Knife of Dreams - Review
Knife of Dreams (Book 11) is a triumphant return to form for the
series after 3 middling books that were part of “The Slog”. Robert
Jordan really flexes his action prowess in this book, so much so that
even the first 20 pages of the prologue felt like it had more action
than the entirety of Crossroads of Twilight (Book 10). It’s not
only packed with great action sequences, but also a lot of crazy plot
twists, revelations, and tons of suspenseful moments. There’s also a ton
of payoffs, as a lot of lingering questions are answered. This book
also ties up a lot of loose plot threads and wraps up the story arcs
that have started since The Path of Daggers (Book 8). For those
of you who might still be reading through “The Slog” and checking this
review out, it’s all worth it if you just stick with it and get to this
book. This is a non-spoiler review that will be covered in 5 sections:
Characters, Plot, Setting/World-Building, Pacing, & my final
thoughts along with a rating.
This
book focuses on Mat, Elayne, Rand, Perrin, and Faile. Mat’s been
climbing up my character rankings for the last few books but he’s
officially my favorite character in the series now, and it’s kind of
crazy because I didn’t start liking him until maybe the 5th or 6th book
in this series, and I definitely hated him in the first couple of books.
I’ve come around on Elayne in the last couple of books and I really
liked her in this book especially. She’s much less snobby and she
continues to show great leadership qualities and her expertise in
political maneuvering. I also enjoyed Rand’s chapters in this book.
Throughout the last couple of books I kept thinking how overpowered Rand
is becoming and I really didn’t feel any danger for the side of Light
when the Last Battle eventually comes, especially since the male half of
the Source is cleansed now. But from Rand feeling more and more ill
whenever he seizes Saidin, Lew Therin seemingly gaining more control of
Rand’s body, and a pivotal moment that affects him severely near the end
of this book, I’m much more nervous now heading into the Last Battle.
Perrin finally has a lot to do and has some fantastic moments in this book. Mat’s still #1 for me but Perrin is a clear #2. Lan would be up there as well but he’s rarely in these books, but he had some good moments in this book as well and he’s by far my favorite secondary character in the series. I also shockingly liked Faile in this book. I actually also liked her in the previous book but she’s really great here as well. I don’t know what Brandon Sanderson has planned for the remaining 3 books but Robert Jordan really did a great job of wrapping up all the main characters individual arcs (except Egwene) and preparing them for the Last Battle. I’m interested to see how Sanderson writes these characters and how different or similar they will feel to Robert Jordan’s true characterizations.
Mat
meets up with the rest of the Band of the Red Hand and starts attacking
scattered groups of the Seanchan army who are trying to kill Tuon
because they believe she’s an imposter who must be killed. Perrin forms a
temporary alliance with a small group of the Seanchan and begins
planning an attack of the Shaido camp in order to free Faile, Queen
Alliandre, Maighdin/Queen Morgase, and others. Elayne continues to fend
off Arymilla’s siege, trying to gain more support for her claim to the
Lion Throne, and is keeping tabs on a suspected Darkfriend in the
palace. Rand is attacked by an unexpected force while still recovering
from his and Nynaeve’s cleansing of Saidin and later goes to meet with
the Seanchan for a supposed truce. Since Egwene has been captured, she’s
being severely punished inside the White Tower, but she’s still
planting seeds of doubt from within and trying to turn
people to her cause.
I really enjoyed all these storylines. Rand’s arcs are great as always, this is Perrin’s 2nd greatest storyline in the series, and this is one of Elayne’s better storylines in the series as well. Egwene’s storyline was the weakest compared to the others but in general, it was still pretty good. Mat’s earlier chapters were dragging a bit for me but his later chapters were fantastic. Even though his earlier chapters were slow, there was a jaw-dropping moment that offset those chapters entirely and without getting into spoilers, I’m referring to Thom’s letter, for those who have already read this book. This might have been my favorite moment in the series so far and I literally jumped out of my chair while I was reading that letter. There's also a phenomenal call-back to a scene from either the 1st or 2nd book of the series (Hint: Mat staring at a certain tower while aboard Domon’s ship) which plays a big role here and I was just speechless at the level of planning that was done that early on in the series.
This book had one of the most entertaining and satisfying endings I’ve ever read period. Not only were there were so many payoffs to long-standing mysteries and loose plot threads but the level of action and suspense was also incredible. Robert Jordan writes action scenes and combat so well and I remember in my earlier reviews in the series where one of my issues were……his action sequences. It’s a shame for the people that might have quit this series during “The Slog” and didn’t make it to this 11th book because they might judge Robert Jordan’s action by the Sword Forms that no one understands during one-on-one combat or just Aes Sedai hurling fireballs, but the action sequences really stand out in this book and Jordan is really good at setting up the battles with a great amount of tension before it begins, conveying the complex battle tactics and strategic arrangements on the battlefield (particularly with Mat’s battle at the end), and also making us feel the devastation during the aftermath of a battle. We’ve seen it already with The Battle of Emond’s Field and The Battle of Dumai’s Wells but he usually saves his big action sequences for the ending of a book. This book in particular is filled with action throughout the entire book, starting all the way from the prologue.
The main settings of this book are Caemlyn, the White Tower of Tar Valon, and Malden. The Dark One’s touch is really starting to affect the world now, with black weevils appearing in all sorts of food, ghosts seen walking about, strong currents of wind blowing with a smell of sulphur, the interiors of buildings/structures such as corridors and hallways shifting to different locations, villages melting into the ground, and the world itself occasionally rippling for a few seconds which makes people seem like fog or mist. All these oddities are showing that the world and reality itself is twisting and it’s signaling the approach of Tarmon Gai’don (the Last Battle).
I also wanted to highlight one of my favorite passages from this book describing how impossible it is to besiege the Stone of Tear: A mass of stone like a barren, sheer-sided, hill that stretched from the River Erinin into the city’s heart, covering at least 8 or 9 marches, a good square mile or more, and dominating the city’s sky. The Stone of Tear was mankind’s oldest stronghold, the oldest structure in the world, made with the One Power in the last days of the Breaking itself. It was one solid piece of stone, without a single join. The first battlements stood a hundred paces above the ground, though there were arrow-slits aplenty lower, and stone spouts for showering attackers with boiling oil or molten lead. No besieger could stop the Stone from being supplied through its own wall-shielded docks, and it contained forges and manufactories to replace or mend every sort of weapon should its armories fall short. The Stone had been designed for war within as well as without. Wherever 2 corridors crossed, murder-holes dotted the ceiling. Between the tapestries, arrow-slits pierced the walls high up, angled to cover the corridors in both directions, and no flight of sweeping stairs but had arrow-slits placed so the staircase could be swept by arrows or crossbow bolts.
The
pacing of this book is pretty good. Robert Jordan did an especially
great job in this particular book (compared to the rest of the books in
the series) of evenly spreading out the action sequences to keep the
reader entertained throughout and there was never a long stretch of
chapters where it was starting to become a little long-winded (like
other books in the series). Some of Mat’s earlier chapters were slow and
I was starting to feel like it dragged, but immediately after that was
the phenomenal reveal of Thom’s letter and I was right back in it. This
was definitely one of the better paced books in the series.
Knife of Dreams was a really fun reading experience. It felt so satisfying to finally get resolutions to these long-standing plot threads and finally getting answers to a lot of the mysteries and unanswered questions. This was the most action-packed book in the series by far but it also had really great character development and some jaw-dropping revelations. This book and The Shadow Rising (Book 4) are my highest rated books in the series and they’re both tied at 9/10, but I think Knife of Dreams beats out the 4th book by a little bit, making it my favorite book in the series so far. I’m sad that this was Robert Jordan’s last piece of writing before his unfortunate passing but he ended on a glorious high note, and I can’t wait to see what Brandon Sanderson does with the remainder of this series along with Robert Jordan’s final notes.
My Book Rankings: https://jaytargaryen.blogspot.com/p/b...
*My Rating System*
5 Stars (9-10): Amazing
4 Stars (7-9): Really Good to Great
3 Stars (5-7): Average to Good
2 Stars (3-5): Bad to Mediocre
1 Star (1-3): Terrible
Image: Nynaeve al’Meara.
[Characters]:
Perrin finally has a lot to do and has some fantastic moments in this book. Mat’s still #1 for me but Perrin is a clear #2. Lan would be up there as well but he’s rarely in these books, but he had some good moments in this book as well and he’s by far my favorite secondary character in the series. I also shockingly liked Faile in this book. I actually also liked her in the previous book but she’s really great here as well. I don’t know what Brandon Sanderson has planned for the remaining 3 books but Robert Jordan really did a great job of wrapping up all the main characters individual arcs (except Egwene) and preparing them for the Last Battle. I’m interested to see how Sanderson writes these characters and how different or similar they will feel to Robert Jordan’s true characterizations.
Favorite Characters – Mat, Perrin, Rand, Lan, & Birgitte.
Image: Rand deflecting an attack from Semirhage.
[Plot]:
I really enjoyed all these storylines. Rand’s arcs are great as always, this is Perrin’s 2nd greatest storyline in the series, and this is one of Elayne’s better storylines in the series as well. Egwene’s storyline was the weakest compared to the others but in general, it was still pretty good. Mat’s earlier chapters were dragging a bit for me but his later chapters were fantastic. Even though his earlier chapters were slow, there was a jaw-dropping moment that offset those chapters entirely and without getting into spoilers, I’m referring to Thom’s letter, for those who have already read this book. This might have been my favorite moment in the series so far and I literally jumped out of my chair while I was reading that letter. There's also a phenomenal call-back to a scene from either the 1st or 2nd book of the series (Hint: Mat staring at a certain tower while aboard Domon’s ship) which plays a big role here and I was just speechless at the level of planning that was done that early on in the series.
This book had one of the most entertaining and satisfying endings I’ve ever read period. Not only were there were so many payoffs to long-standing mysteries and loose plot threads but the level of action and suspense was also incredible. Robert Jordan writes action scenes and combat so well and I remember in my earlier reviews in the series where one of my issues were……his action sequences. It’s a shame for the people that might have quit this series during “The Slog” and didn’t make it to this 11th book because they might judge Robert Jordan’s action by the Sword Forms that no one understands during one-on-one combat or just Aes Sedai hurling fireballs, but the action sequences really stand out in this book and Jordan is really good at setting up the battles with a great amount of tension before it begins, conveying the complex battle tactics and strategic arrangements on the battlefield (particularly with Mat’s battle at the end), and also making us feel the devastation during the aftermath of a battle. We’ve seen it already with The Battle of Emond’s Field and The Battle of Dumai’s Wells but he usually saves his big action sequences for the ending of a book. This book in particular is filled with action throughout the entire book, starting all the way from the prologue.
Image: Berelain sur Paendrag Paeron.
[Setting/World-Building]:
The main settings of this book are Caemlyn, the White Tower of Tar Valon, and Malden. The Dark One’s touch is really starting to affect the world now, with black weevils appearing in all sorts of food, ghosts seen walking about, strong currents of wind blowing with a smell of sulphur, the interiors of buildings/structures such as corridors and hallways shifting to different locations, villages melting into the ground, and the world itself occasionally rippling for a few seconds which makes people seem like fog or mist. All these oddities are showing that the world and reality itself is twisting and it’s signaling the approach of Tarmon Gai’don (the Last Battle).
I also wanted to highlight one of my favorite passages from this book describing how impossible it is to besiege the Stone of Tear: A mass of stone like a barren, sheer-sided, hill that stretched from the River Erinin into the city’s heart, covering at least 8 or 9 marches, a good square mile or more, and dominating the city’s sky. The Stone of Tear was mankind’s oldest stronghold, the oldest structure in the world, made with the One Power in the last days of the Breaking itself. It was one solid piece of stone, without a single join. The first battlements stood a hundred paces above the ground, though there were arrow-slits aplenty lower, and stone spouts for showering attackers with boiling oil or molten lead. No besieger could stop the Stone from being supplied through its own wall-shielded docks, and it contained forges and manufactories to replace or mend every sort of weapon should its armories fall short. The Stone had been designed for war within as well as without. Wherever 2 corridors crossed, murder-holes dotted the ceiling. Between the tapestries, arrow-slits pierced the walls high up, angled to cover the corridors in both directions, and no flight of sweeping stairs but had arrow-slits placed so the staircase could be swept by arrows or crossbow bolts.
[Pacing]:
[Final Thoughts & Rating]:
Knife of Dreams was a really fun reading experience. It felt so satisfying to finally get resolutions to these long-standing plot threads and finally getting answers to a lot of the mysteries and unanswered questions. This was the most action-packed book in the series by far but it also had really great character development and some jaw-dropping revelations. This book and The Shadow Rising (Book 4) are my highest rated books in the series and they’re both tied at 9/10, but I think Knife of Dreams beats out the 4th book by a little bit, making it my favorite book in the series so far. I’m sad that this was Robert Jordan’s last piece of writing before his unfortunate passing but he ended on a glorious high note, and I can’t wait to see what Brandon Sanderson does with the remainder of this series along with Robert Jordan’s final notes.
Rating: 9/10
My Book Rankings: https://jaytargaryen.blogspot.com/p/b...
*My Rating System*
5 Stars (9-10): Amazing
4 Stars (7-9): Really Good to Great
3 Stars (5-7): Average to Good
2 Stars (3-5): Bad to Mediocre
1 Star (1-3): Terrible
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