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The Path of Daggers slowed the series to a snails crawl only fully evident when one considers precisely what happened (or failed to happen) in the course of the volume: It went back and forth from Rand and the Seanchans sweeping ambitious plans to feint and maneuver each other into a final climactic battle—aborted in the final pages when the great generals of both sides realize they lack the stomach for it. What is the only thing sadder than a battle won? A mountain of corpses created to set up a battle CANCELED on account of shame. Rather than repeated pleas for peace by a general born in a land where peace is so unheard of it has become an oath, the protagonist and narrative would have been better served by pleas to make the countless lives lost in preliminary battles worth something rather than simply squandered in an object lesson on excess. A series predicated on Armageddon lacks the luxury of fretting over martial excess.

Everything was downhill from there; even CLEANSING THE TAINT was not nearly enough to make WH any less a desultory slog mainly occupied by the far more pivotal event that loomed over the rest of the series: The bitchy sociopath Perrin married got kidnapped.

Since Jordan (frigteningly) made Perrin and Faile analogues of himself and Harriet, we were all forced to endure three volumes—a QUARTER OF THE WHOLE SERIES—little more than angst and ethical exploration appropriate to adolescents, not a middle-aged author. It is easy to imagine the whole sorry saga as just a stylized account of a time Jordan busted a pool cue over the head of some random bar patron with whom Harriet was flirting. Then follows CoT, a volume so eventful I had to look it up to remember if ANYTHING happened (answer: Not much.)

Knife of Dreams might have saved a series stumbling to a halt had it not severely overcompensated in a way presaging AMoL: A plodding narrative of non-events gave way to a breathless account of highly anticipated events incidentally resolved. Galad finally takes over the WCs and avenges his adoptive mother, Semi finally slaughters the entire Seanchan royal house, making Tuon not just heir apparent but heir default, Egwene finally returns to the WT and, of course, Moiraines survival is finally revealed. None of those things transpires with the intricacy and pregnancy of the Seanchans return from across the Aryth or conquest of Amadicia and the WCs, Suianes departure from the WT or Moiraines departure from the world. They happen brusquely, because they MUST happen, before Jordan resumes vicarious self-flagellation (no mean feat) over a fictionalized Harriet.

The closest the series ever comes to a return to form is TGS and ToM: Many significant events are recounted in compelling and interesting ways. Too many to summarize briefly here, which only underscores how quickly and easily the above summaries of the three previous volumes. So there was justified hope AMoL would be less like those and more like the volumes immediately preceding it.

In the event, it was in between, probably the best to be hoped after the spasmodic melodrama into which the series descended, further compounded by the authors death. It is hard to blame Sandersons failure to capture the magic of the series' opening half given that he had little to work with and many huge obstacles in completing its final quarter. Yes, the voice of central characters is often stilted under Sanderson, and yes, AMoL is more an inexplicable blend of haste and sloth than care and alacrity. But the first was unavoidable and the second compulsory: We cannot reasonably expect even a skilled fanboy to heavily revise his inspiration with his mentors editor-cum-wife watching over his shoulder.

In perspective: No, the three final volumes by Sanderson do not reach the level of any of Jordans first six (though I would rank TGS, ToM and ACoS roughly evenly,) but were ALL better than ANY of TPoD, WH or CoT, which were written ENTIRELY by Jordan.