[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

This might be considered slightly "spoilerish", so if you're considering reading The Gathering Storm, you may want to gloss over this next part. I was EXTREMELY disappointed with how the Masema plot was wrapped up. I am really, really hoping that the whole debacle that included him has some further-reaching effects than what we've already seen, because otherwise I'm going to be even more disappointed. Outside of that, I thought the entire book was incredible. The only thing that I really had to get into the groove with was Sanderson's penchant for bouncing from storyline to storyline one chapter at a time - since Jordan seemed to grab a "thread" and run with it for a while (often multiple chapters at a time), it was difficult to jump around so much for me at first. Eventually, I liked it more as it seemed to develop the plot in a quicker manner, which was a welcome change.

I am also now quite bummed about waiting for the next installment.

As a further clarification of my disappointment, I'll use the spoiler tags:

Spoiler

I just think that it was pretty chickenshit to have Masema's character killed off in about four paragraphs. He was a huge plot-driving character for three or four books, and then he's just gone. Obviously, he's responsible for shaping Perrin's opinion of the Seanchan and for dispersing the Shaido (he's what sent Perrin out there in the first place, and Faile being captured forced Perrin to demolish the Shaido), but it seems like a rather...clumsy, I guess...plot device for simply cleaning up loose ends, especially since it took three or four books to finally resolve the thing. I mean, I almost feel as if the entire sequence was a shoddy way to A) Clean up the mess of the Shaido, B) Further cement the Seanchan as "not" bad guys and C) Simply to keep Perrin in the storyline until he's more useful/necessary.

I'm also completely confused by the whole Berelain/Faile/Perrin thing. For the entirety of the story, Jordan has built Berelain up to be this politically savvy, incredibly smart woman who isn't afraid to use her looks to get what she wants. She's obviously NOT going to win Perrin from Faile, and she has to realize this. Simply a case of too much pride? As a small nation, I'd think she would be very familiar with swallowing pride in order to live with things that can't be changed. At first the catty nature of Faile vs. Berelain was a nice diversion/sub-plot, but I'm not sure what it adds to the story at this point, and it's been that way for a book or three now.

Agreed on all counts. That storyline in general has been a disappointment to me for the last few books.

/tk