A Memory of Light general discussion [SPOILERS FROM POST 171 ONWARDS!]

AnCapaillMor

Just read the prologue, i really wish i hadn't now.

lemon_sherbert

Agh, trying to keep away from all the spoilers is so tough! Is anyone else attempting a reread of the series before AMoL comes out? I'm just into the second one now, it's like catching up with old friends

Temptamperu

I restarted them a few months ago on book 7 now.

lemon_sherbert

Temptamperu wrote: »

I restarted them a few months ago on book 7 now.

Well you're way ahead of me! I'm probably not going to be finished by January

matrim

lemon_sherbert wrote: »

Well you're way ahead of me! I'm probably not going to be finished by January

Same as me. I'm just at the end of Book 1. Will try to speed things up and have over a week off around Christmas to hopefully power through some of them

AnCapaillMor

Currently on Lords of chaos on audio, dumai's well coming up soon.

OwaynOTT

I just read the previous two as did a reread last year. Towers of Midnight is a mess.

Want some more pre-release material?

Here:
http://www.tor.com/memories-of-light/register#messages

Don't know exactly how that will work.

ixoy

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Towers of Midnight is a mess.

Wondering why you say that? Personally, I found Sanderson injected a bit of energy into a world that was becoming far too bogged down in a myriad of sub plots and third party characters. Certainly felt there were a number of poorer instalments in the series (I'd have to re-read them to identify them but that's never going to happen!).

OwaynOTT

ixoy wrote: »

Wondering why you say that? Personally, I found Sanderson injected a bit of energy into a world that was becoming far too bogged down in a myriad of sub plots and third party characters. Certainly felt there were a number of poorer instalments in the series (I'd have to re-read them to identify them but that's never going to happen!).

And there isn't extraneous material in Towers of Midnight? Gawyn for one could of been seriously edited down and maybe Aviendha also.
I agree that there has been poorer instalments, looking at Crossroads here, but Towers was helped by the fact that there is a heck of a lot of plot gratification going on and some major events that have been building for a while. That papered over some of the cracks.
Out of the two Sanderson books, I feel that Gathering Storm works more and is genuinely one of the better books in the over all series. And he can certainly be credited with ensuring that events move at breakneck speed now.

AnCapaillMor

Towers felt like one of those e-books that filled in what other characters did while the main story was going on. That being said i liked it, agree about gawyn, he really annoys me, even more than galad or nynaveve. I think the aviendha bit was needed, we've never really got much on her from her point of view.

keane2097

Is Gawyn the gimp that "always does what's right, no matter what"?

What a lolbad excuse for a character that guy is.

AnCapaillMor

keane2097 wrote: »

Is Gawyn the gimp that "always does what's right, no matter what"?

What a lolbad excuse for a character that guy is.

Nope that's his brother Galad. Gawyn is Egwene's main squeeze and a general all round idiot.

lemon_sherbert

On book five at the moment, suddenly realised that I've been reading Gareth Bryne's name as Byrne for years!

5starpool

lemon_sherbert wrote: »

On book five at the moment, suddenly realised that I've been reading Gareth Bryne's name as Byrne for years!

Wow, is it really Bryne? Add me to the 'thought it was Byrne' camp. The brain does funny things when reading.

keane2097

A Memory of Light has a 50,000 word chapter with 70-80 character viewpoints

It may not be possible to pinpoint the exact moment this series disappeared up its own ass, but at least we have conclusive proof that it has.

AnCapaillMor

I'd rarther have that than a lot of characters story left unfinished or forgotten.

AnCapaillMor

Alright should we create another thread or have this as the general speculation thread?

OwaynOTT

Throw everything in here.

Antar Bolaeisk

lemon_sherbert wrote: »

On book five at the moment, suddenly realised that I've been reading Gareth Bryne's name as Byrne for years!

It's like that jumbled up sentence where you can still read the words despite everything being wrong. You read what you expect to see, not what's actually there. I think I was reading it as Byrne for a while as well.

keane2097 wrote: »

A Memory of Light has a 50,000 word chapter with 70-80 character viewpoints

It may not be possible to pinpoint the exact moment this series disappeared up its own ass, but at least we have conclusive proof that it has.

Could just be a massive, earth shaking event and it's the literary equivalent of where where you when.... type thing. Have to read the book to find out

Trojan

keane2097 wrote: »

A Memory of Light has a 50,000 word chapter with 70-80 character viewpoints

It may not be possible to pinpoint the exact moment this series disappeared up its own ass, but at least we have conclusive proof that it has.

Sanderson, in a reply to that blog post:

Brandon Sanderson wrote:

Hey, Aidan. Saw this linked on Reddit, and did a post there. Figured I should post the same response here. Tiny spoilers follow, as I mention some of the viewpoints that are in the chapter.

“Just opened the document, as I figured I could give some hard statistics on this. The chapter is just shy of 79,000 words. It contains (by my quick count) 72 scenes–but only 31 distinct viewpoints, as numerous ones repeat. (There are eight Rand scenes, for example, and six each for Mat and Egwene. Three or four each for another eight characters.)

It is not the last chapter of the book, but is a very important one, as you might have guessed. From the get-go, I lobbied Harriet to let me do this sequence as a single, massive chapter as I felt it fit with what was going on in the book as well as fitting with the series as a whole. I’m very pleased with how it turned out.”

AnCapaillMor

Bloody hell we'd want to be careful in case of "i'll just finish this chapter and go to sleep then". And bah i want more perrin scenes.

So the big question is :

will rand die? i know we've min's viewing of 3 women looking over his coffin and the blood of the dragon on shao gul, there's no indication of when the they stand over the coffin, as for blood of the dragon, i'm thinking lord luc(he recognises his nephew), he is his uncle and why did gitara sedai send him to the blight. Then again what the hell is slayer, the one with 2 souls, could lan be pulled in somehow. besides if he dies it sounds too jesusy

OwaynOTT

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

Bloody hell we'd want to be careful in case of "i'll just finish this chapter and go to sleep then". And bah i want more perrin scenes.

So the big question is :

will rand die? i know we've min's viewing of 3 women looking over his coffin and the blood of the dragon on shao gul, there's no indication of when the they stand over the coffin, as for blood of the dragon, i'm thinking lord luc(he recognises his nephew), he is his uncle and why did gitara sedai send him to the blight. Then again what the hell is slayer, the one with 2 souls, could lan be pulled in somehow. besides if he dies it sounds too jesusy

Your going to sleep before you finish it! Phaw! :P

coffee_cake

Yeah I'm not really planning to sleep once I have it in my hands

AnCapaillMor

So order from amazon and hope for it to arrive on time or early or hope that easons or mahonys get it in on time.

matrim

Do you think we'd need to preorder it from any bricks and mortar shops?

OwaynOTT

Order from amazon and get it in the shop if you fine out they have it on day of release. When the amazon book turns up, well you have the two. Win win... I think.

Antar Bolaeisk

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

So order from amazon and hope for it to arrive on time or early or hope that easons or mahonys get it in on time.

I'm getting it on my Kindle as it'll arrive the moment it's released. Digital is great isn't it.


Oh, wait....

InReality

Is anyone expecting to be real down when they finish the book ? It will be odd that something I've been reading since 1997 is finally over !

AnCapaillMor

It could go on, according to the ael finn and aviendha's viewing the seanchan will still be around and a pain in the A. But yeah i hope they finish it up and leave nothing big open. Then again disney might buy the rights.

OwaynOTT

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

It could go on, according to the ael finn and aviendha's viewing the seanchan will still be around and a pain in the A. But yeah i hope they finish it up and leave nothing big open. Then again disney might buy the rights.

It was Jordan's intention to leave a lot of loose ends dangling, so we could see some unresolved plots. Defintely the seanchan because we were going to be getting Mat and them in the outrigger novels. Demandred probably won't even show up.