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4.5
"Towers of Midnight," the penultimate novel of the Wheel of Time, is a masterpiece.The name is a bit misleading; the Towers of Midnight play almost no role in the story, aside from being mentioned as a location in a continent across the sea and are never seen. It sounds cool, but it doesn't really have anything to do with the book itself, as is often the case with WoT titles. However, a vague title does nothing to change that Book 13 is quite extraordinary.Sanderson maintains the excellent standard that he set in the first of the final three books, "The Gathering Storm." The plot moves fast, the character development is phenomenol, the writing itself is of a very high quality and often hard to notice as not being Jordan's own work (aside from being much faster paced), and this book overall did its darnedest to make sure that you know that one more book will bring the story to an end. For the Wheel of Time, the end truly is drawing near.What really struck me while reading this novel was the immense sense of sheer distance that has been traveled, both in this book, and the series as a whole...and for the world, the plot, and the characters themselves. When I think back on just about any character, I'm struck by how drastically their situations have changed, how far they've gone, and how much they've grown. Virtually every character of importance has risen in status considerably since everything began, with most of them ending up in positions of great authority.I think I enjoyed Rand's character the most, as he has finally worked out his problems and reached the height of his power and knowledge, manifestly sane and extremely badass. However, I was also very glad to finally get back to Elayne, and the transition from authors is seamless on her character. Mat also comes to the forefront, as much of the book is focused on him. I could barely read one page from his POV without laughing out loud at the abundant humor. Well, at least until the very serious and epic conclusion at the end. Perrin's chapters still seemed a little long and boring, but he too has come and long way and sorts out many issues by the final pages.I also must say that Sanderson's skill with deftly weaving magic and superhuman abilities into combat and finding clever uses for them has also lent itself well to this series. I lost track of how many favorite moments I had in this book. Rand taking on hundreds of thousands of Trollocs by himself? Mat's last stand against the Gholam? Perrin mastering the ability to bend reality in the World of Dreams? The frantic final sequence in the Tower against the Eelfinn and Aelfinn? Elayne impersonating one of the Forsaken? Gawyn testing his blademaster talents against Seanchan assassins? There are a whole sheet of runners up to those that I could name, but for space reasons in this review, I'll just suffice to say that character interaction was often as enjoyable as the most epic moments.This is the first time when I actually have to wait for another WoT book to come out, as previously, there has always been more already released whenever I reached the end of a book. I came to the game at the end, and am still glad for it. A few months waiting for the final novel is much better than the years and years that most WoT fans have to endure at one point or another. I guess it wouldn't be true to the nature of the Wheel of Time if I didn't have to wait for a new novel at some point.The final book will contain the ending that was probably originally planned to be the third act of a larger book, but even with Sanderson's breakneck pace there are still enough loose ends and content for another book, even with the rather beefy standards of the series for wordcounts and thickness. I'll be looking forward to it, and anyone who fancies themselves a fan of heavy fantasy doorstopper books should as well.Towers of Midnight easily ranks in the upper echelon of quality in the Wheel of Time series, though I'd say that my personal favorite remains "The Gathering Storm" by a small margin.4.5 stars, almost five.
