A Gathering Storm

by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

Reviewed by Coral

With the Last Battle approaching, Rand works to try and negotiate a cease fire with the Seanchan and deal with some of the remaining Forsaken. Can Rand restore order to the Pattern or will he lose himself to the immense responsibility of being the Dragon Reborn?

Mat is determined to get his army to safety before he and Thom can go and try to rescue Moiraine. But with the world going crazy and the Forsaken looking for him, safety seems to be an impossible thing.

Still a prisoner of the White Tower, Egwene continues to refuse rescue as she starts to make progress in turning the Tower against Elaida. Knowing that her vision of the Seanchan attacking the Tower is true, will Egwene be able to unite the Tower before the attack?

It’s been a long time since I first started reading this series and I am finally nearing the end with only two more books to go. Although a part of me wishes I could have read the end of the series as envisioned by Robert Jordan, I am happy to just have an ending to the series.

Reading this book, I definitely felt like the end of the series was coming. I felt like a lot happened in this book, especially considering some of the last books have definitely felt like they were stuck in a holding pattern. Some pointless subplots finally ended, although one of them was a little frustrating because it ended so quickly here, after so a slow build over multiple novels with no real payoff.

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but another book down and I remain convinced that the Seanchan will end this series without being defeated and still holding many of the slaves that they have captured. Perrin lost a lot of points with me for letting them take more slaves last book and Rand lost points with me for being pretty unconcerned about the whole issue.

I know Rand is looking at the bigger picture, but he seems to have taken a turn towards being an unlikeable character. To me, he crossed a line with one of his actions in this book. I’m not sure that I can see him in the same way I did before.

Grade: B