Keeping the Door » the gathering storm

The Gathering Storm: Review

Renai LeMay — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:43:49 +0000

Don’t even bother reading this review of The Gathering Storm if you haven’t read the previous books in The Wheel of Time series. This is the twelfth book, and spoilers about the previous eleven will crop up in this review.

Blood and bloody ashes!

At long last, and two years after the tragic death of the original creator of the epic and much-loved series, fans have the next book in The Wheel of Time in their hot little hands, after it went on sale last week to great acclaim. No doubt there are tens of thousands of people right around the globe poring through the pages of the book this very instant. And the web forums are running hot.

Thankfully, those fans have much to be grateful for. Considering that Robert Jordan is no longer around, it is remarkable that The Gathering Storm is so true to the vision of the series’ original creator, and a worthwhile 12th book in the series that scores on a large number of levels. It’s simply thrilling to be thrust back into the world of The Wheel of Time.

God, I’ve missed it so much. I had a very emotional reaction to this book.

The question of whether Jordan substitute Brandon Sanderson is up to finishing the series has been answered. He is.

Thank you, Brandon Sanderson. Not only did we enjoy your stellar Mistborn series, along with the rest of Team Jordan, you have already gone some way towards realising the dreams of likely hundreds of thousands (millions?) of Wheel of Time fans who have been dying for this series to be finished in a way that will honour Robert Jordan, arguably the best fantasy author of our time. Keep up the good work.

That’s not to say that Sanderson has done as good a job as Jordan could have. There are many places in The Gathering Storm which make it clear that its delivery has suffered from Sanderson’s smaller vision. But the book is perhaps as good as it could possibly have been, without Jordan himself to write it.

For those of you who have lost patience with, as some call the series, The Waste of Time, this is now the time to jump back in and get up to speed on all things Rand Al’Thor and his merry band of Two Rivers folk. The end will come in the next few years, and The Gathering Storm is the first step in that journey. For anyone still wavering keep reading this review as I outline the book and provide some criticism.

If you are lost (and who can blame you) as to where the plot stands before The Gathering Storm, we recommend you read Dragonmount‘s plot summary (PDF).

As the book begins, the countries of the world of The Wheel of Time are in chaos.

Many are still reeling from the invasion of the Seanchan, the returned armies of Artur Hawkwing’s son from across the oceans. Others have suffered extensive upheaval due to the machinations of the Dark One’s top lieutenants, the fallen channellers known as the Forsaken.

The White Tower, the home of the female Aes Sedai, is suffering its own frosty civil war, with Tar Valon besieged by a rebel cadre of Aes Sedai, and even the Aiel have suffered their own discord, with bands of the Shaido clan still scattered across the land.

The situations of the heroes we have come to know and love so well over the past eleven books are no less chaotic.

Rand Al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, appears to be spiralling downwards as he wraps himself ever closer in his steel cloak of mercilessness and – at times – indifference to the suffering of others. The Lord of the Morning, it appears, has been pushed too far and been forced to kill too many women. His heart has turned to blackest night.

Fellow Ta’averen Perrin and Mat are scattered around the world, leading disparate bands of armies that they plan to eventually meet with Rand’s forced to take on the forces of evil in the Last Battle. Elayne is consolidating her power as the new Queen of Andor, while Nynaeve is by Rand’s side, as are Min and Aviendha.

Perhaps the most interesting situation for one of the main protagonists in the story is that of Egwene Al’Vere. Raised Amyrlin by the rebel Aes Sedai who had congregated at Salidar but then marched on Tar Valon with an army led by one of the great generals of the time, Gareth Bryne.

After being captured by the White Tower Aes Sedai, Egwene is continuing within its own walls her resistance against the unstable rule of the Tower’s Amyrlin, Elaida. The only caveat is that she is doing so after being reduced to novice status again and while suffering repeated beatings and other indignities at the hands of Elaida’s underlings.

The Gathering Storm primarily follows the individual storylines of Rand and Egwene. As the book goes on, the difference between them becomes starker and starker. Rand’s problems mount, and he begins to fail to keep on top of them, or even to function normally when relating to those around him.

By contrast, Egwene takes on an almost Gandhi-like determination and stance towards her own suffering. She increasingly forces herself to rise against her pain and act for the unification of the warring Aes Sedai factions.

The choice to focus on these two central characters in the pages of The Gathering Storm was a wise one, whether it was made by Jordan or Sanderson. Finally, after several books worth of getting lost in twenty different character viewpoints, the series settles on some rather large questions and resolves them. And some of the climactic scenes involving the pair are highly dramatic – the kind of stuff the first few books in The Wheel of Time were filled with.

The Dragon Reborn taking the Stone of Tear kind of stuff, or claiming the Aiel.

The downside of this approach is that, as many other reviewers and fans have pointed out, we see relatively little of the popular Ta’averen Mat, or other major characters like Perrin. And we see nothing of Elayne at all.

This problem is made worse by the fact that Sanderson pretty much fluffs the Mat chapters completely, missing the constant yet understated humour found when Jordan writes from Mat’s viewpoint and hamming it up big time. Yet again, Mat doesn’t get any limelight, and his escapades could have been entirely removed from the book – that’s how little importance they have in the wider scheme of things.

In terms of the writing in general, it is normally spot on and ‘feels’ like Jordan writing, especially in the minor tension-building scenes. Sanderson gets almost all of the characters down pat, especially Egwene, Rand, Siuan Sanche, Cadsuane, and Perrin.

However, there are several problem areas in the book that Sanderson fails with. The first is the Mat sections. But I was also disturbed by how downplayed several of the major, major plot resolutions are that fans have literally been waiting decades for.

Without going into the details, I was shocked at how quickly ongoing mysteries such as Verin Sedai’s secret were solved and then written out of the plot. These things should have been more major focuses of the book. They needed to have more drama and more build-up. People have been constructing theories about these mysteries for the past ten years online. One chapter to deliver the solution is just not enough, when Jordan himself had been feeding the debate for years and years. Especially when many nuggety chapters like this are surrounded by fluffy almost-filler.

In a similar vein, although the climactic battles and confrontations of the book are ultimately satisfying and give you a certain thrill, they are broadly too short and Sanderson didn’t go into enough detail when describing them. These things are BIG events. They should have been treated as such. They shouldn’t be over within several chapters. The repercussions should have been felt.

Ultimately, these are minor quibbles, of the level that you could level at any of the previous Jordan-penned books in The Wheel of Time. And there is no doubt that many (including myself) will consider The Gathering Storm a cut above the most recent few books in the series, where Jordan simply seemed to get bogged down with the size of the world he had created, struggling to bring it all together for the big conclusion.

The one question fans have been debating (OK, to be honest, they’re all still debating who killed bloody Asmodean) over the past few years is whether Brandon Sanderson would be up to the task of finishing Robert Jordan’s masterpiece in a way that is true to the author’s vision.

That answer is yes. If you are a Wheel of Time fan and have not already bought it (what, are you insane?!), run, do not walk, run out to your local bookstore and buy a copy of this book, read it, re-read the entire series, then watch and wait feverishly over the next few months for even a small tidbit of news about when the remaining two books in the series will come out and we finally enter Tarmon Gaidon.

The Last Battle is drawing near, The Wheel of Time is back on track for completion, and things are well in the world again. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.

Note: I’m not the only critic who has written a review of The Gathering Storm. Here are similar reviews from some of my favourite writers:

The Gathering Storm hits Amazon top 10

Renai LeMay — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:42:05 +0000

Excitement around the impending release of The Gathering Storm, the new book in Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, has hit fever pitch, with the book hitting online retailer Amazon.com’s top 10 list based on pre-release orders.

The last three books in The Wheel of Time are being written by established fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, who was selected by the widow of the original author, Robert Jordan, after tragically passed away in September 2007 to finish Jordan’s masterpiece. The first book, The Gathering Storm, will be published internationally on October 27.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, The Gathering Storm just broke into the top ten on Amazon,” Sanderson wrote on his Twitter account today.

According to Amazon.com, The Gathering Storm has been in its top 100 list for 61 days, based on pre-orders. Number one on the list is Stephen King’s new book, Under the Dome, a sci-fi thriller that is slated to be released on November 10. Dan Brown’s new novel The Lost Symbol is number four on the list, and has spent 188 days in the top 100, based on pre-orders.

Over the past few weeks, a number of reviews and early comments have been posted online of The Gathering Storm, based on advanced reading copies that publisher Tor Books has issued.

Larry at OF Blog of the Fallen writes that he enjoyed the book, but it wasn’t a perfect novel:

“It was better … than several of the more recent entries in the novel. It is not a perfect novel (reasons I’ll explore on Tuesday), but it reminded me of the elements of the series that I did enjoy when I began reading it in 1997. While not likely to be considered for the best 2009 novel that I’ve read, I do think it is one of the best epic fantasies novels that I’ve read this year.”

Writing on Tor.com, Leigh Butler posted a very enthusiastic review of the book, concluding:

“The main problem is that I have a lot of feelings about this book, in a way that’s very difficult to encapsulate with any kind of coherency. However, if I were absolutely forced to come up with one succinct phrase that sums up my reaction to The Gathering Storm, it would have to be this: Holy shit.”

We borrowed that awesome image of boxes of The Gathering Storm from Suvudu.

The Gathering Storm Chapter 2: Listen for free

Renai LeMay — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:00:19 +0000

Publisher Tor Books has made the second chapter of the next Wheel of Time book, The Gathering Storm, available for free in audio format only.

Tor has already released Chapter One of the book for free online, as well as the prologue for a charge of US2.99, although it immediately leaked to the BitTorrent peer to peer file-sharing system.

The second chapter of The Gathering Storm is entitled “The Nature of Pain”, following the first chapter, “Tears from Steel”. The full audio of The Nature of Pain runs for almost 48 minutes.

Fans have praised the first chapter in The Gathering Storm.

Over the past weeks, Wheel of Time fans have posted no less than 582 comments on Tor’s site about the new chapter. The overwhelming response has been that Sanderson writes in a slightly different and less descriptive style than Jordan, but that fans were immediately able to re-enter the Wheel of Time universe and were incredibly excited to be doing so.

Commentary
Jeez, Tor is really laying on the publicity for this book; two chapters and a prologue released even before the book comes out!

But does it really need to? The Gathering Storm is one of the most anticipated books in fantasy literature in 2009 and is virtually guaranteed to be a best-seller, even if it ends up being panned critically (which I highly doubt).

As for Chapter 2 being in audio format only … I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before someone transcribes it and posts it on the internet. Not that I would encourage that sort of behaviour; after all, it’s plagiarism.

Towers of Midnight: Wheel of Time book 13

Renai LeMay — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:10:12 +0000

The thirteenth (and second-last) book in the Wheel of Time series will be formally titled Towers of Midnight, the series’ new author Brandon Sanderson revealed last week, with the fourteenth and last to retain its original title A Memory of Light.

The last three books in The Wheel of Time are being written by established fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, who was selected by Harriet McDougal, the widow of the original author, Robert Jordan, after tragically passed away in September 2007 to finish Jordan’s masterpiece. The first book, The Gathering Storm, has already been finished and will be published internationally on October 27.

Last week Sanderson wrote on his blog:

“After a long round of conversations with Tor and Harriet, we settled on TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT as the title. There are various reasons for this, which I’ll go into more once the book is out next year. I’m pleased, however, as this was the title I suggested. It’s actually appropriate in an interesting way. Harriet was the one who came up with the name for the first of the three, and the second one gets the title I proposed. And so, we will (as I’ve been saying for a while) use Mr. Jordan’s title for the final of the three, A MEMORY OF LIGHT.”

Towers of Midnight's working title had been Shifting Winds, but Sanderson had stated several times that it wasn’t the book’s final name. Before he passed away, Jordan had passed on a desire for the final book to be called “A Memory of Light”, although once the book was split into three, a debate began between Tor, McDougal and Sanderson about the exact titles of the three.

The final book, A Memory of Light, for example, had a working title of Tarmon Gai’don, referring to the final battle planned in The Wheel of Time universe.

Speculation has already begun online (more here) about what the title Towers of Midnight refers to, with some highlighting the fact that there is an action location in the Seanchan Empire named The Towers of Midnight, and others wondering if the title refers to a possible corruption of various towers in the books; for example the Aes Sedai White Tower and the Asha’man Black Tower.

New Wheel of Time prologue hits BitTorrent

Renai LeMay — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:15:34 +0000

The prologue to the next Wheel of Time book, The Gathering Storm, was released in e-book format last week and immediately leaked to the BitTorrent peer to peer file-sharing system.

Last week, Wheel of Time publisher Tor Books made the prologue to The Gathering Storm available for sale in various e-book formats for US$2.99, from sites like Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, iTunes and audible.com. The publisher had already released the first chapter to The Gathering Storm online for free and plans to gradually release all of the existing series as e-books.

However, on BitTorrent site Mininova, several dozen people are sharing The Gathering Storm prologue for free, with another dozen downloading it, although Keeping the Door has not downloaded the file to verify if it is accurate. There are also many more people downloading the previous Robert Jordan books in the series, in PDF and audio forms.

On his blog last week, Sanderson wrote that he had received complaints about the prologue being sold with digital rights management attached, or about it being in limited e-book formats. However, he pointed out that at least one seller was providing the prologue as a simple PDF file.

“To be honest, I’m not sure what I think of selling the prologue ahead of time,” he wrote. “I’m not a fan of charging people multiple times for the same content. But it’s been established practice for the WoT for a while now, and the length of the prologue makes it worth the money.”

The BitTorrent leak follows a similar situation with Dan Brown’s highly anticipated book The Lost Symbol, which has already been downloaded tens of thousands of times on BitTorrent.

Commentary
This was always going to happen; any time someone asks people to charge for content, the internet is going to find a way around it.

In today’s digital age, the morality of downloading pirated content from BitTorrent and other peer to peer file-sharing systems is a highly debated topic. I’m reluctant to go into it here, beyond noting that many authors see the practice as depriving them of remuneration for their work, while some, such as Paulo Coelho, author of the best-selling The Alchemist, see it as free publicity.

Wheel of Time fans praise new chapter

Renai LeMay — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 05:17:34 +0000

Wheel of Time fans have overwhelmingly praised the first chapter to be released in the new book in the series, which has been penned by fantasy author Brandon Sanderson in the wake of the tragic death of its original creator Robert Jordan.

Last week, series publisher Tor Books made the first chapter in the new book, The Gathering Storm, available for free from its website. The entire book will be published internationally on October 27 and will be followed by two more to conclude the series.

Over the past week, Wheel of Time fans have posted no less than 380 comments on Tor’s site about the new chapter. The overwhelming response has been that Sanderson writes in a slightly different and less descriptive style than Jordan, but that fans were immediately able to re-enter the Wheel of Time universe and were incredibly excited to be doing so.

“I thought the beginning didn’t sound very RJ-like, but as I read on, I easily got lost in Brandon’s writing and could not personally distinguish the two “styles”. Kudos, Brandon!” enthused one fan.

Another wrote:

“This extract in acordance with all RJ’s previous work is well written. The developement of both plot and character are again suble but compellingly real in that I have the sense of witnessing these events as they unfold. Whoever’s finger prints are on the paper this bodes very well, and if the standard is maintained to the final chapter then we can undoubtedly say that the tale has been done justice to the dream that was.”

Wertzone author Adam Whitehead, writing on popular forum site ReadAndFindOut, which replaced long-time Wheel of Time site wotmania.com several weeks ago, wrote that the first chapter didn’t sound like Jordan, but didn’t sound like Sanderson’s previous work either:

“People expecting this to be EXACTLY the same as Robert Jordan’s writing have missed the point entirely. It was never about that totally unachievable goal, it was about Sanderson not completely screwing up the story and characters. So far we are off to a flying start.”

Most other commenters on ReadAndFindOut, which has an excellent discussion thread about the first chapter, were positive about the release and optimistic about The Gathering Storm, although there were a number of minor criticisms and some people did not enjoy the first chapter.

Warning: Spoilers about the chapter and previous books ahead, as well as plot discussion.

Much of the plot discussion surrounding the chapter has focused on one of the only new plot points that was introduced in it; Rand has a new sword.

The chapter states:

“It looked as if it had been designed speciﬁcally for Rand—and yet it was centuries old, unearthed only recently. How odd, that they should ﬁnd this now, he thought, and make a gift of it to me, completely unaware of what they were holding. . . . He had told no one, not even Min, that he had recognized the weapon. And not, oddly, from Lews Therin’s memories—but Rand’s own.”

There appears to be a gradually developing consensus online that the sword may be Justice, the legendary blade of the king, general and ta’veren who united much of the lands west of the Spine of the World long before Rand Al’Thor’s time.

Possessing Justice, so the theory goes, would give Rand a massive advantage in trying to win over the invading Seanchan armies, as their nation was founded by Hawkwing’s son, and they revere Hawkwing himself.

Commentary
After reading the first chapter of The Gathering Storm, I am excitedly awaiting the release of the full book. All the signs are there from the first chapter that Sanderson knows and reveres Jordan’s work extremely well and is dedicated to and capable of producing a stunning sequel to the series.

Yes, if you’re a long-time Wheel of Time fan, you will be able to detect differences between the writing styles of Jordan and Sanderson.

However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I hadn’t read any of Sanderson’s work before, but this week I’ve been reading Mistborn, the first book in his Final Empire series. And I have to say that I am completely hooked. I love this book, and I’m going to be speedily rushing out to read the rest of his books as well.

Knowing that Mistborn is great has given be a great deal of confidence in Sanderson’s ability to finish The Wheel of Time.

However, as many people have noted online, there is also quite a lot of difference between Sanderson’s evolving style in his previous books and the writing in the first chapter of The Gathering Storm.

To me, it appears as if the new book will very much be a mixing of both authors, done in a very respectful way to Robert Jordan’s memory. I suspect it will be a tribute to Sanderson’s respect for Jordan.

What do you think about the first chapter of The Gathering Storm? Did it, as many people have noted, hook you back into Jordan’s epic vision? Or did it leave you feeling cold?

Next Wheel of Time book: Read chapter one

Renai LeMay — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:52:03 +0000

Publisher Tor Books has made the first chapter of the upcoming book in The Wheel of Time fantasy series, The Gathering Storm, available for free from its website.

But by registering today on Tor.com, Wheel of Time fans are able to immediately download a text or audio reading of the first chapter of The Gathering Storm.

The chapter begins with the standard Wheel of Time format:

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose around the alabaster spire known as the White Tower. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.

It then moves further into the main story of the book.

In comments posted underneath the chapter on Tor.com's site, Wheel of Time fans appeared to agree that the writing style of the new chapter differed from Jordan’s style, but not in a bad way. Most expressed positive sentiments about the chapter.

“I can tell this is a different voice but it’s a good one and does pay respect to the rest of the series,” wrote one fan. Added another: “I could definitely tell it was not RJ writing this, not that it was badly written, but it will take a bit of getting used to.”

But even so, some readers have already filed small criticisms at Sanderson. For example, one wrote:

“If I had to offer any real quibbles, I would say it was a little self-consciously written in parts. I thought Rand’s internal thought processes, in particular, were a tad over-laboured and over-expressed compared to where he was at in the later books – whereby RJ kept him a bit more wrapped in mystique.”

Semi-official Wheel of Time site Dragonmount has also posted a slew of other news about moves associated with launch of The Gathering Storm.

For starters, the prologue to the book will be available on ~~October~~ September 17 as an electronic book download for US$2.99 from vendors like Amazon.com. The whole Wheel of Time series will also be released as e-books, and the original books are to get new covers. And of course there will be a book tour associated with the launch, so far only in the US.

Next Wheel of Time book: The first review

Renai LeMay — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:36:38 +0000

Dragonmount‘s Jason Denzel has just posted the first review of The Gathering Storm, the next book in Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, and he says it’s a great read and true to the deceased author’s memory.

The Gathering Storm, one of three books still to be published in Jordan’s epic, was written by American fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, using Jordan’s notes and plan for the rest of the series. In this first review, Denzel gushes about the book.

“I would rank it up there in the top 4 in the series along with The Shadow Rising, The Fires of Heaven, and The Great Hunt,” he said.

Denzel had this to say about what he acknowledges is a “burning question” on the part of Jordan’s massive fan base (the series has sold over 44 million books worldwide) as to whether or not the book “feels” like a Robert Jordan novel:

“Well, truthfully, I thought the prose stayed very true to previous novels … There were only a few times where I suspected the scene I was reading was entirely from Brandon’s imagination. We may never learn which specific sequences he had to invent entirely, but in the end, you probably won’t notice or even care. It’s pretty seamless in that regard.”

The result, Denzel wrote, is that the book is a novel which belongs in the Wheel of Time series.

And the plot? Without spoiling it, Denzel says the story brings focus back to the characters that need it, notably the Dragon Reborn himself, Rand Al’Thor. ‘If you thought Rand was hard before, you haven’t seen anything yet,” he says.

The news today came as Sanderson had recently revealed he would take a brief break from working on the conclusion to Jordan’s masterpiece, after he handed in The Gathering Storm manuscript in preparation for publishing.

The author citied the need to recharge and work on his own books for a while.

The Gathering Storm is due to hit retailers on November 3.

Commentary
Denzel’s praise for The Gathering Storm will highly reassure Jordanites (including myself) that Sanderson can properly finish Jordan’s legacy.

As Denzel notes himself, he’s hardly divorced and independent from The Wheel of Time books. He runs the main fan site for them, a site that itself hosted Jordan’s own blog before he passed away.

And, he is friends with both Jordan’s widow Harriet McDougal and Sanderson, and has a relationship with Jordan publisher Tor. So if there was anyone who was going to be disappointed if The Gathering Storm was bad, it would be Denzel. The fans trust him. His site has done so much for them over the years.

Personally, his endorsement of Sanderson’s book has made me tremendously excited about its release in November; I’ll be lining up at midnight if necessary to get my copy, and I would encourage any Jordan fan to do the same. Let’s see this masterpiece completed and head to Tarmon Gai’don — in style.