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A review by ethancf
A Memory of Light by Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan
5.0
Looking back at my previous reviews for this series, I've never quite been able to put into words what these books mean to me, or why I kept reading them. Early on, I think I felt taken hostage by them, and eventually I reached a point of no return due to sunk cost. The last book was worth it, people said.
It's also worth noting that I read The Eye of the World at one of the lowest points of my life. I say this not to say that The Wheel of Time saved my life (it did not), but to begin to paint the outer edges of just how ingrained into me parts of these books are. In those days I would wander around my neighborhood with headphones in, listening to Kramer and Reading narrate this fantasy world. I'd get home and listen to it as I fell asleep. I think it took me something like a week to get through the climax as I kept drifting off. In fact, I drifted off frequently during the course of reading these 14 volumes, I won't lie. When I inevitably re-read these (not for many years), I know that there will be many things that I read for the first time: new bits of information that I overlooked the first round, new pieces of foreshadowing, entire characters (2,784 named characters live in these books). Part of that is the strength of Jordan's writing and his knack for planning. Part of it is also the weakness of Jordan's writing and his insistence on mind-numbing detail.
So, what do these books mean to me? I don't recommend them without heavy qualifiers, I read most of them out of spite and stubbornness. Yet I did find that at the end of every book, I felt warmly towards it, even if I'd hated it at the time (save Path of Daggers. That book sucked.). Why? I find Jordan's writing infurating, though I do find his prose remarkable. What do I actually like about these books? It’s not just that after hours of inane detail, there’s a fantastic action setpiece that makes it all worth it. It’s not just that the characters are fun, developed, and well written. It’s all of that and more. It’s that even at its most dreadfully boring, it all feels intentional. It’s the most well-realized world I’ve encountered in fiction. Every moment, no matter how hair-pulling, repetitive, dull…it’s a world that is believed in. That is made real. Jordan sells every single moment of fantasy. And when Sanderson takes over? Well, that’s the difference.
Sanderson is writing a fantasy novel. A great fantasy novel, maybe one of the best. But Jordan believed in every word he wrote. He made it real.
Now, book 14 itself. It’s a thunderous climax, though at roughly 900 pages, not without its own dull moments. That said, literally a quarter of the book is taken up by one single chapter, the climactic Last Battle that we’ve been building towards for hundreds and hundreds of pages and over a dozen books. There are a ton of character payoffs, moments that will make you cheer and weep in equal measure. There are so many plot threads introduced in early books that for ages I was wondering why they weren’t resolved back in the doldrums of the middle books, but to have everything come to a head now made it all worth it. I enjoy long-form storytelling because when those payoffs hit, they are tremendous rewards. There are few series that have accomplished that as well as Sanderson and Jordan pull off here.
I like Sanderson a lot but his prose is definitely more workmanlike than Jordan’s. He’s a storyteller more than he is a writer, a worldbuilder more than a novelist, in my opinion. That said, if there’s one thing he writes really well, it’s epic battle sequences. The Last Battle is some of the best writing from Sanderson I’ve ever read. It’s an exhausting chapter - around 200 pages and nearly 12 hours on audio - but it’s brilliantly done, and nearly makes all the crap you have to put up with the rest of the series worth it.
It took me almost exactly 7 years to finish these books. In that time, I moved across continents, discovered myself, got married, and rediscovered myself. I've changed jobs, homes, gotten pets, lost family. I remember in 2015, listening to Rand fall over the wall in The Eye of the World while eating in a Chinese fast food chicken shop, then running into a friend and making spontaneous plans for Lunar New Year. I remember in 2017, finishing an exhilarating action setpiece in The Great Hunt and thinking I was at the end of the book, only to pull up my audiobook app and I realize I was barely halfway through. Summer 2019, listening to Winter's Heart, walking to work sweating my ass off in the heat while hearing the characters complain about the cold. Spring 2020, finishing Crossroads of Twilight sitting on my couch during Covid-19 lockdowns. Spring 2022, just last week, finishing the audio of the last chapter, then grabbing my print copy off the shelf and reading that last chapter again, tears in my eyes. What a perfect ending. It's really very beautiful.
I don't recommend these books, but if you're stubborn enough to get through them...you will find something special, I guarantee.
It's also worth noting that I read The Eye of the World at one of the lowest points of my life. I say this not to say that The Wheel of Time saved my life (it did not), but to begin to paint the outer edges of just how ingrained into me parts of these books are. In those days I would wander around my neighborhood with headphones in, listening to Kramer and Reading narrate this fantasy world. I'd get home and listen to it as I fell asleep. I think it took me something like a week to get through the climax as I kept drifting off. In fact, I drifted off frequently during the course of reading these 14 volumes, I won't lie. When I inevitably re-read these (not for many years), I know that there will be many things that I read for the first time: new bits of information that I overlooked the first round, new pieces of foreshadowing, entire characters (2,784 named characters live in these books). Part of that is the strength of Jordan's writing and his knack for planning. Part of it is also the weakness of Jordan's writing and his insistence on mind-numbing detail.
So, what do these books mean to me? I don't recommend them without heavy qualifiers, I read most of them out of spite and stubbornness. Yet I did find that at the end of every book, I felt warmly towards it, even if I'd hated it at the time (save Path of Daggers. That book sucked.). Why? I find Jordan's writing infurating, though I do find his prose remarkable. What do I actually like about these books? It’s not just that after hours of inane detail, there’s a fantastic action setpiece that makes it all worth it. It’s not just that the characters are fun, developed, and well written. It’s all of that and more. It’s that even at its most dreadfully boring, it all feels intentional. It’s the most well-realized world I’ve encountered in fiction. Every moment, no matter how hair-pulling, repetitive, dull…it’s a world that is believed in. That is made real. Jordan sells every single moment of fantasy. And when Sanderson takes over? Well, that’s the difference.
Sanderson is writing a fantasy novel. A great fantasy novel, maybe one of the best. But Jordan believed in every word he wrote. He made it real.
Now, book 14 itself. It’s a thunderous climax, though at roughly 900 pages, not without its own dull moments. That said, literally a quarter of the book is taken up by one single chapter, the climactic Last Battle that we’ve been building towards for hundreds and hundreds of pages and over a dozen books. There are a ton of character payoffs, moments that will make you cheer and weep in equal measure. There are so many plot threads introduced in early books that for ages I was wondering why they weren’t resolved back in the doldrums of the middle books, but to have everything come to a head now made it all worth it. I enjoy long-form storytelling because when those payoffs hit, they are tremendous rewards. There are few series that have accomplished that as well as Sanderson and Jordan pull off here.
I like Sanderson a lot but his prose is definitely more workmanlike than Jordan’s. He’s a storyteller more than he is a writer, a worldbuilder more than a novelist, in my opinion. That said, if there’s one thing he writes really well, it’s epic battle sequences. The Last Battle is some of the best writing from Sanderson I’ve ever read. It’s an exhausting chapter - around 200 pages and nearly 12 hours on audio - but it’s brilliantly done, and nearly makes all the crap you have to put up with the rest of the series worth it.
It took me almost exactly 7 years to finish these books. In that time, I moved across continents, discovered myself, got married, and rediscovered myself. I've changed jobs, homes, gotten pets, lost family. I remember in 2015, listening to Rand fall over the wall in The Eye of the World while eating in a Chinese fast food chicken shop, then running into a friend and making spontaneous plans for Lunar New Year. I remember in 2017, finishing an exhilarating action setpiece in The Great Hunt and thinking I was at the end of the book, only to pull up my audiobook app and I realize I was barely halfway through. Summer 2019, listening to Winter's Heart, walking to work sweating my ass off in the heat while hearing the characters complain about the cold. Spring 2020, finishing Crossroads of Twilight sitting on my couch during Covid-19 lockdowns. Spring 2022, just last week, finishing the audio of the last chapter, then grabbing my print copy off the shelf and reading that last chapter again, tears in my eyes. What a perfect ending. It's really very beautiful.
I don't recommend these books, but if you're stubborn enough to get through them...you will find something special, I guarantee.