Towers of Midnight - Review

Towers of Midnight (Book 13) continues the high bar that was set by Brandon Sanderson ever since he took over the series. This book is a slight step lower than The Gathering Storm (Book 12) in my rankings, but it’s still one of the top 5 books of the series. A reason for that small dip is the overdose of Perrin chapters and Rand not having as much of a presence as he usually does. This book also suffers a little from an odd structure. The timelines were confusing at first until I caught on to what Sanderson was doing with Mat and Perrin’s chapters being a little bit behind the timeline of Rand and Egwene’s chapters. It ended on a high note though and it had great overall pacing, suspenseful action scenes, and remarkable character moments throughout. This will be a non-spoiler review and it will be covered in 4 sections: Characters, Plot, Pacing, and my final thoughts along with a rating.

Image: Perrin forging Mah’alleinir (A hammer made with the One Power).


[Characters]:

Perrin is the main character in this story, while Mat is a close second. After that, Egwene, Elayne, and Galad have a good handful of chapters. Rand doesn’t have any POV chapters in this book but he does have a decent amount of page time through other characters perspectives. This book had the potential of having Perrin’s best arc in the series so far but some of the chapters were a little tedious and drawn out, whereas his arc in The Shadow Rising (Book 4) was very concise and efficient. Perrin has a journey of self-discovery like Rand did in the previous book. All of Perrin’s past experiences and conflicts (e.g. Children of the Light) come back to haunt him. A lot of his struggles and issues throughout the series comes to a tipping point in this book, such as his hesitation of leading his people, his longing to go back to his simple life as a blacksmith, and him finding a balance between himself and the wolf.

Mat finally confronts his demons aka the Aelfinn and Eelfinn and gets some answers from his previous encounter with them. He doesn’t have a significant character arc like Perrin in this book but his heroic adventures, his witty dialogue, and all his chapters in general were fantastic.

Egwene was kind of neutral for me in this book. She’s changing the Aes Sedai ways for the better. She wants to make alliances with other channelers such as the Aiel Wise Ones and the Sea Folk Windfinders to get all 3 of them (including the Aes Sedai) to learn each other’s ways so they can all understand each other better. She’s also trying to outlaw the secrecy going on in the White Tower which is what started the division of the White Tower in the first place. She has a great storyline but I wouldn’t say she’s very likeable.

Nynaeve is great. I love her one book and then I hate her the next book and a lot of her good moments throughout the series are balanced out by a lot of her irritating moments in earlier books, but I can now comfortably say that she is one of my favorite characters in the overall series. She stays true to herself and doesn’t become a distant or other-worldly type presence that most Aes Sedai are and seemingly what Egwene and Elayne have now become. There was a great chapter where Nynaeve explains why the White Tower and the Aes Sedai are fundamentally flawed because their original purpose was to serve mankind but they have grown distant from it. She says she would rather fail the Aes Sedai test every single time than to abandon someone who needs help (which is the most common scenario to appear in any Accepted’s test to become an Aes Sedai). She’s just amazing in this book.

On the contrary, I hated Elayne in this book. She makes a lot of stupid decisions and puts herself in unnecessary danger because she puts too much stock in Min’s vision of her babies being safe, therefore thinking she would always be safe as well. She also focuses too much on how powerful of a ruler she could become, to the point where it overshadows her relationship with some of her friends. A particular moment that irked me was when she was thinking of Rand’s hypothetical death after the Last Battle, she focuses only on how much competition Andor would have with different nations afterwards. Another moment was her reunion with Mat and Thom. She hasn’t seen them in a long time but she instantly thinks of how to use them to solve her current problems in Caemlyn instead of caring about them and asking how they even survived from Ebou Dar in the first place.

Favorite Characters – Rand, Perrin, Mat, Lan, & Nynaeve.



Image: Cadsuane Melaidhrin.


[Plot]:

Perrin settles his old conflicts with the Children of the Light and learns more about the World of Dreams from Hopper, while also confronting another old enemy there. Mat attempts a trap for the Gholam that’s been chasing him and he also goes with Thom and Noal to the Tower of Ghenjei to try and rescue Moiraine. Egwene tries to uncover which Aes Sedai Mesaana is posing as and prepares to oppose Rand during their eventual meeting at the Field of Merrilor. Rand rights all the wrongs he’s caused during his dark stage in The Gathering Storm by meeting with the Borderland rulers, bringing order to Bandar Eban, and fending off the Trolloc attack in the Borderlands.

I enjoyed Perrin’s storyline but as I said before, there were some boring scenes/chapters. The Wolf Dream scenes where Hopper is teaching him was nice at first but it got boring pretty quickly. This part of the storyline seems like something that should have happened way earlier in this series. The plot of the entire series is so much more complex and interesting now with the Forsaken, Seanchan, and the political intrigue of the White Tower, that Perrin’s Wolf Dream scenes seem so basic and uninteresting. Those dream scenes do get better around the half-way point of the book when a certain character shows up, I enjoyed his conflict with the Children of the Light and there was plenty of great action and suspense throughout his storyline. Perrin’s entire story and character arc was put on hold for pretty much half the series, but it finally all got wrapped up in this book and although I mentioned a few problems I had with it, it was definitely a satisfying wrap-up and story overall.

Mat’s storyline was my most anticipated since Knife of Dreams (Book 11), and it didn’t disappoint. I actually wish the Tower of Ghenjei chapters were a little longer. The Tower of Ghenjei mission was essentially his final act in this book but I also enjoyed his earlier chapters as well with the Gholam that’s hunting him and also his meeting with Elayne and Birgitte in Caemlyn.

Egwene and Gawyn’s chapters are both part of a singular storyline and I enjoyed that as well. Egwene’s meeting with Rand, Gawyn searching for the Seanchan Bloodknives and Egwene trying to uncover Mesaana in the White Tower were all great chapters.

I liked the concept of having Rand sparsely featured in this book but when he does appear, it’s from other characters’ perspectives. It adds to the mystery and new-found aura around him after his re-forging at Dragonmount. He didn’t have any POV chapters but I enjoyed all the scenes of him essentially checking off the to-do list and fixing every mistake he’s made in the previous book and smoothing over any previous grudges/hostilities in preparation for the Last Battle.

There were also many great sub-plots as well such as Lan’s journey through the Borderlands, Rodel’s battles against the Shadowspawn in the Borderlands, Aviendha’s journey to Rhuidean, and the Black Tower storyline. I liked the mini-chapters of Lan slowly gaining supporters as he’s traveling to Malkier and his final chapter in this book was just phenomenal. The chapters of the Borderlanders fighting off Trollocs and other Shadowspawn near the Blightborder was really good as well. Rodel is living up to his reputation as 1 of the 5 great captains and his military strategies and tricks were fun to read. Aviendha’s Rhuidean chapters were brilliant. Brandon Sanderson pays homage to Robert Jordan by keeping the same writing structure Jordan used for the Rhuidean scenes in The Shadow Rising (Book 4), but with a great twist. I liked the short Black Tower chapters because it plants the seeds of a rebellion started by Androl and the Two Rivers Asha’man who are loyal to Logain and it makes the mystery of what Mazrim Taim is actually doing that much more fascinating to find out.

Image: Ishamael/Moridin.


[Pacing]:

My only problems in terms of pacing in this book would be Perrin’s chapters. As I said before, the Wolf Dream scenes were a slog to get through at times. Other than that, the pacing was really good. There was a great variety of POV chapters in this book and multiple fantastic sub-plots that balanced out some of Perrin’s slower chapters. The anticipation for Mat’s mission to the Tower of Ghenjei always kept me excited to read this book whenever there was a slow Perrin chapter, so the pacing in those chapters weren’t really that big of a deal for me.

[Final Thoughts & Rating]:

Brandon Sanderson continues to excel in The Wheel of Time world and he satisfyingly wrapped up all the remaining plot threads and got all the characters to where they needed to be for the Last Battle. There’s still some lingering series questions that need to be answered so I’m hoping A Memory of Light delivers on that aspect. I’m really excited to start the final book in the series, but I’m also nervous to find out how it all ends.

Rating: 8.5/10

My Book Rankings: https://jaytargaryen.blogspot.com/p/b...


*My Rating System*

5 Stars (9-10): Amazing
4 Stars (7-9): Really Good to Great
3 Stars (5-7): Average to Good
2 Stars (3-5): Bad to Mediocre
1 Star (1-3): Terrible 

 

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