Mixed emotions on AMoL

[Isahn]

Hey Guys and Gals,

 

I dont know about you, but I am having some seriously mixed emotions about AMoL. On one hand, I cant wait to see our three Ta'veren friends we have all grown to love, dukeing out with the DO. There are so many plotlines that will hopefully come to a finality, that i dont even know where to start...Matt/tuon, Rand/Moridin, Perrin/Slayer...

On the other hand, I know that this is it. No more speculating, no more cryptic character developments. I sometimes think that i dont want the last book to come out for a few years from now, because i dont want it to end.

 

Just wanted to hear your thoughts...Bummed out or excited about the last book?

[Puny]

I´m more excited/fearful. Im excited because we are finally going to see the end to a series I began when I was 13, I´ve basically read about the guys for half my life. And I can argue all about character development, the Forsaken not being as badass as they could be as so on, but when it all boils down, I really like the story Jordan/Brandon are giving us, I like the characters, the world and it´s gonna be fun to see how it all ends.

 

On the other hand I´m fearful, there are alot of threads that need to be tied of, and I know not all of them are gonna be sorted out but that still leaves a freacking yarn of threads that IMO need to be somewhat decently resolved... more than decently and not too rushed. I would hate, HATE, and be really disappointed if I read a 900page AMOL and felt everything was rushed and sloppy. I want Brandon to take his time and make the last book as good as it can get, no matter the stupid amount of pages. Light, if he feels he has to split that book in two,Í´ll be all for it, or if he needs a massive binding or the book will weigh 1 kg, it´s all fine for me. I don´t want the story/ending/fans to suffer.

[Eichhörnchen]

I believe that since the book began with an LTT&Elan sequence it should end with one. Probably the final scene being ages into the future with the two figures reborn conversing yet again about the futility yet inevitability of their eternal feud.

[Puny]

I believe that since the book began with an LTT&Elan sequence it should end with one. Probably the final scene being ages into the future with the two figures reborn conversing yet again about the futility yet inevitability of their eternal feud.

 

+1 that would be really nice. It should end it with. blabla wind, there are no beginnings nor ends, but it was a beginning. =)

[jemron]

Mixed like you. My favorite part of the series is speculating. What will we speculate about when it's all over?

[Puny]

Mixed like you. My favorite part of the series is speculating. What will we speculate about when it's all over?

 

Meh... I actually think sometimes we overspeculate and sometimes I think we forget to go with the flow and enjoy the ride. Tbh I´m not reading WoT because there is so much awesome to speculate about. I read it because I love the world/people RJ has created. Speculating is just extra cookies and cake. Or icing on the cake if you will =P.

[PhoenixUK]

I am really going to miss this series, but only because books 11-13 picked up the pace. When I finished book 10, I had blood coming out of my eyes. I really could not understand why RJ was driving this series into its own grave. Fortunately (IMHO) he turned this around in book 11, and Sanderson has done a good job with 12+13.

 

I remain terrified for 14 though. I am not sure he can pull it off - I am not sure even RJ could have managed a final book that is as fantastic as this series deserves. There are still so many plotlines to go! Can they really all get resolved? I felt book 13 jumped about from one plot to another just to cram everything in, I hope 14 is not like that.

 

Fingers crossed though! I hope rand has a happy ending :)

[aclund3]

Definitely fearful, and equally excited to get more/the end of the story. What I'm most worried about is different threads being rushed and not given a proper 'conclusion'. Some of the story arcs have already been rushed in TOM and we all know that its going to happen in AMoL, but maybe.....they won't ......wishful thinking i know.

 

I do hope the extra material that Sanderson has to cut once he finishes his million page draft will get out to us somehow. For some reason, I feel like i have heard that he has considered this possibility and has contingency plans.

 

Beautiful Eichhörnchen, that would be awesome!!!!

[randsc]

I still think it should end with: flicker

[Puny]

I still think it should end with: flicker

 

That would be nice too... but I kinda like the ending being as it was in the beginning. No end, no beginning, just a cycle, and we are back to square one.

[Terez]

Hey Guys and Gals,

 

I dont know about you, but I am having some seriously mixed emotions about AMoL. On one hand, I cant wait to see our three Ta'veren friends we have all grown to love, dukeing out with the DO. There are so many plotlines that will hopefully come to a finality, that i dont even know where to start...Matt/tuon, Rand/Moridin, Perrin/Slayer...

On the other hand, I know that this is it. No more speculating, no more cryptic character developments. I sometimes think that i dont want the last book to come out for a few years from now, because i dont want it to end.

 

Just wanted to hear your thoughts...Bummed out or excited about the last book?

Your thoughts are pretty typical. We felt pretty much the same after KOD, when RJ promised there would be only one more book. Actually, it was worse then, as there was a lot more to be tied up still at that point.

[PhoenixUK]

what do you mean flicker? As in, the flicker that Rand and co experienced when using the Portal stones in TGH and experienced multiple alternate realities?

[Terez]

Yup. I personally suspect we'll get 'I have won again, Lews Therin' when Rand dies, but that will be far from the end.

[W_A]

We know the last word will probably be time (Although the last word of Harry Potter was supposed to be scar). I'm still trying to think of a really ending style sentence that ends with time. Possibly it could be something like the ending to The Dark Knight. We hated him we feared him blah blah blah until we need him next time. I'm just worried that he's going to make a really awkward sentence just so he can end it with the word time. I really hope he doesn't. I'd prefer for it to have a good last sentence to a good last word, a good last paragraph to a good last sentence, a good last chapter to a good last paragraph and a good last book to a good last paragraph.

[John E. Kelley]

No one has ever liked my idea, but I still say that the last line needs to be a dying Rand hearing a whispered, "I have won again Lews Therin." Seriously, tell me that wouldn't give everyone here a serious case of the chills.

[Vambram]

No one has ever liked my idea, but I still say that the last line needs to be a dying Rand hearing a whispered, "I have won again Lews Therin." Seriously, tell me that wouldn't give everyone here a serious case of the chills.

 

 

It would make me want to throw the book across the room. If that is the last line in the book, then that would ruin the book for me.

 

 

 

[JKN-SW]

We know the last word will probably be time (Although the last word of Harry Potter was supposed to be scar). I'm still trying to think of a really ending style sentence that ends with time. Possibly it could be something like the ending to The Dark Knight. We hated him we feared him blah blah blah until we need him next time. I'm just worried that he's going to make a really awkward sentence just so he can end it with the word time. I really hope he doesn't. I'd prefer for it to have a good last sentence to a good last word, a good last paragraph to a good last sentence, a good last chapter to a good last paragraph and a good last book to a good last paragraph.

 

Didn't RJ write the ending before he passed? I remember reading that somewhere, and I know he always said he knew exactly how it would be written. Wouldn't he, when he felt he wouldn't be able to finish the series, make sure the ending would be exactly as he had always planned it?

[Sid]

in the Foreward of TGS Brandon says 'Mr. Jordan did write this ending himself before he passed away, and I have read it. And it is fantastic.'

[Hael Me]

Mixed emotions, yes, that sums it up quite nicely...

 

Seems like I've been reading this series since forever, and of course, since I've enjoyed the ride - mostly - I don't want it to end, but on the other hand, I'm starving to find out what will happen. I was very frustrated when I read books like TPoD & CoT, because then I thought: "This is never going to end."

 

It's hard for any writer to complete a massive, convoluted work like this in a satisfying fashion.

In the words of TS Eliot:

"This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper"

But the whimper can be an illusion in our minds, because how can any ending, no matter how good or even spectacular it is, live up to the whole world that preceded it?

 

And this is a special case since Mr Jordan, the Creator, passed away with his work still unfinished. Mr Sanderson is doing a great job under extremely difficult circumstances, I think. But because of this, there will always be doubts in the minds of some people. Bach never completed The Art of Fugue, but if Beethoven or Mozart had stepped in later and completed it, wouldn't many listeners, even if they knew that the final notes were composed by Bach himself, casually say or feel: "Good stuff, but of course, it just isn't Bach!"

 

Me? I don't have a bad feeling about this. I'm just waiting for that big bang, the Last Battle. With mixed emotions, of course.

 

The last word should be either "time" or "beginning", no doubt about that.

[Guest dopethrone00]

I think it should end with rand climbing to the top of shayul ghul and theres a door. He goes through and hes chasing a man in black through the desert... No wait thats a horrible ending from another series I spent years of my life waiting on.

[Barid Bel Medar]

 

"He came like the wind, like the wind touched everything, and like the wind was gone."

[Dakota]

I'm glad that Sanderson has picked up the pace so much and got the plotline actually moving along. However, just the sheer amount that the series dragged on from books 7-11 has made me just want it to be over already.

[ShenAnCalhar]

I think it should end with rand climbing to the top of shayul ghul and theres a door. He goes through and hes chasing a man in black through the desert... No wait thats a horrible ending from another series I spent years of my life waiting on.

Totally derailing this thread: I see this opinion often in these forums, and I begin to wonder if I'm the only one who thought the ending was amazing. Roland took that one extra moment to retrieve the Horn of Eld when Cuthbert died. He felt some small amount of additional compassion for his ka-tet this time around; enough to reach the critical mass that changes his behavior in this instance to hold onto a symbol of his honorable lineage.

 

The world moving on and the death of his family, friends, and everything he holds dear is why he begins his quest. The chance to blow the Horn represents remembrance of these things, and this time around, he cares enough to realize that. In his prior cycle, he uses everyone he meets as pawns; a means to an end to reach what has become a burning obsession for him for reasons he doesn't even remember.

 

But maybe this time around he will remember - he may find himself standing before the tower, winding his horn for all those who have fallen. He would no longer be damned to repeatedly sacrifice everything his loves to feed his obsession.

 

And there are of course other interpretations, which is another part of the beauty of it. Wrapping things up into neat little packages is so Disney. I think it was enough to forgive the general weakness of the last 3 books, the whole Mordred thing, the Deus Ex Machina in the defeat of the Crimson King, and the horribly embarrassing self-insertion that SK pulled. I can only pray that the ending of AMoL is on the same level of awesome (See, I'm totally on topic).