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Title: A Memory of Light
Series:
The Wheel of Time #14
Author: Robert Jordan &
Brandon Sanderson
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Fantasy
Pages: 883
Words: 355K
From Tarvalon.net
Note,
this summary is neither in chapter order nor strictly chronological.
Instead, it follows the individual plot threads insofar as that is
feasible.
At
the Black Tower, Androl and Pevara have realized that Taim is
forcibly turning men to the Shadow and decide to try and work
together. They practice linking but Androl doesn't release the link
quickly enough and Pevara panics and bonds him when he does. He
retaliates by bonding her. They learn that Welyn has been turned and
he claims that Logain and Taim have patched up their differences and
are working together. They realize that Logain must have been
captured and Androl decides to free him. They invite one of the
turned men, Dobser, to come and talk and ambush him knocking him
unconscious and tying him up with air. When he wakes, Emarin
interrogates him, apologising for what Androl did and telling Dobser
that he only followed Logain for his own safety as he didn't want to
reveal his true identity. Dobser assumes him to be a high lord of
Tear and tells him where Logain is located. They go to rescue Logain,
but Evin is caught and gives the plan away and they are captured.
Taim tries again to turn Logain, but fails and also tries with
Emarin, but fails with him as well. He manages to turn Toveine and
Evin who urge Logain to stop fighting. Androl uses his knowledge of
Evin, that his madness has made him extremely suspicious, to make him
turn against Abors who he attacks, but the struggle is brief and
Taim's men come out victorious. Hessalam arrives and criticizes Taim,
who tells her he has the Seals. They decide to leave and he orders
Androl and the others killed. He weaves balefire at Androl.
Perrin
and Gaul enter Tel'aran'rhiod in the flesh, to better combat Slayer.
They go to the Black Tower, as Perrin suspects there is another
dreamspike He sees Lanfear there, who explains to him something of
how it works enabling him to remove it. With the dreamspike removed,
Androl is able to weave a small gateway and the balefire Taim aimed
at him passes through it. Canler and other loyal Asha'man break in
and the two groups begin to fight. Androl opens a gateway in front of
Taim's men, with the exit behind them, and weaves meant for him and
his allies instead kill many of them. Taim, Hessalam and the others
flee.
At
the Field of Merrilor, Rand tells the assembled leaders that he will
have three conditions for agreeing to fight in the Last Battle. The
first is that the nations sign a peace agreement, the Dragon's Peace,
to last a hundred years, the second is that he be given the Seals to
break and finally that he have complete control of all the armies. It
is not going well until Moiraine arrives and repeats parts of the
Prophecies of the Dragon that show Rand is right. He agrees not to
break the Seals himself as long as Egwene agrees to break them when
the time is right. The rulers agree to his demands and Aviendha asks
him to include the Aiel. He says he trusts them to do what is right,
but she insists and he changes the treaty to include them as
peacekeepers between the nations. Moiraine also makes him realise he
cannot have command of the armies while he fights the Dark One and he
names Elayne to the role. When the time comes to give Egwene the
Seals, he discovers they are fakes and the real ones have been
stolen.
Mat
goes to Ebou Dar to see Tuon and saves her from a gray man. Rand
visits and manages to persuade Tuon to abide by the treaty. She and
Egwene also have a meeting, that threatens to descend into conflict
until Mat steps in and forces them to come to an agreement. She
accepts that as the Sea Folk have not accepted her in any way, and
Tremalking does not have a Sea Folk ruler, their rule there is
illegitimate and the Sea Folk must be left to rule themselves They
decide that the women who have been collared will not be freed, but
that in future, the Seanchan can send emissaries to the other
Westlands, asking women who can channel to come and be damane. She
agrees that the Seanchan forces will fight in the Last Battle
They
decide to fight the Last Battle on four fronts, with one of the Great
Captains planning the battle for each of them but with Elayne in
overall command. Bryne will lead in southern Kandor, Agelmar at
Tarwin's Gap, Bashere in Caemlyn and Rodel will defend Shayol Ghul,
while Rand fights the Dark One. Graendal uses compulsion on them
however, to cause them to make mistakes and many men are killed. Rand
enters the Pit of Doom and starts to fight Moridin. Demandred arrives
from Shara, with a huge army including hundreds of channelers who
take on the combined Aes Sedai forces. He has Sakarnen, a sa'angreal
and a full circle of seventy two, but his effectiveness is limited as
he obsesses about Lews Therin.
Baldhere
and Lan realize that Agelmar is making mistakes that leave their army
completely exposed, and they lose most of their army. Tam realizes
that Bashere has left their army heavily exposed and Elayne realizes
he has been under compulsion. Logain and the Asha'man arrive and
manage to save Elayne's army by opening a gateway into Dragonmount
and letting the lava block the path of the advancing Trollocs. Rodel
realizes that he is being made to give bad orders and fights against
it. Perrin sends Elyas to stop him, and Elyas is able to get there
before the compulsion overcomes Rodel. When Mat arrives in Kandor, he
realizes that Bryne is making mistakes that are positioning the
forces of the Light to be wiped out. He sends Min to tell Egwene that
Bryne must be a Darkfriend, but she just assumes Mat doesn't
understand what is happening and laughs at the idea. She begins to
reconsider if she really does trust him and when she hears that
Bashere turned against Elayne, she begins to question some of his
decisions and he is removed from command. Egwene realizes that
because of Mat's medallion, he is the only one who can be trusted and
he takes over control, moving to one location, the Field of Merrilor.
They move all the forces apart from the ones protecting Shayol Ghul
and wait for the Shadowspawn armies to arrive.
Faile
waits in Tar Valon to take the Horn of Valere to Mat. Berisha
prepares to open a gateway, but a bubble of evil hits and it the
group ends up in the Blight, Berisha having being stabbed with a
dagger. Harnan and Vanin open the chest containing the Horn and flee
when confronted by Faile. The group make their way through the Blight
until they come to a supply dump near the Town. They enter it,
disguised as Darkfriends, but are given away by Aravine. An Aes Sedai
arrives and opens a gateway, which they go through. Olver stabs the
Aes Sedai and in the confusion, Harnan and Vanin free other captives.
Faile kills Aravine to take back the Horn and gives it to Olver,
asking him to try and get it to Mat.
The
battle continues for days, with the forces of the Light outnumbered,
but Mat managing to keep them alive. Demandred continues obsesses
over Lews Therin and kills Gawyn in single combat and severely
injures Galad. Taim is defeated by Egwene wielding Vora's Sa'angreal
and is given sakarnen by Demandred. He uses it to weave balefire and
with the Sharans, kills half of the Aes Sedai. Egwene discovers a
counter to balefire and with this she defeats and kills him, drawing
too much of the Power and sacrificing herself, taking out most of the
Ayyad as she does. Demandred is killed by Lan and the forces of the
Shadow lose their cohesion. Olver blows the Horn of Valere and the
Heroes come to fight. Mat fakes a fight with Tuon and the Seanchan
withdraw, encouraging the forces of the Shadow to attack for what
they expect to be a final victory, but they stretch themselves too
thin and are obliterated when the Seanchan return.
Rand
fights Moridin at the Pit of Doom before engaging with the Dark One
and being shown a range of possible worlds after the Dark One wins.
He rejects them all. Moridin grabs Callandor and realizes it is a
sa'angreal for the True Power. Nynaeve and Moiraine use its flaw to
take control of what he is holding and link with Rand, who melds the
three powers together, as Logain breaks the seals to reforge the Dark
One's prison.
Perrin
kills Slayer. A weave of compulsion backfires on Graendal, leaving
her dedicated to Aviendha. Moghedien is collared by the Seanchan and
Lanfear is killed by Perrin to stop her killing Nynaeve and
preventing Rand from reforging the prison. Mat kills Padan Fain. Rand
swaps bodies with Moridin and fakes his own death. He leaves, unable
to channel but with an ability to alter reality by simply willing a
pipe to be lit.
Well, the journey is done. Sanderson wraps up the Wheel of Time,
something long time fans were not sure was actually going to happen.
And in all honesty, he did a good job of it too.
My only gripe is that Sanderson brings his social justice attitude to
the front several times and makes a point of pointing out which
ash'aman are homosexual. It added nothing to the story and looking
back, this was about the time I began diverging from Sanderson in his
other works.
That aside, I was quite happy with how this went. The battle, one
looooooong one really, was fantastically written and once one of the
main characters turned out to be mindwarped by the Dark One and then
another main character dies, well, it was obvious nobody was safe
from destruction and death.
Lan's final sword fight was the epitome of epic and characterized him
to a tee. I'm not sure about Rand, since he now appears to be able to
control reality at will. Will he live forever? If so, what do the
dreams of Rhuedin now mean to the Wise Ones?
Jordan, and thus Sanderson by proxy, left a LOT of questions
unanswered and areas unexplored. I don't know if he was really
planning on writing more in this universe, but it sure seems so. If
he wasn't, then he was just a jerk for creating questions for the
readers without any possible answers.
Overall, while I am glad I re-read this, I don't ever plan on doing
that again. I saw too many of Jordan's weaknesses as a writer on
display and way too many instances of his wife's bad decisions as his
editor. I obviously have mixed feelings about this series but I don't
unreservedly recommend it nor universally condemn it. I won't be
reading it for a third time though.
★★★★☆
