With the release of A Memory of Light on January 8, 2013, I decided to re-read Towers of Midnight to prepare. Towers of
Midnight is the 13th main book in the Wheel of Time Series published
by Tor and written by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. For those few who
don’t know, The Wheel of Time is an epic Fantasy series that will, when finished,
span 14 main books and a prequel novel. Unfortunately, Mr. Jordan passed away
before completing the series and Brandon Sanderson was chosen to finish it
based on his notes, outlines and partially written pieces. I won’t try to bring
you up to speed on the story so far or explain the series beyond that. If you
want a terrific in-depth study on each book, see Leigh Butler’s re-read of the Wheel of Time at Tor.com.
Towers of Midnight
(ToM) is the second book that Mr.
Sanderson has completed and he does a very good job of delivering a book that
is definitely part of the Wheel of Time
even if some of the individual words and sections are not exactly as Robert
Jordan would have written them.
When I first read ToM two years ago, I found myself
impatient with some of the characters and plot lines that get a greater share
of the page count. On re-reading the story, I have a better appreciation for how
it all weaves together to get the characters to the right place at the right
time for the final confrontation to happen. For several books leading up to
book 12, The Gathering Storm, the Wheel of Time had slowed down and the
story felt like it was grinding under the large weight of the scope of it all.
However, within that I had the greater sense that everything was going to come
to a final head well before any of the “good guys” were prepared and all of the
planning and scheming they were doing was going to be for nothing.
In The Gathering Storm,
all seems bleak for the forces of good and it looks like the Shadow (the forces
of evil) will win. In ToM, we see
that all is not lost for the Light (the good guys) and that they may actually
have a shot at winning. There are a lot of great scenes in ToM, which pay off nicely on the narrative debt built up over the
previous 12 books. I won’t spoil them, but many are epic, some bittersweet, a
few things happen that have you wondering how they will impact the last book
and as always you get a sense that the end will not be all roses for everyone.
This isn’t George R.R. Martin’s A Song of
Fire and Ice where I swear bad things will happen to everyone, but a lot of
horrible things have happened over 13 books and there are bound to be more in A Memory of Light even though the events
of ToM were pretty pro-good guys.
I realized the other day that I have been reading Wheel of
Time books for over 20 years, longer than my daughter has been alive or I have
been married. My father suggested I read Eye
of the World and I didn’t recognize what he was suggesting I read until a
college roommate was reading it and raving about it. For about half my life I
have been reading these books and enjoying the journey. I had the opportunity
to meet Mr. Jordan a couple of times (4 or 5) at book signings. Most of the
time I didn’t have anything to say other than thanks for the story. The last
book tour I saw him at (Crossroads of
Twilight) I asked two questions:
How long would it take Lan to ride to Tarwin’s Gap?
Would Mat be able to command the Deathwatch Guards?
To both questions I got the usual answer of “Read and find
out”. At the end of ToM I know the answer to one of the two,
roughly. I expect the answer to number two will come in A Memory of Light.
I recommend the Wheel of Time series. It can be long and
frustrating and enjoyable. ToM is a
very satisfying piece in the series and rewards the readers for sticking with
the story for over 10,000 pages. Towers
of Midnight gets 4 Mick Happies. It isn’t the best of the series, but it is
right up there and ramps things up for an epic conclusion in A Memory of Light. Hopefully Mr. Jordan
would be satisfied with how it all ends.
Note: There are many websites devoted to The Wheel of Time. One of the best is Dragonmount.com. Here is a trailer that the Dragonmount folks made for Towers of Midnight:
