A Memory of Light question

Hmmm - I thought it was both satisfying and predictable. But maybe it was simply the fact that we finally received an ending that ensured my satisfaction with it. After the 10.000+ pages I guess I no longer cared much whether the end was inventive or not as long as it arrived...

I finished the series about a year ago. I had started a number of years ago, got 3 1/2 books in, got busy, and lost track. Some months later, started over, which was a nice revisit, got through the 4 books and stalled again. Determined to finish about a year later, I read chapter synopses for books 1-3, dug into 4, and with a combination of reading and listening to the audiobooks, I powered through the entire series.

So.....satisfying? Worthwhile? I think so. If you are hooked by the first book, pulled into the world and influences/references, enjoy the characters, I would say go for it, if you have the time. There are definitely chunks of middle/later books that drag on, and a number of storylines or issues that seem to drag on for far too long. However, reading them in fairly quick succession, a bunch of this is somewhat smoothed over. There is definitely enough meat there to keep things interesting and compelling. And I really feel like the addition of Brandon Sanderson to the last books gave the series a shot of narrative oomph that helped pull things together. While maybe not many earth-shattering (pun intended?) surprises, things are satisfying and were surprisingly emotional for me in spots.
Maybe a bit predictable, yeah, but the series (and the wheel of time conceit) is definitely interested in not surprising you with WHAT plays out but HOW it does. Definitely worthwhile, especially if you are into it after reading some of the early books.

Phil wrote: "Hi! I just read Eye of the World, and I was surprised by the ending. After all the talk of Pattern and hints to Taoism, I expected the end to involve some kind of balance between good and evil, not..."

Actually it did restore the balance lost when they dig for power. There is a scene where he see the future if he actually beat the evil, and it didn't seem real to him. And the end is more about the tarmon gaidon than the fight between rand and the dark one. That's why all 3 had to survive until than. It makes perfect sense to me really

(Please ignore misspelled words. I didn't want to take the time to look up all the correct spellings.)

I was very disappointed in the much anticipated ending to the series. Throughout the whole story we are told that Rand would fight the last battle with the very necessary aid of his ta'varan friends, Mat and Perrin. I expected an epic battle of light vs dark with Rand commanding the armies of hundreds of thousands with Mat and Perrin being his generals and protectors. Only Mat was given the role of leading an army and it was late in the book. The secondary characters were given most of the action and 'screen time' and some of the important characters were given little, like Mauraine. Some things just did not make sense. Like why did the Horn have to be transported by supply wagons instead of just directly though a gateway? Why were we suddenly given a huge battle with the Sharans led by an insane Damondred? There was only a very minor mention of Shar way back in the books. I was given the impression in the previous books that Logain would have a larger role in the end.

Rand, Mat and Perrin, especially Rand, the main character should have dominated the action and story in this last book but they were given only bit parts. Rand's page time was brief and boring.

As to the end, maybe Jordan believed that the end he gave Rand and the story was going to be a pleasant surprise. It wasn't pleasant and the only surprise I got was how he had instantly changed Rand's selfless character of a person who cared deeply for how his family and friends and others thought of him and worried over how his actions affected them. I guess that puny battle with the dark one and taking over the body of a Chosen One made Rand into an uncaring, devil-may-care, adventure seeking rogue (much like Mat who turned into a wuss in the end). So off Rand rides into the sunset without a care that he is leaving family and friends mourning his demise. I don't think I could make up a worse ending.

The ending gave what all of us craved....and ending. Jordan lost his grip on the story, putting out schlock that didn't advance the plot and made for painful reading of a once-loved story.
Sanderson cleared up all of the loose ends and endless, wandering sub-plots. He managed to kill off enough characters to not make it cheesy like R.A Salvatore's Dark Elf series but not as heartbreaking as G. R.R. Martin's stories.
I am glad it's done.