Thursday, June 20, 2013

REVIEW: Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan

TITLE: Knife of Dreams
AUTHOR: Robert Jordan
GENRE: Fantasy
SERIES: Wheel of Time # 11
WHERE I GOT IT: Own it
READ FROM: January 28th to June 18th 2013

BOOK BLURB: (taken from Goodreads) The Wheel of Time turns, and Robert Jordan gives us the eleventh volume of his extraordinary masterwork of fantasy.
The dead are walking, men die impossible deaths, and it seems as though reality itself has become unstable: All are signs of the imminence of Tarmon Gai'don, the Last Battle, when Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, must confront the Dark One as humanity's only hope. But Rand dares not fight until he possesses all the surviving seals on the Dark One's prison and has dealt with the Seanchan, who threaten to overrun all nations this side of the Aryth Ocean and increasingly seem too entrenched to be fought off. But his attempt to make a truce with the Seanchan is shadowed by treachery that may cost him everything. Whatever the price, though, he must have that truce. And he faces other dangers. There are those among the Forsaken who will go to any length to see him dead--and the Black Ajah is at his side....
Unbeknownst to Rand, Perrin has made his own truce with the Seanchan. It is a deal made with the Dark One, in his eyes, but he will do whatever is needed to rescue his wife, Faile, and destroy the Shaido who captured her. Among the Shaido, Faile works to free herself while hiding a secret that might give her her freedom or cause her destruction. And at a town called Malden, the Two Rivers longbow will be matched against Shaido spears.
Fleeing Ebou Dar through Seanchan-controlled Altara with the kidnapped Daughter of the Nine Moons, Mat attempts to court the woman to whom he is half-married, knowing that she will complete that ceremony eventually. But Tuon coolly leads him on a merry chase as he learns that even a gift can have deep significance among the Seanchan Blood and what he thinks he knows of women is not enough to save him. For reasons of her own, which she will not reveal until a time of her choosing, she has pledged not to escape, but Mat still sweats whenever there are Seanchan soldiers near. Then he learns that Tuon herself is in deadly danger from those very soldiers. To get her to safety, he must do what he hates worse than work....
 
In Caemlyn, Elayne fights to gain the Lion Throne while trying to avert what seems a certain civil war should she win the crown....
 
In the White Tower, Egwene struggles to undermine the sisters loyal to Elaida from within....
 
The winds of time have become a storm, and things that everyone believes are fixed in place forever are changing before their eyes. Even the White Tower itself is no longer a place of safety. Now Rand, Perrin and Mat, Egwene and Elayne, Nynaeve and Lan, and even Loial, must ride those storm winds, or the Dark One will triumph.


MY THOUGHTS: WOW! This one took me quite awhile to get through! I mean I LOOOOOVE the world and the characters but damn taking numerous books to resolve a few things really made the book drag on and on for me. It probably also didn't help that a week or so after I first started reading it back in January, my oldest daughter (who is 2) pulled out my book mark and it took me a month or so before I felt like picking it back up and finding where I had left off. Robert Jordan has so many characters that it is hard to keep track of them all, especially when they don't appear in the books regularly so I tend to forget who they are and what they were doing. At some point I just started blending all the Aes Sedai that I didn't recognize anymore into one lump, figuring that in any rereads I could maybe try to keep them straight then. At this point I just want to get through the series to find out what happens when the last battle finally arrives.

I still don't really like Elayne and by the end of the book my feelings of dislike intensified. I mean how stupid can she be! Near the end she made a few stupid choices that made me want to reach into the book and throttle her! Thanks Elayne for not only putting yourself in danger but those around you at the same time for NO reason at all. Others could have taken care of it without you at the forefront.

My favourite characters still are Egwene and Nynaeve. I found that any time I came across a part of the book that dealt with them I couldn't put the book down. Unfortunately they were not that many parts that dealt with them. Perrin used to also be a favourite but after a few books of him still trying to locate and get his wife back his story line just got boring to me, plus his wife is another character I can't really stand either. Mat's path was also interesting as well in the beginning but it basically has started to drag on too. Rand is semi interesting but he has changed so much from the first book that I don't necessarily like him as much as I did before. However, I can cut Rand some slack since he does really have a lot on his shoulders. I wouldn't want to be in his position.


At least near the end of the book things have started to slowly come together. A few things happened that shocked me. I know that at least in the next three books I will get some answers. Hopefully I will read through them faster then this one. Although looking ahead to book 12 I see that it is actually 300 pages longer then this one. I look forward to seeing how Brandon Sanderson finishes the series and am also sad to realize that for the most part this book was the last one that Robert Jordan fully completed himself. I still can't believe it has been six years since Robert Jordan passed away. May he rest in peace.

RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

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