This latest novel in Robert Jordan’s long-lived and long-winded epic fantasy series represents an improvement over his low point, now established as books 7-10. Important and long-awaited prophecies are finally being paid off; the plot is moving forward steadily. While there are many decisions that I would have made differently, and many, many wasted opportunities, there is at least progress in a forward direction.
This is not a book that is worth returning to the series if you have already abandoned it. There are two many wasted opportunities – more than one much-heralded prophecy is fulfilled herein in a manner that seems deliberately calculated to match the wording of the prophecy exactly while avoiding the careful and considered dramatic predictions of the rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan newsgroup (and other fan locations). In other words, the author is pissed that we figured out what he was hinting at and decided to write scenes with much less dramatic value simply to avoid being predictable.
On the other hand, they aren’t all fulfilled in disappointing, lawyer-like ways. In fact there are some very well-handled moments. It’s just that there are at least as many heavily-foreshadowed events that seem to have been deliberately wasted.
It’s gotten to the point where I, or any number of his fans, could write a better story simply by using the events Jordan so exhaustively foreshadowed rather than their cheap, but unpredictable, replacements.
This one’s only for the hardcore fans. If you’re committed to seeing the series through, you already have your copy. If you’re wondering whether or not to drop it, dropping it would be the right decision at this point – at least until paperback, or a library.
