I read it and liked it!

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Well, I finally got around to reading The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson. I borrowed it from the library. I probably should have re-read at least the previous book in the series to be reminded of all of the various plots and sub-plots going on as well as the plethora of characters that now exist after 11 volumes of the series, but I didn't. I pretty much just jumped right in. I found that Jordan's 'voice' is very evident in this latest volume. In fact, I had a hard time figuring out where Jordan left off and Sanderson picked up. While there were a couple of seemingly new conventions, it could be that I just don't recall them from the other books. For instance, in this book, the Aiel are said to have a great reverence for blacksmiths though I do not recall this from the earlier books. If it was there, it was no where near as prominent as it is in this new book. Also, it seems that there is a reappearance of themes that Jordan had moved away from. As an example of this, Nynaeve had made a conscious effort to resist the 'tugging on her braid' reaction to anything that bothered her but in The Gathering Storm she seems to have forgotten that and has fallen back into that habit. Most of the major characters make an appearance in this new book - certainly Rand, Mat, and Perrin are present though I would have liked more time spent on Perrin - but the focus of this book seems to be primarily on Rand (as it should be) and Egwene. Have you read it yet? Do you plan to? What are you thoughts on it?