[kcf]

So, TGS is finally and officially out. The reviews we've all agreed to hold back can be public.

So, what did y'all think of it.

Here's my review.

[Terez]

I have only read half of it (days ago, in a bookstore), but my impression of that half was just like Leigh Butler's....


Holy shit!

Of course, I am a 'crackpot fan...who would love the book even if it had been written by the legless wonder Robert Stanek.' According to Pat, anyway.

[Use Of Weapons]

Wah! I can't stay away, and my copy doesn't arrive til Thursday (according to Amazon's delivery estimate)!

[Terez]

I screwed up and preordered once, for Knife of Dreams. Ended up buying two copies, cause I had to have one on release day. Had to drive 100 miles to get it, too, cause Katrina destroyed all our bookstores...

[Tarcanus]

I went out and bought my copy on my lunch break, today. I'm pretty apprehensive about reading it since it's not Jordan and feel like Sanderson is way overhyped since his writing (yes, I'm referencing Mistborn) isn't so hot most of the time. I'm in it for the plot points, really. I'm still more excited than I thought I'd be!

[Slow Ben]

I'm pretty much the opposite of Tarcanus, I'm excited because Sanderson is writing it since i really like his writing. I'm hoping his writing + RJ's ideas = Pure fantasy win.

[alt146]

When you guys have finished the book would someone mind giving a judgement on how comprehensive the info-dump at the beginning of the book is. The last WoT book I read was a couple of years ago when KoD came out and I want to know if rereading the last book or two is necessary to understand what's going on or if just remembering the basics of what's happening is enough. Kinda looking forward to this book, partly vecause I liked Sanderson's work, partly because WoT was the first epic fantasy I started almost a decade ago and it will be great to finally finish the series.

[Tarcanus]

alt146, on 27 October 2009 - 07:04 PM, said:

When you guys have finished the book would someone mind giving a judgement on how comprehensive the info-dump at the beginning of the book is. The last WoT book I read was a couple of years ago when KoD came out and I want to know if rereading the last book or two is necessary to understand what's going on or if just remembering the basics of what's happening is enough. Kinda looking forward to this book, partly vecause I liked Sanderson's work, partly because WoT was the first epic fantasy I started almost a decade ago and it will be great to finally finish the series.

I haven't read any of tGS, yet, but judging from past WoT novels, there really isn't an opening infodump to catch the reader up. Only when it was plot relevant did RJ hint at events in past novels (the Cleansing of Saidin and structure of CoT immediately springs to mind), so I don't think there will be too much hand-holding in tGS. You may want to at least re-read KoD. I'll still let you know, though.

[alt146]

Tarcanus, on 27 October 2009 - 07:18 PM, said:

alt146, on 27 October 2009 - 07:04 PM, said:

When you guys have finished the book would someone mind giving a judgement on how comprehensive the info-dump at the beginning of the book is. The last WoT book I read was a couple of years ago when KoD came out and I want to know if rereading the last book or two is necessary to understand what's going on or if just remembering the basics of what's happening is enough. Kinda looking forward to this book, partly vecause I liked Sanderson's work, partly because WoT was the first epic fantasy I started almost a decade ago and it will be great to finally finish the series.

I haven't read any of tGS, yet, but judging from past WoT novels, there really isn't an opening infodump to catch the reader up. Only when it was plot relevant did RJ hint at events in past novels (the Cleansing of Saidin and structure of CoT immediately springs to mind), so I don't think there will be too much hand-holding in tGS. You may want to at least re-read KoD. I'll still let you know, though.

Most of Jordan's books did at least remind you in general terms who the lesser characters are and what they'd been up to. I'm not expecting a comprehensive summary of what's happened so far, just to be able to figure out what I've forgotten. Thanks though, I'm looking forward to the opinions of the people on this board about the book.

[Use Of Weapons]

Woo-hoo, it's here!

[LadyMTL]

I'll for sure be interested in reading the reviews. I haven't decided whether or not to buy TGS yet (I heard it's the first of three??) and I think if people here like it I'll most probably give it a go. So yeah, keep the reviews coming!

[Tamilyrn]

I thought it was brilliant and consider the plot/content a return to form regardless of who authored which parts of the book. For BS to step into RJ's shoes with such a weight of expectation and deliver a book like this is, IMHO, extraordinary. First class.

This post has been edited by Tamilyrn: 29 October 2009 - 10:31 AM

[Use Of Weapons]

Finished it at 0315 last night. Am full of praise. You can tell it's a different author, and sometimes the joins are visible, but the whole is so so satisfying.

It is joy. Read it. For WoT-deniers, it will rekindle those flickering embers of love you once felt for the series.

[Tarcanus]

Prologue and Chapter 1 down(I didn't spoil myself by reading any of the pre-release...releases) and I have to say it's definitely evident that Sanderson wrote it - he slaughtered the description of an unnatural storm in the very first PoV of the prologue. I felt like I was being smashed over the head with a baseball bat with the words, "look, an unnatural storm, and it's gathering, and this book is called Gathering Storm, get it!?" written on it. Chapter 1 was much better, but I wish Sanderson hadn't opened the Prologue up with the clumsy and repetitive descriptions of the storm.

to alt:

I also noticed a lot of name/place/plot dropping, so it seems like a minor attempt at catching the reader up with what has already happened is underway. You should be alright to start with tGS.

[Slick Mongoose]

Tarcanus, on 29 October 2009 - 06:22 PM, said:

Prologue and Chapter 1 down(I didn't spoil myself by reading any of the pre-release...releases) and I have to say it's definitely evident that Sanderson wrote it - he slaughtered the description of an unnatural storm in the very first PoV of the prologue. I felt like I was being smashed over the head with a baseball bat with the words, "look, an unnatural storm, and it's gathering, and this book is called Gathering Storm, get it!?" written on it. Chapter 1 was much better, but I wish Sanderson hadn't opened the Prologue up with the clumsy and repetitive descriptions of the storm.

The opening scene in the prologue was written by Jordan. He read it out at JordanCon

[Tarcanus]

Slick Mongoose, on 29 October 2009 - 07:16 PM, said:

Tarcanus, on 29 October 2009 - 06:22 PM, said:

Prologue and Chapter 1 down(I didn't spoil myself by reading any of the pre-release...releases) and I have to say it's definitely evident that Sanderson wrote it - he slaughtered the description of an unnatural storm in the very first PoV of the prologue. I felt like I was being smashed over the head with a baseball bat with the words, "look, an unnatural storm, and it's gathering, and this book is called Gathering Storm, get it!?" written on it. Chapter 1 was much better, but I wish Sanderson hadn't opened the Prologue up with the clumsy and repetitive descriptions of the storm.

The opening scene in the prologue was written by Jordan. He read it out at JordanCon

Really? Then I willingly eat my foot, but damn that was bad writing.

[presumingpete]

yes I liked it. no sanderson is not a great writer. He did well with the internal dialogues and whatnot but everything just feels so expositional 'the last battle is coming and that makes me sad' kind of nonsense.

the plot points were worth the read although some of the names seemed wrong, and the last chapter just felt wrong.

It was good, it kept me reading and alot of it was hard to tell who wrote what. The mat and perin bits were crap. the rand bits made up for it and egwene now pwns.

I still think sanderson sucks.

[Terez]

Tarcanus, on 29 October 2009 - 07:37 PM, said:

Really? Then I willingly eat my foot, but damn that was bad writing.

I really enjoyed that bit. It seemed awkward at first, but it got better throughout the pov.

When I first read chapter 1, I was nervous. It seemed....not bad, but weak, and a bit OOC. Then chapter 2 convinced me that the differences in style wouldn't be a problem.

My review, as a WoT die-hard fan: I figured BS would do a pretty good job with this, but he exceeded my expectations by miles. The biggest criticisms are reserved for Mat's points of view, and not just how Mat was portrayed, but Talmanes and Thom as well. However, Mat's role in this book is minimal, so here's hoping BS will get better at Mat before Ghenjei (will still love him if he doesn't).

Also, RJ's immense talent and skill as a big picture epic fantasy author are finally being revealed, like they haven't been before. Like someone else said, if you lost interest in the later books, this one has the potential to draw you back in. There's at least one mystery that's been brimming since book 2 that is finally resolved, and IMO another huge was building since then resolved as well....not to mention several plots that RJ started to lay in books 7-9 finally come to fruition.

If you are allergic to braid-yanking, then I can't help you, cause there's lots of Nynaeve in this book. But I never did get what the big deal was about that. Also, I can't tell you how the dress descriptions compare because I always skim them. Rand finally does what we've been wanting him to do forever, and he Travels a few places to talk to important people, and that's not the only example of the Lightfriends starting to actually communicate with each other. I think we'll see a huge reunion in the next book.

I have heard almost no negative reviews about the book, and I think it's easy to see why. There are some weak points in it, but overall, it's extremely satisfying to read.

[Tarcanus]

Terez, on 30 October 2009 - 11:16 AM, said:

Tarcanus, on 29 October 2009 - 07:37 PM, said:

Really? Then I willingly eat my foot, but damn that was bad writing.

I really enjoyed that bit. It seemed awkward at first, but it got better throughout the pov.

When I first read chapter 1, I was nervous. It seemed....not bad, but weak, and a bit OOC. Then chapter 2 convinced me that the differences in style wouldn't be a problem.

My review, as a WoT die-hard fan: I figured BS would do a pretty good job with this, but he exceeded my expectations by miles. The biggest criticisms are reserved for Mat's points of view, and not just how Mat was portrayed, but Talmanes and Thom as well. However, Mat's role in this book is minimal, so here's hoping BS will get better at Mat before Ghenjei (will still love him if he doesn't).

I thought about what I didn't like about that first PoV last night and figured that maybe RJ was trying to get across the idea that Renald was just some dumb farmer by slaughtering the storm descriptions. But then I realized that Renald seemed pretty with it when talking to his blacksmith friend and fairly perceptive over what was going on, therefore his idiocy over over-describing the storm made even less sense. So I still stand by that that first PoV is chaf.

I finished chapter 2, 3, and 4 last night and am getting into the books, finally. I have high hopes for Egwene, and from what I've heard I can't wait to see how she gets so badass, but whatever is going on with Aviendha bugs me because I thought we were finally through all of the ji'e'toh confusion of earlier books.

[KallorsUnusedMoisturiser]

Hi guys, first time poster here.

I atually really enjoyed it. I wasnt expecting miracles from Sanderson, but i was very pleasantly suprised. I was like the rest of you, i noticed quite early the difference in styles, even though he tried to make it as similar as possible (Mat's scenes, esp. with Talamanes), but they were similar enough to just ignore. The pacing of the book more than made up for it though. I don't know about you, but i thought that the series had seriously wandered since POD, and was really glad to see it get back to the main story-arc (ie Rand).

Well worth the 4-year wait! Well, ish.