Book Review: A Memory of Light
I read Memory of Light, the final volume of the mega-series The Wheel of Time, a few weeks ago. I set out to write my review the next day, and then reconsidered. For this one, I felt I needed to wait a bit before delving into this. It would be too easy to get caught up in the emotion (one way or the other) of finishing a series I’ve been reading since I was eighteen years old. Now, with a bit of distance, I set down with the task of recording my thoughts on the final tome of one of the most pivotal and influential fantasy series since The Lord of the Rings.
I’ll try to keep this as spoiler free as I can.
First off: I think Brandon Sanderson did a bang up job with what he had to work with. Jordan’s world and story had grown so massive and out of control, I can’t think of anyone else who could wrap this up as well as Brandon did. As with all writers, Brandon Sanderson has his strengths and weaknesses. When I first heard the news TOR had chosen Brandon to finish The Wheel of Time, I remember thinking, “Thank God.” One of Brandon’s greatest strengths is his ability to finish a book with a bang. I’ve felt that way ever since I read his first book Elantris. And again, I think he does as well as anyone might expect, and better than most others would have, considering where we were in the series when Robert Jordan passed away. I’m going to go out on a limb here and eve say that I think Brandon Sanderson ended the series better than that Jordan could have himself. Over the course of the three books since Brandon has taken over, we’ve gotten much less of the self-indulgence that we saw in the books since the battle of Dumai’s Wells at the end of book six. So, my hats off to Sanderson for tying everything as neatly as he did.
However…
And this is a big however…
The thing I remember thinking most clearly during the reading of A Memory of Light is, “Really? We’re taking care of this detail now? We couldn’t have handled this in one of the earlier books instead of being subjected to yet another couple of pages of ladies taking baths and getting dressed?” Again, I think this highlights the difference between Sanderson and Jordan.
Okay…Now I’m going to get slightly spoilerish…
Nothing too specific…
…but…
…general stuff I feel I have to talk about in order to really give my honest reaction to the book…
You’ve been warned…
Still here?
Okay, let’s continue.
I think the biggest drawback to this is that Jordan let the cast get WAAAAAY too big. IN reading the final volume of this series, I wanted to spend more time with the core characters we started the series with…specifically: Rand, Mat, and Perin. We get a good bit of Perrin throughout the book. Rand takes a lot of the center stage as we prepare for The Last Battle…and then…he kinda disappears…as Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn steps up to face the Dark One himself, the moment we’ve been waiting thirteen books (some of which felt like nothing really happened at all) comprised of 3.6 MILLION words, and once that fight starts, it gets broken up so that we get five or so pages of this climactic conflict out of every fifty to one-hundred pages. So, I was a little let down by that.
On the other hand…Mat truly gets to shine in this book. We’ve seen hints of his tactical and strategic genius in the past, but really, he’s been holding back. Now we get to see him in all his glory, kid gloves off, and wow…just wow.
Perrin is the same. He steps up and has some really awesome stuff going on. Though, I really think Perrin’s conflict in this could have, and should have, been settled long ago.
Also, because so many of the sub plots had been left unresolved up to this point, one of the major conflicts of the series had to be wrapped up in a completely unsatisfying way. It was as if, after everything was said and done, and the book was finished, someone said, “Oh, wait, we forgot about that.” Then, after a quick bit of brainstorming, they came up with a solution that worked, without adding a whole lot to the actual word count that also didn’t break the book.
BIG SPOILER!!!!!
YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!!!
Here’s the biggest let down as I reflect back on my reading of A Memory of Light after having read one other book and a slew of short stories…I don’t actually remember how Rand defeats the Dark One. Oh, come on, like it was a surprise. Now if Steven Erikson or George RR Martin were writing this, maybe the Dark One Might have one. But if either of those two gentlemen had been writing this, we wouldn’t have so many extraneous characters running around in this book needing something to do…cause they’d be dead. Anyway, I remember some pretty vivid scenes throughout the book from multiple characters, but Rand defeating the Dark One, can’t recall it. But then, the book doesn’t really feel like it’s about Rand. The book feels like it’s about the lives of the people caught up in Rand’s wake. And, I don’t think that’s a bad thing, and I think the latter part of the series actually sets us up for that, but I’m one of those kinds of guys that thinks that you need to set up the end of the series throughout the whole thing.
It’s good to have the closure on this series. Again, I’m glad that Brandon got the run of the last three books, and he did the best he could with what he had to work with, and handled it better than most other writers would. However, looking back, over the series as a whole, I wish Robert Jordan had been able to bring himself to tie up more sub plots in earlier books, rather than leaving the majority of them to be wrapped up at the very end.
So, those are my thoughts. A bit rambling, but yeah. I guess to sum up the last thousand words are so: A Memory of Light was okay, and I hate to judge it by what came before, but ultimately it suffers from the shortcomings earlier in the series. If you are a long time Wheel of Time fan, reading this will give you a sense of closure. If you’ve never read The Wheel of Time, I have to say, even though the beginning six books are pretty strong, the latter part of the series may just leave you disappointed.
