It would appear that I finally gathered my courage and finished this series. I hate finishing series. Even as a relative newbie to the series (I started reading when Crossroads of Twilight came out) I've been discussing this series on Wotmania for a third of my life and was reluctant to bring that to an end.

Clearly, I have outwitted myself, as this means I have missed all the discussion by months and this board appears to be largely dead. Is it dead? This looks pretty normal by the standards of the Roleplaying Board, but I seem to recall this one being more active. The fact that the spoiler policy announcement is ten months old should be worrisome, but it may be that Sidious just forgot about it. I do that all the time.

So, the book. I enjoyed it. I mean, I thought Towers of Midnight was pretty abominable and avoiding spoilers on this board means I hadn't actually thought about The Wheel of Time that much going in, and so was not expecting every reveal as much as I previously did. Still, I'm pretty sure this was better than Towers of Midnight. I liked that even at this stage they threw in the notion of killing Shai'tan as a red herring. I liked the sabotage of the Great Captains because for once it felt like the antagonists were actually doing something. And it was a good plan at that.

Let me continue ranting about Towers of Midnight a bit, hypothetical reader of this post. I really hated Elayne's chapters in that book. Now, for many people, as I recall, this wouldn't be much of a declaration. A lot of people hated Elayne's storyline. She took a very upsetting bath, or something. I don't quite remember, I need to reread the series. Point is, a lot of people didn't like reading about her attempts to reclaim the throne of Andor. But me, I was fine with it. Then she decided to seize Cairhien and the book was trying very hard to convince me that she was clever with all those stratagems she was throwing about, but the problem is that there was nobody else on the other side trying anything. She was trying to overcome a static obstacle. Now, I'm pretty sure that's not how international monarchic politics work, but I'm not a politician.

I do, however, play StarCraft and there is a massive difference in playing a single player or multiplayer game. This difference is mostly that the AI is stupid and predictable and even as a D+ rank player on ICCup I can still take out multiple AIs at the same time. I mean, when you can't match wits with your opponent, the only was to simulate a challenge is to stack the odds against you.

But the odds aren't really that overwhelming for Elayne. No matter what she does, since she never has to fear a counterattack, she can pretty much just wear down her obstacles over time. She's the only actor on the field. The same thing happened in The Gathering Storm when Egwene tried to turn the Tower against Elaida. Elaida never even attempted a respectable counterargument. It's not like Egwene's claims to be the worthwhile Amyrlin on the basis that she is a uniter, not a divider like Elaida. And it's not like Egwene's movement is founded on a lie ostracising the largest Ajah in the Tower as terrorist supporters. And it's not like Elaida is part of that Ajah and would have personal reasons to bring it up. It's not like that, because it is that. But Egwene is playing solo so she needn't fear something she isn't prepared for. There is no real threat.

So in A Memory of Light, I'm glad we got that with the Great Captains. Or with Taim stealing the Seals on Shai'tan's prison. It's good to get the feeling that there's finally someone out there confronting our protagonists. And it's a bit of redemption for Graendal, after her abysmally stupid "I will find the eprson in this camp with the most established record of trying to kill Perrin Aybara and Compel him to kill Aybara! It is a perfect plan! PLOTS WITHIN PLOTS!" notion from last time. Well done Graendal, you didn't follow a spectacular failure with another spectacular failure, like Semirhage. Or Aginor.

Of course, that didn't hold true for most of the Last Battle. After Demandred destroyed Mat's cannons, he pretty much didn't do anything but wait for the battle to end. I think. I'll be honest, I really didn't follow where this formation was going to engage with what unit for whatever purpose. Because I don't care. I once explained why I loved Robert Jordan's sword forms so much: when there's a sword fight, the writer is pretty much trying to tell me either that this guy is trying to kill that guy with a sword, or that this guy is trying to use a sword to not get killed by that guy. Do I care that he is trying to slip under his guard in a sudden upward slash from the right hip that followed his high feint blah blah blah? No I do not. This is so much wasted words on unimportant details. I know they're whacking swords at each other, all right? I don't need the play by play. I don't need the action to be interrupted by sudden sentences of descriptions. Sword forms require far fewer words, and allow my imagination to picture the fight however I feel most appropriate.

Battles are the same. And there was a lot of moving this unit clockwise and charging the whatever flank on the sloping blah blah in this book. Look, here's my favourite battle description of all time:

Aragorn and Éomer and Imrahil rode back towards the Gate of the City, and they were now weary beyond joy or sorrow. These three were unscathed, for such was their fortune and the skill and might of their arms, and few indeed had dared to abide them or look on their faces in the hour of their wrath.
The Battle of Pelennor Fields, The Lord of the Rings

It is enough that I know that they kicked arse because they are awesome, said awesomeness having been previously established in the book. And had that awesomeness not been established, no amount of slaughter of nameless minions if going to rectify this problem.

A Memory of Light had a lot of battle. A lot more than it needed to. I mean, I know that it's Tarmon Gai'don, but I,d have been more interested in knowing how the people reacted to that fact than in knowing who charged what.

Incidentally, didn't the battle feel a bit small to anyone else? I haven't gone back to compare, but it feels like Elayne had a diminutive force when I think back to the numbers that were mentioned back during the Succession War. And what of Tear, Illian, Cairhien? Those formed Rand's army during the Seanchan campaign in The Path of Daggers. They're also very powerful nations. What happened to their armies? And Roedran showed up at Merrilor but were Murandian forces ever on the battlefield?

Then there's the channelers. Demandred gloats to Taim that he has four hundred Ayyad to Taim's hundred Dreadlords... but isn't that a minuscule number? Doesn't the White Tower alone crush that force? I don't remember how many are left after the Seanchan raid, the Black Ajah egress, the Yellow Ajah setting up their hospital... still, with the Wise Ones and the loyal Asha'man, surely they have this number outmatched even before the intervention of the damane. It felt to me like there were maybe a hundred channelers for the Light, all battlefields combined. There was barely anyone helping Lan at Tarwin's Gap! Only a few small circles defending Rand at Thakan'dar. Where were the channelers?

Anyway. I still liked Demandred quite a bit. His numerous duels started wearing thin, even though they were obviously building up for Lan's eventual triumph. I may have to apologise to Ishamael666 regarding his opinion on Lan's UNSTOPPABLE JUGGERNAUTness*. But mostly, I have to love how he just gave Mazrim Taim a powerful sa'angreal just so he'd stop whining. The cocky bastard. I have to love that.

Actually, the Forsaken in general were pretty decent in this book, even those that barely showed up, like Moghedien or Lanfear. In their contributions to the narrative, if not necessarily in their characterisation.

Most of all, though, I really loved Rand's battle with Shai'tan. I loved that it was Rand's own vision that nearly broke him. I may not agree with Robert Jordan's theodicy, but it made for a good story, and this in particular made for a beautiful trap. Rand created paradise and it was as terrible a thing as he could imagine. That could break a man, surely.

The resolutions felt strange though. Sometimes they worked, and sometimes they didn't. I would need to reread the series to be certain, but I would have sworn that certain characters, Alviarin, Taim, Logain, would play a far larger role than they did, for example. The White Tower's conflict may have lasted over half the series, but the entire Black Tower division was done offscreen? What? Also, I could have sworn the Tuatha'an and their Song would show up at some point in the series. Any point at all. And the character deaths. Some surprised me, but were clearly planned out and fit into the narrative. Gawyn, Egwene, Davram Bashere. Others were pretty mystifying. What happened to Siuan?

Anyway, it ended well enough. Fairly predictable. Except for Cadsuane, I would have sworn of all people, she would be one of the casualties. I even wrote a Theory about it on the Theory Post. Obviously, Cadsuane continues to vex me. So that's normal.

Oh, and the ending brought tears to my eyes. Why? Because Khas' shrivelled balls are you really going to let your father believe his only son is dead, you arsehole? Tam has been living with only his beloved adopted son ever since Kari died forever ago. You can tell from his continued celibacy that he doesn't easily get over the loss of loved ones, but he still trusted Rand enough to let him go when his destiny forced him out of Emond's Field. In a series with Perrin worrying over Faile, with bonded lovers anguishing over perceived feelings through their link, and where Nynaeve letting Lan go off to his solitary crusade is a high point for the characters, I think we can all agree that Tam letting Rand do what he needs to do while giving him only good advice, his love and a heron-marked sword is clearly the mark of the greatest father ever. It's also his advice that lets Rand defeat Shai'tan. So there's that. Also, he told Cadsuane everything I ever wanted her to be told.

What I'm getting at here is that Tam al'Thor is a saint, you guys, and if I were Rand's brother I would be punching him in the nose right now. Not telling Nynaeve is dick move enough, with her feeling like a failure already for losing Egwene, but this is unacceptable. It is becoming evident that I was wrong all along and that Cadsuane did not smack Rand enough.

Clearly, Galad needs to set out on a quest to find him and rectify this oversight. He is Rand's half-brother, and it is the Right Thing To Do, so clearly this is a sequel that writes itself. Galadedrid Damodred smacks the Dragon Reborn, a sequel to the #1 New York Times bestseller by Robert Jordan.

Call me, Tor.

*Internet archaeologists may point out that Ishamael666's UNSTOPPABLE JUGGERNAUT comment was actually about Alivia, and that his opinion about Lan was that he was worth three Gawyns because he was described as a wolf rather than a lion, or something like that. This is irrelevant. Ishamael666 has become legend, and is fading to myth.