Most helpful customer reviews
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16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A step forward; but is it really that good?, Sep 26 2006
Knife of Dreams, the elenth book in the colossal fantasy series the Wheel of Time, has been viewed as something of a return for Robert Jordan. After near unanimous agreement on the terrible quality of books 8-10 (and particularly book 10, Crossroads of Twilight, an 800 page novel where literally nothing happens), fans (and some critics) have regarded this as a return to form. Are they right? Is Knife of Dreams really as good as such earlier volumes as The Dragon Reborn and Lord of Chaos? Has it redeemed the series? While it certainly marks an improvement, I would argue that A Knife of Dreams is a simply mediocre effort and nowhere near on par with the earlier books in the series.
The key thing that fans seem to be praising about this novel is its pace; and indeed, the fact that plotlines that have been festering away for as many as three or four 800 page books is a welcome change. However, there is no question that this book is overlong, and that Jordan still maintains the overdescriptive writing style that has left this series in such a mire. Jordan still spends way too much time describing the clothing of all the characters we meet, and, more damningly, takes up too much page space with unimportant plotlines. The worst example of this is Elayne; far too much time is spent with such an uninteresting character, and Jordan's political machinations are both shallow and boring. Sections like Elayne's, and those of minor charactors whose names you won't remember and who won't have any effect on the actual major plot, bring the pace of the book down quite a lot and make it, at points, a plodding experience.
And although several plotlines are resolved in this book, I can't say that Jordan does it all too well. After spending three agonizing books watching Perrin plot to rescue his wife, a 15 page battle in which this is finally done is incredibly anti-climactic and proves that Jordan really just had no idea where to go with the plot. Any attempt to tie threads like this in with the overall plot are absent, showing that really, Jordan just needed somewhere convenient for his characters to be while Rand takes his time getting ready for the last battle. Similarly, when something dramatic finally happens in Rand's POV (and I'm not talking about a certain incredibly dumb battle which pits Rand against a large number of foes), it is written so clumsily and is over so quickly that you feel as if Jordan is just writing these scenes so that he can placate the fans and get back to his love of dress description.
Now, on the positive side, the pace has increased, despite my complaints. Although basically all the women in the series remain one note characters with no likeable or interesting character traits, Egwene finally becomes likeable after ten books, though her plotline is annoying left with not even a cliffhanger. Similarly, Nynaeve has a touching moment here, words I certainly never thought I'd hear (well, read) myself saying (typing). And of course, even while nothing of import happens in his plotline (until the very end), Mat can still, fortunately, entertain you.
Despite all these problems, there is a more serious issue that has been present in this series since book seven: Namely, when's it going to end? Although Jordan has began resolving plotlines, he has also introduced several in this book. He promises to only deliver one more book, yet, without rushing the action even more, I find that its simply impossible to resolve all these plotlines within one book. On the other hand, I am really getting fed up with this never ending story, and I want nothing more than for it to finally reach some resolution. Jordan has really built himself into a corner with this series. This alone makes me want to lower the book's rating to two stars, but I'm allowing myself to be generous in the hope that something good will come of this series again. It'll be interesting to see if he can worm his way out of this with the next (and possibly last) book of the Wheel of Time, A Memory of Light.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Oh happy days, Feb 19 2006
Finally the series regains its momentum. Not entirely back to where it should be, but a whole lot better than its predecessors.**A book I would also recommend is The Unsuspecting Mage by Brian S. Pratt. This, the first installment of The Morcyth Saga is a great beginning for a new author. Battles, magic, gods, secret passages and intrigue, all the elements of a classic epic fantasy! Any fantasy reader will enjoy it. Also it didn't take 4-6 weeks to come as I had been worried about. Only about fifteen days. Still a wait but worth it!
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Score this one for Jordan, Dec 29 2005
By A Customer
Yes finally this book takes the series back to where it originally was...battles, the return of the shadow...all the characters, it was a good read. A few drawbacks still, like all that mumble jumble walking around the white tower figuring out who was conspiring and plotting against whom and so forth. However, the best part about this book is that you don't even have to read book ten to know everything that is going on. I read half of CoT before I put it down, and picked up KoD and pretty much figured out everything that had transpired through book ten. Overall it was enjoyable, it seems that book twelve actually might be the last of the series since the intensity increases dramatically. For those who have lost faith in this series, give it one more shot with this book.
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by Robert Jordan
by Robert Jordan
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