I have to say I mostly agreed with JW on his review. The problem is that I was disappointed. I know a lot of my comments prior to release were seen as spiteful, though they were never intended that way. But my point then as now was to encourage Brandon to grow and stretch in one particular area as a writer that I've not seen evidence of. This book was well crafted and, if we didn't have the body of previous work from Mr. Rigney, it would be the start of a great trilogy. Brandon is better able to shape each volume around the bones of a classical plot arch and there is a real challenge give the fact that the series, for all it's length, is really a single novel in multiple volumes. Dumas wrote Monte Cristo that way and. . . but back to WoT.
I read the prerelease of the first chapter with real trepidation. The imagery were far uglier than Jordan. Not just written with a different writer's voice but simply lacking right tone. Rigney could write about Trollocs cannibalizing one another and a homicidal madman directing them to do it in frustration over how long they were taking. Yet his tone inevitably had a sort of prosaic flow that wended it's way around these images so that you lost none of the horror but never-the-less felt the narrator was your ally and companion not an indifferent reporter.
From the foul wind to the end of the chapter it was staccato and harsh, not because the subjects were but because the narrator spoke like voice of the dark one himself. That was a worry. But I pressed on, because I intend to finish regardless of the qualities of the remaining books. How much I as a consumer resent that will depend on the remaining volume(s).
The rest of the book was a bigger let down, not because it was badly written of because Brandon failed to make the material his own and produce a valid perspective on the WoT World. To the contrary, he did precisely that and I found myself greatly encouraged by the time I got to the middle of the book.
I have a problem with the characterization of Rand as harder, given the callow stupidity of some of his understanding regarding Moghedian and Grendal. Given the special memories he has he should understand the lay of the land in Tarbon far better than he does. But that is not a story killer and Rigney made similar slips at times so in comparison Brandon holds his own on that account as well.
The problem is two-fold. With Brandon's background, access to source material we don't have and general success with the remainder of the volume, why were we forced to endure a first chapter that reads like Johnny Mnemonic or a bad manga?
Secondly. With the quaility of the passages dealing with the plots within the Tower, the confession of a significant Black Ajah (one I predicted to several people and am gratified to see confirmed) and the development of characters that are new and yet every bit as poignant and sympathetic as Rigney's core cast, why were the two climaxes, as Jason calls them, allowed to go so flat? The exposure of the most significant Tower witch, besides Egwene herself (not telling who for those who haven't read yet), as a darkfriend read like the script of an episode of LAw and Order. It was trite, unrealistic and anticlimactic. Assuming Rigney wrote it, I'm am confident he would have rewritten when the book was mostly complete. It was a travesty to go to presses with that text, given the obvious skills of both writers.
The other climax was similarly bad for different reasons. The soul searching was like a train ride through a ghetto. You get the privilege of seeing all the harsh reality, but no one is really reacting. The speed of the train, the insulating glass, it all serves to isolate the passenger --in this case the reader-- from the smells and sounds and horror, despite the fact the house closest to the train are the worst in the hood.
The passages from Abu Dar were insipid and far too brief. It was like playing WoTmud porting into Seandar or the Gate Keep then running away and hiding till you can port out again. That's a reference that will be lost on many but I'm certain that it isn't far from what framed and drove the writing of the whole interlude. The mountain top experience should have been a crisis to make Joseph Campbell dance a hora with Joseph Smith and Paul the Apostle, instead it read like an really bad tantrum, and the narrator was as bored and unfocused as the reader.
Emotional scenes need motion like any other. The only motion that you can bring is the narration. It has to pop. This fizzled. I know I'll get lambasted for this, but I expect, as a consumer, that the remaining work get more attention. I have said that I think Brandon simply lacks the age and the edge for that sort of thing. I hope he'll ask for help from someone whom he knows and trusts, who has published a lot of psychologically intense and successful work (think ludlum or mitchner, not card or wells). Not to credit them but just to help work out where things are going flat. Too many cheerleaders can trip you up. And the evidence is in that you, brandon are capable of better.