A Memory of Light (Wheel of Time, Book 14) [Hardcover]

Robert Jordan (Author), Brandon Sanderson (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 8, 2013 | Series: Wheel of Time (Book 14)

Since 1990, when Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time® burst on the world with its first book, The Eye of the World, readers have been anticipating the final scenes of this extraordinary saga, which has sold over forty million copies in over thirty languages.

When Robert Jordan died in 2007, all feared that these concluding scenes would never be written. But working from notes and partials left by Jordan, established fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson stepped in to complete the masterwork. With The Gathering Storm (Book 12) and Towers of Midnight (Book 13) behind him, both of which were # 1 New York Times hardcover bestsellers, Sanderson now re-creates the vision that Robert Jordan left behind.

Edited by Jordan’s widow, who edited all of Jordan’s books, A Memory of Light will delight, enthrall, and deeply satisfy all of Jordan’s legions of readers.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass.
What was, what will be, and what is,
may yet fall under the Shadow.
Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The battle scenes have the breathless urgency of firsthand experience, and the . . . evil laced into the forces of good, the dangers latent in any promised salvation, the sense of the unavoidable onslaught of unpredictable events bear the marks of American national experience during the last three decades, just as the experience of the First World War and its aftermath gave its imprint to J. R. R. Tolkien’s work.”—The New York Times on The Wheel of Time®

About the Author

Robert Jordan (October 17, 1948–September 16, 2007), a native of Charleston, South Carolina, was the author of the bestselling The Wheel of Time®, with millions of books in print.

 

Brandon Sanderson grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. He teaches creative writing at Brigham Young University and lives in Utah with his wife and children.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 912 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books (January 8, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780765325952
• ISBN-13: 978-0765325952
• ASIN: 0765325950
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2,231 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #68 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Epic

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

475 of 537 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A perfect ending! January 8, 2013

By Kriti Godey

Format:Hardcover

NOTE: I tried to make this review as spoiler-free as possible but still enjoyable for people that have read the book. You might not want to read it if you want to go into the book with an absolutely blank slate, but none of the book's surprises are spoiled if you do read it.

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I know there are no endings to the Wheel of Time and this is merely AN ending, but I still can't believe the Wheel of Time is over.

This book is a perfect ending. The main theme of the Wheel of Time has always been balance between two opposing forces - saidin and saidar, Darkness and Light, good and evil. The resolution of the story carries that philosophy to its logical place - there's no other way it could've ended.

Don't go into this book expecting all your questions to be answered - some are, but a lot aren't. It feels right, though - there are far bigger things going on.

Most of this book involves battles. Tarmon Gai'don is the Last Battle, and the stakes are truly desperate. The book does a great job of conveying the scale of this conflict, even though it's exhausting to read about. Any less, and it would've been too easy to win. The usual "no one dies" approach that the rest of the books have does not apply. Some very bad things happen to very good people, and death seems better than some of them. Our heroes are outnumbered and outmaneuvered, and it shows. Even at the end, you're not left feeling like it's been a great victory - you're horrified. There's still hope, though, and that's what matters.

Of course, it's not all bleak - there are several moments where characters are really awesome, including some unexpected ones (Gaul, you are the man).... There are some very touching moments between people (one of my favourite ones involves Annoura Sedai and Berelain). There's even some humour - usually Mat or Talmanes are involved (although, one fan theory concerning Demandred gets a very unsubtle nod). Long-awaited prophecies are fulfilled in unexpected ways (Logain's glory and Seanchan helping Egwene, I'm looking at you!) And there are still some cool plot twists.

The battles are not just about swords and spears and the One Power, there are several maneuvers by both sides that were absolutely brilliant. What seemed like throwaway incidents in the previous books come into play in a very clever way.

I liked that Perrin, Mat and Rand were fighting on different "fronts", so to speak. Their special strengths were uniquely suited to what the forces of the Light needed, and brings their character arcs to a satisfying close. Most of the characters got a satisfying ending, not just the ta'veren, but my favourite was Birgitte's.

We finally get to meet Demandred (I guessed right about where he was!), and he's quite formidable. I'm used to the Forsaken being easily balefired/defeated by our heroes, but not Demandred. Some adversaries that I thought would have a much bigger role end up not being a huge threat, though.

I really couldn't see how the multitudes of issues with the Seanchan would be tied up in time for Tarmon Gai'don, but it's handled very neatly. A completely unexpected character ends up playing a pivotal role, and I hope that the Seanchan system of institutionalised slavery can end because of that character. The Black Tower plotline's resolution was not quite so satisfactory, but it works pretty well.

I kind of wish there was more of an epilogue, but I think that's just me being selfish and wanting to see the dawn of the Fourth Age. It's probably a good thing there wasn't one, judging by the Harry Potter epilogue.

It's rare that I say this about a book that ends a much-loved series, but A Memory of Light is everything I wished for and more! Thank you, Robert Jordan for creating this incredible world, and thank you, Brandon Sanderson for doing such an excellent job giving us a satisfying conclusion. Read more ›

233 of 270 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A triumphant finale to the series, despite a few missteps January 9, 2013

By A. Whitehead TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

The Wheel of Time is finished. That's a statement that's going to take a while to get used to. The first volume of the series, The Eye of the World, was published in January 1990. George Bush Snr. and Margaret Thatcher were still in power and the Cold War was still ongoing. Fourteen books, four million words, eleven thousand pages and over fifty million sales (in North America alone) later, the conclusion has finally arrived. Can it possibly live up to the expectations built up over that time?

It is a tribute to the plotting powers of Robert Jordan, the writing skill of Brandon Sanderson (who took over the series after Jordan's untimely death in 2007) and the hard work of Jordan's editors and assistants that A Memory of Light is - for the most part - a triumphant finale. Given the weight of expectations resting on the novel, not to mention the unfortunate circumstances under it was written, it is unsurprising that it is not perfect. The novel occasionally misfires, is sometimes abrupt in how it resolves long-running plot strands and sometimes feels inconsistent with what has come before. However, it also brings this juggernaut of an epic fantasy narrative to an ending that makes sense, is suitably massive in scope and resolves the series' thematic, plot and character arcs satisfactorily - for the most part.

It is a familiar viewpoint that The Wheel of Time is a slow-burning series, with Robert Jordan not afraid to have his characters sitting around talking about things for entire chapters (or, in one case, an entire novel) rather than getting on with business.... However, Jordan at his best used these lengthy dialogue scenes to set up plot twists and explosive confrontations further down the line, pulling together the elements he'd established previously in surprising and interesting ways. This reached a high in the slow-moving sixth book, which ended with what is regarded by many as the series' best climax to date at the Battle of Dumai's Wells. Steven Erikson (whose Malazan series is the most notable recent mega-long fantasy series to have also reached a final conclusion) used the term 'convergence' for such structural climaxes and it's fair to say that this is what A Memory of Light is: a convergence for the entire series. All thirteen of the previous novels lined up plot cannons in preparation for the Last Battle, and in the closing chapters of Towers of Midnight Brandon Sanderson started triggering them.

The result is not The Wheel of Time you may be familiar with. A Memory of Light is a brutal, bruising, 900-page war novel that kicks off with all hell breaking loose and doesn't pause for breath until the ending. The prologue starts with a well-paced sequence as we find out the state of play for the major characters, intercut with Talmanes and the Band of the Red Hand engaging hordes of Shadowspawn on the streets of Caemlyn. The rotation of scenes between the desperate street fighting and more familiar politicking is highly effective and is exhausting in itself. Immediately after this we alternate between Rand's attempts to pull together a coalition against the Shadow whilst a small group of Asha'man try to save their organisation from destruction against overwhelming odds. No sooner is that over than the Last Battle is joined in full force. Vast armies clash, channellers engage one another in One Power exchanges that dwarf anything seen before in the series and lots of stuff blows up. There's more action sequences in A Memory of Light than the rest of the series put together, more than earning the adage 'The Last Battle'.

The action sequences (which make up almost the whole book) are, for the most part, impressive but benefit from unpredictability. Jordan has been criticised for making his characters too safe, with almost no major character of note (on either side) dying in the previous books of the series. This limitation has been removed for the Last Battle. Major characters, middling ones and scores of minor ones are scythed down in this final confrontation with near-wild abandon. Some get heroic, fitting, blaze-of-glory ends. Some die in manners so unexpected, offhand and callous that even George R.R. Martin might nod in approval. Many of the survivors are seriously wounded, either in body or mind. Jordan's experiences as a Vietnam vet informed Rand al'Thor's arc in The Gathering Storm, and resurface here when one major character is tortured by the Shadow before being rescued, but spends the rest of the book suffering the effects of his experiences. The war scenes are suitably epic and exciting, but Sanderson remembers to include moments counting the cost of such a struggle.

That said, there is an annoying discrepancy in the Last Battle sequence compared to earlier novels. Based on the army sizes in previous volumes and the number of channellers in each faction, the good guys should have brought the better part of a million troops and five thousand One Power-wielders to the Last Battle, and the Shadow several times more. There is no indication that such vast numbers are present, which seems rather odd. There is also the fact that the channellers suddenly seem to be much less effective in mass combat than previously shown. This is most blatant when Logain is angrily told that he and a couple of dozen Asha'man cannot hope to defeat a hundred thousand Trollocs by themselves. Given this is exactly what happened in one scene in Knife of Dreams, I can only conclude that the channellers were deliberately reduced in power for this book, which is very strange.

For the most part, this is the level of problems A Memory of Light presents: something mildly irritating to those who prefer consistency from fictional works but ultimately not hugely relevant to the overall thrust of the narrative. Similar issues can be found with a number of very minor subplots that the novel fails to resolve (or even address) from earlier volumes. In some cases these may be examples of what Robert Jordan himself said would happen in the last book, with some elements left deliberately hanging to give the illusion that life goes on after the last page is turned. In other cases, it may be that Jordan did not draft out how those storylines ended, so Sanderson chose to leave them rather than risk too inventing too much of his own material. Sanderson even refuses to name an important river that Jordan did not name himself, resulting is a slightly awkward battle sequence where characters talk about the 'river on the border', the 'river on the battlefield' and so on, which is a bit laboured.

However, whilst the war scenes rage there is also a philosophical struggle at the heart of the book, and of the series. This struggle is shown in the confrontation between Rand and the Dark One in which their visions of the world and the Wheel are shown in conflict with one another. Robert Jordan was convinced that whilst there were certainly complexities and shades of grey in real life, he also believed that real good and real evil existed, and these ideas form part of the philosophical struggle that takes place alongside the battles. How successful this is will vary (perhaps immensely) from reader to reader, but is not helped by some muddling of the issues. The primary struggle of the books has consistently been Good vs. Evil, but in this philosophy-off the idea of the Creator personifying Order and the Dark One Chaos also arises, possibly as their primary roles. This is in conflict with the rest of the series and is also more tiresomely familiar and predictable. Once that interpretation arises, it's impossible not to think of the ending of the Shadow War in the TV series Babylon 5, and the resolution we get is not a million miles away from it (Rand even gets a line almost as awful as "Get the hell out of our galaxy!").

On the prose side of things, it's pretty much the same set-up as The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight: acceptable, faster-paced and a bit less prone to unnecessary introspection. Where Sanderson comes undone (yet again) is his very occasional use of terminology and language that Jordan would never have used, particularly modern words and terms. Though relatively rare, they still jar a little bit when they appear. The book's centrepiece is a single chapter that is almost 200 pages (and 70,000 words) long in hardcover, with some 70 POV characters playing a role. Apparently both Sanderson and Jordan wrote parts of this chapter, and a few minor inconsistencies aside their writing styles mesh very well. The very last section of the epilogue, written by Robert Jordan himself before he passed (including, rather eerily, Jordan's epitaph from his own funeral), is indeed a fitting way to end the book.

Taking everything into account, A Memory of Light is a lot better than perhaps we had any right to expect. The book is a relentless steamroller of action, explosions, plot resolutions, deaths and philosophical (if somewhat confused) arguing. Some elements are under-resolved, or a little too convenient, or not fleshed out enough. But that's par for the course with any ending to a series this huge. The big questions are answered, the final scene is fitting and the story ends in a way that is true to itself, which is the most we can ask for. Read more ›

118 of 145 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A Better Than Adequate Ending to a Failed Love Affair February 7, 2013

By David J. Ashby

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

All kidding and snark aside, I feel like a widower leaving the cemetary after a soured marriage has ended with the death (by natural causes) of a bi-polar spouse. Tonight on the Red Line I fnished the final volume of 'The Wheel of Time.' The passionate book affair of my youth that grew stale, bitter and embarrassing before rekindling into acceptance, fondness, and nostalgia has ended. Thank the Light.

Some thoughts with, forgive me (or don't forgive me. Bite me), spoilers-

THE GOOD:

- Egwen al'Vere. I always knew this was about Egwene, and in the end, she delivered and left the stage without needing an encore.

- Rand al'Thor. After passing through what Joseph Campbell called the Apotheosis in 'The Heroe's Journey,' Rand became likeable again, and I was again invested in his success.

- al'Lan Mandragoran. Yes, he is the grizzled, gruff, wounded archetypical hero we've seen numerous times, often wearing the face of Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, John Wayne, etc., but I'm a sucker for that character everytime.

- People died, almost too many. While not ballsy enough to go all "Game of Thrones" and kill off principle characters when the story needed to go there (except once), neither was the Last Battle a gutless "Deathly Hallows" finale that only offed C-list players.

- The point of view (as with George RR Martin's novels, but for different reasons) slid off the main characters a lot. This annoyed many readers, but I think was necessary as we have spent over 9,000 pages with those characters as written by Robert Jordan before he died, and each moment spent with those characters as written by another author put the reader in peril of tripping over something that would not have rung true.

- Androl and Pevara.... Two of he C-listers whom Sanderson pushed to the fore beguiled me with their sweet, funny, romantic discovery and acceptance of each other. And Androl's never-explained-yet-mysterious backstory kept my interest as well.

- Min Farshaw. Love you, babe. Have always loved you. Sanderson did not lose your essence.

- "Horn of Valere, we haven't seen you for, like, what? 11 thousand pages? Good to have you back. We all learned back in volume 2 that you are monogamous, and once blown, can't be blown by anyone else until the most recent hornsounder dies. Mat Cauthon blew you in 'The Great Hunt' and then "died" briefly in 'The Shadow Rising.' I don't know why it took another 8 thousand pages before anyone figured out that you were single again, but I must say that your new hornsounder was, for me, perfect."

- Birgitte's final rescue of the useless Elayne Trakand. One shouldn't kill a warder out of Legend when the Horn of Valere is within sounding distance. Others apparently hated this turn of events, but I loved it.

- Lanfear's end game. Thank goodness the witch who opened the Bore did not try to pull a 'Return of the Jedi' move to redeem herself.

- Alivia. I did not see it coming, but she did indeed fulfill the foretelling that she would "help Rand die."

- Nynaeve didn't tug on her hair once (because the author wisely burnt off her braid in some heated kerfluffle in, I believe, volume 13).

- The gift on one last, lingering question: How did Rand Al'Thor light his pipe in the final chapter? One last, unanswerable question, and Sanderson himself has stated that he doesn't know the answer, only that Jordan wrote the event into the last chapter before he died.

THE ODD:

- ONLY TWO YEARS HAS PASSED SINCE MOIRAINE AND LAN TOOK THE BOYS AND EGWENE OUT OF THE TWO RIVERS? Really? The online authorities seem to agree with that timeline, but it doesn't seem right.

- Did the Last Battle really need to be fought on 4 fronts, then 2 fronts plus a metaphysical throwdown between the Dragon Reborn and the Dark One? Seems like it should have all gone down at Shayol Ghul.

- Moiraine Damodred and Thom Merrilin? Like romantic? This was hinted at so much after her "death" 3 or 4 thousand pages into the story that I had hoped we were being tricked into considering it a possibility even though there had been almost zero indication of it up to that point. But no, they ended up being a thing, a married thing, an Aes Sedai and her gleeman warder thing.

- Rand did an Elphaba at the end. I won't say whether it was the Elphaba move from the musical or the novel, just that I was not expecting it and am unsure if I wholly approve.

THE DISAPPOINTING:

- Demandred's secret identity was . . . Demandred. I'm serious. Really, I am. It was a lamer reveal than the Final 5 Cylons. I was hoping that Demandred would be someone like Talmanes or, even better and more painful, Tam al'Thor (which, I know, would have meant Demandred would have had to have escaped from Shayol Ghul at least 20 years before the other Forsaken).

- Siuan Sanche deserved a better.

THE BAD:

- Perrin. You shouldn't be married to Faile Bashere You should be living in Brooklyn and dating Karen Cartwright or Rachel Berry. Get over yourself.

- The Last Battle. The scion of good faces the heart of evil. Hot Channing-Tatum-as-Buddhist-Jesus-with-a-Sword against a blank, black wall that talks with its CAPS LOCK ON. What did we realy expect them to accomplish other than a long, repetitive, slightly disjointed and simple-minded contemplation of "What is evil?", "What is free will?" and the dumb resolution that humans can be good and have free will and live a happy, trolloc-free existence if we just lock the devil up in an unbreakable cage and forget he exists.

- Oh, 11 thousand pages in and now we have a gay male character mentioned in passing? Too little. Too late.

- Demandred last lived at the end of an age of peace dominated by high technology and magic, but he is somehow a master swordsman whose skill is unequalled by any in the present age (who have had 30 generations of low tech war in which to perfect their skill at killing each other)? That's just stupid.

- Demandred last lived at the end of an age of peace, but he is somehow an almost un-equalled military strategist and general? That's just (see above).

- THOSE BASTARDS KILLED BELA!?!?!? Read more ›