Overall, I enjoyed the book. It felt rather epic to read, and while I generally was not fond of all the battles and tactics, I understand why they were included.
However, this is probably more of a flaw with RJ than BS, but...seriously. Out of all the main characters, only one dies in the Last Battle. I know RJ is guilty of having all these immortal characters, but you'd think in the final book, that the one to die would be the one with the prophecy about them DYING. And then Alivia "helping him die". Oh, yeah, she gives him a pouch of coins. -_-
I don't mean to sound that I wanted all the characters to die, but honestly, those were some of the best moments of the book. Egwene's death was so very sad to me, yet I loved the entire scene. Even those like Siuan and Gareth were great, true to how precarious life is during these great struggles and how quickly it can be taken away. I do not like reading a book and thinking that during the Last Battle with the Dark One that, "oh, well, all the minor characters may die, but none of the main characters will". That's what made Egwene's death so unexpected! Wouldn't it have been amazing to have RJ lead us up to this book with all his immortal, perfect characters, only to have many of them die during the Last Battle?
Even Lan coming back to life kind of pissed me off. It's just such a copout for absolutely everyone of the main cast to get a happy ending, other than Egwene and Gawyn. The whole, "oh this battle had great costs, but humanity survived..." thing was sort of ridiculous, as I'm sure many people in Randland suffered tremendous losses, yet the main cast frankly did not, other than the loss of Egwene. Aviendha lost a few toes. :P
But, whatever, that was fairly predictable and therefore not that disappointing.
Another thing that was silly was the whole sword fighting with Damandred. It was great to read when Lan killed him, sacrificing himself, but the whole, "lol nvm just a flesh wound guys" thing following it sort of spoiled it for me.
I enjoyed what we saw of Moghedien, Graendal and Lanfear. Lanfear especially was fascinating. I certainly could not decide what she was up to, and every scene she seemed to be closer and closer to turning back to the Light. Graendal embracing her ugliness and singlehandedly nearly sabotaging the Light's armies was great. Moghedien certainly was filled with lots of fails, though she was amusing as always. However, it really felt like there had to be a final confrontation between Nynaeve and Moghedien, especially given how little time Nynaeve was given in the books. Perhaps after Moghedien narrowly escapes death, Nynaeve is instead the one to catch her and they have a brief, final encounter before Nynaeve kills her. Instead, being collared as a damane seemed to imply something very dark, in contrast to the scene intending to be rather comedic.
Demandred was a little disappointing. His arrival was amazing, but degenerating into a raving lunatic was rather irritating, with Mat even pointing it out. I understand why it occurred, due to his extreme jealousy of Lews Therin, and the fact that it had to be explained that while he brought a massive force to the Shadow and was a Forsaken himself, he couldn't just wipe out the entire army or its command because he was paranoid of Lews Therin lurking about. I'm excited that more on his story is going to be released, so we can actually see why he became so unhinged.
In general, it was good to see the Forsaken more involved and actually presenting challenges, using their strengths to undermine the Light's forces. Lanfear's deception and self-preservation, Graendal's Compulsion, Demandred's military tactics, Moghedien's...sneakiness. Though it was obvious that they would not win in the end, there were many moments where it felt very, very close, especially with the arrival of the Sharan forces.
Despite my complaints, I very much enjoyed the book. It just would have been so much better without the predicted RJ copouts and basically everyone having a perfect ending. The Last Battle was humanity's last chance at survival, and while the common wo/man seemed to make great sacrifices, along with the minor characters and Egwene, it was greatly lacking otherwise in the main cast. I expected a happy ending, but nothing so...unrealistically cheery.
The "OMG I just finished!" Thread
in Wheel of Time Books
Posted
Overall, I enjoyed the book. It felt rather epic to read, and while I generally was not fond of all the battles and tactics, I understand why they were included.
However, this is probably more of a flaw with RJ than BS, but...seriously. Out of all the main characters, only one dies in the Last Battle. I know RJ is guilty of having all these immortal characters, but you'd think in the final book, that the one to die would be the one with the prophecy about them DYING. And then Alivia "helping him die". Oh, yeah, she gives him a pouch of coins. -_-
I don't mean to sound that I wanted all the characters to die, but honestly, those were some of the best moments of the book. Egwene's death was so very sad to me, yet I loved the entire scene. Even those like Siuan and Gareth were great, true to how precarious life is during these great struggles and how quickly it can be taken away. I do not like reading a book and thinking that during the Last Battle with the Dark One that, "oh, well, all the minor characters may die, but none of the main characters will". That's what made Egwene's death so unexpected! Wouldn't it have been amazing to have RJ lead us up to this book with all his immortal, perfect characters, only to have many of them die during the Last Battle?
Even Lan coming back to life kind of pissed me off. It's just such a copout for absolutely everyone of the main cast to get a happy ending, other than Egwene and Gawyn. The whole, "oh this battle had great costs, but humanity survived..." thing was sort of ridiculous, as I'm sure many people in Randland suffered tremendous losses, yet the main cast frankly did not, other than the loss of Egwene. Aviendha lost a few toes. :P
But, whatever, that was fairly predictable and therefore not that disappointing.
Another thing that was silly was the whole sword fighting with Damandred. It was great to read when Lan killed him, sacrificing himself, but the whole, "lol nvm just a flesh wound guys" thing following it sort of spoiled it for me.
I enjoyed what we saw of Moghedien, Graendal and Lanfear. Lanfear especially was fascinating. I certainly could not decide what she was up to, and every scene she seemed to be closer and closer to turning back to the Light. Graendal embracing her ugliness and singlehandedly nearly sabotaging the Light's armies was great. Moghedien certainly was filled with lots of fails, though she was amusing as always. However, it really felt like there had to be a final confrontation between Nynaeve and Moghedien, especially given how little time Nynaeve was given in the books. Perhaps after Moghedien narrowly escapes death, Nynaeve is instead the one to catch her and they have a brief, final encounter before Nynaeve kills her. Instead, being collared as a damane seemed to imply something very dark, in contrast to the scene intending to be rather comedic.
Demandred was a little disappointing. His arrival was amazing, but degenerating into a raving lunatic was rather irritating, with Mat even pointing it out. I understand why it occurred, due to his extreme jealousy of Lews Therin, and the fact that it had to be explained that while he brought a massive force to the Shadow and was a Forsaken himself, he couldn't just wipe out the entire army or its command because he was paranoid of Lews Therin lurking about. I'm excited that more on his story is going to be released, so we can actually see why he became so unhinged.
In general, it was good to see the Forsaken more involved and actually presenting challenges, using their strengths to undermine the Light's forces. Lanfear's deception and self-preservation, Graendal's Compulsion, Demandred's military tactics, Moghedien's...sneakiness. Though it was obvious that they would not win in the end, there were many moments where it felt very, very close, especially with the arrival of the Sharan forces.
Despite my complaints, I very much enjoyed the book. It just would have been so much better without the predicted RJ copouts and basically everyone having a perfect ending. The Last Battle was humanity's last chance at survival, and while the common wo/man seemed to make great sacrifices, along with the minor characters and Egwene, it was greatly lacking otherwise in the main cast. I expected a happy ending, but nothing so...unrealistically cheery.