Long time fan of the series and eagerly awaiting the last book. Towers of Midnight did exactly what it needed to do, namely get all of the people and pieces into place for the Last Battle. However I can't help but think there is going to be too much left to finish for one book. There are already rumors of Memories of Light being over a 1000 pages long, possibly as much as 1400 pages.
But enough about all that.
The Good in ToM in no particular order.
The new Zen-Rand as some fans call him, he is awesome and a return in many ways to the Rand of the earliest books in the series. Two of the best scenes in the book are his namely his moment at the battle of Maradon and his one or two page total verbal ass-kicking of Cadsuane.
Perrin finally accepting his fate and getting stuff done. Two of my other favorite scenes in the book are his. His conversation with Egwene during the battle in the dream world, and him and Neald rediscovering how to make power-wrought weapons.
Matt getting around to doing something that has been foreshadowed and teased for many books. His rescue of Moiraine is great stuff, and her return promises some great scenes in Memories of Light
And finally stuff happens, plot strands get ended or merged into other strands. The pace of events is speeding up.
And now the Bad.
I hate the female Aes Sedai, particularly Egwene more than ever. The last battle is coming and everyone knows it, but the Aes Sedai are still plotting and scheming and think that only they know best what to do. Female characters in general in this book come across poorly, with the exceptions of Brigette, Moiraine and partly Nynaeve and maybe Aviendha(her scenes are some of the best in the book). Elayne, Faile, Berelain, Cadsuane, countless Aes Sedai and other female characters all come across very negatively. Focus on winning the last battle(something most of the male characters are doing) instead of scheming for advantage after that battle.
The Forsaken are pretty much weaker and more ineffective than ever, although the return of Lanfear should be interesting. All the Forsaken's plans come to basically nothing in this book, except possibly for whatever is going on in the Black Tower(Argh, there needed to be more time spent on the BT, but we'll get that next book).
Saunderson cannot quite match the voice of some characters, and his writing style is more overtly different than Jordan's in this book. Being streamlined with less detail allows him to move faster, but in some scenes I couldn't help but wish for Jordan's level of description and detail. Especially battle scenes. Jordan was a Vietnam veteran with combat experience and awards for valor. Saunderson just can't write battle scenes nearly as well as Jordan could. Which does not bode well for the last book which should have many, many battles.
Finally, a lot of stuff happens in ToM, but the first 500 pages or so are kind of a drag. And most of the good stuff is reserved for the last 200 pages. If the entire book had been able to match the last few hundred pages it would have been a great book, instead of just very good.
Oh, and a last niggling point that I hope someone can answer. Who the heck is the woman Aviendha meets on her journey?
