Just finished The Gathering Storm, the first book written by Brandon Sanderson working from Jordan’s notes after his passing, and I went in nervous in a way I hadn’t been for any other book in this series. I came out genuinely impressed, and more emotionally wrecked than I expected to be this deep into a reread where I already know exactly what happens.
A new voice, handled carefully
The thing I noticed first is how much Sanderson respects what’s already been built. The prose has a slightly different rhythm if you’re paying close attention, a bit more direct and a bit less meandering through internal description, but the characters still sound like themselves. Mat still sounds like Mat. Egwene still sounds like Egwene. That’s not a small thing to pull off when you’re stepping into a fourteen-book series partway through and trying to finish someone else’s vision instead of your own. I was fully prepared for a jarring transition. It’s not jarring. It’s just slightly different, in a way that mostly serves the story picking up momentum rather than getting in the way of it.
The centerpiece of this book, and one of the most important character moments in the entire series, is Rand’s descent and eventual turn on Dragonmount. By this point Rand’s been hardening for books, cold and ruthless and willing to do almost anything in the name of winning the Last Battle, and this is where that trajectory finally reaches a breaking point. He comes terrifyingly close to becoming exactly the kind of monster he’s spent the whole series trying to prevent, cutting himself off from basically everyone who cares about him and rationalizing worse and worse choices as necessary sacrifices. And then, at the edge of it, something shifts. I won’t pretend the reread made this scene hit any less hard just because I knew it was coming. Rand’s moment of clarity on Dragonmount, reconnecting with what the Dragon Reborn is actually supposed to mean instead of what fear and grief and power have twisted him into, is one of the best character turns I’ve read in any fantasy series. It doesn’t feel like a cheat or a reset button. It feels like nine books of accumulated weight finally cracking him open in a way that lets something better back in. I got genuinely emotional rereading it, which isn’t something I expected going into a book I’ve already read before.
Cadsuane’s role in all of this deserves real credit too. She’s been a divisive presence for a few books now, constantly maneuvering around Rand in ways that felt frustrating in the moment, but this is where her whole approach finally clicks into place. She’s spent books positioning herself to be there for exactly this moment, and watching her patience pay off changes the meaning of a lot that felt like stubbornness earlier in the series. Beyond Cadsuane herself, there’s a whole orbit of Aes Sedai and Wise Ones around Rand in this book, each with their own read on what he needs and how dangerous he’s become. I like that Jordan and Sanderson don’t present them as a unified chorus of concern, because they disagree with each other about how to handle him almost as much as they disagree with Rand, and that friction makes the whole dynamic feel less like a plot device and more like a genuine clash of strong personalities who all think they know best.
Egwene, quietly undefeated
Egwene’s storyline inside the White Tower is the other major highlight here. Captured and effectively a prisoner of Elaida’s regime, she refuses to just endure it, and starts working the novices and Accepted from the inside, building quiet loyalty and chipping away at the Tower’s authority without ever raising a weapon. It’s a completely different flavor of heroism than Rand’s arc, and I love that Jordan’s notes, and Sanderson’s execution of them, let her win through patience, integrity, and sheer force of will rather than power. By the time the different factions of Aes Sedai start reckoning with what she’s built from inside a cell, it’s clear she’s been the strongest person in the book the entire time, even while technically a captive.
The book builds to a real, large-scale set piece around the White Tower itself, with Egwene’s quiet campaign finally colliding with open conflict. It’s a satisfying payoff to a storyline that’s been simmering since Lord of Chaos, and it’s genuinely exciting to watch the two Aes Sedai factions get forced back toward something resembling unity under real pressure.
Mat, Perrin, and Min
There’s a genuinely funny thread running through this book too, which I appreciated given how heavy Rand’s chapters get. Mat, freshly married after Knife of Dreams, gets pulled away from Tuon almost immediately by circumstances entirely outside his control, and spends a good chunk of the book grumbling about it while still doing what needs doing. It’s classic Mat, and it’s a nice tonal counterweight to everything happening on Dragonmount. This series has always been good about not letting every storyline sink into the same mood at once, and this book needed that balance more than most.
Perrin doesn’t get the biggest chapters in this book, but what he does get matters. He’s settled into being a genuine military leader by this point, and there’s a steadiness to his command that feels earned after everything he went through getting Faile back. I like that the book trusts him to just be competent here rather than manufacturing a new crisis of confidence for him to work through. Not every character needs a dramatic arc in every single book, and Perrin quietly doing his job well is its own kind of satisfying after how much turmoil he’s been through. It’s the kind of book that knows exactly where its emotional centre of gravity needs to be and doesn’t try to force equal screen time onto every thread just for the sake of balance.
Min’s viewings keep circling closer to the endgame here too, and I appreciated getting more time with her perspective directly. She’s spent the whole series seeing fragments of the future without full context, and watching her try to act on partial knowledge while people she loves make increasingly high-stakes decisions gives her chapters a specific, quiet dread that’s different from anyone else’s storyline. She can’t fight the way Rand or Perrin can, and she can’t maneuver the way Egwene or Elayne can, but the burden of seeing pieces of what’s coming and not being able to change most of it is its own kind of heavy lifting, and Sanderson gives that weight real room to breathe.
I went into The Gathering Storm braced for a rough transition and got one of the strongest entries in the entire series instead. Rand’s arc on Dragonmount alone would make this a standout, and pairing it with Egwene’s quiet, patient triumph inside the Tower makes this one of the most emotionally satisfying books I’ve reread so far. Whatever nerves I had about a new author finishing this story are gone.
On to Towers of Midnight next.
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