What was your favorite chapter / scene/quote?

[ClubCaved]

It has to be "Questions Of Control", pages 278-280, when Cadsuane finally realizes how to break Semi. I laughed out loud for several minutes.

[Mr. Micawber]

It has to be "Questions Of Control", pages 278-280, when Cadsuane finally realizes how to break Semi. I laughed out loud for several minutes.

 

Oh yes, that was bloody hilarious!

[Majsju]

I might change my mind once everytihng really sinks in, (and I have read the book at least one more time), but as of now, my favourites are Egwene & Verin ( :'(), Egwenes second time serving Elaida (one of very things that actually played out more or less exactly as I had expected), and chapter 22+23. And Cadsuane spanking Semirhage, awesome.

 

And bloody teasing in the very beginning of chapter three, when Avi spots that one sad mule. Got my hopes up at getting to see a dead mule there, but no ;D

[Luckers]

My very favourite scene is the tie between Verin and Egwene's scene, and the scene where Egwene goes postal with the sa'angreal. Next in line is a tie between veins of Gold and Egwene's dinner with Elaida.

 

Also, I liked hinderstap. There was something tragic about it. I would have perhaps liked it more if Joline had fallen and they rode away and left her to that endless nightmare, but meh.

[Jameric]

Well i can some of the bests parts of the book:

 

Rands Crazy, Egwenes badassery, Cadsuane busting ass.

 

and of course Verin stole the show.

 

 

 

[Tyrell]

Tam giving Cadsuane a much needed verbal bitch-slap.

[A Trite Pun]

I have to agree that the Verin/Egwene scene was awesome, because i'm now dying to know how Verin plans on doing what she needs to do, and how she might come back - "in case I do not return"  In terms of my least favorite scene, I was dying for an epic battle with Graendal, and it just felt anti-climactic the massive balefire of her palace

 

[draconian]

i loved the graendal scene pure genius. it gave us a taste what a aes sedai AoL face in the war of power. its was like a scene from code geass, pure tacticial moves.

 

22/23 were alo great especially the end of 23. vein of gold agreed perfect ending. the scenes with tam and rand and tam and cad were instresting.

 

egwene going nut becoming closer to rand in mental state for a time and shredding seanchan was awsome.

i gotta say i like when character actually plan ahead

[gabrielnz]

Definately chapters 22-23 were the best was good to see Rand snap at Cadsuane as well though it's a shame she's still the manipulating conniving person throughout the book, also the seen where Tam confronts Cadsuane is awesome i especially love the way he just calls her a bully effectively taking the wind out of her sails.

 

The worst however is what he did with Semirhages character.  Throughout the entire series only her and Demandred have held onto the persona of the forsaken,  It was good at first having her control the interrogations and theres just no way i think she would have broken in that way.  its a right hsmae she died too she should have managed to escape when Rand broke free

[clu7ch]

Oh wow I haven't felt this excited about a book in a long time. It was like Dumai's Wells, or the Cleansing - but spread throughout the entire book. This was truly epic.

 

My favorite Chapter by far was Veins of Gold, It was purely amazing. Although I'm going to miss Lews Therin terribly I think. He was definitely the most amusing in this instillation. Especially the 'I like Him' Comment followed by 'you don't like anyone'

 

Scenes that stood out to me were everywhere however. Rand's channeling the true power, Destroying Graendal, and Egwene defending the white tower. I also found the meeting between Rand and Moridin to be of interest.

 

What I was not cool with was the lack of anything to do with Moiraine, and I was hoping for a bit of asmodean closure. Oh well, 2 more parts to go.

[Mr. Micawber]

Actually, Veins of Gold reminded me of the ending of TGH, when Rand realizes that, despite Elan Morin's lies and boasts, he's never served the Shadow in a thousand lives, and he prepares himself to die, because sometimes Sheathing the Sword is the only way to win.

 

In a way, Veins of Gold demonstrates that we've come full circle, because Rand realizes that there are, indeed, reasons to live, first and foremost, the chance to love.

.

[Malivis]

There's so much to choose from, I just finished reading it now...

 

But probably Egwene's choice of Keeper. You knew it was coming, but there was still something special about it.

[Morgar]

Overall I enjoyed the book greatly, easily my second favorite after The Shadow Rising.With that said my only critique is the voice of Matrim. I feel as if Matt was RJ, in tone and temperament certainly representative of his time in Vietnam and after. Brandon with none of the real life experiences in the military as Robert Jordan is lacking in his ability to expressively convey a character that chance and luck ride hand and hand with life and death and the memories of battles past are routinely portrayed so vividly in his minds eye. I doubt many of you would make this connection as well without having served in the military. This is an unfair criticism in that Brandon is an excellent writer and his overall tone for the rest of the characters tone was near flawless in my mind. I would easily rate the book a resounding success otherwise. I can only hope in the two subsequent novels Brandon finds his own tone for Matt rather than the pale imitation we were left with especially with Mr Jordan's unparalleled ability to show the reader what death in war is about or as well as words can convey considering the final two battles will portray much conflict.

 

As a note I do not intend to bump this or continue this, just leaving my two cents if there are others who would agree or disagree.

[Beren]

Oh wow I haven't felt this excited about a book in a long time. It was like Dumai's Wells, or the Cleansing - but spread throughout the entire book. This was truly epic.

 

My favorite Chapter by far was Veins of Gold, It was purely amazing. Although I'm going to miss Lews Therin terribly I think. He was definitely the most amusing in this instillation. Especially the 'I like Him' Comment followed by 'you don't like anyone'

 

Scenes that stood out to me were everywhere however. Rand's channeling the true power, Destroying Graendal, and Egwene defending the white tower. I also found the meeting between Rand and Moridin to be of interest.

 

What I was not cool with was the lack of anything to do with Moiraine, and I was hoping for a bit of asmodean closure. Oh well, 2 more parts to go.

 

I have actually noticed several things in my re-read of TGS that could have something to do with Asmodean. I will explain more after I check some sources.

[clu7ch]

Awesome, Asmodean is definitely one of the more interesting characters to grace the series...

 

But I've definitely been waiting for a raid on the Tower of Ghenji (sp?)

The Finn's were pretty BA

[Beren]

Awesome, Asmodean is definitely one of the more interesting characters to grace the series...

 

But I've definitely been waiting for a raid on the Tower of Ghenji (sp?)

The Finn's were pretty BA

 

I wonder if Verin knows something about this. She did tell Matt to follow the orders in her letter...

[Mr. Micawber]

The Finns aren't creatures of the Shadow.¹

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. They are, of course, instead a Scandinavian people (though not *Nordic*) speaking a Uralic language out of the Finno-Ugric language family. They are, of course, not evil in the way the Shadow is evil, but trying to pronounce anything in Suomi is more painful than Naming the Dark One or even speaking Welsh!

[clu7ch]

The Finns aren't creatures of the Shadow.¹

 

was aiming for badassed rather than black ajah concerning the finns.............. lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. They are, of course, instead a Scandinavian people (though not *Nordic*) speaking a Uralic language out of the Finno-Ugric language family. They are, of course, not evil in the way the Shadow is evil, but trying to pronounce anything in Suomi is more painful than Naming the Dark One or even speaking Welsh!

[Beren]

Here is my thoughts about Asmo.

 

This is Moridin talking to Graendal alone.

"You strike only when wise, but are not afraid of conflict. The Great Lord approves of your initiative."

 

What could he possibly be congratulating her for. She has done very little that I can remember. Hint at Asmo's death?

[Mr. Micawber]

Here is my thoughts about Asmo.

 

This is Moridin talking to Graendal alone.

"You strike only when wise, but are not afraid of conflict. The Great Lord approves of your initiative."

 

What could he possibly be congratulating her for. She has done very little that I can remember. Hint at Asmo's death?

 

I think he meant the complete catastrophe that is Arad Doman plus the absolutely murderous campaign of Ituralde and the Seanchan, which will inevitably provoke a massive response...and so on.

 

Essentially, Graendal's pretty much singlehandedly sown chaos across about a third of Randland.

 

But then, I've always thought she took out Asmodean as she fled from Rah'vin, since we had a certain amount of evidence in FOH that just as Rand had an unseen ally in Nynaeve, Rah'vin was probably working with Graendal in T'A'R

[BURN]

Verin stuff was great (I don't know if anyone has mentioned it, but that whole bit with Verin in the Two Rivers in TSR is put in a new light...Slayer...Fain, all in the same place. Yikes, I'll have to re-read that). Rand stuff was great. Really, I was very pleased with the book. I would agree with those that say Mat was "off" though. But, I'll just go ahead and say... I think I might like this version of Mat as much or more, but I do think Mat was too flippant, although if I recall correctly, Mat is actually called out for being too flippant, and Teslyn notices that he isn't acting like himself. So I think it might have been intentional on Sanderson's part. The rant about women was classic WoT in any event. And I liked his interaction with Talemanes. Really liked the contrast between the levity of Mat's scenes juxtaposed with those of Rand's. The werewolf/zombie town thing was strange, campish. Actually kind of liked it though. Really, a lot of scenes I liked. I've always disliked Egwene, but I've really enjoyed her scenes in KoD and TGS. Nynaeve, I really like how she's matured. I agree with those that think Cadsuane seems to be grooming her.  Any thoughts on how this book ranks in the series? I've only skimmed it once and read it in detail once, but I enjoyed it. KoD and TGS have both been good. I guess I am unusual in that I'm not anxious to see the series end. I'll miss it. Been waiting for new books to come out since I was a kid, it was fun to sit down and read the latest installment just like I did as a kid as soon as I could get my hands on a copy. Maybe it was because it was such a long wait, but I really enjoyed it. I'd say it ranks with the 1-6 run and book 11 for sure, not sure where to place it.

[Ilyena]

OMG OMG OMG VERIN!!!!!

She has become one of my ULTIMATE favs in this series... I'm not going to lie when I say I got choked up when she drank that poison. So sad. Through all the years reading this series I always expected her to turn out good. I'm glad that's what happened.

In the meantime, the revelations of who was Black and who not was fairly amusing. It's as though both RJ and BS are tempting us with fan theories being answered... that is, all except Asmodean...

[mattyh]

overall, the book left me very pleased.

 

'a visit from verin sedai' had the most impact on me by far. i was stunned and had to stop reading and cry for ages :'(

 

there were a few scenes that left me thinking, 'i wish RJ had written this whole bit', namely, some of mat's chapters, and egwene's raising to amyrlin in the tower and berating the sitters. they were well written, but lacking the RJ magic of, say, honey in the tea (kod), or even the nature of pain (ch3 tgs).

 

that said, i was well satisfied and brandon sanderson should be very proud to have succeeded so far with such an enormous and difficult undertaking. thank you, sir.

[Dovienya]

I am going to have to go with Verin/Egwene.

 

Others I liked:

1.  Semihrage, Rand, Min

2.  Egwene vs the Seanchan

3.  Siun and Gareth

 

I cried as soon as I realized Verin had taken poison.  She's definitely one of my favorite "minor" characters.  I like her even more now.

 

I also thought that Mat's POVs were a little off, but to some degree, I liked the change.  It was nice to get some amusement in an otherwise fairly dark work.  Even though I didn't think the scenes were what Jordan would have written, I found myself laughing (even at the parts where they're planning the invasion of that town). 

[clu7ch]

Did anyone else share in my reaction upon finishing the book? It reminded me a lot lot lot of when I first saw the "Dark Knight" movie. After I was finished reading, I couldn't say or think anything, I just was in shock from the whole thing. The dark and desperate feeling of the whole book is something I really enjoy, it builds for what is to come so so well.