Editors Reads Verdict
The Gathering Storm is, by any measure, one of the most impressive achievements in the history of the fantasy genre: Brandon Sanderson, working from Robert Jordan's notes, scenes, and the voices of fourteen years of worldbuilding, produced a novel that captures the series' spirit while bringing something of his own — a tighter, more urgent narrative pace that the story needed after the slower middle volumes. Rand's arc in this novel, culminating on Dragonmount, is as powerful as anything Jordan wrote. Egwene's arc, equally, is a masterpiece of political and personal storytelling.
What We Loved
- Rand's psychological arc — his near-breaking and his redemption on Dragonmount — is the series' most powerful emotional sequence
- Egwene's final campaign within the White Tower delivers everything her long arc promised
- Sanderson's tighter pacing, relative to the middle volumes, gives the final phase of the series necessary momentum
- The novel honours Jordan's vision while demonstrating that the story could move faster without losing depth
Minor Drawbacks
- Some longtime readers detect a subtle shift in voice from Jordan's Wheel of Time — Sanderson's style is more direct
- Mat's characterisation in this volume is the least successful of the three Sanderson books
- The transition between authors is occasionally visible in minor tonal inconsistencies
Key Takeaways
- → Rand's moment on Dragonmount — where he chooses to live rather than destroy — is the series' emotional and thematic heart
- → Brandon Sanderson demonstrated that a work of creative inheritance can honour its source while contributing something new
- → Egwene's arc shows that institutional reform requires patience, courage, and a willingness to suffer for principle
- → The series' acceleration in this volume proves that Jordan's careful setup across the middle books was deliberate and purposeful
| Author | Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Tor Books |
| Pages | 766 |
| Published | October 27, 2009 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Fiction |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
| Best For | Wheel of Time readers who have reached this point in the arc; readers curious about how Brandon Sanderson's completion of the series differs from Jordan's original voice; epic fantasy fans ready to experience the series' final phase. |
The Completion Begins
When Robert Jordan died in September 2007, he left behind a partially finished final volume, extensive notes, recorded dictation, and — in the estimation of everyone who worked with him — a clear sense of where the story was going and how it would end. His widow and editor, Harriet McDougal, chose Brandon Sanderson to complete the work. Sanderson, the author of the Mistborn series and a lifelong Wheel of Time reader, accepted the task knowing it was both an honour and an almost impossible responsibility.
The result was originally intended to be one novel. It became three. The Gathering Storm, published in October 2009, is the first of those three volumes — and one of the finest novels the series produced.
Rand at the Edge
The novel is structured around two parallel arcs, each of which would anchor a lesser book on its own. Rand al’Thor has been hardening since The Shadow Rising, the warmth of his character slowly eroded by trauma, isolation, and the burden of his prophesied role. By the time of The Gathering Storm, that hardening has become something genuinely frightening. He is destroying the nations he is supposed to save. He is killing people — innocent people — because the calculation of the Last Battle makes individual lives legible only as costs.
The arc culminates on Dragonmount, the volcanic peak created by the Dragon Lews Therin’s death at the end of the Age of Legends. What Rand experiences there — and the choice he makes — constitutes the series’ emotional and thematic climax, even though the Last Battle itself is still two volumes away. Sanderson, working from Jordan’s notes, executes this sequence with precision and genuine emotional power.
Egwene’s Triumph
In parallel, Egwene al’Vere — captured by Elaida’s forces at the end of Knife of Dreams — pursues her campaign to heal the White Tower from within. Rather than trying to escape, she uses her position as prisoner to expose Elaida’s incompetence and cruelty to the Aes Sedai who have remained loyal to the old Amyrlin. Her conduct is a sustained demonstration of what it looks like to fight with conviction and without self-pity.
The resolution of Egwene’s arc — and of Elaida’s — is one of the cleanest narrative payoffs the series delivers, and it lands with the full weight of several novels of careful preparation.
A New Voice, The Same Story
Sanderson’s prose is more direct than Jordan’s — less ruminative, more action-oriented, faster to its points. Long-term readers will detect the difference, particularly in passages involving Mat, whose voice Sanderson himself acknowledged was the most difficult to capture. But the differences are less significant than the achievements. The Gathering Storm is not a diminishment of the Wheel of Time; it is a continuation that honours Jordan’s vision while recognising what the story needed to reach its ending.
Our rating: 4.5/5 — A remarkable act of creative inheritance: Sanderson delivers Rand’s most important moment and Egwene’s long-promised triumph in a novel that restores the series’ momentum and emotional power.
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