The change in authorial voice is noticeable, and pretending otherwise does nobody a favor. The Gathering Storm is more direct in places where Jordan might have circled a feeling. That directness helps the structure: Rand and Egwene provide strong, contrasting lines through an enormous amount of inherited material.
Rand's attempt to make himself unbreakable is the part that troubles me most productively. The distance between endurance and emotional self-destruction gets harder to ignore. Egwene, by contrast, demonstrates how a person can hold to an identity without controlling her immediate circumstances. Her authority is built through conduct as much as through argument.
Some humor, particularly around Mat, sounds less natural than before. But the book handles its central emotional movements with conviction. It understands that the final conflict will mean little unless we still care about the person expected to face it. Bringing that question back to the center is a considerable achievement.
— Cory Lane