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Title: The Gathering Storm
Series:
The Wheel of Time #12
Author: Robert Jordan &
Brandon Sanderson
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Fantasy
Pages: 829
Words: 304.5K
From Tarvalon.net &
authored by Toral Delvar
Aviendha
is sent to Rhuidean to go through the Glass columns and become a Wise
One. Faile kills Masema. Perrin rides north with the refugees, with
Grady and Neald too tired to make gateways for those that would want
to go home. He meets up with Galad and learns that Maighdin is
actually Morgase.
Mat
and the Band try and head to Caemlyn before going to rescue Moiraine.
In the shadow of the Damona Mountains, they come across a village
where everyone goes crazy at night and tries to kill each other, only
for everything to reset back to normal the next morning. They learn a
woman in a nearby village is handing out pictures of Mat, so he goes
to see who it is, learning it is Verin. She explains that she had
intended to go to Tar Valon, but was drawn there by his ta'veren
nature. She tells him she can make a gateway for the Band to go
quickly to Camelyn, but if so he must either wait ten days, then obey
the instructions in a letter she gives him; or wait thirty days, then
do as he wishes. He agrees.
Rodel
meets with Turan after the Seanchan army has been destroyed outside
Darulna. He explains he used their overconfidence and reliance on
raken against them. Turan tells Ituralde that this will not be the
end of it, that the Seanchan will send a larger army and will not
make the same mistakes again. Rodel executes him. The Seanchan amass
a fresh army of 300000 men with around 200 damane, traping Rodel and
his men in a stedding. He knows they cannot win, but hopes to be an
inspiration to future generations. Rand arrives and offers an
alternative. Rodel and his men go to the Borderlands to protect the
Blight border, and Rand will make a truce with the Seanchan, with the
Aiel and Saldaeans enforcing order in Arad Doman.
Tuon
meets with Beslan as Daughter of the Nine Moons. He swears fealty to
her. Tylee tells Tuon how her force was attacked by Trollocs outside
Ebou Dar and her opinion that they need to ally with the Dragon
Reborn and others. Tuon decides to meet with Rand, waiting until
after that before becoming Empress, as once Empress, she will be of
higher status than Rand. She believes that would make the meeting
difficult. They meet and Rand demands a truce. She feels herself
being forced to agree to it, but manages to refuse, largely because
of her belief that he must kneel before her according to prophecy. He
leaves and she steps up to take the mantle of Empress. She orders a
raid on the White Tower.
Rand
visits Moridin in a dream and learns he is Ishamael re-incarnated and
that balefire is the only thing that can prevent the Dark One giving
one of the Forsaken a new body. Rand meets with Harine and tells her
the Sea Folk must do better with supplies. In exchange for a promise
to answer any question of hers, he learns that Sea Folk men who can
channel are either drowned or abandoned on a deserted island. He
tells her the practice must stop. Rand orders the Aiel to pacify Arad
Doman and to find members of the Council of Merchants so they can
name a new king. He uses one of them to try and track Graendal, via
one of the messengers she had used, but that messenger had already
died. Nynaeve investigates the torturer involved and finds an
apprentice, heavily under Compulsion, from whom they are able to find
Graendal’s location. Rand Travels there and balefires the whole
palace.
Cadsuane
makes no progress with Semirhage, until she realizes that they are
showing her too much respect and spanks her like a child. Shaidar
Haran arrives to free Semirhage and with the help of Elza, from whom
she removes Verin’s compulsion, She puts Rand in the male a'dam.
Via his link to Moridin, Rand is able to access the True Power and
uses balefire on both Semirhage and Elza. Cadsuane tries to tell him
not to use balefire, but he tells her he understands it better than
she does and that it is the only way to prevent the Forsaken from
being re-incarnated into fresh bodies. He exiles her from his sight
for her failure in not keeping the male a'dam safely hidden and says
that he will kill her if he sees her face again. He Travels to Far
Madding to meet with the Borderland leaders, but they refuse to meet
outside the city, so he tells Hurin, their messenger, to tell them to
either return to the Borderlands and do their duty, or to stay away
from him.
Cadsuane
has Tam brought to Rand and they talk. Tam asks him why he is
fighting. Rand goes crazy when Tam mentions Cadsuane, attacking Tam
and fleeing to Ebou Dar before he can kill him. There, he decides to
use the Choedan Kal to destroy the Seanchan in the Tarasin Palace.
However, he falls sick when he seizes saidin and collapses. The
concern of the passersby disturbs him and he flees, skimming first,
then Travelling to Dragonmount. With Lews Therin, he realizes that
the chance to love is what makes it so important to save the world.
The two merge and then begin to laugh, before destroying the Choedan
Kal. Above Rand, the clouds part and and he is bathed in light.
In
the Tower, Egwene encounters Meidani while serving Elaida and tells
her to summon her. Egwene continues to meet with Aes Sedai, who grow
more receptive to her. Bennae and Nagora both summon her to ask for
advice, and both are impressed. She meets Suana, who tells her she
would do well in Yellow. Egwene suggests to her that Sitters of
different Ajahs should begin visibly taking dinner together. When
Meidani does summon her, she is unable to say why she didn’t flee
the Tower when Eliada learned she was a spy, but she is able to show
Egwene, taking her to a meeting of Saerin, Doesine, Yukiri and
Seaine. She refuses to back down and tells them that they need to
start reaching out to other Ajahs to heal the rifts in the Tower and
also that they must take the fourth oath off Meidani. Meidani agrees
to continue spying on Elaida as that is what Egwene wants from her.
Egwene points out that as it was a bare minimum of Sitters that
deposed Siuan and that at least one was Black, it was not legally
valid.
Katerine
tells her that she is no longer to meet with Aes Sedai but is to just
do chores. In the kitchen, Laras tries to help her escape, but she
refuses. Elaida has her as a serving girl a second time, this time in
front of a group of Sitters. Egwene stands up to her, bringing up all
her failures, using arguments specifically designed to impress
various different Sitters. When Elaida sees Doesine murmuring
agreement, she loses control. Egwene calls her a coward and a tyrant
and she attacks, calling Egwene a Darkfriend and ordering her
imprisoned. Silviana comes before the Hall to stand up for Egwene,
saying Elaida should be deposed. Elaida orders her imprisoned and
Stilled, with Katerine to replace her as Mistress of Novices.
Verin
visits Egwene in her cell and tells her she herself is Black Ajah and
that she only got around their oaths by taking poison that will kill
her within the hour. Verin has been researching the Black Ajah from
the inside and has compiled a list of around two hundred members that
she has identified. After Verin dies, Egwene has Meidani remove the
body and meets Siuan in Tel'aran'rhiod, telling her Sheriam and Moria
are Black Ajah and should be watched. She is pulled out of the dream
by Nicola when the Seanchan attack. She finds the novices and teaches
them to link, forming a circle with Nicola, before Travelling to the
storeroom where the objects of the power are kept, to fetch the
sa'angreal she knows, Vora's sa'angreal. She returns and, along with
the novices, begins to fight the Seanchan. She encounters Adelorna
who is feeling despondent at the poor showing of the Greens. She
forces Adelorna to accept her leadership and together they engage the
Seanchan.
Gawyn
learns Egwene is a prisoner in the Tower and that the Aes Sedai are
willing and able to relieve him of command at any time. He leaves
them for the rebel camp. When they hear of the Seanchan attack, Siuan
and Gawyn decide to rescue Egwene. She persuades Gareth to go with
him. He insists that she bond him first. They fight their way in and
Gareth kills a Seanchan assassin. She recalls Min’s vision that
both would die if they didn’t stay close and Heals him of a minor
wound he took that would otherwise have been fatal because of poison.
They and Gawyn reach an exhausted Egwene and take her out of the
Tower through a gateway. Elaida and around two dozen others are
captured.
The
next day, Egwene visits Saerin, to retrieve the Oath Rod, before
holding a meeting of the Hall. She tells them that the Black Ajah is
real and swears the Three Oaths, announcing that she is not a
Darkfriend and that everyone else is to do the same. Sheriam embraces
the Source, but Egwene shields her and tricks her into lying. Moria
tries to flee and they apprehend her as well. Once the other Sitters
have all been cleared, they go through the other Aes Sedai, starting
with those in Verin’s list. All the Black Ajah are quickly
executed.
In
the Tower, the Ajah heads try to plan what to do to replace Elaida.
The hall has been unable to make any progress, the divisions between
the Ajahs still too strong for any to support a woman not of their
own. Adelorna suggests Egwene and is immediately supported by Ferane,
with the others soon agreeing. Once the decision has been made, a
group of Sitters goes to summon Egwene to be raised Amyrlin. She is
raised unanimously, with no second round of voting needed by the
eleven remaining Sitters, there being no Red, and the Black Ajah
Sitters having fled with around sixty others. She names Silviana as
Keeper, as Silviana did her duty. She then goes to the rebels,
forgiving them for rebelling and readmitting them to the White Tower.
I enjoyed this. This how the series should have been the whole time.
While this was another monstrous book (the hardcover is over 800 and
the ebook clocks in around 1100) I did not find it draggy, slow,
ponderous or padded. Sanderson really makes an effort to push the
story forward. It was fun and refreshing and I enjoyed reading a WoT
book again.
I also felt like Sanderson did an excellent job of starting the
characters down a path that would bring them from the wildly flung
places Jordan has scattered them to. And I felt like he did the same
thing for all the various shit pies that Jordan shoved down our
throats. If I sound bitter, I am. Jordan could have gotten his
readers to this place without wasting our time with at least 3 books
that he made us wade through and wait for years for. I realize I am
making a hash of this review as I really did enjoy the book but it is
hard to sit back and realize what Jordan did to me, as a reader.
While not nearly what GRR Martin has done to his readers, this was
bad enough.
I guess I'm going to have to make a concerted effort to judge the
next Wheel of Time book on its own instead of dragging in my baggage
with Jordan. Sigh, sometimes reviewing books seems like it's more of
a hassle than anything.
★★★★☆
