The fourteenth and final book of The Wheel Of Time took me three weeks of reading... well, nothing else, I think.
I grumbled quite a lot three weeks ago when I realized that the e-book version wouldn't come out immediately; my impatience got the better of my grumpiness and I went to my favorite bookshop to get it.
Impatience is also what I remember from the first books. I had started reading them in French, but the French translation was publishing two books in French for every book in English, and the pocket edition was very slow to appear after the larger edition - starting to read them in English was both a way to speed the process up... and making substantial savings! (because between one paperback and two hardbacks, the choice is easy.) And that was... a bit more than 15 years ago. This series has followed me for half of my life. It's incredible. And now... it's over.

I guess I won't spoil too much when saying that A Memory of Light is the book of the Last Battle. As such, it's pretty much packed with battles, fights and epicness. And generally speaking, it's very satisfying. Everyone has their role, everyone is participating in the biggest event ever, and the whole thing is amazing. I wouldn't have expected to enjoy so much a 900-page battle report - but it worked very, very well. As a reader, one gets closure on the fate of all the people that one has followed during thousands of pages, in a way that is, again, satisfying (and somewhat rewarding). Some characters die, as expected in a battle of this scale; there is not much time given to mourn for them, but it is, again, somewhat to be expected.

All in all, a great conclusion to a series that had its ups and downs. I am very happy with the work of Brandon Sanderson - I have no idea whether he was "the best possible author for this job", but he definitely did a very fine job of concluding the series. Nowadays, I probably wouldn't start to read a series of that scale; retrospectively, I'm glad I got into it 15 years ago. I would have a hard time recommanding it to anyone - in the same way, probably, that I wouldn't recommand running a marathon to anyone (and first and foremorst myself ;) ). It's just... gigantic. And a few books in the middle are really not that great. Is it worth it in the end? I think so. It was a good story.