Saturday, June 8, 2013

A Memory of Light Review

 
 
Let me start this post by saying I don't plan on censoring myself as I talk about the book, so in other words SPOILER ALERT. Stop reading now if you don't want to find out details of A Memory of Light.
First let me say that I am having a lot of trouble writing this post. I have been reading The Wheel of Time for twenty years and having the series end has been an odd mixture of sadness and elation. One thing I was not counting on when I picked up the book was how much reading it would remind me of the reading the other books in the series.
It took me about a week or so to read the book and every time I sat it down I was forcefully reminded of reading the other books. I am sure remembering reading TEOTW at my grandma's house, or reading TGH sitting next to my dad (both of whom have passed away) contributed to the sadness I was feeling at the end of the series. Not to mention that the characters in these books have been an active part of my imagination for twenty fricking years. I knew I was losing something as I finished the story but I was very excited to do so.
Anyway, this book was epic in its…um…epic-ness. Most of the book was fight scenes, but when you read a book that is about the last battle between good and evil at the end of the world, what else do you expect. This was a great example of the kinds of books they wrote when I was a teenager, that just don't get published any more. Overall I enjoyed the book.
Everything happened as I thought it would. The bad ass character showed their badassery and killed like a billion trollocs.
Too bad there was five billion trollocs.
Eventually the heroes get worn down by sheer numbers and then characters both big and small start dying by the boat load. Oh, and to those of you that I had this discussion with before: Rand DID use the Dark One's own power against it, ah ha!
Okay, okay Rand did not kill the Dark One, letting Fain take his place…I'll give you that one.
The end was not what I expected but looking back at the series as a whole I think it was very fitting. My one gripe being that Rand sneaks off in his new body without letting his friends or his father know he is alive. I get not advertising the fact that you lived but come on, Tam deserves to know his boy is still (kind of) alive.
The novel wasn't perfect. There were a few plot threads that never got tied up. There were a few meetings between characters I wanted to see that never happened. And why did you have to kill Bela? That poor horse got dragged all over the world, you could have let the sad thing have a rest at the end of the series, but no you have to go and kill it. I mean damn that horse didn't do anything to deserve that I-
…okay…I'm okay. But Bela? That's messed up.
Anyway, it was the Last Battle I was hoping for though Rand's role was totally not what I was expecting.
Brandon Sanderson did a great job bringing Robert Jordan's series to its conclusion. The writing reminded me a lot of Mr. Jordan. I am curious how Jordan would have handled the descriptions and the characters, in my opinion he had a great way of making characters jump off the page, but after reading this book I think Sanderson might be better at writing action scenes.
I have some thoughts on series as a whole, but I think I will save that for another post, but until then
…it was not the ending. There are no endings, and never will be endings, to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was an ending.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Update

It has been awhile since my last post so I thought I'd write an update for you all. First I want to apologize to the PHP authors still waiting for letters, they are coming. Life has been pretty hectic the last few months and it keeps getting pushed back.
Without being too specific since I didn't ask my family members if it was okay to talk about them: we had an older family member diagnosed with cancer, and spent a few weeks in hospitals. The surgery worked and it is removed. Then we helped another family member move across country to live in our little town. He decided to open a restaurant and we have been helping him. I have finished my first three classes for my new degree, and I have been spending lots of time with the kids. There were also some car and house issues that had to be taken care of.
The one thing I didn't realize about online school was how much writing was involved. Term papers, essays, and discussion board replies have been pretty much all I have written. I think I wrote two chapters in my current novel since my last post.
I can also blame part of my lack of production on my Wheel of Time reread. What free time I had the last few months has been spent immersing myself in Robert Jordan's world. I have already started writing a few thoughts about A Memory of Light that I will post in the next few days.
I plan on starting up my writing again this week sometime.