Towers of Midnight

by Robert Jordan

Other authorsBrandon Sanderson (Author), Matthew C. Nielsen (Illustrator), Carol Russo (Cover designer), Elissa Mitchell (Illustrator), Darryl K. Sweet (Cover artist)
Hardcover, 2010-11

Status

Available

Call number

PS3560.O7617 T69

Publication

Tor Fantasy (New York, 2010). 1st edition, 1st printing. 861 pages. $29.99.

Description

As the seals on the Dark One's prison crumble and the armies of the Shadow boil out of the Blight, Perrin Aybara, hunted by specters from his past, must seek answers in "Tel'aran'rhiod" and find a way to master the wolf within him--or lose himself to it forever. Meanwhile, Matrim Cauthon prepares for the most difficult challenge of his life ... as The Tower of Ghenjei awaits.

User reviews

LibraryThing member jenreidreads
I am a total fangirl for Brandon Sanderson, who can pretty much do no wrong in my eyes. I absolutely love the directions he's taking in finishing The Wheel of Time. I loved Jordan's writing, too, but unlike some other fans, I think books 12 and 13 are just as good as others in the series. Sanderson
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does characters so well. True, they tend to be somewhat different from how Jordan did them, but the basic heart of these people we've come to know and love through a dozen novels are still the same. Obviously, if you've read the first 12 books in this series, you'll read Towers of Midnight no matter what reviewers say, but I genuinely enjoyed it.
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LibraryThing member Aldrea_Alien
Ugh, despite that I devoured the first 50 pages in one night, it’s taken me several months to get through the whole book. But that's all due to my lack of time.

As much as I enjoy seeing Rand returning to a less psycho version, this book puts more focuses on Perrin and Mat than the last one did.
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And there were scenes from Lan! In fact, the book opens and ends with him! There’s been so little of him lately that I was beginning to fear we’d never find out what’s happening to him. The initial frustration from him at his predicament is actually quite humorous, but the last piece now has me worrying all over again. I’m really hoping he survives Tarmon Gai’don. (Now, does anyone care to guess which WoT character is my ultra favourite? ;) ).
Anyway, the story takes a back step timewise, showing what the others have been up to during the period of The Gathering Storm. It hiccups but once for me, in the scene where I realised Rand’s father was still with Perrin’s group when he wasn’t at the end. But there were so many things going on at the time that it was a minor blip. A faint tug on the memory and I’m back in Ghealdan, on the move with the massive army.
Though the level of power the MC’s are getting is a little disconcerting at times (especially with Rand), it was good to see that some plans would wobble on the edge of failure at times (revealing the murderer that’s killing Aes Sedai) or not go in the exact direction I was expecting (the trial with Perrin). I also welcome that winning, even near the end of the series, isn’t always easy for them.
Towards the middle, I found it sort of scary and thrilling (in a good way) to see everything and everybody finally starting to come together for the Last Battle. All the side plots that were laid out are being neatly wound up to, but there’s also fresh worries popping up (I’m still wondering what the heck is up with the gateways around the Black Tower and heavily suspecting another dreamspike, but there are more worries there than that).
Speaking of towers ... I’m of the opinion that the Tower of Ghenjei should be turned into slag. Those foxes and snakes are creepier than all the shadowspawn in the world.

I cannot wait for A Memory of Light to be published. After all this time, I’m fervently hoping it’ll be good.
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LibraryThing member mattries37315
Towers of Midnight, Brandon Sanderson's second outing in The Wheel of Time series, built upon foundations laid in The Gathering Storm to set up the series' final volume in outstanding fashion. The main story arc of the book was that of Perrin, not only seen through his POV but also that of Galad,
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Faile, Egwene, and Graendal to sum extent. The two major secondary story arcs were of Egwene in the White Tower and Mat in his own unique preperations for The Last Battle, each told not only by their own POVs but by other POV characters as well. Other arcs that where touched upon were events in The Black Tower, Rand's movements in his own preparations for The Last Battle seen mostly by other characters, and the opening fighting of The Last Battle.

This book brought the timeline for Perrin and Mat along with a few others up to where Rand and Egwene's had ended in The Gathering Storm, knowing this fact helps when both see visions of Rand and when Perrin witness' Rand's epiphany on Dragonmount in The Wolf Dream. Sanderson introduces a few new POV characters to help bring to life event that will supposedly be important in A Memory of Light, the series final volume. If there are any negatives in this book, it's the reference to events that supposedly happened in previous books that I don't remember reading making one think you've missed something in the previous 12 books.

As the penultimate volume of The Wheel of Time, Towers of Midnight is a excellent book not only in it's own right but also as a set up to the finale A Memory of Light.
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LibraryThing member readafew
Wow, just wow. This is the 13th book in the Wheel of Time and since Brandon Sanderson has taken over the story just screams along. So much has happened in this book I wouldn't even know where to begin to give a 'summary'. I was surprised about how far into the book it took to get one of the threads
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caught up to the end of the last book, it was weird reading about a certain character being in 'two' places at the same time (one who doesn't travel!) but that was the 'obvious' hint that took me a while to notice. I think Brandon has done a good job redeeming Perrin as well.

Overall I really enjoyed reading this book and I would have to say that Brandon Sanderson was walking the line between 'speeding up the story' and 'making them happen to get to the end'. Some plots were almost shoved in because they needed to be there and felt shoe horned in but most had at least the minimum time needed to be told properly. Excellent book and I can hardly wait for the final book! (It's only been about 20 years!)
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LibraryThing member drbubbles
Fairly predictable plotting, pedestrian writing. Dull in and of itself but tolerable as a chapter in the Wheel of Time story.
LibraryThing member BookAddictDiary
The Wheel of Time slowly (read: finally) creaks toward its conclusion. I, just like many fans of the series, were incredibly concerned when dear Robert Jordan (may he rest in peace in the Light), passed away in 2007 from a rare blood disease. Thankfully for us (and for their wallets at TOR), the
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publisher and Jordan's widow found Brandon Sanderson to complete the final volume of the series, A Memory of Light. However, Sanderson and TOR quickly found that the final novel was too long to publish in just one book, so it was split into three books. Towers of the Midnight is the second book in the Memory of Light "trilogy" and the thirteen book overall in the Wheel of Time series, following The Gathering Storm. While Sanderson does a decent job of moving the plot along and keeping the pace up (well, as much as you can in these massive tomes), it isn't as good as The Gathering Storm, seems to be further away from the style of the late Jordan and, unfortunately, seems to suffer somewhat from the syndrome many "middle" books in a trilogy fall prey to.

In Towers of Midnight, the final battle has begun and the end is coming (okay, the end has only been coming for the past how many books, really?). Rand, the Dragon Reborn, is making the final preparations for the battle and rallying the last of the nations to him. Meanwhile, Egwene, the Amyrlin Seat, hunts horrible Forsaken and the Black Ajah who have infiltrated the White Tower with their evil, while Elayne, now Queen of Andor and heavily pregnant with Rand's children, makes her move for the throne of another kingdom. Most importantly, Perrin must deal with old foes while managing an invasion of the Two Rivers and Mat, who has actually become one of my favorite characters in the series, finally begins putting together some of the pieces behind the strange memories in his head, a mysterious letter from the believed-to-be-dead Aes Sedai Moraine (yeah, remember her, from, like, five books -or more -ago?) and why he was nearly hanged several books ago.

Sounds pretty awesome, right? Well, I had mixed feelings about this book (okay, there are some pretty epic battle and action scenes). Some aspects of it were awesome, others lackluster. The good news is that the plot actually advances. Yay! However, in regards to some of the thousands (or so it seems) plot lines going on, the plot felt a little stalled, almost like some characters were waiting for other plot lines to catch up. Then, there was the fact that Towers actually brings some resolution to some of the plots introduced earlier in the series (some of which stretch back by six or more books, heck I almost forgot about all of the details since it's been so long). The downside? They aren't all that satisfying and a few things feel somewhat like a cop out. My guess is that the resolutions (especially when it comes to certain members of the Forsaken and Mat and dear Moraine) would have been more satisfying if the series hadn't been drawn out for so long. Really, if Jordan hadn't introduced 50 million side plots, then these resolutions may have felt more satisfying, but they just didn't. Sanderson also spent the majority of the novel with Perrin, who is not one of the my favorite characters, so I was always waiting for a point of view shift. Thankfully there's a good dose of Mat here with some splashes of Elayne, Egwene and Avendeia, but with little Rand (and, of course, some random side plot characters).

I was also, however, incredibly disappointed by Sanderson's writing and characterization in Towers. Though he does justice to Jordan's lush world, it feels like he completely missed the mark on some of the characters. To me, many of the characters just didn't seem like themselves, particularly Faile, who has long been a favorite of mine since she was first introduced. She, like many of the characters, just seemed hazy, almost like they were unexcited and just plain tired. Much like myself, and other fans, they probably want the final battle to just hurry up and come. Overall, though, I think that more of Sanderson came through in Towers than Jordan, who seemed to be more closely channeled in The Gathering Storm.

Now, Towers of Midnight is definitely not the worst book in the series, there are others, written exclusively by Jordan, that are much worse, but I still didn't enjoy it as much as other novels in the series, and I found some plot resolutions to be very unsatisfying. Still, I would recommend the book for all Jordan fans and I will, most definitely, be eagerly awaiting the conclusion to the Wheel of Time series, over 20 years in the making, A Memory of Light, set to be released in 2012.
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LibraryThing member awoods187
This book was great. A lot of plot stories and characters which have been developing across several books were completed or fulfilled. This book only suffers because of its nature in building up to the climatic last battle.

I was extremely impressed with the Sanderson/Jordan shared writing.
LibraryThing member macjest
I felt that TOM was much better than TGS. In Gathering Storm it felt like Sanderson was having a hard time getting into the characters head. Mat, for instance, didn't feel true to me. In Towers I really enjoyed his character far more, especially when he went to see Elayne.
While I do agree that much
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of this book is spent in furthering the plot line and not enough in action, I also think that this time is necessary. The characters are not yet ready for the Last Battle. I did not think Rand was a caricature of himself. I was pleased with his growth and didn't find him as annoying as he was in the previous books. If he is going to have a chance at the Last Battle he needed this opportunity to grow and not be as hard as he was.
I hated to reach the end. I felt that many of the other characters deserved as much space as Perrin to fully develop. However, hopefully we won't have to listen to Perrin whine anymore about who he has become.
I'm curious to see how the final book will play out. I have a feeling 864 pages won't be enough to really wrap things up.
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LibraryThing member StephenBarkley
It’s difficult to be objective here. If you’ve read the first twelve books in the series, you’ll read this one. If you haven’t, then you won’t open this volume any time soon!

Towers of Midnight is the penultimate book in a monster-sized series. As such, it’s job was to tie up a lot of
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loose ends so the final book can be a focused climax. Sanderson tied up loose ends quite neatly—maybe too predictably at times.

The biggest loose end was Perrin and the Whitecloaks. Don’t let the cover fool you. Matrim, Thom and the Tower of Genji might get the cover real-estate but this is Perrin’s book. Mat and the tower took a mere hundred or so pages at the end of the book.

There were some brilliant scenes. Without giving anything away, you’ll enjoy the best tel’arin’rhiod battle imaginable. There’s also a twist in Rhuidian that has me rethinking the whole series.

In the end, I didn’t find Towers of Midnight as compelling or as unified as Sanderson’s first effort in the series—but I’m not sure it could have been given the miscellany of threads woven throughout the books. It’s still a fine volume that leaves you salivating for the conclusion.
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LibraryThing member traci
LOVE this book; now even more anxious for the final. Sanderson is doing an outstanding job in completing the series for Jordan. Thank you, Brandon!
LibraryThing member 3RiversLibrary
How does one review the 13th book in a series spanning decades? Anyone unfamiliar with the work is bound to ignore any opinions about it, and anyone who has kept up will already be waiting with eager hands to grab their copy. Towers of Midnight, the newest tome from the mind of Robert Jordan (and
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“translated” by Brandon Sanderson), gives fans of the series pretty much what they might expect. With only one final, gigantic book left in The Wheel of Time series, one would expect it to start wrapping up the hundreds of loose threads still present within the tale. Thankfully, it does.

For anyone unfamiliar, Robert Jordan is no longer with us. He died before finishing Book 12 of the series, and left his legacy to his wife and to his editor. They chose Brandon Sanderson to pen the rest of the story, with notes enough from Jordan to do that and more, and in Books 12 and 13 Sanderson has shown a remarkable ability to retain the style and tone that marks the entire series. It is clear that he is both a fan and a student of Jordan, and while an accomplished author in his own right with a top-notch fantasy series of his own written and completed, in many ways these final three books of The Wheel of Time will mark his highest achievement. That sounds strange, considering he didn’t even begin the saga of Rand, Mat, and Perrin. Its closest similarity is that of a royal succession, where one man rises up and creates a kingdom, and his worthy heir continues its benevolent rule.

With Towers of Midnight, a title with literal and metaphorical significance, we are taken once again on a journey fraught with intrigue, deceit, prophecy, and power struggles. Rand has defeated his own madness and embraced his history, but now must right a world that he almost destroyed. Perrin has rescued his wife, but still faces armies and the inner wolf, as well as a familiar foe in his own dreams. Mat, hunted and jumping at shadows, has a damsel in distress rescue on his mind, but knows there will be a price despite his luck. These are the cores of the story, with ancillary tales from Egwene, Elayne, Aviendha, and others revolving around our three ta’veren. Again, this is not a book someone can jump into without having been deeply invested in the rest of the series. It may sound elitist, but to attempt Towers of Midnight without a clear understanding of the history is like swimming before you’ve learned to crawl.

I don’t say this to discourage readers from an attempt at the book, it’s merely a warning. I would strongly encourage anyone who hasn’t read the series to go pick up The Eye of the World right now and begin the adventure. It will be long, it will confuse you at times, and you may even stop halfway through and move on to shorter yarns, but anyone who sticks it out will not only be impressed that something can last so long and retain so much integrity, but they’ll also find a cast of characters that they’ll never forget, and a set of legends that will never fade. With only one book left, it’s all becoming a little bittersweet, but that doesn’t make it any less wonderful to read. Reviewed by David, Three Rivers Public Library
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LibraryThing member Karlstar
Sanderson continues to do a great job finishing this series. The threads of the story are starting to come together and really form a clear picture, finally. All of the principal characters get enough time in this book, and they've managed to put most of their squabbles behind them. Unlike some of
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the others we don't get much of a look at what the bad guys are up to, and there are still a couple of unresolved major problems. All in all, I really enjoyed it, and I was particularly happy with Apples First, the very first chapter.
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LibraryThing member masurr
(currenting reading it on an ebook : the end is nigh! Alas, Perrin and his folk are taking part in. But its wonderful to finally sense that the ties of the differents stories are neating themselves. Joy! ^^
LibraryThing member DrBrewhaha
Sanderson continues to impress. The story is moving along. Plot lines are getting tied up and he is pointing to the ending in the next book. While I feel like you can definitely tell the last two books have been written by someone other than Jordan, Sanderson has done a great job.
LibraryThing member revslick
If you're a fan of the Wheel of Time series then rejoice the next to the last book is superb!! Run, don't walk, and pick this up.. Brandon does a magnificent job of putting together Jordan's magnificat. The characters are finally converging toward the last battle and what a ride........864 pages
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seemed like 150 because at the end I wanted MORE!
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LibraryThing member rapago
I liked this latest addition to RObert Jordan's Wheel of TIme series. The thing is, when there are so many books and they are published over such a long period of time, it is easy to forget certain things that have happened in previous books.

Despite that, this book keeps the reader's interest in
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the events. The characters continue to develop and the pattern continues to be woven.

I like how the story flips back and forth between the many storylines. I know that in the last book the story lines will all come together, and I look forward to that.

In the meantime, I will have to wait.
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LibraryThing member DWWilkin
The penultimate book. Thank goodness. But another year to wait for the last book, and the missing threads of the story once more from this tale leads one to think that the last book cold be delayed and to include all, will have to grow by a great deal.

Here we focus on Perrin. Really the other main
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characters are given small pieces to push them along, but we really don't see that they have developed much lately. Mat and Rand have some space given to them, and Egwene, but not near as much as any deserve.

Rand has become a caricature of who he once was. Before when he had doubts as to his role and what was going to needs to be done, he was growing. Now, in this novel, he is a character that is no longer holding my interest which is a shame since he carried the story for so long.

Then we have the Forsaken. Time is running out and so are they. I would have hoped that these enemies could have proved to be so dangerous that more of the heroes would have succumbed as we marched along. Such was not the case. Jordan and Sanderson are so well attached to these characters that threats are not really made, or realized.

In the bug scheme, we had to have a book that moved us closer to the finish line, but this needed several more chapters to devote to that. As much attention to the other many threads as was given to Perrin.

Where we also have a disconnect is the Seachan story line and either some gamemanship with one of our characters who has been in two places at once, or is written this way on purpose. We saw a major problem with the Seachan at the end the last book, and here we have problems again. This is one plot line that can not seem to get under control. I can only believe that when Artur Hawkwing arrives again, he can kick some of his Seachan descendants butts into line and put this to bed instead of planning for the worlds destruction once the Dark One is defeated.

Would I read this again. Of course. In one year I will read the entire saga all over to finally put it to bed and then probably several times more. There was just more to have been in this book before it is all finished.
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LibraryThing member JeremyPreacher
Steadier, writing-wise, than The Gathering Storm, and some plot threads get tied up at last. A quick, engaging read - far more so than the agonizing middle books, and even more than TGS, which was good but depressing.

Note: In general, I can't review this series with any objectivity. I've been
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reading it since I was eleven years old, and it's thoroughly embedded in my brain.
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LibraryThing member chriskrycho
Still excellent. Better than The Gathering Storm, and a worthy setup for the final book.
LibraryThing member fyrefly98
Summary: Tarmon Gaidon, The Last Battle, is coming, and the world groans in preparation. Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, is the one who must face the Dark One at the Last Battle, but all of the prophecies state that he will fail unless he has the help and support of his two childhood friends,
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Perrin Aybara and Mat Cauthon. But Perrin and Mat both have problems of their own they must face before they can stand with Rand at Tarmon Gaidon. Perrin still thinks of himself as a simple blacksmith; he doesn't want the responsibilities of leading the huge group of armies, refugees, and men from his home village that he's managed to accumulate around him. He also fears losing himself to the wolves that he can hear in his mind. He must learn to balance blacksmith and lord, wolf and man, and time is running short, especially since he finds himself facing old enemies, both in the real world and in the world of dreams.

Mat, on the other hand, is stuck in Camelyn on a promise, with his band of mercenary fighters camped outside the city walls. He is eager to begin production on the dragons, a new weapon that may turn the tide against the battle with the forces of the Dark, but he also chafes against the limitations of staying in the city... particularly since he's being hunted by assassins both human and terrifyingly supernatural, and he longs to be off with Thom to the Tower of Ghenjei, to stage a rescue attempt against a seemingly unbeatable enemy.

We also get sizable pieces from other points of view, primarily Egwene, who must heal the White Tower, prepare it for the Last Battle, deal with her feelings for Gawyn, and root out the Forsaken that's been hiding in the Tower; Elayne, who is trying to consolidate her hold on Andor in a turbulent time; and Rodel Ituralde, one of the great generals who has been left to guard a Borderland city from being overrun by Shadowspawn.

Review: I am swamped with mixed emotions about the fact that the Wheel of Time series is finally ending. On the one hand, I'm very sad that it's ending - these books and these characters have been part of my life for a long time now, and letting that go is going to be difficult. On the other hand, though, I really want to find out what happens, and I can't be too sad about things when the books that Brandon Sanderson is giving us are so TOTALLY AWESOME.

There are a lot of awesome things about this book. The big set pieces/battles are phenomenal; Sanderson proved in Mistborn that he can write action sequences well, and he doesn't disappoint here. But in this book, I found the little pieces even more awesome than the battles. There are a lot of small moments in this book, moments that have been a long time coming, moments that I (like most fans) have imagined over and over again how they'll play out. And while it's great that these moments are finally happening, that Sanderson is finally tying up some details and plot threads, what was really wonderful was that the way that those little moments happened was almost always even more awesome than I was expecting it to be. Most of them are not long - Perrin and Egwene finally running into each other in Tel'aran'rhiod only lasted two or three paragraphs - but they're perfect in ways I never would have predicted.

I also loved the range of emotions that Sanderson was able to evoke, and what he's done with the characters. The book is filled with the palpable tension of the approaching Last Battle, and I felt like I never have before that, holy crap, this really is the end of the world. There were parts that had me roaring with laughter (Mat's letter to Elayne, for one) as well as parts that got me totally choked up and misty-eyed, and a few places that did both (most of Lan's sections). Aviendha only gets a few short chapters, but they totally tore my heart into little tiny pieces. The fight scenes had enough suspense that my fingernails are chewed to the quick. And let's have a round of applause for Sanderson, who, apart from everything else, managed to rehabilitate Perrin (my former favorite character, but who has spent the past six books being thoroughly obnoxious) into someone who is at least likable again.

While on the whole I totally loved this book, there were a few small things I had problems with. First, and this is not really the book's fault, but: I wanted more! This book does have a case of middle-book-of-a-trilogy-itis, in which there's a lot of movement to set up the pieces for the endgame, without an equivalent amount of payoff. Consequently, there were a lot of very short scenes (only one from Tuon, for example) that were necessary to lead into the next book, but were somewhat unsatisfying on their own.

Second, and more problematic, was the monkeying with the timeline. I understand the desire to tell a complete character narrative arc within a span of a single book, and Sanderson has done a nice job of that, by primarily concentrating Rand and Egwene's stories in The Gathering Storm, and Perrin and Mat's stories in Towers of Midnight. However, the result of this is that in some places the timing gets really weird; the date changes every time the POV switches, but there are not always obvious markers of when in the story we are. This led to some pretty severe confusion until I get my bearings from the textual clues: for example, Tam shows up in Tear in Rand's storyline at the end of The Gathering Storm, and is in Tear in the early chapters of this book, but Perrin's storyline doesn't involve Tam leaving for Tear until roughly page 480. Again, I can see why Sanderson did it this way - trying to tell everyone's story as it happens leads to a jumbled book with less-satisfying character arcs (see: Crossroads of Twilight) - but I could have used some more signposts to keep myself on track.

Recommendation: Once again, Sanderson not only lives up to but actually exceeds my expectations. I don't know if my glowing review of this book will convince anyone to pick up the preceding thirteen doorstops (although that would be awesome if it did!), but existing WoT fans will find Towers of Midnight a hugely satisfying installment. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
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LibraryThing member MelindaG.
An excellent lead in for the upcoming final book of the WoT series. Looking forward to seeing how the storyline wraps up for Rand, Perrin and Matt.

Excited to see that the final draft has been finished and is being edited.
LibraryThing member mbg0312
Fun read. Nearing the end of this series I've been reading since high school. Its all set up for the final book, where everything will go up in a very satisfying set-piece battle between good and evil...
LibraryThing member bookczuk
To be honest, I miss Robert Jordan. Brandon Sanderson is doing a nice job working from RJ's notes, and with his staff and the marvelous Harriet McDougal, to finish the series, but I miss the flavor of the writing that was in the previous books, even the ones I didn't like as much. Perhaps it's the
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difference of age/life experience of the authors that has changed the voices of the characters (to my ears), perhaps it's something else. But there are phrases uttered and expressions used that show the difference in writers, that ring as off-key to my reader's ear.

But, having said that, there were some nice moments in this novel, some that surprised me, some that made me wistful because I knew the backstory.

I think I'll take a little break before listening to New Spring, which I have saved until after finishing these first 13 books, so that I can hear Jim again. Who knows? Maybe by then, I can be an advanced reader of A Memory of Light and see how the wheel turns this final rotation.
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LibraryThing member queencersei
The wheel of time turns, and Ages come to pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

Tower of Midnight, book thirteen of the Wheel of Time series brings long time readers one step closer to the final conclusion of Robert Jordan's epic series. Rand Al'Thor has finally
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found peace with himself, giving readers a much needed rest from his previous boughts of self-pity and arrogance. Perrin also gains a measure of peace with his wolf nature and finally begins to really use the wolf dreams to his advantage. The long absent Moraine is finally rescued by the irrepressible Matt. Egwene continues to consolidate her position as the Amerylin, while also ferreting out dark sisters and finally bonding Gawyn has her warder. Happily, Elaine returns to the series in a more prominent way, securing her position as Queen and finally finding out her mother is alive. Indeed the major characters from the series all seem to have finally come into their own and are moving to their final positions for the Last Battle.

Clocking in at over 1200 pages, Tower of Midnight is certainly long, but actually manages to keep up a decent pace. The number of books and years that have elapsed since they have been published can leave many long time readers forgetful of plot points and wondering how all of the lose threads can possibly be wrapped up. Fans can at least take comfort that the Last Battle is finally in sight.

The wheel of time turns, and Ages come to pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

Tower of Midnight, book thirteen of the Wheel of Time series brings long time readers one step closer to the final conclusion of Robert Jordan's epic series. Rand Al'Thor has finally found peace with himself, giving readers a much needed rest from his previous boughts of self-pity and arrogance. Perrin also gains a measure of peace with his wolf nature and finally begins to really use the wolf dreams to his advantage. The long absent Moraine is finally rescued by the irrepressible Matt. Egwene continues to consolidate her position as the Amerylin, while also ferreting out dark sisters and finally bonding Gawyn has her warder. Happily, Elaine returns to the series in a more prominent way, securing her position as Queen and finally finding out her mother is alive. Indeed the major characters from the series all seem to have finally come into their own and are moving to their final positions for the Last Battle.

Clocking in at over 1200 pages, Tower of Midnight is certainly long, but actually manages to keep up a decent pace. The number of books and years that have elapsed since they have been published can leave many long time readers forgetful of plot points and wondering how all of the lose threads can possibly be wrapped up. Fans can at least take comfort that the Last Battle is finally in sight.
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LibraryThing member Alfonso809
Do you know about Naruto filler episodes??? They were so horrible that they manage to make me hate a show I actually liked a lot! They grab awesome characters that I loved and put em in retarded situations that had nothing to do with the actual original plot of the show! That got me mad! Mad to the
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point that I decided to stop watching it… you know maybe that won’t reach anybody here! I mean! I think I have like 1 friend on my friend list who knows what a filler episode is! Maybe I should explain in terms that most of my friends here will understand! Let’s see… think about that cool GR friend you have that used to write awesome fun reviews! But after a while started to write stuff just to get the votes… yes this is a better way to express what I think I’m trying to say here! Like you can see some of the awesomeness that person used to have but it’s so diluted in to crap that is written just to get a vote that it’s sort of pathetic? But the stuff you used to love is there! You can almost touch it!!! and you start hating it! cuz wtf!? Well if you can relate to that one! That’s how I feel about this book! Some of the stuff that made me fall in love with Jordan’s world are ALMOST there! Like Matt being actually funny, and some good fast paced battle scenes… but then fillers! And more fillers! And more fillers! If this book was 300 pages long I’d love it! but it’s not…. So I can’t love it!!!


Still! There are a lot of good things that can be said! Cuz I seriously love how Matt is funny again! Wait I think I mention that before! But also the closing is good!!! A lot of useless characters are dying or getting closure to their stories that is both corny and yet satisfying! And they go back where they belong! There is also the fact of Rand’s Transformation! Unlike let’s say Superman who is all goody goody for no damn reason and tends to be annoying…. I think you can actually understand why rand is doing “good” now and I must admit I find myself pleased with his actions… still! It’s one step closer to the end… and it looks like it’s finally going to end! FOR REAL! It’s been almost 10 years for me (I know it’s 20 for other fans) and I think we deserve this! But I truly hope the next one don’t have fillers!!! I HATE EM!!!! I HATE EM WITH ALL MY HEART!!!
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Awards

David Gemmell Legend Award (Shortlist — 2011)

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2010-11-02

Physical description

861 p.; 6.43 inches

ISBN

9780765325945
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