A Memory of Light

A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson.  I've been debating how to review this book.  Two big reasons.  One, it is book number fourteen, the final book, in a long running fantasy series (Book 1 - The Eye of the World - was published in 1990).  Two, it's taken FOREVER to be published and I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't gotten there yet.  But, here goes.

Overall, I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.  It does a great job of tying up a significant number of story lines that came out in the rest of the series.  Just as in the other couple books Sanderson wrote after Jordan died, to me Sanderson stayed true to the characters and tone Jordan began. 

There were a few parts that seemed to bog down to me.  I don't want to go into too much detail because I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but parts of The Last Battle seemed to be a bit too detailed to me as does some of the events in this book leading up to it.  I could have done without some of the detail.  I can see what they were trying to do in writing those scenes the way they did, though.

The other issue I had was that some of the Talents and abilities in characters like Egwene and Aviehenda seemed to have gotten left behind in this book.  I don't know if that was intentional due to an agreement that they didn't fit in as well in this book, or if there was just so much else crammed in this book that these details got missed.  I am going to think it was intentional and not sloppiness.

I do like how the book ends despite it also being frustrating to me.  There are still some unanswered questions and scenarios.  Now, don't get me wrong, the major story lines are all tied up well.  It's just that there is a definite sense of "But what happened after that?" to some of it.  I can't give any examples without giving away stuff, so you'll just have to trust me on this one.

In the end I would say this book and the entire Wheel of Time series is one any fantasy fan should read at least once in their lives.  Jordan has done a great job of creating a cohesive fantasy world, spinning out a myriad of different story lines, and bringing them back together again for a cohesive ending.