Books

I just finished The Gathering Storm by Brandon Sanderson. Per request, I'll leave some thoughts about it here.

While I know Jordan wrote some of this book, I personally regard it as Sanderson's work. As such, I felt it was a huge improvement over Jordan's writing and for me, the best book in the series since The Fires of Heaven. This confirms to me a fact that has been bouncing in my mind for a long while: I don't think Robert Jordan is a very good writer. He certainly had an interesting story to tell in a captivating setting, which is why I continued to read this far, but his idiosyncrasies are somewhat infuriating.

... Which is why this book is so refreshing: the plot actually moves along, things actually happen, characters don't constantly sniff derisively or adjust their clothes when annoyed, nor is the reader incessantly hammered with how oh so different the sexes are in the setting, when they act pretty much the same. On that note, the characters feel more reasonable here, and not as unlikable as is Jordan's wont. While still arrogant and bullheaded to a fault, they feel more understandable in their actions. I think I even saw some character development typically lacking in the series.

While I will again take a break between books, I'm very optimistic about the last two books in the series. I probably won't read the prequel, but we'll see.