Review: Towers of Midnight

Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I initially skipped over my review of Towers of Midnight because I was in such a rush to get into A Memory of Light. Now I'm finally getting back to it, and it makes me kind of sad that I'm actually finished reading the series and that I've just carried blithely on with my life since then.

The end of The Gathering Storm felt so momentous to me that I was dying to jump into this book. But I had forgotten that the massive scope of this epic meant that other characters needed their chance, and when Towers of Midnight switched gears I felt a bit cut off at first. I had to remind myself that I really did want to see what was in store for Perrin and Mat, and I could be patient for the rest.

So where The Gathering Storm focused primarily on wrapping up Egwene's threads and furthering Rand's, Towers of Midnight wraps up Perrin and Mat quite nicely, while still leaving them enough to do in the last book. It was very satisfying to get some of the answers we've been waiting for, and to see both of them accepting their roles.

One thing to note is that Perrin's story takes place at the same time as the events in The Gathering Storm, while the other characters are a little bit ahead of him. It was difficult to sort out the timing on everything that was happening for a while, even with the 'visions' showing where Rand was at the time. Perrin does catch up eventually, but it could be a bit confusing at times.

One aspect that I found different in this book is that the characters don't all have the same goals, priorities, or views on what needs to happen. For example, Mat and Egwene's positions on the Seanchan, or Rand and Egwene's opinion on the seals. These people that we've been following from their naive, country childhoods into leadership have also grown apart in their views of the world. It's odd because I've been rooting for these people separately, and now that they find some interests to be clashing, I don't know who to support. I can see both sides because I know both characters and what has brought them to that point. The way this causes tension even within the reader is very well done.

All in all, this was a satisfying installment in the Wheel of Time series, although it did feel like a 'middle' novel in many ways. It was not as focused as the previous book, and was setting up the next one, while trying to wrap up a bunch of threads from the entire series. What a massive job Sanderson had in bringing all of this back together! I think he has done an admirable job, keeping the essence of the characters consistent and preserving the tone and feeling of the world.




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