The Gathering Storm

Mondays, I have set aside for myself to write about family. Well, I have been reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series for almost as long as I can remember. The characters definitely feel like family, and I'm man enough to admit that I cried when Robert Jordan died almost as much as I cried when my own grandfather died. So, having just read the first chapter of The Gathering Storm, I feel it appropriate that I should post this review on family day.

I must say, there are some hypercritical readers out there. Brandon Sanderson, the writer selected to finish the Wheel of Time, has taken on an absolutely Herculean task. No one, even including Robert Jordan himself at times (Crossroads of Twilight, in my opinion), can possibly match the style and voice of the master at his best. And there are the times, the long, plodding times, when my combined grocery and to-do lists have been more exciting to read. Doesn't anyone remember almost a decade ago when RJ was rumored to have died? When it was speculated that one of his assistants had written one of the last few books? So you see, even the man himself had a hard time living up to his own standard. To expect another author, regardless of how talented, to give us the same flavor in his prose is not only ridiculous, it is presumptuous of us as readers and cruelly unfair to Brandon Sanderson the artist. Anyone who reads any book whether the continuation of a series, a standalone, or whatever format with preconceived notions as to the way the book should read does so to their own detriment. I'm 100% certain that no one feels more keenly the difference between the two authors' styles than does Brandon himself. He has expressed several times the awe-inspiring nature and mammoth size of the task ahead of him. I respect him intensely for his desire to pay his tribute to the brilliant body of the work RJ began by trying to finish the story that needs to be finished rather than trying to ape the style of its creator.

That having been said let me move on to the meat of the chunk o' story presented to us.

***LIGHT SPOILERS***

Chapter 1 begins with the ubiquitous wind which rises out of Tar Valon, and it blows around those streets, once so sparkling and clean, now choked with the rubbish and refuse that has become the usurper Amyrlin Elaida's legacy. Or is it the Dark One's increased ability to touch the world that has brought once magnificent Tar Valon low? This wind meanders as it so often will until it brings us, with added strangeness along the way, to Rand and Min. Here we get to see the ratcheting up of tension on the already over tightened spring that is Rand al'Thor. He is breaking from it, descending more and more rapidly into what one intuitive reader called a “madness brought on by PTSD”. (I'm honestly not sure how I feel about that. I'm not generally one that wants to try to explain my fictional heroes’ motivations in terms of psychoanalysis, but I must admit that just about everyone in Jordan's world is post- some sort of trauma. It's no wonder crazy people have laid waste at that place in the past.) We also get the joy of enduring one of Cadsuane's little lessons in politeness, though to be fair, it is something Rand needs desperately to learn. I would have no problem boxing his ears for him were he a child of mine. Oh, and a scene with Rand just would not be the same without Lews Therin’s raving after Ilyena and rabidly testifying that everyone should die.

Without going too deep into who said what and who did what, let's just suffice it to say that all the elements are there. And, left out like one of Mistress al'Vere's sweet cakes, we have not one but two mentions of Asmodean and one that I can recall of Moiraine. Coincidence? I think not. Now, if RJ were still writing, such blatant foreshadowing might not actually pan out to be anything, at least in this particular book. But everyone who's read BS's blog knows that the one thing Harriett has accused him of is being too honest. From what I have read, posted by people who know the series easily as well as I do if not better, there really is nothing but promise from this book, as my own experience from reading Chapter 1 can affirm. The long and the short, dear friends, is that we're in for yet another thrill ride through the land that RJ created.

CL