Or silly. Many others have chimed in before to say that they were disappointed with this or that appearance of "new language" from the new writer. "Investigation," "homicide..." there are many.

But really, I'm astounded by how bald his writing is. One thing I get annoyed by is when people use "like" instead of "is." "It's like I've been betrayed" is a dumb thing to say if your spouse cheats on you. You've been betrayed. There's no "like" there.

Sanderson, my first real taste of his writing, comes off as someone who drops comparisons every single time, even when a simile or metaphor might actually be the way to go. We don't understand that someone feels like an insect that's just broken through its shell to discover that it and its place in the world is new. Sanderson just writes "He looked around him and he discovered that he was different and his place in the world also was."

By the light, this writing gets ham-fisted right quick. It's little moments, like an Ashaman saying to Ituralde "My lord! I sense channeling!" Wow. That's an amazing bit of dialog. And so natural coming from a battle-trained channeler.

Then you get someone else describing Rand as a storm, adding "a storm of light and streams of power." Really? Aren't the streams actual streams of the One Power? Is Rand a stream of lower-case "power" or upper-case "Power?" Why was this line not edited out?

It feels weird to complain about Mat feeling slightly off. Everything is at least a little off - it's like finding someone tilted all your furniture 10 degrees to the right. It just gets shocking to suddenly read passages that are clearly written by RJ. Or to find the occasional moment where BS' brevity and directness actually work pretty well. It's not like RJ didn't ever do it; I just want to give the new guy some credit...

I can see all the critiques that DoMA (and others) made. The division of the novel, and its jumping around the timeline, is a bit messy. It also did break up the emotional impact of Rand's collapse, and being timed with the "darkest hour" for so many characters (like Perrin and Aviendha).

I'm just still amazed that I read a Wheel of Time novel that contained the non-word "sweated." Thanks, BS