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A review by illmunkeys
A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson
4.0
The Wheel of Time comes to a close, and it does so far better than one could usually hope for such a long running series. Sanderson definitely revitalized the series and hit nearly all the points he needed to wind everything down in a satisfactory way.
I began this series when in the 90s. Much has changed since then. I was young then. In my (finally) finishing of the series, I've decided that books 1-3 still hold most of the joy I remembered reading them then. This is pretty high praise. Most of the books I have revisited as an adult do not have this same reaction. They have faults in pacing, the paint by numbers women who for some reason pull their braids and smooth their skirts, and Robert Jordan far too frequently loves his analogies but the magic system, Moraine, and three teenagers stories are great enough to overcome those faults. I highly recommend them. In fact, you could technically read those books and have a complete beginning, middle, and end.
This is not true for books 4-11. The faults frequently overcome the story. The plot is... plodding. Robert Jordan's weakness for writing about women becomes truly problematic as more and more women join the fray but frequently do and think such thoughts that are absolutely ridiculous. I would never really recommend anyone truly read these. Tor has a section of their website dedicated to someone who read them and wrote their thoughts. That's probably a more interesting read. I bought the Path of Dagger but could not bring myself to read it. I retired the series, swearing to one day check in when it was all finished.... years then fly by.
Thankfully, the series ends on a high note. While I am saddened that Robert Jordan couldn't finish his own series Sanderson took Jordan's ideas, a bit of his writing style (but not all of it thankfully), and made something Robert Jordan probably could not have done.
I began this series when in the 90s. Much has changed since then. I was young then. In my (finally) finishing of the series, I've decided that books 1-3 still hold most of the joy I remembered reading them then. This is pretty high praise. Most of the books I have revisited as an adult do not have this same reaction. They have faults in pacing, the paint by numbers women who for some reason pull their braids and smooth their skirts, and Robert Jordan far too frequently loves his analogies but the magic system, Moraine, and three teenagers stories are great enough to overcome those faults. I highly recommend them. In fact, you could technically read those books and have a complete beginning, middle, and end.
This is not true for books 4-11. The faults frequently overcome the story. The plot is... plodding. Robert Jordan's weakness for writing about women becomes truly problematic as more and more women join the fray but frequently do and think such thoughts that are absolutely ridiculous. I would never really recommend anyone truly read these. Tor has a section of their website dedicated to someone who read them and wrote their thoughts. That's probably a more interesting read. I bought the Path of Dagger but could not bring myself to read it. I retired the series, swearing to one day check in when it was all finished.... years then fly by.
Thankfully, the series ends on a high note. While I am saddened that Robert Jordan couldn't finish his own series Sanderson took Jordan's ideas, a bit of his writing style (but not all of it thankfully), and made something Robert Jordan probably could not have done.