So, it's finished. It is not THE ending, but it is an ending nonetheless... Major major spoilers follow below, leave now if you don't wish to know
Overall, pretty good. There were a few areas of the plot that were way over telegraphed (the generals being taken over by graendal somewhat, etc) but the way everything came together in the end worked out well. Perrin was still @#$%ing annoying and I still hate him as a character after book 12 or whatever it was, you know, that one that should have been called "Perrin chases Faile for a total of maybe 10 miles over the course of 2,0000 ******* pages" but they resolved his story well enough. still gave him too damned much screen time. the way they offed Eguine wasinitally annoying, but it was a fitting death. Lan Lives and kicks everyones ***, which was great, and the ogier finally come out of their hobbit holes and kill everyone else. The whole Shoia subplot was a bit out of place. I suppose there were billions of trollocs running around, but we're honestly supposed to believe this entire huge army just showed up out of essentially no where and outmasses the entire senchean invasion force, the combined allied forces of Rand andeveryone else, yet they were hiding pretty much unnoticed that entire time? Eh, ok. thats really the only part of the book that seemed like a real streatch for me I guess. Suin getting exploded was also somewhat annoying, but it fit with the attack on mat's command tent at the end. I did like how they wrapped things up. lots of character development in a short bit of time for Rand. The Forsaken, for being such complete all feared badasses really didn't have much of an impact on anything (basically think the other 8 Nazgul from lord of the rings. scary to look at, but way lower body count than any of the rock trolls.)
I can't really think of any major threads they didn't wrap up in the end. All in all, a good read, way too long waiting for it though, and it really didn't need at least 4 of the books worht of pages in the middle. I almost wish someone would do an abriged version of the whole series. Now THAT would be a good read!
I nerded out, took yesterday off and finished it in one sitting.
Who is Nakomi? Was the voice on 431 the Creator? Padan Fain, Moridin & Moraines stories felt like they were phoned in. I got a little choked when Bela died, not gonna lie. The Tinkers didn't get their song, though when Rand met Tuon it became clear he was using it to make everything green. I was kind of hoping that Perrin would die. Lan is and always will be a bad *** Glad I called the Rand taking over Moridins body thing
Sanderson did a much better job with Matt in this book. Over all, satisified. I got a few suprises, some people died I didn't expect, some people who lived I thought would die and 15 years after picking up the book for the first time I have to say I never thought I would be reading this book, let alone enjoying it as much as I did.
I've always liked the Nakomi is Verin Mathwin theory myself. I guess they did leave that one unresolved.
on 431, I think it's actually Shai'tan since Rand has heared "him" / "it"? before. wasn't there something from that voice during the Saidan clensing expidition? It could be the creator instead though. it's kind of ambiguous. Then in the last couple chaptors when Rand and the big bad guy both start talking in all caps it gets really confusing. especially if you read that part right at about 1:00 am.
Agreed on all three counts. Moridin should have had much more impact before the end. Fain should have had the bigger role with Isam being the quickly resolved back story. Moraine was there from the beginning, they really owed her something more suitable for an ending. It's kind of like "all these people did big important things at the end, and oh, yeah, she was there too."
I think Bela was supposed to be an anelogue to Robert Jordan. Sort of. Maybe not though. I dunno.
Soylent green, it's made out of RAND's!
Perrin needed to die as pennance for the most annoying book in history. BUt he did not. I was more than kind of hopeing that personally.
Yeah, I was happy with how Mat's story turned too.