So I did manage to get the book early, and I finished it last night. I wanted to write something right away when some things were fresh in my mind...

First off, the writing: Some said this was clearly Sanderson's books. In some ways, yes. But some of the most critical and powerful scenes, even if they weren't exactly RJ like, worked very well anyway. And they worked so that they fit the themes and characters of the series as a whole. So, on the whole, I don't think I'll give Brandon any grief on this. Avoidance of terms like "pal", "bar (for drinks)", "Breaking-era construction", etc. would be nice.

My emotional response? Well, for all the sheer amount of awesome we see from Rand, Nynaeve, Egwene, Mat, Perrin, even Elayne, in this book, what hit me the hardest, and what defines ToM for me is Aviendha's second walk through the columns (which deserves a better chapter name, I think). That was bleak. Parts of it made no sense, but it was still bleak. There's a very good chance this isn't set in stone, of course. But seeing the last descendent of Rand shot dead by Seanchan when she's hungrily digging for scraps of food in their garbage was beyond depressing. Frankly, I'm much more impressed that Avi came out of this alive than I am with any Aiel who saw their past. The past, you can do nothing about. But when you see what looks like an inevitably horrendous future that is your fault...

And also, many of the reunions were cool, and did justice to the amount of time these characters have been apart, IMO. The romance, which I've always felt was one of the worst aspects in WoT, improved in this book. Perrin and Faile, particularly, have matured in their relationship.

Some really cool moments for me were Nynaeve telling off the Aes Sedai of the stupidity of their test (YAY!!), Perrin forging his hammer, Mat in Ghenjei realizing that he doesn't actually hate Moiraine after all, the various TAR battles... gosh there's a lot.

Some things that pissed me off: Graendal. What a waste. Moghedien could easily have sufficed. Why keep her alive? Just to concoct a stupid little plan centered on Jaret Byar, of all people, and then
get raped for her failure? This whole trope of the female foresaken being raped is getting old anyway. Really disappointed.

Also, I could have done with some more Moiraine. There's clearly something interesting going on there. She's a wild card, because I don't see what role she can play at all.

On the whole, though, this was a great book. Less thematically focused than tGS, but working just as well, IMO.

It is amazing that with just one book to go, there is so very much theory material, and so much left unknown about what the finale will be like. That's pretty great for me!