The Gathering Storm: The Wheel of Time: Book Twelve [Paperback]

The Gathering Storm is the twelfth volume in The Wheel of Time series and the first released since Robert Jordan's unfortunate death in 2007. Jordan spent his final months amassing and dictating a significant amount of notes, outlines and chapter summaries for another writer to use to finish the series. Previously, Jordan had indicated he'd wipe his hard drive to stop someone else completing his work, but with him being so close to the end of the story he changed his mind, trusting his wife and editor, Harriet, and his publisher Tom Doherty to find a writer capable of finishing the series well. In theory, it should have led to disaster: typically one writer finishing a series begun by another is an atrocious idea that only leads to very bad books (note the vomit-inducing new Dune novels and the ill-advised Amber continuations). The only example I can think of this working was when Stella Gemmell completed her late husband David's final novel in fine form, but the amount of work required to bring Wheel of Time to a conclusion required an altogether different level of commitment and effort from Brandon Sanderson.

Almost unbelievably, Sanderson has pulled it off. In his introduction he hopes the differences between his style and Jordan, whilst unavoidably noticeable, will be comparable to a different (but still good) director taking over your favourite movie series but all the actors remaining the same. This isn't a bad analogy at all, and whilst there are a few moments in The Gathering Storm where you think, "I don't think Robert Jordan would have done things quite like that," there's never a moment where you think, "He definitely wouldn't have done that at all!" which is vital.

Another concern was that originally these last three books were supposed to be one volume, A Memory of Light, and Sanderson actually wrote the bulk of the text under the impression it was going to be probably split in two. The decision to split the book in three instead resulted in much recrimination, although at 800 pages in hardcover (and assuming the second and third come in at a similar size) and well over 300,000 words, tying it with Knife of Dreams as the longest book in the series since Lord of Chaos, it's clear this could never have been done in just two books either. One problem with this split was that since Sanderson hadn't been writing with three books in mind, The Gathering Storm would feel incomplete or unsatisfying on its own. This is not the case at all. In fact, The Gathering Storm has the most cohesive through-line in story, character and theme of any book in the series since The Shadow Rising, and possibly out of all of them.

The structure of the book focuses on two primary storylines: Rand's deteriorating mental state as he struggles to bring Arad Doman into the confederation of kingdoms sworn to him, and Egwene's efforts to unite the White Tower and end the civil war within the Aes Sedai that has raged for the past seven and a half volumes. Other characters and stories appear briefly, such as Perrin and Tuon, and Mat has a slightly bigger role, but other major characters and storylines do not appear at all. The recently-quelled civil war in Andor and the Mazrim Taim/Asha'man plotlines are notable by their absences. Instead, this part of the story focuses on two of the central protagonists, Rand and Egwene, and the experiences they go through to achieve their goals. The novel could almost be called The Long Night of Rand al'Thor as the series' central figure is dragged through the wringer, going to very dark places indeed as he struggles to understand his own role in events and how he is to achieve the things he must do to save the world. On the other hand, Egwene is shown to have already passed through her moments of doubt and misjudgement in previous volumes, and in this book her story focuses on her battle of wills with Elaida to restore unity to the Aes Sedai.

This contrast of darkness and light and putting two central characters squarely back in the limelight (previous volumes have sometimes devoted way too much time to tertiary characters of limited importance) is a highly successful move, allowing some interesting thematic elements to be touched upon. Whilst the reader may have guessed that Rand is severely traumatised from everything that has happened to him in the previous books, it isn't until this volume that we realise just how badly things have affected him and we see just how hard and how determined he has become. An interesting analogy that is not touched upon is what happened to Aridhol to defeat the Shadow in the Trolloc Wars, where it became harder and more ruthless than the enemy and eventually consumed itself in insanity and rage.

This is a powerful and intense story, something that has been building for the entire latter half of the series, and it's a demanding tale that you probably wouldn't want to dump on a new author in ideal circumstances. But Sanderson picks up the ball and runs with it. Rand's characterisation is completely spot-on and consistent with earlier appearances, and Sanderson does a monumental job with this storyline. He also does superbly with Egwene's story, which culminates in one of the most spectacular action set-pieces in the series to date (and I suspect something that could dislodge Dumai's Wells or the Battle of Cairhien as many reader's favourite action sequence in the whole series). A whole myriad of lesser characters is also well-handled, such as Siuan, Tuon and the various Aes Sedai, but Gawyn becomes a bit of a fifth wheel with not much to do, which is odd given he has a much bigger presence here than he has in some considerable time.

Other reviewers have suggested that Sanderson struggles with Mat, and unfortunately this is true. Not fatally so, but for everything Mat does that is 'right' to his character, he'll typically do something incongruous and uncharacteristic a few pages later. Sanderson also never really gets into the swing of his speech pattern or sense of humour either. He's readable, but it's the only part of the book where the change in authors feels jarring. Luckily, it's not a large part of the book and hopefully Sanderson will be able to work more on this area for the next book, Towers of Midnight, where Mat is expected to play a much bigger role in events.

The Gathering Storm (****½) is a very fine book, one of the strongest instalments of the whole series and easily the best book published in The Wheel of Time for fifteen years. Whilst some of that achievement must go to Brandon Sanderson for his sterling and jaw-dropping work on the book, it is clear that Robert Jordan had planned these events with a watchmaker's precision, setting them up through lines of dialogue and minor twists of characterisation stretching right back to the second volume of the series, and the overwhelming feeling upon reaching the end of the novel is that he was an extraordinarily clever writer and plotter, for all of the flaws that have cropped up along the way. The book is available now in the UK and, with the worst cover in the history of modern publishing, in the USA. Towers of Midnight will follow in one year's time, with A Memory of Light to follow a year after that.

I have read the Wheel of Time books avidly for 10 years and have being waiting for this volume for 4 years and it was worth the wait. When I heard that Brandon Sanderson would be replacing Robert Jordan I was sceptical about the final book as I did not feel it would flow narratively and I was further worried when they split the final volume into 3 separate books. However my fears were for nothing as the book flows well from start to finish and as a fan of the series I could not spot any obvious parts written by one of the other author.

The plot of the book is excellent with the plot lines for Egwene and Rand advancing a great deal. The plot for Egwene is especially good and gets the book feeling like the first few in the series. The main flaw with the book is the plots for Perrin and Mat are not advanced a great deal but that was to be expected with the split in publication so that there would be a resolution at the end of the this book instead of leaving it completely hanging. The book has some great scenes including a brilliantly orchestrated battle sequence. We also finally get to find out what side Verin is on and it still leaves you wondering about her.

My final conclusion about this book is that it is amongst my favourites for the series and that I can't wait for the Towers of Midnight to come out next year.

'The Gathering Storm' is the latest instalment in Robert Jordan's epic 'The Wheel of Time' series and has been written by Brandon Sanderson based on notes and directives by the late Robert Jordan. As always, to new readers I would recommend that you start with the first book of a series which in this case is 'The Eye of the World'.

For existing readers... relax! Yes, like everybody else, I too was on tenterhooks, wondering if Brandon would be up to the job. My own opinion (judging by what I have read and heard shared by many other fans) is that yes, whilst not being the great man himself, Sanderson has acquitted himself with honour.

The book is fast paced, indeed positively racing compared to lets say 'Crossroads of Twilight' and a gripping read. For large parts of the book you will forget that this is not Robert Jordan writing as you re-acquaint yourself with characters and events. I am glad to say that whilst we are given some background information the author does not waste pages trying to re-hash everything that went on before(I recommend www.encyclopaedia-wot.org for research).

We have two main story arcs one involving Rand and the other Egwene and both of them provide a lot of excitement. As a fan of Egwene's character, I was especially thrilled with the way her story developed. We do not see that much of Mat and Perrin, apparently they will be taking centre stage in the next book, and Elayne does not appear in person at all.

We get answers to some long running puzzles, Verin for example, and in fact, whereas Jordan seemed to add another two questions for every one answer given, this book is more the other way round. A lot of plot threads are cut, combined, resolved, dissolved etc. in other words, this book is a 'The Wheel of Time' de-clutter exercise.

My five star rating was not without reservations as unlike many others I enjoyed the slow, detailed writing style of Robert Jordan, some of the subtlety of which is lost to make way for faster story development. It is pretty obvious that had the series continued under RJ, it could easily have meant another five books and I kind of regret that we are seeing this gear change but accept that it is probably what the majority of readers were hoping for.

Some may find the frequent changes of PoV irritating though they contribute to the feel of a faster pace. Having a change of author after such a long time, minor inconsistencies were to be expected and Sanderson has done a good job keeping them within acceptable limits.

All in all, with this book, fans will at last feel confident that the series is indeed heading towards the finale. Given the choice, I would have much preferred to be heading that way under Robert Jordan, but I am glad that with Brandon Sanderson his legacy has ended up in capable hands.