All the debates about Caemlyn....

Hell 1 channeler could take it out.  Gateway: Drop in something flammable into a building like vats of oil (like Maradon).   Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, etc..   A few fireballs...the whole places goes up in minutes.

And who cares if 5, 10, 20 channelers need to link to do this.   One battle won, those channelers can stop and have a breather.  Meanwhile you still have the bulk of your forces to use, with no casualties, and an army decimated.

Honestly, I think it was more ridiculous that you have an army with what 100? AS channelers in it...and you have another army with what a couple Asha'man in it?   Doesn't that seem silly?  Split your channelers, keep a few always 'fresh' so that if a huge push of enemy channelers come you can get reinforcements.   Why keep all channelers in 1 spot when you have the ability to go anywhere anytime? especially when you know the enemy has dreadlords that you may need to counter...

That and the fact that the Damane are built up for 13 books as 'weapons' and then they don't even get a moment to just go Pompeii.    Lines of damane just blowing things up...was REALLY looking forward to that.  Dumani Wells-Ashaman all over again.

TheVitaleMob is completely right that there are a huge majority of people on this forum that were going to hate the book regardless of how it ended. You have no idea what was actually written by BS or RJ, but because BS had a hand in it, you complain. If RJ was still here and wrote the exact same book, you would praise it as a masterpiece.

I don't think that's fair.

I personally hate the Sharans as the bad guys popping out of no where, felt a little cheap.  And that was undoubtably a RJ decision.

The characters got left behind in this novel to make room for the action.  I prefer character interaction over battle scenes.  Hence why it left a very sour taste in my mouth.

PS.  Lots of people say they were crying at parts in this book...this is one of the few WoT books where I've felt disconnected to the characters and even key deaths were a 'meh' event.  (and ToM had more than a few that had me emotionally invested, so it's not the author so much as the tone/rush)

 

Ok, look. The Light has some powerful channelers, 'angreal, and circles

 

One bro in TSR glassed an entire city. I'm pretty sure the combined force of female channelers plus the Rand loyalist Ashaman could torch Caemlyn and all the guys in it in a few hours. Then you redeploy to the Northern fronts.

yep.  but it's Camelyn!  Who cares if every city in the North is burned to ashes....not the pretty one!  we like that one!

*rolls eyes*

100% exactly what they should have done.

 

I personally feel that gateways killed the battles in these books.

 

When you can just dump lava on an army.  When you can sit inside a mountain and use gateways to fire out.  When you can use them to view the battle and instantly know what's happening.  When shadowspawn can't cross them.  When you can create gateways to sever a man's heart.  When you can move entire armies instantly anywhere.   They're just TOO powerful.

 

Heh, some of these are aspects of modern warfare, which I think is part of the point.

Yeah I got that.  Maybe it's more realistic (hell I was like "Dragons inside the mountain and shooting out!  THAT is smart")...but it still felt very cheap.  Like...why didn't we think of this back when we discovered gateways?   

*shrug*

I personally feel that gateways killed the battles in these books.

When you can just dump lava on an army.  When you can sit inside a mountain and use gateways to fire out.  When you can use them to view the battle and instantly know what's happening.  When shadowspawn can't cross them.  When you can create gateways to sever a man's heart.  When you can move entire armies instantly anywhere.   They're just TOO powerful.

Just SO MANY decisions in the book become circumspect with these super power gateways.

Why didn't they just link to Androl and have him drop a wall of lava on Demandred and his main peeps on the heights?   Why not open a gateway into a trolloc charge that brings the ocean into them?   Why not just setup a long ass gateway in the Gap/SG pass so no Shadowspawn can assualt you?


"Deathgates" was OK.  That was one little attack that mauled a few shadowspawn.  The other the top use of gateways in AMoL...just totally frustrated me.  And then it frustrated me at their lack of use in other situations where they were a last resort rather than an opening salvo.  Super power gateways...shelved.  I'll save that Ace for later.  

And maybe it was just my reading comprehension but the inconsistencies:  "Too tired to open a gateway"  "Lan got 1/3 of his troops out of there"  "We can barely channel"  "He was back in Mayene after going through a gateway".   ARGH

Done.

Action/Battles -were overwhelming. The whole book was a battle. Really felt that TG feel. I'm sure lots of people really enjoyed AMoL because of this. It was good, but left little room for plot and characters

Character reunions/Interaction - poorest book in the series for me. From Moraines reunion, which failed to stir the epicness it should have, to her just clubbing everyone at the Fields to 'get the show on the road'...the characters didn't feel right. They felt like plot devices to advance the battle. Really disappointed in this. The emotions of the reunions, the heroes triumphs, the fallen warriors...all of it should have been there with more feeling, or in a lot of cases...just there instead of missing. Conflicts are resolved with one liners. We are informed that people are dead with a one liner. The meat and potatoes of WoT was the people, and they took a back seat in this final book when they should have been forefront.

Open Ended storyline/Plotholes - not a deal breaker for me. We got a TON of mysteries answered, even if they were delivered in a casual sentence or quick one liner. A few other mysteries, open ended future, it isn't bad. Leaves us wanting more which we unfortunately can't have, but the big storyline was answered

Overall, really sad to see the series come to a close. Really happy we did get some sort of closure, the book was good in that regard. Still think this was a poorly written book, felt farrrrrrr too rushed with too many contrived scenes built to just push the storyline forward. My personal preference is far more focus on characters, the dialogue, and their interactions. Battles are cool, but 700 pages was too much for me. Even if it was TG. Also, not enough Mat ;)

@Herid - it's possible someone remembers that Mat is arguably the best General they have and go to look for him early.  It may be a bit of an unnecessary complication, but it would help seal his importance among the gathered armies.  Or more likely they go to pick him up at noon :)

 

 

just curious - I'm not debating that Mat is a good General, but besides the Band, and whoever may have encountered the Band - knows this tidbit of knowledge?

 

Only Bashere knows who Mat is....

 

Byrne does not, or did I miss that section of whatever book?  Is Bashere going to convince everyone?  I suppose Bashere is the leader of Rands immediate forces, but the other Borderlanders have no clue.  

Doesn't Rand know that Mat is now a military genius?  Wasn't he there with Lan and Rhuarc in the Waste when Mat plans to invade Cairhein in like 10s when it took those other military guys the better part of a week to come up with more or less the same thing?

Really, at the end of the day this is going to come down to Rand 'organizing' people (as he states) according to his will.  As long as Rand wants Mat in command, Mat will be in command.

Not sure if that's what he wants though.  But I'd love to see it.  Mat at the helm, bunch of great captains in charge of separate armies fighting all over the place, all reporting to Mat.

A lion stuffed into a horse-stall might look like a peculiar joke, but a lion on the high plains was something very different. Toy was loose on the high plains, now. She felt a chill. What sort of man had she entangled herself with? After all this time, she realized, she had hardly a clue.

-When driving you see a fox on the side of the road...and a snake on the other side...and you freak out a little

-When you see a woman tugging on her braid, you run for the hills least you feel her wrath

-You look at a glass of milk and say "Mothers Milk in a Cup!" and then look around to make sure no one heard you use that 'profanity'

-The sound of someone else playing with a pair of dice in another room...makes you incredibly nervous. Especially when the rolling stops...

-Hand prints on windows are no longer annoying, they're a sign that you're one bad ass mofo (band of the red hand)

-You have refused to drink tea for 20 years, just incase it's the forkroot that's been holding you back...

-You've walked naked into the desert hoping for some insight into your future. All you've gotten was a sunburn in some sensitive locations.