Rand jumps about fixing problems but the two biggest issues still remain untouched. At least the Black Tower's possibly rebelling Asha'man are finally acknowledged. The confrontation is left for the last book, though. As are the Seanchan. I'm not even sure if there will ever be a confrontation with the latter. They might just get left to be and the Last Battle fought without them. Maybe Mat can speak some sense into the new Empress, may she live forever.
Moiraine's rescue is saved till the end of the book. The attempt costs Mat one of his eyes and Noal's life. I wonder if it was worth it; is she really that important? I didn't expect Noal's real identity to be Jain Farstrider, though. All this time I was waiting to him to be revealed a man of evil intentions. Or maybe he was but decided to redeem himself by allowing the rest to escape while sacrificing himself to hold off the snake people.
In an interview, during the time of The Gathering Storm's release, Brandon Sanderson was asked if Rand disallowing the torture of Semirhage was a political allegory. Obviously it wasn't and Sanderson said that "--fantasy is, at its very core, inherently representative." People often read way too much into stuff, in my opinion. However, in Towers of Midnight, when Aludra demonstrates the might of her invention, the dragons (cannons), Birgitte's comment on the world having just changed in a large way seems too intentional to not be an allegory to real word guns, or maybe even nuclear weapons.
Also, in the foreword of the previous novel, Sanderson mentioned that he had read the ending to the series Robert Jordan wrote before his death, and he thinks it good. We shall see. At least it won't be released in 2012, the Year of Bad Endings.
If I had to guess the words of the very end, I'd say it will be similar to how the first chapter of every book has begun. About wind rising somewhere in an age called the Third Age by some... "The wind was not the ending. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was an ending." That's how I would put it.
The cover art of Towers of Midnight has one curious thing that can't be seen from the actual book cover with all the text hiding it. But if you take a look at this picture of the full piece, you can see how the characters really pop out of the background.
They have no shadows! I wonder if that's intended. It sure looks odd. The colors in it are quite wonderful, though.
The last volume's cover art also was revealed in May. Surprisingly enough it's not by Darrell K. Sweet who did the art for all the others. When I searched the reason for this, I found that it was because Sweet died a year ago. First the author and then the cover artist... pretty grim.
Having now read all the published books, I've been finally able to read The Wheel of Time wiki without fear of being spoiled. There are a whole lot of interesting things I did not know or had not realized. Like for instance, the Power-wrought hammer Perrin forges, Mah'alleinir ("He who soars"), is a reference to Thor's hammer, Mjölnir.
The 8th of January can't come fast enough...
The last volume's cover art also was revealed in May. Surprisingly enough it's not by Darrell K. Sweet who did the art for all the others. When I searched the reason for this, I found that it was because Sweet died a year ago. First the author and then the cover artist... pretty grim.
Having now read all the published books, I've been finally able to read The Wheel of Time wiki without fear of being spoiled. There are a whole lot of interesting things I did not know or had not realized. Like for instance, the Power-wrought hammer Perrin forges, Mah'alleinir ("He who soars"), is a reference to Thor's hammer, Mjölnir.
The 8th of January can't come fast enough...
Edited 2021-03-23: Fixed typos and broken cover art.
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