwene, the Amyrlin Seat, leans toward the former.
In Andor, the Trollocs seize Caemlyn.
In the wolf dream, Perrin Aybara battles Slayer.
Approaching Ebou Dar, Mat Cauthon plans to visit his wife Tuon, now Fortuona, Empress of the Seanchan.
All humanity is in peril - and the outcome will be decided in Shayol Ghul itself. The Wheel is turning and the Age is coming to its end. The Last Battle will determine the fate of the world . . .
For twenty years The Wheel of Time has enthralled more than forty million readers in over thirty-two languages. A Memory of Light brings this majestic fantasy creation to its richly satisfying conclusion.
Working from notes and partials left by Robert Jordan when he died in 2007, and consulting with Jordan's widow, who edited all of Jordan's books, established fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson has recreated the vision Jordan left behind.
-From Cover Flap
This is an incredibly satisfying conclusion to the series.
There really isn't much more I can say without spoilers. If you've gotten this far you're committed, and presumeably you like the series. If so, you won't be disappointed at all by its conclusion.
Starting the new year by finishing the Wheel of Time series certainly feels like starting with quite an achievement. Having finished the series I find it hard to come to a conclusion about my opinion of the series. Above all this series is a well thought out (and carefully planned) fantasy epic. It really draws the reader into the world, and introduces many finer details that add to the experience. The authors put a lot of thought into how such a world would work. They don't settle for simplistic extensions of the world, but instead introduce many concepts and then let the ways these would be used depend on the characters in the story. Coming back to book 9 of the series, after finishing book 8 in 2015, has been a strange experience. I loved the books back then, and couldn't put them down. When I started reading again, however, …
Starting the new year by finishing the Wheel of Time series certainly feels like starting with quite an achievement. Having finished the series I find it hard to come to a conclusion about my opinion of the series. Above all this series is a well thought out (and carefully planned) fantasy epic. It really draws the reader into the world, and introduces many finer details that add to the experience. The authors put a lot of thought into how such a world would work. They don't settle for simplistic extensions of the world, but instead introduce many concepts and then let the ways these would be used depend on the characters in the story. Coming back to book 9 of the series, after finishing book 8 in 2015, has been a strange experience. I loved the books back then, and couldn't put them down. When I started reading again, however, I struggled with the many stereotypes, the one-sidedness of the of the ways characters would respond or think, and many of the details seemed confusing or irrelevant. (For example, who actually understands the different names of the sword fighting stances, and am I the only one that is confused whenever the “Demandred” and “Damodred” are used out of context?) It didn't help that the story is rather slow moving at this point in the series. On the other hand it has been a very nostalgic experience. I was often reminded of when I read the earlier books, and I've felt very much connected to the story. Since starting with book 9 I have put the Wheel of Time down a few times, but I never considered not reading it until the end.
The final book (and the last two) make up for many of the problems I had in the earlier books. The story moves along quite well, there are many curve-balls to keep the reader interested, and the whole story reaches a very satisfying conclusion. This final work find a great balance between the expectation and hope of the reader has for the characters and a sense of realism of the price that must be payed. If you've reached this book, then you are probably used to it, but the only big negative for me was the detailed chaos. Every character seems to need to be present at every point off the story, even if their role or actions have no effect on the story itself. For some characters, like some of the forsaken, I even wonder why there are introduced at all.
In conclusion, the Wheel of Time series would probably not be the first fantasy series that I would recommend to new readers. It is, however, a classic among fantasy novel for good reason. So if you can overlook some of its flaws, or don't mind them (like me when I was younger), then I would certainly recommend reading the books until the end, especially if you are already a few books in.
14 books. 11,916 pages. 684 chapters. 4,056,130 words. It took almost 23 years to write, and it took me 10 months to read it. The story is beyond epic, or as Thom Merrilin says, "exquisite". Like many of the epic series I have read (Ringworld, Dune), I am sad to be leaving all the characters. This was my first huge fantasy series (Lord of the Rings seems small compared to this series) and was a great ride. This last book was by far the funnest read. There some surprises I didn't see coming, both good and bad.
Sigh, what to do now? Back to Sci-fi? I think going into another fantasy series wouldn't be fun, since all I will do is compare it to WoT. I hear rumors of an video game. Maybe we can convince Brandon Sanderson to do a fourth age book (or two).
It's long.
It's long.
