Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really really liked The Gathering Storm, and so I was super enthusiastic about Towers of Midnight. Sadly I didn't like nearly as well as the previous one.
Brandon Sanderson continues to do some things very well.
One of Robert Jordan's major weaknesses was in buildup*. Very frequently the big finale of a book just happened sort of abruptly and arbitrarily. Conversely, the slow build to the conclusion of a few of the storylines here is very satisfying. This is particularly true of Perrins Arc: the grindingly slow progress of Perrin vs. the Whitecloaks; Perrin vs. the Wolf Dream, and finally Perrin vs. Slayer build and build until they come to an epic conclusion**.
And the fights are great! I loved Mat vs. The Golam; and I really loved the multiway Tel'aran'rhiod/Wolf Dream/Holy @#$%, there incredibly powerful assassins in the white tower battle***, ****.
Honestly the biggest weakness in this book was the actual Epic Finale. We have been waiting for Mat's return to the Ael/Eel'finn for eight 1000 page books: It really deserved to a) have been more than 60 pages long and b) be more than just a kind of lame fight scene*****. The ultimate reveal was cute enough, i suppose, but this is one area where I would have most like Robert Jordan's more assured handling of Mat's roguish nature.
But, all in all, it was a very satisfying penultimate volume. On to A Memory of Light!
* Yes, yes some things were built up for Books on end, that's not really what I'm talking about.
** Ok, maybe a little too much. I did get kind of tired after the fourth Perrin vs. the Whitecloaks standoff.
*** Egwene continues to be a bad-ass. I really am enjoying Brandon Sanderson's handling of her.
**** Can Brandon Sanderson write Star Wars VII? I would pay good money to see that.
***** Although I did appreciate that the inside of the Tower of Ghenji is the random room puzzle that's been in every top down scrolling rpg video game since Final Fantasy II.
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