The Gathering Storm

This is the first book where Brandon Sanderson took over from Robert Jordan after his death. I was originally expecting the style to be more polished and to the point, but Sanderson manages to copy Jordan's style flawlessly, including many distinguishing characteristics of the previous books. It reads like a creative journey: at first, Sanderson shyly imitates the style, then he seems to mock certain aspects of it, then he has made it his own. The last 150 pages or so are just marvelous, with many long-running threads being resolved and central figures at last preparing for their roles in the final battle.

Jordan had already claimed that one final volume would follow after his own final one, the 11th, but after reading his notes, Sanderson stated that he would not be able to fit everything into less than three books. One can't shake the feeling that this is already a very compressed form of what would have happened, with Sanderson doing his best to tie everything up for the final act while carefully transforming the characters into the necessary setup.

After a few books that had no apparent direction and the exciting but still aimless eleventh volume this is finally starting to work towards the grand finale, and I for one am certainly looking forward to the last two books!