Customer Reviews

Knife of Dreams

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've been a loyal reader of the series, and this book begins to pick up again and has a few surprises along the way, which will have readers feeling relieved after reading book 10.
I've known for a while that Brandon Sanderson would be finishing the series which motivated me to get through book 10 and this.
I will say that the book at times does suffer from Jordan's characterstic attention to detail of what each character is wearing and setting the environment. Some readers may enjoy this, but I found at times I would have to read 2-3 pages of it and it would lose my attention.
Overall 4 stars because I am a loyal reader and look forward to finishing the series.

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.

I nearly stopped reading this series after Crossroads of Twilight, but tried Knife of Dreams out. Let me just say that if you can get through books 9 and 10, you MUST read this, it is well worth the wait. Finally the plot takes off and keeps you glued to the pages (well in comparison with the last two), and events finally take shape. Tarmon Gai'don looks to be around the corner (about bloody time), and the characters (mainly Egwene) begin to make smart decisions instead of always making the worst possible one and the worst possible time. Believe me, well worth the read and well, well worth the wait.

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!

As noted by all, this is a great improvement over the previous books in the series (I rated the last three at one star). Either Jordan has a much better editor, the one he had is taking the job more seriously, or he simply needs much more time to produce a worthwhile read than before.

There is substantially less dress-smoothing. There is substantial improvement in plot development. The overall organization is tremendously improved.

I'm still not fond of his writing style, but this read was as much an unexpected surprise as George R.R. Martin's was an unexpected disappointment (too short in the latter's case).

If this is what we can expect from a long delay between books in this series, may the next one come out in 2009. It might genuinely be a 4-star.

(A singularly unfortunate statement as subsequent events have shown)

I was very happy to see some fast action previously not seen in the other novels. I lglad to find out Jordan went back to basics and focused on the core characters, Egwene, Elayne, Perrin, Mat and Rand. Nynaeve gets some good mention along with Loial the Ogier. There were not nearly so many plotlines as the books 9 and 10 which made the book quite enjoyable. I really liked the pace of the book and was very happy with the direction it took.

I give this book 4/5, mainly because I still think the quality of book 6 (my favourite) far supercedes this one.

It's about time!
The last book in this series was a JOKE...a complete and total waste of ink and paper. Jordan finally returns to form with this latest installment.

Jordan's 11th outing of Rand, Nynaeve, Egwene and Mat is great! I was pleasantly surprised when I finished this one, unlike the last 3 or 4 of the series, in which I was still wondering why I was wasting $35.00 on a hardcover, and often wondering why I was still reading the series at all. Knife of Dreams was fast paced in most places, and gave the reader much satisfaction. Jordan resolved plot lines that tended to drag on and on (can anyone say Faile and the Shaido - finally done), and further introduced many new pieces of information that were very intruiging (ie the state of the Amayar). He did not dwell on the hundreds of pages of descriptions that tended to be repetitive as he has done in the past. He seemed to only include those that were necessary (except the occasional Elayne foray). Looking forward to what we think might be the final volume of the series as there were many many references to everyone preparing for Tarmon Gaidon. Wonder if this will be the title of the next one? If you were wondering why you were hanging on to the series for so long, here is your answer in Knife of Dreams.

This is an excellent read. Truly the best battles ever. I also recommend The System by Roy Valentine and a good pick.

My only beef with this book is that Robert Jordan hasn't stuffed Elayne down a well. FINALLY it looks as though we won't have to read about her inanely boring and drawn out bid for the lion throne in the next installment as it APPEARS to be somewhat finalized in this book. Do yourself a favour and flip past her chapters, you will enjoy the book much more without having to wade through her drivel.