Product Description

Tarmon Gai’don, the Last Battle, looms. And mankind is not ready. The final volume of the Wheel of Time, A Memory of Light, was partially written by Robert Jordan before his untimely passing in 2007. Brandon Sanderson, New York Times bestselling author of the Mistborn books, was chosen by Jordan’s editor&mdash-his wife, Harriet McDougal&mdash-to complete the final book. The scope and size of the volume was such that it could not be contained in a single book, and so Tor proudly presents The Gathering Storm as the first of three novels that will make up A Memory of Light. This short sequence will complete the struggle against the Shadow, bringing to a close a journey begun almost twenty years ago and marking the conclusion of the Wheel of Time, the preeminent fantasy epic of our era. In this epic novel, Robert Jordan’s international bestselling series begins its dramatic conclusion. Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, struggles to unite a fractured network of kingdoms and alliances in preparation for the Last Battle. As he attempts to halt the Seanchan encroachment northward&mdash-wishing he could form at least a temporary truce with the invaders&mdash-his allies watch in terror the shadow that seems to be growing within the heart of the Dragon Reborn himself. Egwene al’Vere, the Amyrlin Seat of the rebel Aes Sedai, is a captive of the White Tower and subject to the whims of their tyrannical leader. As days tick toward the Seanchan attack she knows is imminent, Egwene works to hold together the disparate factions of Aes Sedai while providing leadership in the face of increasing uncertainty and despair. Her fight will prove the mettle of the Aes Sedai, and her conflict will decide the future of the White Tower&mdash-and possibly the world itself. The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-27
• Released on: 2009-10-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 784 pages

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Customer Reviews

Sanderson takes up Jordan's epic tale and delivers magnificently
Just finished the book and am anxious for the next. Sanderson has fully taken up the mantle left by Jordan and crafted an masterful addition to this epic series. There are certainly instances where one may notice a different writing style or different nuances used, but that it is to be expected - after all this is a different writer. The most important thing to me, however, was how easily I recognized the continuation of Jordan's finely woven threads of storytelling, and believed to the depths of my soul that the very characters interwoven in them were the very same characters I've learned to love and loathe from the previous volumes. Where Sanderson may differ from Jordan in describing a scene, he has flawlessly adapted Jordan's style of character speech, thought and action. He has even matched the manic pace to the tale that Jordan began ramping up in the previous novel. It is a very smooth transition and Jordan's work has been very well served indeed.

A dark book and a great continuation of the series
Like many fans of the series I was saddened by the passing of Robert Jordan and the hardship for his family in 2007 and that he himself will never get to finish the story that he spent so much of his life working on. But he said before he died that he wanted the fans to be taken care of and his wife and editor Harriet found fantasy writer and Wheel of Time fan Brandon Sanderson to finish the series last three books.

If I was to pick one word to describe this book it would be 'dark'. Now what I mean by that is alot of not so good things are happening in the world to our characters, particularly Rand. The book focus primary on Rand trying to unit the world for the Last Battle and Egwene trying to unit the White Tower with chapters on some of the other plots here and there. The gloom and doom factors of the Dark One touch on the world are ever more apparent and there's a sense of urgency in all characters that they need to hurry up and prepare for what is coming.
All in all the book one of my favorites in the series and finishes with a powerful and moving scene that is one of the best in the series that leaves you salivating for the next installment.

As for the methodology of Sanderson's writing in the book, I felt he got the voices and mindsets of the charters for the most part. I didn't find myself reading the chapters thinking 'oh this part was definitely written by Sanderson' or 'that isn't something that this character would say', I simple got caught up in the story and enjoyed reading it. This might be different if you have read books by both authors, but for me the change was rather seamless. The one exception I might make to this is Mat's chapters. Now I really enjoyed reading his parts, and it may be because Mat was being used as comic relief in an otherwise dark book or because Sanderson is a big Mat fan but his chapters just seemed a little off. It didn't really take away from enjoying the book however, and that's the really important thing.

Sanderson did a A+ job in the very difficult task of adapting his writing style to Robert Jordan's and I'm look forward to reading Towers of Midnight when it's released in fall 2010.

Worried At First Then Greatly Relieved
Perhaps I am selfish but I was devastated when I heard that Robert Jordan had passed away with the series incomplete. I knew that he was creating several notes regarding the plot line, and had penned some work he intended for the final book, but I was still leery of a ghost writer picking up the mantle and completing the series.

I had never heard of Brandon Sanderson before and I worried about how the final book would turn out. I bought the Gathering Storm book with a little trepidation and wary excitement. The first chapter worried me there was a lot of descriptions of the landscape and very little character dialog. But after the first chapter I felt the book really took off. I personally couldn't tell the difference between Robert Jordan's writing and Brandon Sanderson's writing except for perhaps the personality of Mat.

The plot was exciting, each chapter left me wanting for more, and I received great satisfaction with how the book ended. I'm very pleased that Brandon did not try to condense the finale of this story into a single book, and that there would be 2 more books to give the series the ending it deserves.

I think Brandon did a superb job with this book. He has been working under the tremendous pressure of fan expectations and produced a book that matches some of the finest books in the series. I'm very eager to read the next book and recommend that any fan that walked away from the series should come back and take another look.

It's been a long wait but I highly recommend this book.