A review by nclcaitlin
Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson

3.5

The Pattern groans. The dead are walking, an increase in odd deaths. In cities, rooms vanish and food spoils.

Egwene must manage a new age of Aes Sedai.

Mesaana is still in the White Tower, able to defeat the Oath Rod.

Not to mention, there are killers in the shadow with four sisters dead and Egwene already has her hands full trying to keep the Ajahs from turning back to their mistrust of one another.

“When change comes, you can scream and try to force things to stay the same. But you'll usually end up getting trampled. However, if you can direct the changes, they can serve you. Just as the Power serves us, but only after we surrender to it."

It is time for Perrin to return to Rand. He never wanted to raise a banner or become a Lord and he didn’t want things to become awkward between him and Falie after her rescue. 

Perrin tries to keep the wolf locked away. But a wolf could not be locked up for long. 

This part of the book was one of the most boring. Perrin trying to learn to embrace or control the wolf alongside Hopper. It just felt like a lot of back and forth. 

Mat can’t leave the city for a few weeks unless he opens Verin’s letter and do what it says. But the gholam is chasing him and the Forsaken is hunting him, with a picture of his face in the pocket of every footpad in the city. 

I have always enjoyed Mat’s perspective, but his attitude towards women still annoys me. I thought in Sanderson’s hands, he would dial down this. Instead, it sometimes seemed even more forced as if to remind us of his character under Jordan which seemed out of sorts with the last two books. ‘Oh, I’m married so I don’t look at women like that anymore. Oh, but she does have good breasts and I still deserve a short glance…’ etc. 

“I need to write a lettei to Her Royal bloody Majesty Queen Elayne the prim." 

Joline sniffed. "Are you going to swear at her too?" 

"Of course I am," Mat muttered, turning to go back to Thorn's tent. "How else is she going to trust that it's really from me?"

Elayne’s absolute confidence in her survival and success because of Min’s viewing still continues to irritate me too. Directly quoting from the book - “My children will be safe, and that means I will be, too. We have until their birth." This causes her to take many dangerous risks. I too understand Brigette’s frustration. 

“Real life is often more disappointing than dreams, but at least when you find honor in the real world, you know it to be more than a fancy."

I am greatly enjoying the climax of the series. I am scared of Rand becoming so powerful that some things may become too easy (even though this series has been nothing but). Yet, suddenly having the protagonist acquire massive amounts of power right at the end always frustrates me in a series. 

Also, my version has a mistake where Galad’s name is used instead of Gawyn’s when discussing his romance with Egwene!!! 

Just had to reread to wonder why Galad popped up in between Gawyn and Egwene in an intimate moment before realising it was a mistake!

 

This isn’t a new favourite (at the moment, that remains book 12), but I did like seeing all the pieces being moved together.