So much stuff happened in the thirteenth book of the series. There were great battles, daring rescues, budding romance, betrayal, redemption, and just about anything else you could imagine. I start thinking about a favorite part, then I go “oh wait, what about that part?” I should probably take notes while I drive and listen. I guess I will have to just do some bullet points of my favorite stuff:
-Pretty much everything Mat does. Seriously, that guy is awesome. He decides to lure the gholam out and the fight they have it pretty damn monumental. If that would not make an awesome scene in a movie, then I do not know what would. Mat swinging his ashandarei with the gholam moving around super fast. Fighting inside a burning building, Mat’s aashandarei burnt and creating smoke trails…that would look so great. And then the payoff of how he defeats the gholam by forcing it into a Gateway was cool. Naturally Mat had a plan all along.
That was early in the book. Mat decides to up his awesome quotient by then going to the Tower of Ghenjei to rescue Moiraine. They succeed in the rescue, barely. Mat has to give up his eye and Noal stays behind to give Mat and Thom a chance to escape. Oh and it turns out that Noal was actually Jain Farstrider. I had a suspicion that was who he was, since Noal seemed so upset earlier when Olver spoke about how great Jain was, and Noal was mad that “Jain had left his family at home to die” or something to that effect.
-Perrin continues to be the impressive character though. Rand and Mat have these memories from other people, which helps them with battle tactics and being a leader. It just comes naturally to Perrin. He finally accepts his role of leadership and reconciles the wolf inside of him.
Perrin uses the wolf dream to fight Slayer and almost defeats him. He is able to destroy the dreamspike, but not after chasing Slayer to Tar Valon, where Egwene is inside Tel’aran’rhiod fighting Mesaana. With the dreamspike there, Mesaana cannot leave and Egwene is able to defeat her, although it takes some doing. She has an a’dam placed upon her, but uses her will to destroy and the entire will of the White Tower to defeat Mesaana.
.jpg)
The best part of that is when Perrin runs into Egwene and gives her a lecture of how dangerous the dream world can be (Egwene thinks of herself as a master there) and when she tries to channel at him, he easily stops it.
Perrin then leads his army into what seems like an ambush of the Whitecloak army. It was pretty obvious that there was going to be a trap from one of the Foresaken, but the fact that even Perrin’s wife was afraid he would attack the unaware Whitecloaks was pretty cool. And then when he decides to ride from the high advantage point in order to save Galad…that gave me chills. The Whitecloaks then join Perrin’s army on their way to the Last Battle.
-Can I mention how much I hate how the lady reading the book says Mesaana. It comes out like “Mess-aaahhhh-na” instead of “Mess-ana.” It sounds like all of the characters are saying it with a bad attitude. I am glad she is reduced to the mental state of a child and we will not be hearing from her anytime soon. Also, wise of Egwene not to kill her, that way the Dark One cannot resurrect her.
-Gawyn defeats three Bloodknives while protecting Egwene. This is after being told that there was no way he fought one since he would be dead if he had faced a Bloodknife. Egwene bonds him and they talk about getting married someday. She just wants to do it right and have her parents there (do they even know she is the Amyrlin Seat?).
-Aviendha becomes a Wise One and she returns to Rhuidean. She breaks the rule and goes through a second time. The first time she sees the past, but the second time she sees the future. She sees the Aiel falling to the Seanchan and losing all honor and becoming like animals living in the Waste.
-One of my favorite new plots is what is happening in the Black Tower. Androl is an interesting character and I look forward to learning his backstory. Plus, I can see a little bit of romance between him and Pevara. Hopefully they can find Logaine and defeat Taim.
So the Last Battle is about to begin. The final book is here and I cannot wait to see how this ends. Something tells me that Rand’s plan will be to not only free the Dark One, but instead of creating a prison for him, he will try to kill him. Although, can the Creator allow the Dark One to be destroyed? Can there be light without darkness? Maybe once Rand defeats him, he will end up having to take his place and become a more benevolent dark one? No more war against creation, but an opposing power to the creator. Okay, that seems a little ridiculous.
Obviously Moridin and Rand’s new found bond has something to do with all of this. That is why Rand can use the Dark One’s True Power. I wonder if that is why Moridin has been behaving so differently?
