Review of The Gathering Storm – Marco

Please note that is a review of my thoughts on the Gathering Storm and as such it will be filled with spoilers for those of you who haven’t had a chance to get through it. So please refrain from reading this until you have completed what is to my mind one of the top 5 books in the series.

First off let me get the negatives out of the way.

One or two phrases were clearly Sanderson and imo didn’t fit into the WoT milieu. ‘Backfired’…seriously? The second thing was the “Voice” of Mat. I didn’t like it. His interactions with Talmanes were reminiscent of Laurel and Hardy and not what I had come to expect of the characters.

And that ladies and gentlemen were the only things from a prose pov that I didn’t like.

The cover art is truly horrible, but we all knew that already.

Now, on to the good stuff:

Where to start? As mentioned I thought the Prologue was brilliant, Chapter 1 terrible and Chapter 2 fantastic. From there you go on a rollercoaster ride that only stops on page 677 or so. Damn good stuff.

So here is my review:

-          Aviendha’s arc feels a little stretched out and I think the “meaningless test till you tell us to piss off” thing has been done before, but overall not too bad.

-          Take a bow Jordanson – You have made Gawyn start to redeem himself. The man can hold a sword and does so on three occasions that were cool, and he got a good talking to from my fave Great Captain which made him start to realize he was acting like a tool.

-          Siuan and Bryne are cool and heartwarming and I enjoyed their onscreen banter.

-          Ituralde is cool as well and I loved the scene with him and Turan the Seanchan general. That moment was epic and showed that some men still hold to their honour in the last days of man.

-          Perrin and Mat get token screen time, most of which are placeholders with especially the coolest part of Perrin’s story being his meeting with Galad which we only know about because Rand sees it in a vision. As mentioned Mat’s voice bothered me as did his sojourn to the ‘village of the cheese making damned’. It carried no plot and was a nod to pop culture that I could have done without. His meeting up with Verin was cool and I am itching to know wtf is in that letter!

-          I would have liked more screen time for Min, but she does kick ass in one paragraph by being sharper than an uppity Aes Sedai.  She also manages to see what all the other people that want to guide Rand fails to see.

-          I liked how Nynaeve was written. Her interior conflicts and desires were done well, as was her sleuthing in Bandar Eban. If not for her I think the Borderlands would be in deep shit. I hope they find out how close they came to being utterly fubar’ed.

-          Hey Hurin. Sucky reunion.  Hope we see you again soon.

-           Tuon’s new name sucks ass. We have Toyota Fortuners here in SA and that is all I can think off when I read about her name. Tuon Fortuna(r) – she’ll go anywhere. Except to peace with the DR. WTF? Idiot girl although kudos to withstand the greatest ta’veren since Hawking, wait…what?

-          I missed Lan and Moirraine. And Padan Fain.

-          Verin: What.The.Fuck?! I did not see that coming. Yeah I speculated once or twice that she might be Black, she could lie I thought and used Compulsion, but really…you could see from her POV that she was in Rand’s camp. Huh? Going over to the Shadow to study the DO. WHAT?! To Study…The DO. That was awesome. That is what a spy should be. How damn cool is that?! Thomas wanting to redeem himself is just as cool and to be a double agent for 70 years? And then find an AS loophole in the oath she swore to the DO…dude James Bond can suck it. What does she need Mat to do…aaaaarrrrgggghhhh….do we really have to wait a year to find out?

-          The purging of the BA was downplayed and I’m not really sure why. I would have liked to see more of Sheriam’s interrogation and execution. Oh well.

-          Cadsuane is a tool. After this book she has jumped to number 3 in my hate list just behind Aram and Elaida. Suvva is a good damane. LOL. Seriously though Cadsuane is a bully. I didn’t realize that was why I disliked her until Tam pointed it out. She is more concerned about remaining unbeaten than she is about the fate of the world. Huh? Grow up oldest living AS.

-          Speaking of which: Semirhage breaks after one spanking? I didn’t break after a spanking and I got a couple. One spank = eat off floor? That was poor imo though I did like that humiliation could break her.  If you want to see how someone could be broken through humiliation watch Battlestar Galactica. It was much better done in there.

-          Tam remains awesome. He also reminds me of my grandfather who recently passed away so yeah, teary moment with him reuniting with Rand.

-          Which brings us to Rand and Egwene. The two characters that are made of aweome.

Egwene’s: struggle to unite the Tower was epic. I loved reading every word and it’s been a long time since I enjoyed reading about AS.  Her political movements and clever playing of the AS was awesome to read. Her becoming a stronger and wiser character was cool as well. Two moments stand out – being beaten by Elaida without so much as a whimper and then her being the hammer of justice against the Seanchan was EPIC. Gave me goosebumps reading those scenes. “You will be my damane” BOOM – roasted.

The Seanchan ninjas were a letdown.

Rand: well…he is the most badass hero to walk the plane of any fantasy world. Ever. His descent to madness was terrifying and believable. Semirhage capturing him and then making him start killing Min was terrible. Beautifully written though. I was screaming in my head for Rand to stop. His coldness after that and his terrible way of looking at the world without a shred of emotion evoked deep feelings of fear and sympathy in me. I love Rand, always have, after this book – always will.

Wiping out a fortress to kill a Forsaken. Hell yes! Wanting to kill the Seanchan by himself. Awesome. His eventual redemption and return(?) to sanity – beautifully done. I liked the soft climax we were given. It wasn’t earth shattering, but it was done beautifully. Is Lews Therin gone, was he ever there? I still don’t know.

What I do know is that it is going to be difficult waiting another year for the next one. But thank you Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson for being Epic writers of a the best fantasy series ever written.