The first new Wheel of Time book in four years, and it is (sadly) with a new author, Brandon Sanderson, author of the Mistborn and Alcatraz fantasy series. Robert Jordan's boots are indeed large ones to fill, but I can tell you now, you need not worry. Sanderson is a supremely gifted writer. And yes, it begins with the wind whistling from the mountains, down to the plains etc. And they still say things like "Light!" or "Burn me!"
And as this is only a week after the book's release, don't worry, I won't give away any spoilers. I almost ran into spoilers when flicking past the Wikipedia entry on the book, it gives away the entire plot!
The book clips along at a right old pace, yet never feels rushed. The chapters are shorter, the changes of perspective faster, yet you never feel disorientated or annoyed at leaving a favourite character so soon, as you will return to them soon enough (well that is if your favourite character is Rand, like me!). But even the smaller characters, like Gawyn, Egwene, Siuan, Nynaeve, Cadsuane, Aviendha, Tuon etc all get plenty of airtime- with one notable exception- Elayne is only mentioned in the book, we don't get to have a chapter about her. Presumably he will get to her in the next book, after all she is carrying Rand's baby. Of the other two ta'veren, Mat gets a decent amount of pages, Perrin less so. This book is very much about Rand, perhaps half of it is devoted to him.
The characters and individual threads (in the pattern!) are fully fleshed out, indeed they feel very real and substantial. What is more, they feel right, somehow. They act, speak and think just the right way as they should, not diverging from their previously established archetypes unless demanded from the story. The dialogue seems almost perfectly balanced with descriptions and thought bubbles. He occasionally forgoes complete transcriptions and relies on a sort of precis of what was said- not in a rushed way- more of a 'skip the boring parts' way.
Indeed the pacing, along with the frequency of action, reminds you of no-one so much as a younger Jordan himself. But this is like a turbocharged Jordan, an energised writer not seen since the earlier books. Sanderson writes a bit like some kind of post-apocalyptic clone of Jordan, but one right at the height of his powers. Well, to call him a clone is unfair, he is certainly his own man, has his own writing style, although it is very smooth, the transition here. You could almost forget it was a different writer, but the brilliant turns of plot and just amazingly readable text, even in the slow patches soon remind you differently. I mean, he even made Aes Sedai interesting, and that's something I thought i'd never see after the drudgery that was Crossroads of Twilight.
While Sanderson is certainly a gifted writer and has been given much free rein, and indeed he must have had to fill in large portions of the story, the overarching story is still very much Jordan's. The main points in the story, and especially the ending, really feel like Jordan writing- they have a great feel of him- and you can almost see his invisible hand writing those sections. And of course all the main characters and their stories were written by Jordan.
So to sum up; The Gathering Storm is a brilliant, wonderful, not just fantasy but great book in any genre. If you're a fan of the series, buy this without hesitation. If you haven't read the previous books, read them, then get this.
[Art by Seamas Gallagher. You can see his blog here, and particularly check on this post, which has some fabulous pictures of the WoT characters.]
