A final update as I finished Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson's A Memory of Light (Canada, USA, Europe) yesterday. This was the Facebook update I posted a few minutes after reaching the end:
Just finished A MEMORY OF LIGHT. . . Fuck. . . Nowhere near as bad as the Dune travesty, thankfully. But close. . . Sanderson, though it wasn't perfect, did a relatively good job with THE GATHERING STORM and THE TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT. How he could mess it up so badly at the end, I'll never know. . . =( Waited 22 years for this. . . Biggest literary disappointment of my life. . . Would have preferred the notes and the outline to what we ended up getting. . . =( Bad. . .
A Memory of Light is by far the weakest installment in the series, weaker even than Crossroads of Twilight. Man, I so wanted to love this book. How can WoT end on such a crappy note???
Expect my review in the near future. . . =(
20 commentaires:
I've never dabbled in this series because to be honest I've heard FAR more negative things than positive things. I suppose I'll remain on the sidelines with this one. I'm not even a slight Sanderson fan either so that might influence my decision as well.
Really? Worse than Crossroads of Twilight? You're entitled to your opinion, obviously, but I can't think of how anyone could find it to be that bad. It wasn't perfect, but I found myself mostly agreeing with Wert's review: http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-memory-of-light-by-robert-jordan-and.html
Ive hated every book sanderson wrote...just wasnt the right choice...he mangled every character. Wouldve been better left unfinishes. Sad but true.
How about going into a few specifics on the ending itself. If RJ writes it obviously it's different, but not in terms of what actually happens. How did you feel about the Rand-Dark One battle and the Slayer, Fain, Lanfear stuff? The epilogue closing it all up (which was all RJ)? Having liked it so much more myself and finding your reviews to usually be spot on with my own tastes, I'd love to hear more from you.
Wow. This reaction to the book seems a bit over the top, honestly. The book definitely has its flaws, certainly, but I found it really enjoyable. There were some things I wanted to see but didn't, and there were a few monotonous battle scenes I could have done without. But overall, a good book and nice ending to the series. Definitely not crappy, IMO.
I didn't read the book, but this one contained more of Jordan's writting and script, so I guess it's the original author's fault.
That and the clear monetary reasons to split and bloat a book in 3.
I read the first four or five and then gave it up. I got tired of the characters making the same old mistakes or performing the same old habits (sniffing from whatsername was the worst) without ever growing and changing.
*Spoiler Alert*
I was disappointed that they didn't delve into more of what happened after the final confrontation. I would be interested to see if Rand's pact worked, if Perrin became a king or lord of the Two Rivers, if Galad starts a relationship, and so on. If felt it just stopped with hardly any closure with the numerous characters. And really, Rand doesn't even want to be near his children, friends, women? He just walks away to tour the world??
Ugh.
I expected more from A Memory of Light, and I certainly have my share of grievances - but I generally enjoyed the book. We're fortunate to have any conclusion at all. To wish for just the notes and outlines wouldn't do a lot - this is probably the most heavily based on Jordan's notes and outlines of all three of Sanderson's contributions. The fault then, I think, must lie in Jordan's own writing.
To each his own and all, but this level of disappointment seems a little over the top - and the criticism here of Sanderson certainly excessive.
I think I see what Sanderson was doing with frequently changing view points in this book. Each character (POV) is a weave in the pattern and perhaps he thought that he was weaving one epic climactic battle sequence of a novel. Unfortunately, IMO, he weaved one epic turd. I agree with Pat on this one, very dissapointing indeed. I even had somewhat high hopes for this novel as I thought Sanderson wrote a good scene with Rand holding enough of the power to destroy the world on top of Dragonmount in TGS, but no such scenes in this book.
I agree it was disappointing and not a good book, but worse than Crossroads of Twilight, really? I think you're forgetting just how bad that book (and several others, like Path of Daggers and Knife of Dreams) were. I mean, despite the amount of battleporn at least some things do happen, and we get some focus on the major characters instead of Aes Sedai #7892786.
All we've been told is that 50% of the plot of tGS, TofM and aMoL was not in the
notes.
cseresz(.reborn)
It was said that the ending of the book, especially the epilogue was written by Jordan himself. I don't think you can blame much on Sanderson who was just trying to finish the book the way Jordan had it outlined.
I agree it was sad way to see the series finished.
All the more prove that I did the right thing to stop after installment four.
Marcus
I think ANYTHING would have been disappointing because the series was great and built up to a point that could not really be lived up to. I haven't read this one yet, heck, I'm a couple books back actually, but I have figured for a while that no matter what/who/whatever the last book would end up being less than anyone thought it would be. I just don't see that it could not be that way. Just my opinion.
One whole book of battles to end the series. I guess that had to be expected after 13 other books. All in all, not an unexpected ending. Actually, very few of the main characters die, which again is not unexpected for this writer.
At least the wait is now over. Anyone want to buy the complete set from me? Not about to ever re-read this.
I partially agree. I was also disappointed, it was one of the weaker books (but better than COT) in the WOT series. But the blame could be laid equally for Jordan and Sanderson.
My main complaints are the following. Overall the book seems to be rushed so even some major scenes didn't make such emotional impact they should have. The book lacks in the character relationships/insight/development department. It concentrates to the action, but sadly the battle scenes were repetitive and after a while they became boring. Some critical scenes and arc do not make much sense. Finally there were too many contradiction with the earlier books.
LOL @Pat. Book was nowhere near CoT-level suckitude. Pretty damn amazing, all told, and I'm surprised you were so vehemently upset. Sanderson, while adhering to RJ's vision, managed to imbue the last volume with suitable pathos, and the satisfying, feel-good closures helped develop a fond farewell to a monumental entry in the SFF canon. Better-handled than Erikson's denouement, IMO. But that is an argument for another day.
I found much of the book to be enjoyable and well done but man! I found the ending.. the way it ending to just be awful... and frankly, kinda lame. I felt none of the weight of what had taken place. So in all I would say it was worth reading but not much more.
Massive build up then a few pages of an ending. Didn't Sanderson realise how much these characters had evolved? A couple of lines for each one and a paragraph for Rand is a terrible ending to an epic story.
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