Review: Knife of Dreams - Robert Jordan (11 of 14)

Just a quick warning before I start. This review will contain spoilers from the previous books! So if you do not want to know until you have read it I suggest you put off reading this for a little bit.

Rand al'Thor continues his quest for a truce with the Seanchan but will it be him or Lews Therin Telamon that face the Empire? And what say will the Forsaken have in the negotiations between the two sides? With her own Empire and the Shadow after Tuon, Mat Cauthon continues his flight but sooner or later he must turn and fight to secure safe passage home for the Daughter of the Nine Moons. His alliance with the Seanchan General in place Perrin Aybara sets out to defeat the Shaido and rescue his wife, Faile Bashere. Captured by the Aes Sedai under Elaida, Egwene al'Vere discovers a tower more broken than even she had suspected. Can she undermine Elaida from within whilst beginning to heal the many rifts within the White Tower, or will she be beaten into submission before help can arrive? Elayne Trakand continues her quest for the Lion Throne of Andor and Nynaeve al'Meara sends her husband, Lan Mandragoran, north to defend the position deserted by the Boarderland leaders.

Knife of Dreams is the eleventh of fourteen books in Robert Jordan's fantasy series The Wheel of Time. This was the last book written solely by Robert Jordan before his death in September 2007. The book immediately, upon its release, rose to the number one position in the New York Times Bestseller List, making it the fourth consecutive Wheel of Time book to do so. The books prologue, named Embers Falling on Dry Grass, was released as an ebook three months before the books publication. This book takes away from the disappointment of the last book as you realize that the previous book acted to set up all of the events that unfold. The book returns to its fast pace that we are so used to and produces exciting climaxes from almost every plot in the book. With all of our three main protagonists put into situations where their leadership becomes more solid and necessary we see the final growth of the characters from country boys into rulers and generals. This moves the characters along in our eyes as events that have been building over the last couple of books come to fruition with an exciting and unexpected crescendo.

All in all we see the series hit form again after a slowing of pace and plot progression in the last book. All bar one of the main story lines has a huge climactic ending that take up almost one fifth of the book between them. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and was very pleased to see the return to the style of writing that had made me come to love the series in the first place.

Knife of Dreams on Goodreads

Ashley