Towers of Midnight

4.00/5.00 “Al dival al kiserai, al mashi!”, For light, glory and love! “Tai'daishar!” True Blood of Battle! “Carai manshimaya Tylin. Carai an manshimaya Nalesean. Carai an manshimaya ayend'an!” Honor of my blade for Tylin. Honor of my blade for Nalesean. Honor of my blade for the fallen.

Towers of Midnight, the penultimate volume of the Wheel of Time. This book reveals the mind bending, earth-shattering secret of this story. The horror of the Wheel of Time surfaces in one unholy scene. I will never forget reading this scene. It will forever remain one of the greatest worldbuilding moments of all time, in all of fantasy.

I wish I could declare this book as a masterpiece, but it is very far from it. Rand's plot is glory, shocking and amazing. Nynaeve's plot is very good and results in spectacular character development, wowza!

While Perrin's character development is good, consistent and does finally come to an end, the plot is not as engaging as the other stories in this book. I found myself hoping it will come to an end and I can move on to Rand, Mat and Nynaeve. So much of the Perrin plot lines are low quality compared to other plot lines in the Wheel of Time. Perrin's story started so well, with the Shadow Rising, but his character got stuck at the same place for a dozen books. Perrin's abilities were not developed in these books. And suddenly, his ability just rockets forward beyond others. This is a missed opportunity.

Overall a great read.

Emotional Impact -> Rand, Nynaeve great. Aviendha's Aiel scene is beyond awesome. Elayne sucks, Perrin is boring, predictable and stupidly out of place for a penultimate book. Egwene's anti-Mesaana plot is not good. Mixed, so mixed.... Still throwing a higher score for the good parts of the book. That prologue short story of Borderlander boy coming of age was fire!Characters -> Perrin's character arc concludes well. Gawyn-Egwene's arc is not bad. Rand's journey delights. Nynaeve's arc is great. Nynaeve is shaping up as my second fav to Rand. Egwene and mat follow. Nynaeve is so unique, so real, so interesting. I love her. You show them how to be Aes Sedai girl.Plot -> So weak here. I do not care about Elayne. I didn't care much for Moiraine's return, since the rescue was done very poorly. Lost opportunity on the Finn worldbuilding. Egwene is not good. Perrin is okay at best. I am going with a slightly higher score, as I am looping in the greatness of the worldbuilding moments (marginally) into the plot score. And because all these side-quests are over. Prose -> Its okay. No great standout lines. Well written dialogue for Rand and NynaeveWorldbuilding -> I was shaking in this revelation. The Aiel! The Seanchan! I want to burn all the Seanchan to the dust of history. The wheel has damned the Aiel to this horrible fate!! Save us Aviendha! Save us Lord Dragon! There will be no peace with the slavers! There will be no peace to those who commit genocide. NO NO NO NO NO this cannot be the fate of the Aiel! Great Rand moments! Rand Sedai! Great Egwene meeting with the women channelers! Perfect worldbuilding.