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I am kind of over my depression, okay no, I am not. But I am ready to talk about the book. This is going to be a little incoherent. I'm just putting my thoughts down.

I feel the deaths were a little too neat. Egwene and Gawyn both dead. Siuan and Bryne (although that was expected.) The only death I felt anything for was Rhuarc and Birgitte. (And Birgitte comes back, but duh, that was so obvious that I was just upset for a second.)

I would be fine with this. But it's not right that Lan's alive. I've been crushing on the guy since I was 11. So his death hit me the hardest. And here I am, still reeling, still CRYING, and he turns out to be alive. I just felt I was cheated.

Also why the hell was Nynaeve TOTALLY ignored in this? Again, she's one of my favourites. I was so upset that we barely get to see her for like three seconds. Her and Moiraine.

Egwene got her hero's send off, but it did upset me that I had never liked her, but in her death I was forced to like her because it was just so awesome.

I didn't enjoy Rand's fight either. It was so boring right up to the end.

AND WHY DOES TUON (her name is Tuon she can't just go around changing it every few seconds) NEVER FIND OUT SHE CAN CHANNEL! AHH. I WAS WAITING FOR THAT. And what is going to happen to poor Min?!
Also, no discussion of the opposite of balefire being found. And why couldn't the three just pretend to be a little upset? Or at least not appear soooo calm.
I wanted to read more about Alanna too.

Mat's parts were all awesome. And I don't care, I ship Perrin and Lanfear. :P
I also loved Cadsuane being asked/forced to be the Amyrlin. That was hilarious. As were any talks between Mat and Rand.

I need to know what parts Brandon wrote. I need to.

You'll have to forgive me, my thirteen year old self wrote all this.
Guys wheel of time is over :(

To be fair, Fortuona - err, I mean Tuon - discovered that she (and every other Sul'dam) can indeed learn how to channel in one of the previous books. Her response to this was that she's different from other channelers because she chooses not to learn.

My only real, if small, problem with the book was that the epilogue was a bit too short and felt kind of disconnected from all the rest. This is probably because it was actually written by Robert Jordan, and not Brendon Sanderson, years before the rest of the book.

My only real gripe is Rand's ending, I mean what the hell? He just gets on a horse in his new body and rides into the sunset? No talk about letting the people who loved him, fought for him, and DIED FOR HIM know he appreciates it?! No secret talk between him and Perrin, Mat and Lan? Nothing? No glasses raised at the inn a year later with his friends and family around him? WE just get him going off on some long vacation with his shiny new body? Boo... BOOOOOO....

There needs to be a spoiler alert in the title.

I felt Rand's ending was appropiate. This about the fact he was a sheperd who was suddenly responsible for saving the world. He became all-powerful and had to learn how to use his power WHILE: figuring out how he felt about his role, his powers, fighting, figuring how to save the world, ally everyone, handle the Seanchan, fend off assassinations, etc.

I've the impression Rand was still a teenager, and the entire thing took place in a couple years.

The poor kid needed a break. Also, how would Rand have fit in the new world? Especially after losing his powers? The assassinations probably would never stop coming.

I also don't appreciate the ending. Just because it's not fair that only his "women" know about him. C'mon, dude, at least tell your father. And Nyaneve.
Also, wasn't Perrin supposed to be on trial after the battle ended? I wanted a conclusion to that as well. And I want to know about Aviendha's visions. We're left to assume they change, but I need something more concrete.
And Graendal. She's enthralled with Aviendha, so does she(Av) have a new pet now? What becomes of her?

Why does there need to be a spoiler alert? :/ Everybody knows people are going to die, and I haven't mentioned who dies?

When rand was on the horse looking back at the pyre, he was wondering how long would it be before one or all three of the girls came after him so i think its a given that they will all be reunited at dome point. With LAN and nyneve(favorite female character), I was shocked too when LAN was alive because what is the point of riding to your death if u don't die(which he kill demandred the same way rand kill ba'alzamon or ishmael or moridin). I couldn't believe it when egwene die it came out of left field and gawyn was a given so was Byrne, siuan. I think the seanchan should have had a bigger role in the last battle not little tiny parts. Why did the dark one make moridin look almost exactly like rand did he know what was going to happen? Just wondering.

I think any future WoT books would depend on Jordan's wife's giving permission.

I think the ending was quite good. It makes people wonder. I too, would like to see a sequel, set some years after Rand's "death".

I felt Rand made a MAJOR mistake by letting Cadusuane get a look at him and figure out who he was. Visiting Tam, Mat, and Perrin can always happen later. Tam had to be devastated to make the scene believable for all the witnesses, although the three chicks pretty much screwed it up. There were HUGE advantages in having the whole world think him dead, and Rand just threw it away in the first few minutes.

Nobody seems to have mentioned it, but Rand can now alter the Pattern just by imagining an alternate existence! (Imagining his pipe is lit so it is.) No channeling required. Nobody can sense it. Just how powerful does this make him?

Is Rand going to live for centuries or have a just normal human lifespan now that he can't channel but can alter the pattern at will? If he CAN live virtually forever, he can make Min live as long as Elayne and Aviedna, which always bothered me.

@#6 - Perrin's punishment is to pay 500 gold to each of the families of the Whitecloaks he killed. The trial is over.

Further observations: I don't necessarily agree that good cannot exist without evil. Kindness certainly can, and a world filled with kindness would be a very nice place to live - although that kindness would have to be voluntary. Coercion to be good is just as evil as Turning was - and I'd have LOVED to see if Nynaeve could reverse it, since Sanderson's response to the question of whether it's reversible is "Nynaeve might not think so."

I'd have been happy with another 300 pages to wrap up the dozens of hanging chads that we were left with. After all, it is the LAST book. I wasn't wild on the thought of splitting this into two books to clear up all the loose ends though, which is probably what would have happened. Once the last battle starts you don't stop halfway through just because the book is getting too long.

I never felt the sheer terror in this book that I felt in "The Elfstones of Shannara" for example. Brandon could have learned how terrifying a REALLY evil bad guy can be by studying the Dagda Mor and the Reaper. Plus the battles had a sense of desperation that I just didn't feel here.

Still, the scene where Lan and his six thousand are riding to their "deaths" and are suddenly joined by 100,000 cavalry from every nation was awesome. I imagined the charge of the Riders of Rohan from "The Return of the King," multiplied it by twenty, and thought "WOW!"

Since there is massive civil war back home, the Seanchan are in trouble. Perhaps having Arthur Hawkwing lecture the empress on what he doesn't like about what his descendents are up to may straighten out Tuon's thinking and make them a bit less insane. But they have some severe problems in their future, and their survival as a culture is unlikely once it becomes known that there are a LOT more channelers than they thought, and just WHO those channelers are... (Evil laugh!)

Good point re the Elfstones. The Reaper was well written by Brooks.

Like your comparison with the Riders of Rohan.

I had forgotten about the Seanchan civil war. That was started by Graendal's assassinations, wasn't it?

Mat and Perin will probably never find out. I can't see either of them keeping it from their wives. That would make three royal houses that knew he was alive. Saldea, Seachan, and Andor. Cadsuane pretty much knows, so put down the Aes Sedai. Nynave suspects something from the girl's reactions. That would make 5 houses that know he is alive. Plus the Seachan damane did know which of the men to give the money to.


The girls can still sense him, so that isn't going to be much of a problem finding him for family get togethers.

Tam finding out would probably blow it too. It wouldn't be too hard for the people to figure out something was really wrong if he just stopped mourning.

Plus, he DID condition the Dragon's Peace on his death. If it were to come out he still walked the world, the peace would fall apart.

Remember, some of the things in the book Sanderson doesn't even know the answer to. The pipe issue being the number one.

I wasn't all that upset about Egwene's death. Remember, she was originally a tag-a-long with the original group. Her and Siuan's deaths allow a clean slate to begin the new age.

The major questions I still have is if Mat's luck is going to desert him now that they boys are no longer Tav.

I believe Mat's luck came from his being taveren. Ergo, he'd lose his luck. I'd also presume Perrin would lose his wolf-ness and his connection to the dream world.

I loved the dream world!

The wolf dream didn't have anything to do with Perrin being Tav. There were two other examples in world of people with the ability, and neither was suspected of being one.

Loss of the luck will probably hit Mat pretty hard. That is how he has managed to survive with Tuon.

Didn't Mat get the luck for the foxes?

The Moraine and Lan situation is fairly easy to explain. He was both Nyn's Husband and Warder by that point and Moraine was the one responsible for setting that up...

I never thought about the Moriane/Siuan situation, but did they really have all that much time where they were in the same location? Just chalk it up to something that took place behind the scenes.

As far as I know, or can guess, Mat's luck was due to carrying the Shadar Logoth dagger for such a long time. That's when his luck shows up to be extraordinary after being healed from the dagger and Siuan suggesting that it might still leave some effects on him.

Victor wrote: "As far as I know, or can guess, Mat's luck was due to carrying the Shadar Logoth dagger for such a long time. That's when his luck shows up to be extraordinary after being healed from the dagger an..."

forgot about that

I don't know why everybody hates on Rand for not telling everybody he is still alive. Technically he isn't alive at all. The dragon died at the last battle, and thats the way that it had to be. The way Rand is so family oriented, I feel we as readers all know that he will eventually seek out Tam, the time just isn't right yet. I'm happy about the way it ended because each of us can now decide where the story goes for ourselves, and with a series that's already 14 books long, I feel thats the best way.

All in all I think it was a rather dull, uncreative and predictable ending to a series that has given me many good hours of reading. In my humble opinion, AMOL was by far the most uninteresting of the books.

I'm glad it's over.

I fully agree with Adam. Around the middle of the book, knowing Sanderson's penchant for twists, I started to wonder if Rand would survive but without his powers.

Remember, Rand was a nobody who was suddenly thrust into the limelight. Look at Lohan, Bieber, et cetera. How did they handle the limelight? Rand often complained about people wanting time with him or using him for their own ends. Further recall he lost people. If I recall correctly, he liked Egwene and she died. Many people he liked died. He sent many people to their deaths. He would have needed the time to process and mourn on his own.

Rand may have also wanted to encourage people to move on and forget about him.

I strongly believe Rand would find Tam and his friends later on. He'd come back to Two Rivers where he'd be able to live out his live in anonymity.

Paulmartin wrote: "All in all I think it was a rather dull, uncreative and predictable ending to a series that has given me many good hours of reading. In my humble opinion, AMOL was by far the most uninteresting of ..."

DITTO!

Rand may not be channeling anymore, but he doesn't need to. He's more powerful than ever since he can now simply will something to happen.

My personal gripes about AMoL.

1. The battles. I've read a decent amount of military fiction, and for a book that has some 900 pages of battles scenes, it just was not up to par. I could not visualize the battles much at all, even though they gave us a handy little map of the final battlefield.

They didn't give many, proper, overhead views of units, their strength, losses incurred, etc. All you hear is how tired everyone is, or how close to breaking they are. That's fine for a single battle scene, but for 900 pages? Now, I understand that Sanderson knows he doesn't know how to write battle scenes, but it was a massive let down for me.

2. The deaths. Now, part of my issue with this is that I went to WoT straight from aSoIaF, so I was prepared for characters to die. So, when only a few characters died in the world shattering, end all battle, that was a huge let down. Not to mention that Rand walked away from it all.

3. The lack of wrap-up. I understand why they ended it the way they did, but it was still disappointing.

The thing that I enjoyed that many people didn't:

Demandred. I loved the way they included him. I saw that coming from a mile away, but I enjoyed it (he was a little TOO crazy and revenge bent for my taste though).