His voice was visible here and there. I feel like he turned Mat into a bit of a cartoon, for example. In many ways I enjoyed this because Mat has always been my favorite and I get the most laughs from him. I liked that Sanderson had fun with him. I had a good many laughs over the things he said and thought about women and Aes Sedai. You could tell Sanderson was a fan of Mat's and was enjoying squeezing all the funny out of him for us. I feel like he took it a bit too far, and in that way kind of violated the character. But overall I didn't mind too much. I mean we knew some things would necessarily be different. It could have been drastically worse in my opinion.
I agree, Mat seemed a bit forced. Sanderson tried to make him a bit TOO funny.
Cadsuane was Cadsuanishly Cadsuane for the most part, but I felt her thoughts when Rand banished her were a little too flighty to be her. She recovered though. I liked when Tam told her off. Good ol' Tam.
I agree again, Cadsuane seemed spot on to me.
I noticed way too many words italicized for emphasis when describing people's thoughts, e.g., "She would find a way to topple Elaida..." or whatever. It was a minor distraction all throughout the book. On most pages you could find that done once or twice. I believe Jordan did that too but much more rarely. Same thing with exclamation points. Too many of those for emphasis. When Siuan or somebody is having what seem like constantly exasperated thoughts, it can detract a bit.
YES, I noticed this too. At first I thought it was a coincidence there were so many italicized words, but then it kept happening. I usually don't notice minor stuff like this, but I def noticed it this time.
I thought some loose ends were tied up far too neatly. All that buildup with Aram and Masema and that's it? Aram just eats it on the initial charge (admittedly in KoD, pre Sanderson)? The Prophet and the rest of his rabble just get clipped in the forest? That seemed like quitting to me, in terms of bringing those two storylines to a close. It was too clearly forced. Should have been something more.
I thought those loose ends had to be tied off, there is just too much other stuff that has to happen, and not enough pages left.
Hey seriously, could Demandred's army that is "assembling for battle" be in the Land of Madmen? Where else would he hide it? Shara? Could be the Black Tower, of course, what with that Taim quote about letting the lord of chaos rule.
What is going on with Taim? I wish we had at least one chapter in this book about it, but we have to wait. Sigh.
I guess stuff does have to get wrapped up here in the final episode. Things have to be resolved at some point. I was just hoping for more of a climax or suspense in some cases, more intertwining with the other parts of the story. Like the Prophet should have shown up at a critical part of the Last Battle, threatening to screw things up with his crazy. Aram should have been a sleeper agent for the Forsaken. Something.
Aram was purely RJ, not Sanderson, obviously.
Speaking of tying off loose ends quickly and writing characters differently, Sheriam I actually enjoyed a lot more as written by Sanderson. Obviously we didn't know she was a DF before this, so that's a new facet to her character. But I liked how knowing her thoughts told us more about why some people chose to be DF. She never took it seriously, thinking it was just for career advancement. I liked that it showed that it wasn't just a black and white situation, but more shades of grey. That feels more realistic and therefore makes the story richer. It was an abrupt change and an abrupt end, but I liked it. Jeez, that was a lot of DF Aes Sedai.
Great point that I also really liked. In fact, most people probably become a Darkfriend not to support the Dark One, but they see it as a way to gain more power or money. Sheriam finally voiced it, though.
Nynaeve I thought he wrote pretty well. She didn't seem that much different to me than in previous books. I'm glad her braid got a break.
Nynaeve was another character I thought was spot on.
Egwene I really enjoyed. Nice climax with her and well done on Silviana. What I want to know is what's the deal with Laras?! Verin confirmed that "Laras is many things..." and both Siuan and Egwene had previously suspected something more was going on there. Mesaana maybe? Nah. It'll be good to find out eventually.
Yes, what is up with Laras? I really want Sanderson to throw us a bone and tell us who she used to be (maybe when she was young she was a Domani and she got in trouble and fled to the tower, then just started eating a ton of food?) but I don't think we will ever find out.
Very cool twist with Verin, I thought. Again, a little abrupt, but still neat. That was a pretty fitting way to resolve all of the previous "Is she or isn't she?" suspicion. She was... and wasn't.
Very cool. One of the best scenes in the book. I really want to know what is in her letter to Mat.
I made an audible grunt of weary disgust when Rand had his Magic Of Love epiphany on top of Dragonmount. Grooooan. Ugh. Boooo. Yuck. Awful. Hey at least we finally got to see him barf not long before that. So that's nice and kind of balances things out. Barfin' on a bridge in Ebou Dar. Sounds like he had been out partying.
I thought the Dragonmount scene was very well written, but it was VERY abrupt. Really, after many books of becoming very dark, almost like Shadar Logoth where he turned into something just as bad as the Dark One, suddenly Rand is fine? I guess we'll see how much he improved next book, or if it was just a little bit (like back to Winter's Heart or CoT).
Nicely done, Sanderson. Some differences but still a great story.
- 16/11/2009 01:13:51 AM
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Re: Nicely done, Sanderson. Some differences but still a great story.
- 16/11/2009 03:46:28 AM
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"We" did not "know" Sheriam was a DF
- 16/11/2009 04:28:53 AM
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And the consensus seemed to be she was a lightsider who was being used by BA. *NM*
- 16/11/2009 05:09:57 AM
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Sheriam is like someone not believing God joining the clergy, just for personal gain,
- 16/11/2009 09:24:40 AM
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I agree with most of your points
- 16/11/2009 05:16:22 PM
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Re: Nicely done, Sanderson. Some differences but still a great story.
- 17/11/2009 03:03:35 PM
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