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A review by books_are_nice_and_enjoyable
A Memory of Light by Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan
5.0
This one took a long time to finish because I found myself simply needing a break from this story. There was never any question I'd return to it, and I did, and this was a very fine conclusion to the narrative.
I have previously criticized Sanderson for not being willing to kill off main characters, instead always finding ways to save them at the last minute/second by sometimes frankly ridiculous deus ex machina plot devices which to me tend to make the narrative lose its force and momentum; how are you to believe that the story you are reading is 'a story of life and death', that the heroes are doing 'dangerous things', if nobody important ever dies? I was worried Sanderson's efforts and involvement here, trying to help finish Jordan's masterpiece, might to some extent 'taint' the work by having Sanderson jump in and 'save everybody'. This was not so, which was very important and made the end of the story much more powerful. Sanderson did leave a heavy thumbprint on some parts of this book, but if you can disregard the occasional thinly-veiled allusions to Jesus and similar stuff then you'll most likely find this book a very enjoyable ending to Jordan's wonderful series.
I have previously criticized Sanderson for not being willing to kill off main characters, instead always finding ways to save them at the last minute/second by sometimes frankly ridiculous deus ex machina plot devices which to me tend to make the narrative lose its force and momentum; how are you to believe that the story you are reading is 'a story of life and death', that the heroes are doing 'dangerous things', if nobody important ever dies? I was worried Sanderson's efforts and involvement here, trying to help finish Jordan's masterpiece, might to some extent 'taint' the work by having Sanderson jump in and 'save everybody'. This was not so, which was very important and made the end of the story much more powerful. Sanderson did leave a heavy thumbprint on some parts of this book, but if you can disregard the occasional thinly-veiled allusions to Jesus and similar stuff then you'll most likely find this book a very enjoyable ending to Jordan's wonderful series.