A Memory of Light - Robert Jordan (Brandon Sanderson)

When I first discovered The Wheel of Time, it was something of a revelation for me.  The thought that someone could craft something so vast and then spend years telling the whole story.  Taking the time for a complete and rich profile of every character and weaving their relationships - and the effect of their relationships - so intimately with the story as it unfolded.  And the thought that someone could do it all, on this scale, without sacrificing pacing?  At the time it was mindblowing.

At least, for the first five volumes it was mindblowing.  To this day, those five volumes - beginning with The Eye of the World and ending with The Fires of Heaven - stand in my mind as a testament to one of the very best authors the fantasy genre has ever seen: Robert Jordan.  It was at that point though, that people began to grumble.  Pacing did suffer.  And while one or two volumes fell short of the mark, on the whole the series continued to stand tall.  It stood tall on the back of its characters, the rich and complex world and the most consistent system of magic the genre has seen.

Now all this is background.  But it's necessary, to understand how torn I am over the final instalment of The Wheel of Time.  Like the previous two volumes, A Memory of Light was penned by Brandon Sanderson, who most will know was hand picked by Robert Jordan and his wife Harriet to conclude the saga upon Jordan's death.  Not only a monumental honour, but an incredibly difficult task.

The Wheel of Time has sold well over 30 million copies worldwide and has a rabid, devoted following.  The conclusion of the series has been debated and speculated over for years.

Brandon Sanderson - bravest author in the world?  Possibly.  And for that he has my respect.

But A Memory of Light?  I did not enjoy it.  Good novels have texture.  This had none.  Two-thirds of the novel is a running battle, giving the novel a tone that does not shift.  Sanderson, unfortunately fails to create a narrative within these battle sequences, which results in them feeling hollow and pointless, in spite of the fact that we understand what's at stake.

That reason alone, would be enough to put me off.  I kept reading because I love the characters.  I needed to know how things would resolve.  It almost wasn't enough.  Because the characters I know, do not behave like themselves when written by Sanderson.  While Robert Jordan's characterisations were never off, Sanderson has people doing things and thinking things that continually ring false.

But here's the thing.  The Wheel of Time is one of the very best series the genre has ever seen. Maybe will ever see.  If you made it this far, don't let me dissuade you at all.  Because when I stand back and look at the  narrative arc as a whole, I'm satisfied.

I'm satisfied with the conclusion of the story.  I didn't necessarily enjoy how it got there and I have major problems with things that were brushed over in the midst of 700 pages worth of inane battle sequences, but the resolution of Jordan's saga did not let me down.

The short of it all is that The Wheel of Time gets a 9/10.  A Memory of Light on the other hand?

My score - 6/10