A Memory of Light - BookWyrm

Hardcover, 909 pages

English language

Published Jan. 7, 2013 by Tor.

ISBN:: 978-0-7653-2595-2

(1 review)

Since 1990, when Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time® burst on the world with its first book, The Eye of the World, readers have been anticipating the final scenes of this extraordinary saga, which has sold over forty million copies in over thirty languages.

When Robert Jordan died in 2007, all feared that these concluding scenes would never be written. But working from notes and partials left by Jordan, established fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson stepped in to complete the masterwork. With The Gathering Storm (Book 12) and Towers of Midnight (Book 13) behind him, both of which were # 1 New York Times hardcover bestsellers, Sanderson now re-creates the vision that Robert Jordan left behind.

Edited by Jordan’s widow, who edited all of Jordan’s books, A Memory of Light will delight, enthrall, and deeply satisfy all of Jordan’s legions of readers.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and …

Since 1990, when Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time® burst on the world with its first book, The Eye of the World, readers have been anticipating the final scenes of this extraordinary saga, which has sold over forty million copies in over thirty languages.

When Robert Jordan died in 2007, all feared that these concluding scenes would never be written. But working from notes and partials left by Jordan, established fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson stepped in to complete the masterwork. With The Gathering Storm (Book 12) and Towers of Midnight (Book 13) behind him, both of which were # 1 New York Times hardcover bestsellers, Sanderson now re-creates the vision that Robert Jordan left behind.

Edited by Jordan’s widow, who edited all of Jordan’s books, A Memory of Light will delight, enthrall, and deeply satisfy all of Jordan’s legions of readers.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.

5 editions

Jip J. Dekker reviewed A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan

The end years of reading in the making

4 stars

Starting the new year by finishing the Wheel of Time series certainly feels like starting with quite an achievement. Having finished the series I find it hard to come to a conclusion about my opinion of the series. Above all this series is a well thought out (and carefully planned) fantasy epic. It really draws the reader into the world, and introduces many finer details that add to the experience. The authors put a lot of thought into how such a world would work. They don't settle for simplistic extensions of the world, but instead introduce many concepts and then let the ways these would be used depend on the characters in the story. Coming back to book 9 of the series, after finishing book 8 in 2015, has been a strange experience. I loved the books back then, and couldn't put them down. When I started reading again, however, …

Starting the new year by finishing the Wheel of Time series certainly feels like starting with quite an achievement. Having finished the series I find it hard to come to a conclusion about my opinion of the series. Above all this series is a well thought out (and carefully planned) fantasy epic. It really draws the reader into the world, and introduces many finer details that add to the experience. The authors put a lot of thought into how such a world would work. They don't settle for simplistic extensions of the world, but instead introduce many concepts and then let the ways these would be used depend on the characters in the story. Coming back to book 9 of the series, after finishing book 8 in 2015, has been a strange experience. I loved the books back then, and couldn't put them down. When I started reading again, however, I struggled with the many stereotypes, the one-sidedness of the of the ways characters would respond or think, and many of the details seemed confusing or irrelevant. (For example, who actually understands the different names of the sword fighting stances, and am I the only one that is confused whenever the “Demandred” and “Damodred” are used out of context?) It didn't help that the story is rather slow moving at this point in the series. On the other hand it has been a very nostalgic experience. I was often reminded of when I read the earlier books, and I've felt very much connected to the story. Since starting with book 9 I have put the Wheel of Time down a few times, but I never considered not reading it until the end.

The final book (and the last two) make up for many of the problems I had in the earlier books. The story moves along quite well, there are many curve-balls to keep the reader interested, and the whole story reaches a very satisfying conclusion. This final work find a great balance between the expectation and hope of the reader has for the characters and a sense of realism of the price that must be payed. If you've reached this book, then you are probably used to it, but the only big negative for me was the detailed chaos. Every character seems to need to be present at every point off the story, even if their role or actions have no effect on the story itself. For some characters, like some of the forsaken, I even wonder why there are introduced at all.

In conclusion, the Wheel of Time series would probably not be the first fantasy series that I would recommend to new readers. It is, however, a classic among fantasy novel for good reason. So if you can overlook some of its flaws, or don't mind them (like me when I was younger), then I would certainly recommend reading the books until the end, especially if you are already a few books in.

Subjects

Fantasy
Fiction