WoT Read : A Memory of Light, Part 4

Spoilers for books 1-13 and A Memory of Light to Chapter 29| More info and previous posts  |Please no spoilers for future books/events

In my plan to read The Wheel of Time, and post about my experience, I’m now on book 14, A Memory of Light. This post covers chapter 18-29.

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To Feel Wasted

Gawyn is guarding Egwene as she slaughters Trollocs together with the other Aes Sedai. It’s an easy job – too easy for our precious prince, since he doesn’t get to be in the thick of battle getting glory or some shit. But he’s still doing his job, so I’m not too mad at him.

Then the next batch of channelers arrive and Egwene and co. go off to have some rest. Bryne discusses the state of affairs with Egwene. Things are going pretty well thanks to the Aes Sedai, and they even have plans to push the Trollocs back instead of just holding their ground. The trouble is, the Dreadlords are wrecking Lan’s army just as the White Tower is wrecking the Trollocs in Kandor.

While Egwene goes to sleep, Gawyn and Egeanin have a chat. The bloodrings come up. Gawyn’s still holding on to them, and making sure to keep that fact from Egwene. I don’t like this.

Rand is letting off some steam killing Trollocs. Good for him there’s no shortage of the creatures to kill. Turns out he’s in disguise and helping Elayne’s people. So he did end up taking my advice. Not so woolheaded after all. Rand reveals himself in a blaze of sunlight to give the soldiers hope and stuff, and then moves back to Merrilor. He and Cadsuane have a surprisingly civil conversation, the gist of which is that Cadsuane tells him to go save the world but not take his death for a certainty. Rand asks her to help Aviendha protect him from the Forsaken and other shadowspawn while he battles the Dark One. Cadsuane tells him that the Asha’man freed themselves, which is not entirely accurate since they’d probably be screwed if Perrin weren’t around. The guy’s basically a dreamspike specialist at this point.

You know, Cadsuane has never been pleasant, but she did turn out to be unequivocally on Rand’s side – even if it is for the world and not Rand himself, and in this moment, I find myself feeling almost fond of her. Maybe just end of the series nostalgia.

In the Borderlander camp, Lan is checking on Mandarb, promising the horse – and himself – a future where they reclaim and restore Malkier. Nice to see Lan hoping. A fellow comes to check on his own horse, and starts talking to Lan about Agelmar. It seems Agelmar recently made a tactical mistake, which led to a number of deaths. He’s worried that Agelmar is pushing himself too hard, that the strain of the battle is showing. Though Lan reassures him, but he does go to Agelmar to discuss this, but Agelmar insists he’s fine. Maybe he is, but I think he does seem a bit ragged – from the way he almost snaps at Lan in the end. I think he does need more rest.

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The Choice of a Patch

Turns out Lan’s army is not the only one that’s had a setback. Elayne and co. were merrily leading the Trollocs in a chase through the country when they found another Trolloc army ahead of them, on the way to Cairhien. So now not only are they liable to get pincered by two forces, Cairhien is kinda screwed. Poor city cannot catch a break.

They discuss how the Trollocs got there, and Bashere suggests that the army behind them split in two, and then one half managed to march extra hard and get ahead of them. Well that would mean the force behind them is now half as strong, so shouldn’t they be able to turn around and crush it? Bashere suggests something similar, only he wants to press ahead and crush the Trollocs ahead of them before the ones chasing them arrive. Elayne tells him to process with the plan.

Egwene arrives for a dreamy meeting with the Wise Ones in the good old Heart of the Stone, and overhears them discussing Aviendha’s visions in Rhuidean, though she doesn’t know that’s what they’re talking about. They discuss the creepy cracks in the ground. Egwene thinks it is literally the Pattern unravelling from all the Balefire. Holy shit! And to make matters worse, they have to stop using it but the Dreadlords don’t care anyways. That’s about it, and they say their farewells, since Tel’aran’rhiod is becoming way too chaotic for more meetings.

Waking up, Egwene finds that Rand’s arrived to meet her. He’s here to make amends, so that their last meeting is not that argument at Merrilor. D’aww! And in the way of finale revelations, they find out that Galad and Rand are bros. I guess we knew for a while, but I never explicitly made the connection, so I too am a bit surprised. Before going, Rand asks Egwene for one last look at the seals.

They’re fake. They’re bloody fake! All of them are fake. Someone switched them out. Well fuck. Wait, wait, wait. Taim. *furiously flips pages*

Androl twisted, craning his neck. Taim sat at the table. He liked to be there for the Turnings, but he wasn’t watching Toveine. He fondled something in his hands. Some kind of disc . . .

And later,

“The Nae’blis? I care not for Moridin. I have already provided a gift to the Great Lord himself. Beware, I am in his favor. I hold the keys in my hands, Hessalam.”

Bloody Taim has the Seals! No wonder he got promoted.

But then, why hasn’t he broken them and freed the Dark One already?  What’s the Dark One waiting for? Let’s RAFO.

Prince Mat is getting annoyed with everyone in Ebou Dar not looking at him, which leads to this memorable conversation:

“You can look at me,” Mat protested. “Really. Burn you, it’s all right!”

“My eyes would be lowered,” the serving woman said as she piled fabric on the low table against the wall.

“Your eyes are already lowered! They’re staring at the bloody floor, aren’t they? I want you to raise them.”

The servants dress up Mat appropriate to his station, complete with ceremonial robes and a selection of ornamental eye-patches. But he refuses to give up his hat. That makes for quite the mental image.

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Into Thakan’dar

Wait, what? Thakan’dar? I thought that would come at the end, but we’re not even halfway through…

In Kandor, the Trollocs have moved back into nearby hills. Egwene and co. arrive right in the middle of their army, surrounded by Trollocs, and start slaughtering them. This negates the height advantage the Trollocs had, and now the regular soldiers rush in at the shocked and disorganised Trollocs. Eventually though, the Trollocs manage to reach Egwene’s position, so they simple Travel back to camp.

And then Egwene gets spooked – it’s not normal for Trollocs to stand and fight in the face of so many casualties. I don’t know – the Dark One drives them, and he doesn’t really care for all that, does he? But Egwene gives the order for the army to actually pull back. Just as Gawyn rushes to relay Egwene’s order, a huge gateway opens up behind their camp, revealing an enormous army. A human army, with hundred of channelers. Egwene warns Romanda to release the source lest the channelers sense them, but she ignores her, and pays with her life.

Egwene runs into Lelaine, who tells us that it’s the Sharans. The hell? I thought that was just some random place for more exotic flavor, and now they’re here with a huge army, and fighting on the side of the Shadow? Are they all Darkfriends – a nation of them?

Whatever their motivations, it’s a total disaster. With the army busy fighting Trollocs ahead of them, they’re able to take the camp with ease, and Egwene can only watch, hiding with Gawyn under his warder cloak. But then, how could she have seen this coming? Even the getting spooked just before the Sharans arrived felt a bit forced to me. Well, this battle is probably lost now. As is Lan’s. So there goes their initial plan.

Aviendha and the others are out scouting Shayol Ghul itself. It’s a pretty un-fun place, as you’d expect from the lair of the freaking Dark One. They plan how to hold the valley. There’s no guessing how long Rand’s – whatever he’s going to do – will take, so Ituralde plans for holding the valley as long as possible, by ambushing the few inside and then holding the only pass into it.

Rand and Aviendha discuss what is to come. Rand sends Min to the Seanchan, to keep an eye on them. And also to keep her away from Shayol Ghul. For once, Min does not try to be all “I can handle myself”. Nynaeve tells Rand the nature of the flaw in Callandor, that using it makes him vulnerable, that others can seize his power through it and use it, burn him out. But Rand is going to go ahead and spring the trap anyway. The track record of our protagonists with this sort of stuff has been pretty bad so far. Let’s hope this one goes better.

Tomorrow it begins.

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Not a Mistake to Ignore

Turns out Siuan and Bryne survived the assault as well, thanks to Yukiri’s quick thinking and the gateway in the floor. They’re in the army’s new camp. Casualties and wounds are high and morale is low. Hopefully the Seanchan’s coming will be able to turn the tide back in their favor. They’re also worried about Egwene, but we know that she survived the initial onslaught, so that’s fine.

A POV from Lyrelle, who is remarkable annoying. She’s one of the rebels who are still waiting outside the Black Tower to bond Asha’man. Androl and co. finally let them in.

The POV switches to Androl for a nice uplifting scene before they dive back into the fighting:

“I will take his last order to heart, however,” Androl said. “I will not be merely a weapon. The taint is cleansed. We fight not to die, but to live. We have a reason to live. Spread the word among the other men, and let us take oaths to uphold Logain as our leader. And then, to the Last Battle. Not as minions of the Dragon Reborn, not as pawns of the Amyrlin Seat, but as the Black Tower. Our own men.”

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The Wyld

Egwene wakes up from a nice little nap in the middle of the murderous exotic army. Luckily Gawyn’s been around to keep them hidden. They’re about to make a run for it, when a bunch of Sharan appear and ceremonial stuff happens that I can’t make much sense of, but it does include branding the prisoners. Their leader appears, who calls hims Bao the Wyld. He somehow manages to sense a hidden Leane, but, fortunately, spares her life so she can take his message to Rand, that he’s going to kill him. And he tells her his earlier name, which Egwene recognises as Demandred’s.

Things make more sense now. Demandred probably did what so many other Forsaken tried – take over a kingdom. Except that in Shara, with no pesky Rand, he succeeded completely. I remember commenters mentioning rampant speculation in the fandom about what Demandred was up to. Well here’s the answer to that, although I was never that curious myself.

Perrin and Gaul are still looking for Slayer, but no luck. Then Perrin hears reports of another Forsaken, Heartseeker, on the WolfNet, and goes to check it out. They find themselves in Merrilor, near Ituralde’s tent, with Graendal inside leafing through his documents. She almost spots them, but Perrin manages to hide with some clever reality manipulation. Eventually she starts to fly up, and Perrin follows, and finds himself in the place where dreams appear as stars.

I thought that place was connected to, but distinct from Tel’aran’rhiod, but turns out you can just fly up to get there. As Graendal approaches one particular dream, muttering to herself, and Perrin moves closer to eavesdrop. From her mutterings, it’s clear that she’s doing something to the leaders of the armies, messing with them somehow. Clever, and very effective.  So that Baldhere fellow was actually on point about Agelmar.

Graendal does notice Perrin for real this time, and a small fight follows, but she runs away to the real world when Perrin begins to gain the upper hand. Lanfear appears soon after, and talks to Perrin. Now she suggests that she wants Perrin to rule by her side, eventually. Poor Perrin cannot be rid of these pesky hot women fawning over him. She tells him that he can do what Slayer does, moving between the dream world and the real one, without using the Power, but doesn’t tell him how. And tells him that the dream Graendal was messing with was Bashere’s.

Warn them, Perrin, or this could turn really ugly.

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At the Edge of Time

Back in Egwene’s camp, the Sharans move off, and Gawyn and Egwene make a run for it. Gawyn slips ahead to scout out the way.

It’s revealed that Gawyn has activated one of the bloodrings with his blood. This lets him move about without being spotted, be faster and more lethal. It’s also going to frigging kill you, idiot.  Oh man. Yes, I get that it’s for Egwene, but surely with the warder cloak you could’ve managed to get her out. And imagine the effect on her when you do end up dying man. Just as I was kind of getting to like him too. But it’s also a pretty noble sacrificial act. I don’t know how to feel about this kid anymore.

Egwene follows Gawyn, but is captured by a Sharan channeler. She sends panic and terror through the bond, to bring Gawyn for help, but before he can come, she is rescued by Egeanin. They manage to exit the camp without further incidents, and once far enough, Egwene makes a gateway and they escape.

Aviendha and the Aiel burst through the gateways into the valley below Shayol Ghul, driving back the shadowspawn in an overwhelming attack. There’s a solar eclipse that scares the bejesus out of everyone, but then it’s over and the fighting resumes. Dreadlords and a (probably) Forsaken appear, but with the help of Wise Ones, Aes Sedai and Asha’man, Aviendha manages to kill some and drive the rest away.

While his people continue to pour in through gateways and prepare to hold the valley’s pass, Rand, Moiraine, Nynave and – surprisingly – Thom journey up to the cavern itself. They leave Thom to guard the entrance to the cave, and the other three proceed inwards, linked in a circle, Rand leaving bloody footprints owing to the wounds in his side. The Dark One speaks to Rand:

IT IS TIME. LET THE TASK BE UNDERTAKEN.

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To Ignore the Omens

There’s a Tuon POV next, and it’s so damn hard for me to stick to the order instead of skipping ahead to what happens in Shayol Ghul, but I manage it somehow.

So, Tuon. She’s holding court, preparing to depart with her armies soon, leaving Beslan behind to govern Ebou Dar. Mat is preparing said armies, and being Mat.

“But what of the Sea Folk, Highness?” General Yulan said, stopping beside Matrim in front of Fortuona.

“Stop worrying about the bloody Sea Folk,” Matrim snapped. “If you say the words ‘Sea Folk’ one more time, I’ll hang you by your toenails from one of those raken you fly about on and send you off to Shara.”

Yulan seemed perplexed. “Highness, I . . .”

He trailed off as Mat yelled, “Savara, we’re leading with pikes, not cavalry, you goat-loving idiot! I don’t care if the cavalry thinks it can do a better job. Cavalry always thinks that! What are you, a bloody Tairen High Lady? Well, I’ll name you an honorary one if you keep this up!”

Matrim stormed off toward Savara, who sat her horse with arms folded, displeasure on her dark face. Yulan, left behind, looked completely bewildered. “How does one hang a person by their toenails?” Yulan asked, softly enough that Fortuona barely heard. “I do not think that is possible. The nails would break off.” He walked away, shaking his head.

Then Tuon proclaims that Mat is to be made Rodholder of the army, which means backup leader of sorts. And renames him Knotai. Surprisingly, Mat doesn’t make much of a fuss about this name change. I think it’s a stupid name and I’ll be damned if I call him by it.

They get reports of the disaster Egwene’s army has suffered, and Tuon seems on the brink of breaking her treaty and capturing all the Aes Sedai in their moment of weakness. Fortunately Mat’s urgings prevent that, and she orders them to aid Egwene and co. instead.

Lan and his men prepare to charge on the Trollocs. There’s the eclipse – I think it’s sort of a time-sync tool to indicate the status of all the fronts simultaneously. There’s mention of troubled dreams of Agelmar. Why haven’t you warned them Perrin?!

Elayne’s army has managed to catch up to the Trollocs ahead of them after hard marching, but the going it going to get even harder now that they have to fight and defeat this force before the one behind catches up to them. Egwene gives a nice little speech, the eclipse happens, and then the Trollocs rush towards them.

Ituralde oversees the battle as the Trollocs try to fight through the pass, but he’s defended it well. The Windfinders are holding off epic storms with the Bowl of the Winds, which would otherwise wreck them all. Eventually, the Trollocs have had enough after a day of fighting, and then they retreat.

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Quick Fragments

Egwene’s army has regrouped at the border of Arafel and Kandor, and is preparing to make another, more desperate stand against the Shadow’s advance. They have the option of retreating via gateway, but that’s not really an option – this is a fight that must be fought.

Rand, Nynaeve and Moiraine make their way through the cave to the Pit of Doom. The tunnel tries to narrow down, to force them to crawl forwards, but Rand resists it and unlike the Forsaken throughout the books, Rand walks, not crawls, to the pit. There he finds Moridin, and behind him, blackness. Literally the Dark One? Rand asks him to step aside, but of course, that’s not happening, and so they duel.

Lan and his men back off after long and furious fighting, letting others take point. Reserves arrive, but there’re two separate forces and they get entangled trying to get to them simultaneously. More of Agelmar’s “mistakes”. Where are you Perrin!

Perrin, it turns out, is at Shayol Ghul. The wolves warn him of Slayer’s, and he arrives at the cave just in time to prevent Slayer from ambushing Rand. Slayer flees, and Perrin follows. It’s a trap! There’s a bunch of Red Veils there. They’re outnumbered, so Perrin calls some wolves for backup. And just as he’s getting on the backfoot, like last time, Slayer shifts back to the real world, escaping Perrin yet again. He goes back and handles the surviving Red Veils. Lanfear appears yet again, telling him to kill them, and eventually he does because he can’t keep holding them and they’re Turned anyway.

Then, Perrin enters the cave and sets the Dreamspike there, with its field covering just the cave and the cavern, to prevent anyone – like Slayer – coming there via Traveling. He also has a little chat with Nynaeve, owing to the worlds being closer together or something. When he returns to Gaul, he’s been gone for two hours thanks to the time slowing effect.

Ah, I see it now. Rand will spend only hours or so facing the Dark One, but because of time dilation, it will take as long as the Trolloc fighting part of the Last Battle. Cleaver. Reminds me of Interstellar. Of course, AMoL came out before that, which makes it extra impressive.

For extra protection, he sets wolves to guarding the caves, telling them to warn him when Slayer appears.  Oh, and there’s this gem:

Besides, there was still the matter of whatever Graendal was doing.

OMFG how much more obvious can it be? With her talk of cutting of the head of the worms, and Lanfear literally telling you it was Bashere’s dream she was messing with. The dots damnit! Connect them already!!

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Considerations

The Amyrlin Seat comes to meet the Empress, may she abolish the damane system forever. The meeting starts with veiled insults:

“I have considered,” Fortuona said, “whether it would be appropriate to speak to you in person, with my own voice.”

and those soon become unveiled:

“I have considered myself,” Egwene said, “whether it would be appropriate to speak to one such as yourself, who has committed such terrible atrocities.”

Oh boy. I expected better from Egwene. Yes, she’s had bad experiences with the Seanchan, a little hostility is okay, but she almost seems ready to throw away this alliance because of that. Compromise woman, have you heard of it?

Their talk soon devolves into an outright debate over the damane system, and while I agree with you Egwene, this is not the bloody time. Mat is drawn in soon enough, and he tries his best to defuse the situation:

“Hello, Egwene. Glad to hear you escaped those Sharans. How’s the White Tower? Still . . . white, I guess?”

Oh Mat.

But it’s useless. The talk, still thoroughly hostile, gets around to politics. Egwene demands the Seanchan leave Sea Folk alone, but can keep the other nations they’ve conquered. Tuon responds by demanding that her people be allowed to preach the damane system in their lands, so that their channelers will see the “truth”. Egwene agrees, and in turns demands that new channelers in Seanchan lands be given the choice to leave instead of being collared.

Eventually, inevitably, the point comes up that even sul’dam can learn to channel. So can Tuon. And then it gets really ugly:

“But this is not the same thing as being a marath’damane—any more than a man who can become a murderer is to be considered one.”

“We shall see,” Egwene said, “once more of your people realize the lies they’ve been told.”

‘I will break you myself,” Fortuona said softly. “Someday, your people will turn you over to me. You will forget yourself, and your arrogance will lead you to our borders. I will be waiting.”

“I plan to live centuries,” Egwene hissed. “I will watch your empire crumble, Fortuona. I will watch it with joy.”

Sources are embraced and bloodshed seems inevitable, but then good old Mat with his good old medallion breaks up the fight-to-be.

Elayne collapses after fighting the Trollocs for hours, and Birgitte takes her away from the front lines. The battle is hard, but their plan to surround the Trollocs has worked – and they are now hacking away at them, encircling the Trollocs from all sides. And then disaster strikes – the second Trolloc army has caught up to them. Elayne goes back to Bashere, but the man is clearly not up to the pressure thanks to Graendal’s messing.

Tam though, thinks otherwise. He says that Bashere knew, that he wasn’t using anyone to scout behind them, letting them be surprised, trapped between the two armies. And so Elayne draws the most reasonable conclusion, the wrong conclusion, that Bashere is a Darkfriend.

The only thing left for them now is to try and finish off the army they are fighting as fast as possible, and then, exhausted and bloodied, face the other one. They’re screwed.

In fact, this will no doubt happen across all the other battlefields. They’ll lose, and name their innocent generals Darkfriends. This is bad. So bad.

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Friendly Fire

Bryne is getting reports on the progress of the battle. Everything else is fine, but their left flank is in trouble. He sends off a messenger to ask the Seanchan for reinforcements, but a dead raken crashes down on the poor girl, killing her. So Min offers to go herself.

She goes to the Traveling grounds, crawling through a gateway – since the channelers need to save their strength. Maybe they should just make a gateway and tie up the weave to common places – Seanchan camp, White Tower, Merrilor etc, instead of opening a fresh one each time. Anyway, Min gets to the Seanchan camp and has to face the bane of everyone trying to get stuff done in a hurry – bureaucracy. Eventually she gets to the command tent where Mat notices her. He and Galgan decide to send Tylee and her legion to help. Mat asks Min for some quick prophecies, and they’re interpreting them when Tuon walks in.

Min blurts out seeing a sign on her head that will mean someone will try to kill her soon. This of course sits poorly with the Deathwatch Guards, and they immediately tackle her to the ground. And then Mat explains that Min sees the future at times. A moment of rare blundery (is that even a word?).

Apparently even this is some part of Seanchan prophecies/lore, because Tuon calls Min Doomseer and everyone backs off.

“This woman is my new Soe’feia. Doomseer, Truthspeaker! Holy woman, she who may not be touched. We have been blessed. Let it be known. The Crystal Throne has not had a true reader of the omens for over three centuries!”

I guess Min’s not returning to Bryne any time soon.

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Too Many Men

Lan is interrogating the two relief forces that got in each others’ way. They both insist they were sent by Agelmar. This finally makes Lan suspicious for real. He and Baldhere analyse the battle, predicting what one were to do if they wanted to sabotage their army. They go to meet Agelmar, and on the way run into a messenger, carrying the exact orders they just figured out would subtly wreck them. Lan tells him to change the order.

Loial and the Ogier are fighting, keeping the dragons safe from the second Trolloc army, as the soldiers move to engage them, having just finished off the first. Poor men, Loial thinks. No, not poor men, but heroes. And he bursts into song that sets grass growing all over the place, even on the Trollocs’ weapons.

In the Seanchan command tent, Mat, fed up with maps, decides to go check out the actual battlefield. I’d be worried, but with Mat, he’ll probably wreck anyone stupid enough to face him – including channelers – so it’s cool. He throws off the robes, pulls out his old clothes, and is off. He runs into Tuon. The others complain about Mat going off, but she approves, and comes along herself as well.

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The Loss of A Hill

In the thick of battle, Egwene spots a cavalry unit coming to their aid, which leaves their left flank exposed to attack by the Sharans, which opportunity they soon take advantage of, meanwhile another bunch of Sharans destroys the unit that was coming to help Egwene. Faced with multiple disasters, Egwene decides to abandon the hill she’d been holding.

Lan arrives at Agelmar’s tent. What follows is quite painful – multiple flaws in his strategy are exposed, as are inconsistencies in his maps and orders. It’s basically the same scene as Elayne/Bashere. Although, he doesn’t outright accuse Agelmar of being a Darkfriend. Faced with all the facts, Agelmar realises that something is wrong with him, and tries to commit seppuku. And Lan hits upon the truth – or something close enough. Compulsion. I don’t know whether what Graendal did was exactly Compulsion or something else, but I’m glad that poor Agelmar didn’t get branded Darkfriend.

Lan rushes out to help Tenobia, only to see her people get swarmed and taken out by Trollocs. The battle is lost for good.

Mat and co. arrive at the battlefield in Kandor:

He turned Pips and rode toward a rise close enough to where the opposing forces traded destruction at the river’s edge. Tuon followed him without a word. When they all reached the rise, he noticed Selucia staring daggers at him.

“What’s wrong?” Mat asked. “I’d have assumed you would be happy to have me back. It gives you someone else to scowl at.”

“The Empress will follow where you go,” she said. “So she will,” Mat said.

“As I’ll follow where she goes, I suppose. I hope that doesn’t lead us in too many circles.”

The more dire things get, the more I appreciate these gems from Mat.

To his surprise, he finds the force he sent to help Bryne just chilling out, apparently because the Great Captain ordered it so. Well, Mat’s not going to have any of this, and soon has the soldiers forming up to engage the Sharans, with himself among them. He has a nice little fight, complete with taking down an Ayyad (this is what I’ll stick to, Sharan channeler is way too awkward) and earning much ji. 

When he returns, Selucia and Tuon are unhappy. Women. But Mat has bigger worries. He concludes that Gareth Bryne is a Darkfriend. Astute as ever Mat, but this time you’re just a bit wrong. Even Lan did better. Maybe because he’s more experience in arcane matters.

He asks Tuon for immediate absolute control of her forces so he can try and salvage the situation, and she accedes to his request.

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Damn but that was a terribly effective move by Graendal, basically wrecking the war effort in one fell swoop. If only Rand had gotten her back in Arad Doman. But I’m sure the battle is not over yet, because the chapter titled “The Last Battle” is not even here yet (and yes I’ll make sure to read it in one sitting). But the tone has been set dire enough to suit the last book.

So much other big stuff happened too, which I would talk about a lot in this little section here, but I’m just a bit overwhelmed by it all. There’s Rand entering Shayol Ghul. There’s the Ogier fighting. There’s Egwene and Tuon’s faceoff. There’s Perrin’s infuriating inability to piece together Graendal’s plan. There’s Gawyn activating the bloodring. There’s all that sheer fighting. I’m afraid a lot of that went over my head – I don’t have much of a head for tactics, and a lot of the details about troops maneuvers and strategy passed right by me, leaving with a rough idea that we’re screwed because reasons. This post did clear up some of that though.

So yeah, it’s getting really crazy, and I’m loving it.

I actually planned to make this already huge post even longer – covering everything up to the Last Battle, but I’ll be rather busy the next couple of days, and a post is already rather overdue, so that’s it for today.

There’ve been queries about whether I intend to do this about more series after WoT – including WoT as a reread. The answer is yes, I do. However, I don’t have any solid plans beyond that. There will be a gap though – it won’t be this year for sure, and I have no idea which series it will be – Malazan/Dresden/Stormlight/Discworld or something else. But whenever I do start another big series, these posts will be back, because this was so much more fun than just reading the books!

Also, Happy Diwali!