The Wheel of Time [11] Knife of Dreams (2005)

In my division of the series, Knife of Dreams doesn't fit into a nice grouping. The feel of the book is half of the previous trilogy and half of the next trilogy, as though you're straddling the border between two countries, one foot in each. I consider it a Prologue to the Conclusion. The Conclusion ends up being the Sanderson Trilogy, which is coming up next. For those who haven't been keeping track, here's my personal division of the series:

Setup Trilogy = 1-3
Action Trilogy = 4-6
Bridge / Midpoint = 7
Wandering Trilogy = 8-10
Conclusion Prologue = 11
Sanderson Trilogy = 12-14

Despite its "odd man out" status, it's a good book, in my opinion the best overall entry in the series since Book 6, Lord of Chaos. It's worth slogging through the Wandering Trilogy to get to this point, because pretty much everything is awesome from here on out.

Before You Continue

This blog is part of my The Wheel of Time Retrospective
See this blog post for an overview of the Retrospective
These blogs are not plot recaps—they are most effective in conjunction with your own re-read of the series
Warning: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE SERIES

Coming Back to the Series

When we left off last time, I was extremely upset by the last volume in the series, Crossroads of Twilight. After all the years I had invested in WoT, that book was so disappointing that I vowed I wouldn't continue the series until it was complete.

Obviously, it didn't work that way. Like Kevin Smith and Star Wars, it seems I am predisposed to like this series, no matter what happens to it or in it. It took almost three years for this book to come out, and the more I heard about it and after reading some early reviews, I couldn't help myself. As before, I repeated to myself, "One more chance, Jordan. One more."

In 2005 I was firmly ensconced in Reston, VA, having bought a condo there, working for Nextel Retail Stores in their Finance department, which merged with Sprint in the middle of that year. I started playing guitar in a new band, Raising Water by Fire, more of a hardcore band than the straight metal I was used to. The hype of a new WoT novel hit me and I decided to get involved with an online community and interact a little more with other fans of the series. I had lurked on many of the sites for years, but never felt compelled to join one. Finally I did, tarvalon.net.

I joined in early 2005 under the name of Crowl Rife. I got involved in the forums – mainly just General Discussion and the like, never did any of the Ajah or Tower group stuff there – and hung around for quite a while. I just recently logged in for the first time in years, and it appears that in 2010 they restarted their forums or something; all my post history there is gone. Sucks... I wanted to walk a bit down memory lane and relive some my posts. Oh well.

Anyway, I used to be on it at work all the time, and I was pumped for Knife of Dreams. During the course of the year I did a full re-read of the series for the first time since Book 8, The Path of Daggers, back in 1998. This was more to refresh myself on the early books, as opposed to the newer ones, which I still didn't like. I zipped through the re-read, going from the prequel that had released the year before (New Spring, which I'll cover in a separate blog post later) to Book 10 in less than 3 months, finishing up two days before the Knife of Dreams release.

Thoughts Then

Like clockwork, I found myself at a local bookstore, Books-A-Million, on the morning of release. This time I actually took two days off of work so I could just sit and read it straight through. I was the first one in the door when the store opened, grabbed my copy, then headed off to the Silver Diner for breakfast and a little reading.

The Silver Diner in Reston, VA became my go-to place to celebrate the next two WoT releases, The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight. I'm not sure if I'll go anywhere when A Memory of Light comes out... most likely I'll take work off again and just read at home.

Before reading, I flipped through the book, looking at chapter titles and icons. Most times the chapter titles are generic enough to not give anything aside from a POV away, but at this point I didn't care about spoilers. I cared about Things Happening. When I saw the new snakes & foxes icon for Chapter 10, "A Village in Shiota," my heart skipped a beat. Could we really be doing something about Moiraine, Mat and the Aelfinn/Eelfinn? It had been theorized for so long, but there had yet to be confirmation in the books. I then saw the names for Chapters 28 and 29, "In Malden" and "The Last Knot," respectively. Could Perrin possibly rescue Faile? Seriously? The last chapter, "Prince of the Ravens," alluded to the marriage of Mat and Tuon.

I was very excited just checking the chapter titles. So I dove in with high expectations.

So what did I think? I liked the prologue (as usual, they released an eBook version over the summer, which I skipped), but found the first half of the book fairly dull, and not much better than the previous volume. Off to a bad start. But when I finally got to the Rand chapters, the book took off and didn't let up the rest of the way.

Things Happen!

Finally. Finally many significant things were happening in a WoT novel. Storylines that had been dragging on for the last 3-4 books were resolving. No more Perrin whining about Faile. No more Elayne trying to get the Lion Throne. Both seven year tangents that were now thankfully done.

More of the Black Ajah who had disappeared way back in Book 3 are rounded up and taken care of here, though there are still a couple unaccounted for as of now. Mat and Tuon get married, something we've been waiting for since Book 4. Discussing the rescue of Moiraine. Another capture of a Forsaken.

And real signs that Tarmon Gai'don is just around the corner are here... not just the occasional ghost or weevil like in Crossroads of Twilight, but real events, like Nynaeve dropping Lan off at World's End to start gathering up the Borderlanders for Tarmon Gai'don. Reading that chapter actually brought a tear to my eye, it's very well done. Rand trying to make a truce with the Seanchan, since it's obvious he could not conquer them. The pieces are starting to move into their final places.

It was such a relief to see Jordan back on track. Back then Books 8-10 were a pointless tangent to me. I wanted to get back to the three ta'veren and the meat of the story.

Thoughts Now

As I did when I first read it, I found the first half of the novel to still be slow. Knowing that it gets more awesome kept me going, though, and I zipped through the second half in just a couple of days. I like the lead up to Faile's rescue much better now, and I must admit I like that entire sequence in this book—I just don't like all the lead up and dithering around Perrin does in the last two books.

But what I like most about this one is the additional insight into the Seanchan world. We learn of the death of the Empress and chaos in Seandar in the prologue, which is a great twist that I never expected. We get more POVs from Seanchan characters, and the one by Tuon is fantastic, the way she calls Mat "Toy" in her thoughts and the way she is surprised by him once they rejoin the Band of the Red Hand. Overall, Jordan involves them a lot more in this novel than in past ones, and it's at this point that they no longer feel like a peripheral force to me; they are fully entrenched in the "Randland" continent and now have a part to play in the Last Battle. I always hoped Jordan would actually spend time on the Seanchan continent, but I'll take what I can get.

I also think it's interesting how some characters are only just now hearing about Dumai's Wells (the conclusion of Book 6, Lord of Chaos). News travels pretty slow when you don't have the ability to Travel... we've been used to Travelling for a number of volumes now, so it's weird to still encounter that—among the White Tower Aes Sedai of all people! It shows how far behind everyone else they've fallen. Once at the forefront of events in the world, they are now bringing up the rear and risk being left behind if don't accept change.

The one thing that's still lacking at this point, though, is the Black Tower. We get a little bit of it in this volume, but it still feels out of place sometimes. I wish Jordan had been able to spend more time there, showing how it expanded, though we can easily infer that from the few glimpses we do get. I never understood why Rand didn't visit them more. He surely knows what's going on there, yet doesn't try to put Taim in his place. I very much liked how Logain was featured more in this volume, but the whole Black Tower storyline is still unresolved heading into the final book, so we're going to have to wait until then to figure it all out (and finally learn how Demandred has been involved in the Black Tower, as we all know he has). Most likely Taim and his followers will be fighting for the Shadow.

Another Horrible Cover

The golden eyes could have been more prominent...

Another WoT novel, another Sweet cover. This time we get a glimpse into Perrin's tent, which is super exciting and just makes me want to snap up the book and immediately read it. The depiction of Gaul and Galina I am fine with, even Grady on the back, and I do like the color scheme for this one, but I hate this version of Perrin. He looks to be in his 30s and has the typical look of many Sweet characters, which unsurprisingly looks like Sweet himself. He also appears to be a younger version of the dude behind him, which I'm guessing is Arganda.

In addition, the title/author on the spine of the dust jacket is now vertical, rather than horizontal. The Eye of the World was vertical, then everything after that was horizontal...until Knife of Dreams. Suddenly they are vertical again (the next two volumes are vertical too). Why the sudden change? I don't really understand that, and I don't like the way it looks when all the books are in a row on the shelf. Stick with the same design the entire way through, Tor. Makes me think of A Song of Ice and Fire, they have like 4 different U.S. cover designs now, they get rebranded every couple of years it seems.

A Memory of Light Publication Date

A quick note about the final volume, A Memory of Light. While I was finishing up my re-read of Knife of Dreams, Tor announced the publication date for A Memory of Light: January 8th, 2013. Brandon Sanderson had been hinting at November 2012 for a long while now, but apparently Tor and Harriet McDougal (Jordan's widow and editor), decided they needed more time to get the book polished.

The delay doesn't bother me at all. January is only 2 months later than November, and I wasn't expecting it until then anyway. What's another couple of months when you've already been waiting 20 years?

In the end, I suppose I started my final re-read a bit too early. I was hoping for a fall 2012 release... now it will be over half a year until I can read and blog about the final book.

My Only Robert Jordan Signing

This time around, I decided to attend a Robert Jordan signing. In retrospect it was a good thing I did, because I would have never gotten another chance.

I never went to a Jordan signing before for a couple of reasons. One was that I lived in Nebraska until 2001, and I don't believe he ever came close to Omaha or Lincoln for a signing (I could be wrong). Terry Goodkind stopped by Omaha once when Faith of the Fallen (from his Sword of Truth series) released, and I went to that one, but in general Nebraska and surrounds is not a popular area for signings by NYT Bestselling fantasy authors.

As for the other reason... I just never paid much attention to it. I'm not big on signings, to be honest. It's cool to meet an author in person, but I find that I never have anything interesting to say when I go up to get something signed, I feel awkward doing it, and I just don't enjoy sitting around for an hour or two waiting for something anymore. I've done my fair share of that for concerts and the like over the years.

In the case of Knife of Dreams, though, I learned about Jordan's signing tour through tarvalon.net, the WoT fansite I mentioned earlier, and I decided to go since he would be coming near where I lived for once. Another member of tarvalon.net said he'd be at the signing too, and we discussed it and told each other what we'd be wearing so we could chat there. Unfortunately I don't remember what that person's name was, and since those forums are gone I'll never know.

The signing was at Olsson's Books, in Arlington, VA, on October 19, 2005. It was a smaller bookstore, and like many other small bookstores, they now appear to be closed for good (according to their website). I had never been there before, and I left work early the day of the signing to take the Metro (DC subway) into Arlington.

I was a half-hour early, bought my hardback copy of New Spring there so I could get a signing number, then sat and waited. I met the guy from tarvalon.net and we chatted a bit, then sat and read while waiting for Jordan. I was very excited for this signing. I was excited to meet Jordan, listen to him talk, do the Q&A and all the other stuff I kept hearing about regarding his signings over the years.

In retrospect, I think that day was a bad day for Jordan. He was late because of traffic, he said, and maybe he was feeling unwell. In any event, I personally found the signing to be somewhat disappointing, and Jordan seemed irritated, almost like he didn't want to be there. Or maybe it was just me, and I was expecting too much based on reports from all the past signings. And maybe he was getting tired of them and having to field the same questions. Who knows.

I actually submitted a report of the signing to Dragonmount.com, which they posted. Here it is in full:

Hey, I was at the RJ signing last night (10/19) at Olsson’s Books in Arlington, VA. I’ve been reading the series for nigh 13 years now, but this was my first time attending one of his signings. I would have to say it was a bit of a disappointment...he showed up about 10 minutes late and went through his normal pronunciation spiel looking slightly perturbed. He then reiterated the answers for what have seemed to become the most oft asked questions this time around: Book 12 will be done when he’s finished with it, it will be last one no matter what, Infinity of Heaven is the next thing he’s doing, the two WoT prequels will be done at some point in the future, and that he’s come up with an idea for a trilogy of "outrigger" novels in the WoT world, but that he has to let it stew for a few years before he decides on doing it. Then, probably because he arrived late, he skipped the Q&A and went straight to signing. Somewhat disappointing, as the event was billed as a Q&A / Signing, and the Q&A was the main reason I went in the first place. I would have liked to just hear him talk for a little bit.

Anyway, when he signed my books I just asked him what he thought of the Darrell K. Sweet covers, and he said they were okay, but that he has minimal input on them. Sometimes he suggests scenes, and when he gets to look at the paintings prior to publication he suggest changes, but in the end basically Tor does whatever they want with it. A friend of mine ahead of me in line asked RJ if he would ever do any more Conan books and he said no, he only did them because he needed the money at the time. Obviously, he doesn’t need money anymore. ;^) So that’s it. Nothing too exciting. At least I got to finally meet him after so long.

Yes, of course I asked him about the Sweet covers, considering how much I hate them! Did you expect anything less based on earlier posts? Not surprised at all that he didn't have much to do with them.

Anyway, I got The Shadow Rising and Knife of Dreams signed. I posted a picture of The Shadow Rising in that blog entry, so here's the Knife of Dreams one: