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| Knife of Dreams (The Wheel of Time, Book 11) | 
 enlarge | Author: Robert Jordan
Publisher: Tor Fantasy
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  524 reviews
Sales Rank: 9022
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1000
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.6
ISBN: 0812577566
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780812577563
ASIN: 0812577566
Publication Date: November 28, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: brown spine, yellow and white letters, some tears and scuffing. May have some shelf wear and rubbing on the edges and corners. Only Priority envelope sized books or smaller can be sent internationally.
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Amazon.com Review
About the Author
Robert Jordan lives in Charleston, South Carolina. He is a graduate of the Citadel. Amazon.com Exclusive Content 
Amazon.com's Significant Seven
Robert Jordan kindly agreed to take the life quiz we like to give to all our authors: the Amazon.com Significant Seven.
Q: What book has had the most significant impact on your life?
A: The King James version of the Bible. That seems a cliche, but I can't think of any other book that has had as large an impact in shaping who I am.
Q: You are stranded on a desert island with only one book, one CD, and one DVD--what are they?
A: The one book would be whatever book I was currently writing. I mean, I hate falling behind in the work. The one CD would contain the best encyclopedia I could find on desert island survival. The DVD would contain as much of Beethoven, Mozart, and Duke Ellington as I could cram onto it.
Q: What is the worst lie you've ever told?
A: It's hard to think of one since I am genetically incapable of lying to women and that takes out 52% of the population right there.
Q: Describe the perfect writing environment.
A: Any place that has my computer, a CD player for music, a comfortable chair that won't leave me with a backache at the end of a long day, and very little interruption.
Q: If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say?
A: He kept trying to get better at it.
Q: Who is the one person living or dead that you would like to have dinner with?
A: My wife before anybody else on earth living or dead. That's a no-brainer.
Q: If you could have one superpower what would it be?
A: That depends. If I'm feeling altruistic, it would be the ability to heal anything with a touch, if that can be called a superpower. If I'm not feeling very altruistic, it would be the ability to read other people's minds, to finally be able to get to the bottom of what they really mean and what their motivations are.
See all books in the Wheel of Time series.
Product Description
The Wheel of Time turns, and Robert Jordan gives us the eleventh volume of his extraordinary masterwork of fantasy.
The dead are walking, men die impossible deaths, and it seems as though reality itself has become unstable: All are signs of the imminence of Tarmon Gai’don, the Last Battle, when Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, must confront the Dark One as humanity’s only hope. But Rand dares not fight until he possesses all the surviving seals on the Dark One’s prison and has dealt with the Seanchan, who threaten to overrun all nations this side of the Aryth Ocean and increasingly seem too entrenched to be fought off. But his attempt to make a truce with the Seanchan is shadowed by treachery that may cost him everything. Whatever the price, though, he must have that truce. And he faces other dangers. There are those among the Forsaken who will go to any length to see him dead--and the Black Ajah is at his side.... Unbeknownst to Rand, Perrin has made his own truce with the Seanchan. It is a deal made with the Dark One, in his eyes, but he will do whatever is needed to rescue his wife, Faile, and destroy the Shaido who captured her. Among the Shaido, Faile works to free herself while hiding a secret that might give her her freedom or cause her destruction. And at a town called Malden, the Two Rivers longbow will be matched against Shaido spears. Fleeing Ebou Dar through Seanchan-controlled Altara with the kidnapped Daughter of the Nine Moons, Mat attempts to court the woman to whom he is half-married, knowing that she will complete that ceremony eventually. But Tuon coolly leads him on a merry chase as he learns that even a gift can have deep significance among the Seanchan Blood and what he thinks he knows of women is not enough to save him. For reasons of her own, which she will not reveal until a time of her choosing, she has pledged not to escape, but Mat still sweats whenever there are Seanchan soldiers near. Then he learns that Tuon herself is in deadly danger from those very soldiers. To get her to safety, he must do what he hates worse than work.... In Caemlyn, Elayne fights to gain the Lion Throne while trying to avert what seems a certain civil war should she win the crown.... In the White Tower, Egwene struggles to undermine the sisters loyal to Elaida from within.... The winds of time have become a storm, and things that everyone believes are fixed in place forever are changing before their eyes. Even the White Tower itself is no longer a place of safety. Now Rand, Perrin and Mat, Egwene and Elayne, Nynaeve and Lan, and even Loial, must ride those storm winds, or the Dark One will triumph.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 519 more reviews...
 A lot better and a few good advances, but he's got one huge mess to clean up October 12, 2005
889 out of 933 found this review helpful
While it still doesn't compare to the first four or five books, Knife of Dreams is probably the best novel in the Wheel of Time series since Fires of Heaven. The good news is numerous plot lines advance and the writing shows the effect of a full editing cycle. The bad news is that the good writing here oddly illuminates how much of a hole author Robert Jordan dug for himself with the mess of the previous novels - with it being made very clear even a writer of his talent probably won't be able to resolve the plethora of details even with another couple of books. I take a star off for letting a number of details and characters slip along with another half star for a pace that at times returns to near-plodding, but I'll round it up from 3.5 stars to four for the progress here that makes me have high hopes for the next book.
It is outright scary to think of how many top selling authors have come and gone since Jordan started this series. In 1990, Lemony Snicket was a sophomore in college, J. K. Rowling had just taken that fateful train ride back to London, and most of the top sellers on the sci-fi/fantasy lists hadn't been published even in fan magazines. My rating here is standalone and does not reflect my frustration with how Jordan has dragged this out; read my reviews of Crossroads and New Spring if you doubt that. (Incidentally, Jordan claims to never have read a review on Amazon, having stated that "if you're going to get your heart checked out, would you go to a doctor (professional reviewer) or walk up to a guy on the street?" Oh well.)
Although not spectacular, Knife of Dreams finally gives hope again. Without spoiling things, many plotlines raised in the last few books advance. Perrin's attempts to recover Faile, Mat's escape with and courtship of Tuon, Elayne's struggle for her crown, and a few miscellaneous issues resolve. More significantly and more satisfyingly, Jordan really does make progress on some plotlines that have been promised since the first few books - Egwene's struggle to truly be the Amyrlin Seat, the implications of Lan as Aan'allein, and miraculously, even some movement on the long (1995!) dormant Eel- and Aelfinn plotline. There are also some remarkable new point-of-view (Tuon, Loial!) perspectives that add to the details of the world without having to write hundreds of pages. Finally, the book also shows the effort of being at Tor for more than a month before publication like the last four or five novels; Jordan isn't allowed to go off into tangents - and thankfully, no major new characters get introduced - and in general the writing is generally crisper.
Unfortunately, it's not enough. Jordan has created so many irrelevant plotlines and characters from the sixth book onwards that even with a workmanlike effort to clean up here the mess is still very much present. A glaring result is that the main plot - what the Dragon Reborn is doing - not only receives merely cursory attention but also doesn't show up until Chapter 18, or 385 pages into a 760 page book. The not-particularly-engaging Windfinder and Tower-divided stories get far too much coverage without moving much, a number of major characters besides Rand (like Min, Nynaeve, and Aviendha) get very little stage time with more minor players like Galina and various Shaido characters receiving far too much, other interesting plots like the Forsaken move barely at all with minimal coverage, and of all the advancements above only the Egwene line really feels satisfying. (If Jordan had advanced the other main characters as much as Egwene this would have been a much better book.) The problem is clear. The last really good WoT book, Fires of Heaven, had roughly four or five major plotlines; this has at least ten thanks to the mess of the last few books. While Jordan and his editor state unequivocally that this will be finished in one more book (thankfully planned to be completed before any more prequels), all the new material he's added makes this doubtful and is now standing directly in the way of a great wrapup.
Jordan's goal was to have fans sweating by the end of the book; for me, I didn't get there as this doesn't qualify as a cliffhanger by any means. Over the summer, I actually reread all the previous books and the good news is the bad ones make more sense as part of a sequential order - and at least Jordan is somewhere close to his old form, so this isn't bad. But then again, it's not great either. Still, it deserves 3.5 stars and is worth buying in hardcover rather than waiting. For the first time in years, I look forward to the next novel.
September 2007: My sympathies to Jordan's lovely wife Harriet on his recent passing. For those who are interested, my understanding is he apparently dictated enough of A Memory of Light so that it may yet be published and the series ended properly.
improvement but middling quality, moves story forward October 15, 2005
319 out of 355 found this review helpful
Knife of Dreams has several things going for it. It isn't as bad as the last few for one, no slight achievement. It is relatively crisp in prose and pace. It advances story and character at a more enjoyable pace. It even has a few (though too few) strong scenes that evoke fond memories of earlier (much earlier) books in the series. It is without a doubt an improvement on the past few and anyone who has put the time into this series and felt like they were scraping along will breathe a sigh of relief.
That said, though, there isn't much to praise beyond its improvement over the last few books and its more clear movement toward resolution. Knife of Dreams is a serviceable book. It does what it needs to do (finally) but does so without any real panache or aplomb, without any sense of passion or wonder. It's readable, but not compelling. You'll want to know what happens, but not by the end of the first night you picked it up. For those who remember their reactions to the first books in the series, that's a disappointment.
Many of the same flaws that have cropped up lately remain, though in more minimal fashion. There's still the incomprehensibly frequent (though less so) references to spanking, bottom switching, bottom pinching, and barely covered bosoms (I swear Jordan had a macro set up so he could use "with hands folded beneath her breasts" at the flick of a single key, again and again and again). Braid pulling luckily seems to have gone out of fashion. The (same) women veer maddeningly between strongly competent and simpering, whining, gossipy cliches. If we're told something once, we're told it twenty times--Perrin, for instance, really wants to rescue his wife and that's his one and only focus--"nothing else matters." "Nothing." "Nothing." No matter how many things come up. Really,"nothing else matters". Elayne's section bogs down over political gamesmanship. Minor characters are given too much time at the expense of major characters (Rand is barely present). Characters too easily walk into traps they admit could be traps. And so on. Again, all of these flaws are much less present than in recent books, so they simply mar an otherwise solid book rather than truly annoy the reader.
More specifically with regard to storylines. There is a truly great scene involving Lan and Nyneve, though sadly the only one with them and the only truly great scene in the book. Rand's story has many of the other strong moments and he remains the most interesting and complex character, as do his adversaries or maybe-adversaries, but we spend far too little time with him. Matt and Tuon's story is also interesting and laced with some needed humor, though it could have been streamlined a bit. It does come to a good close, though not a resolution. Perrin and Faile's plotline is in my mind just not interesting enough. As mentioned, we're burdened too often with reminders of Perrin's single focus, and there's never any real sense that things won't work out as planned so there's little suspense to the story. Elayne's sometimes bogs down in House jargon, pregnancy details, or asides concerning the sea-people, Aes Sedai, etc., but Jordan throws a welcome jolt into that sidestory to liven things up. The Forsaken make a relatively weak cameo, a wasted opportunity. Some of these plots resolve, many open up possibilities (but ones that are nicely tethered to the base story as opposed to tangential), and all lends themselves to a sense of urgency with regard to the upcoming Last Battle.
It's hard to imagine how Jordan wraps it all up in one book but Knife at least moves him clearly and smoothly and crisply to that home stretch. It pales in comparison to the first five or six books, but it's much, much better than the last few on the basic level. One hopes with some of the underbrush cleared away through this book, Jordan can aim a bit more at the heights, casting that same old spell on the reader. Recommended.
 Tarmon Gai'don Is Coming......umm.... soon. October 21, 2005
232 out of 263 found this review helpful
Upon finishing Knife of Dreams, I for one cannot wait until RJ finishes Book 12, and in humble fashion as I bend over I beseech you RJ,
"Thank you sir, may I have another?"
After more than a decade with the WoT, I was overjoyed that the latest installment in the series maintains on several fronts the high quality from RJ and Tor that we all have come to expect.
For starters, the cover. I was thoroughly relieved to see that Darrell K. Sweet still has a commission for the cover art, despite the LEGIONS of nay-sayers. Oh, I'll admit that at first the non-proportional bodies, lackluster depiction of "action", and total disregard for perspective and detail puzzled me for a while, but after some deep soul-searching I realized that Sweet is an utter f***ing genius, and at long last his "style" is unleashed for Knife of Dreams. Always the master of subtlety, what better way to capture the heart-pounding tension rampant throughout Knife of Dreams than with rotund, mullet midget heroes ensconced in what no doubt must be a frothy debate over contour lines. Only Sweet could hint at the petulant, "Oh no you didn't", "Yes I did....but I'll still obey you anyways" drama that RJ utilizes to perfection in his books.
Oh my fine publisher, haven't you realized by now that there's no need for you to pimp RJ with your billboard "Sequel to the Number 1 Best Seller...", that in fact the luscious eye-candy that only the aptly named Sweet provides is more than enough to harken that another RJ epic has at long last arrived?
That said, I was amazed that RJ yet again manages to advance the plot despite the myriad of characters he has introduced us to over previous novels. For instance, Paidan Fain....Paidan....err, ok bad example.
Rand... yes, Rand, he's in the book!...Rand's tale in this epic involves 4.3 chapters of intriugue and action, allowing Jordan to further rip-off Norse mytholo.... umm, allowing Jordan to further incorporate....moving on...
Elayne and the struggle for the Lion Throne are revisited...and revisited....and revisited...and finally concluded.
Herbert's Fremen.... I mean Jordan's Aiel....alright I'll admit even I've lost track of where the hell the tens of thousands of Aiel are outside of the Shaido. Yet the Shaido storyline involving Perrin is finally resolved, and by gods Jordan even manages to involve the Seanchan and more references to Norse.... I mean obscure prophecies in the process.
Mat...he's still considered a primary character, yes? Ahem, I mean... The primary character whose name is Mat has his storyline involving Tuon and the Seanchan advance. Although highly anti-climatic, the details allow Jordan to introduce the possible return of a character long thought dead. In addition, George R.R. Martin's fresh POV... I mean Jordan's choice for a new POV is nothing short of brilliant.
Egwene, or should I call her "MISTER Tibbs", reprises her role as the plucky new Amyrlin now being held within the confines of The White Tower following her cliffhanger capture at the end of CoT. Unfortunately, the Aes Sedai West Wing intrigue we all loved in 8, 9, and 10 is held to a relative minimum.
Jordan also reminds us that the Forsaken and The Shadow are still central to the WoT series, and that even he remembers. Drawing upon scenes in his earlier novels, Jordan has the Forsaken conspiring in yet another clandestine meeting with tea and crumpets, with one even daring *gasp* to intervene with one of the primary storylines. Weevils, ghosts appearing, spoiled food...only a master storyteller such as Jordan could think to utilize such foreshadowing that The Shadow awaits. Less skilled authors might be tempted to merely have their characters becry that "Tarmon Gai'don is coming soon", "Who will ride for Tarmon Gai'don", "Who stands against The Shadow" repeatedly, or "What are you gonna do when Tarmon Gai'don runs wild over you?" without actually moving the plot towards a series-ending-but-thank-god-for prequels-ching-ching climax, but thankfully Jordan refuses to insult his readers and passes on such mundane script.
What he does not pass up on are the typical Jordanisms we as educated readers have learned to love. Only in RJ's delightful world do men fail to understand women, and women fail to understand men.... As you'll read you'll find yourself shouting in frustration to the characters on one page "You fool, she's tugging her braid, watch out!" and laughing heartily on the next. Sing it Jerry Lee, there's a whole lot of Spanking going on, and Jordan rarely passes up on the opportunity to have his female characters enjoy a good smack or two. As in other novels, Jordan continues the development of the characters T and A, and further explores the maniacal intricacies of the Bosom character.
RJ also rewards only his die-hard readers by failing to update the glossary with character/locale/item references for characters, locales, items actually mentioned in the book, reminding the bandwagoners that this gravy train stops for no one and you've either forked the dough for the previous 10 tickets or barring the internet sh*t out of luck.
As for the cons, there are a few. One might imagine that Jordan had actually begun to believe "What was, What will be" and initiated a return to the simply horredous style found in books 1-4, or even 5 and 6. The writing is "tighter", as if an actual editor sat down and used the delete key once and a while. Jordan slips now and then by including poignant scenes such as one with Nynaveave and Lan, reminding readers that they once cared about characters in his stories, although he does quickly return Nynaveave to her dull, book-end position opposite of Min, restoring the readers' faith in the same old Rand sandwich they've come to love lately. As mentioned earlier, the plot does advance, yet not at the pace of the earlier books. Granted, the brilliance found in 7,8,9,and 10 would be far too much to expect one author to sustain indefinitely, but undoubtedly readers spoiled by such masterful manipulation of character and plot will find Knife of Dreams somewhat of a letdown. Constant readers can only pray that "What was, What will be" does not come full circle and Book 12 degenerates into a rehash of the tight, fast-paced arcs found in Books 1-4.
For these reasons, despite the glowing positives in this review, in all fairness this reader can only recommend paperback over hardcover. That you've borrowed from you're local library, or a former friend to whom you've introduced the series. If hardcover is your thing, hunker down at your local bookstore and read KoD there. Knife of Dreams is not as bad as the earlier epics, but it's still a far cry from the preceding 4-5 books. You're reading reviews on Amazon and like all addicts you're going to get your fix one way or another, so you might as well save a few bucks and avoid the "hard"cover stuff. Or save the money for 2010 to use on book 12, the definite *wink wink* last book in this series. I promise I'll actually be in that book, and prove I'm not just a wild tangent RJ thought up and abandoned.
 End of the World for Robert Jordan October 24, 2005
100 out of 115 found this review helpful
I read this book over the last few days. I praise and complement Robert Jordan for his ability to create a very complex world. However, this series has died. The plot is no longer there. We all started reading a captivating tale about a young man destined to grow into his destiny to stand against and confront evil. Not only has this not happened in 11 novels, it has not even come close to happening. In this series, it never will. This book hardly touches upon the so called "plot" about the Dragon Reborn. Instead the novel focuses on side plots that flesh out stories that have become complex to the point of irrelevance.
Frank Herbert wrote about the idea of "wheels within wheels" in his Dune novels. He did not make us live (suffer) through each and every one of them. In a betrayal of the reader by the author and his publisher, this series has degraded to nothing more than a scam to sell books. This series has become nothing more than a gimmick.
Robert Jordan has a history of great writing. He wrote tales that captivated and spellbound his readers. The World of Time series should end without resolution and Robert Jordan should return to writing captivating novels, as we know he can.
The bottom line is -- DO NOT purchase this book. Do not encourage Robert Jordan to waste his time with drivel. As readers, we must enccourage him to return to his undoubted ability to write novels that we cannot put down. Robert Jordan has the gift to write such novels. Our duty as readers is to encourage him to give up this endless stream of nonsense. Robert Jordan must stop selling "books" and start selling us the great stories he has the ability to tell.
The Wheel of Time ended,about four or five novels ago. The Knife of Dreams, with its lack of vision, is the nail in the coffin.
What Went Wrong With Jordan October 22, 2005
78 out of 88 found this review helpful
It's time for me to put in my two farthings on what has gone wrong with Jordan. My comments go beyond just book 11, but bear with me. We all agree that the first 5 or so books were excellent, then something happened. So how can Jordan get back to writing engrossing novels? I'm not sure he can at this point, for reasons which will follow, but I'll offer him (and you) my best advice.
First books were engrossing because they were laying out a new world to be discovered. Neither the reader nor the main characters (who were simply people from a small isolated village) knew much about the world and so we and they were constantly discovering new things about the world and about themselves. Jordan was able to keep this up for about 5 books. He did this in part by having the main characters visit new and mysterious places each new book. Tear, Tanchico, Falme, the Waste, the Ways and you name it. Back then, extended descriptions of say the stone of Tear or the Ways were fine, because it was new and we didn't know about it. Problem was around book 6 Jordan had pretty much taken us every place on the continent. There wasn't anyplace new to explore or discover. He tried to get back some of this in Book 9 with that city where no one could channel. It didn't work though because it basically felt as though Jordan had suddenly created this place out of thin air just for the purpose of finding a new location for an adventure. I mean, if there had been a city where there were no magic I think we would have heard about before book 9. (Also it fell flat because Rand was so stupid going there it didn't make sense, more on that below.) So by around book 6 we had been everywhere. For the next books the repeatedly experienced deja vu, and not in a good way. It was "been there done that." This of course only got worse as Jordan started to reincarnate Forsaken. Rand killed Aginor in Book I then we dig him up again and start all over. It obvious that Jordan basically ran out of new places to visit, and along with it new ideas. He began recycling old places and old ideas. The moral here was Jordan should have stopped when he ran out of new places and new things to describe. J.K. Rowling take note. Don't ride your horse into the ground. One thing Terry Brooks did right with the Shanarra series was once we had been everyone in the "Four Lands" he discovered new lands, he didn't go back to discover one all over again.
Related issue. Jordan maybe gave too much away with the prophesies. We've known for what 5 books that Mat and Thom were going to rescue Moraine. So finally in book 11 they actually decide to do it. Too often even when something finally does happen there's no surprise (and no suspense) because the reader has known about for 10 years.
Second big problem: the characters have become less engrossing and empathetic. The first 5 or 6 books were good (not just because they stuck to the main characters) but the characters were basically likeable and believeable. For the most part they were ordinary people with whom the reader could identify. Then, apparently often to create some adventure most of them (Rand most of all) started doing really stupid things. Rand seems crazy sometimes, and does things like allows himself to get captured and put in a box, or going to that city where he can't channel and allowing himself to be captured again. I mean he's the most powerful magic-user in the world, so of course he goes someplace where he can't waggle his fingers. Elyne allowing herself to get captured in Knife of Dreams is another really stupid thing. She's got a whole army and dozens of chanellers and she goes to raid a dark friends house with 3 aes sedai at least one of whom she knows is Black. That's stupid to start. Then of course, did she forget that the two Black sisters she's trying to capture were part of a group of 13 that escaped from the Tower with a bunch of dangerous terangreal? She doesn't even wonder where the rest of the Black are? While I'm on that. Egwene was dumb enough to get captured too. Why didn't she at least invert her weaves when she tried to seal the harbor. She may as well have brought along a great big neon sign that said "Egwene is here." The examples could go one and on. My point is that when characters repeatedly do stupid things to get themselves captured (I've lost count how many times Egwene, Neneyve, Eleyne and Rand have been captured by enemies in the book) the reader stops caring, not to mention the "been there, done that" again. It also becomes farcical. It's like the old Bat Man episodes where they're always captured and left in some weird device that supposed to kill them; but we know they're going to escape. So I've lost empathy for most of the characters. (Mat probably being the biggest exception. He's about the only character where the reader is not constantly asking "How can (s)he be so stupid?")
Third point, related to the second. Jordan has lost the sense of danger, for the most part. Remember the first few books where the characters were being chased by some really scary monster/person. Like Frodo being chased by Black Riders. That was exciting. At this point the characters have all been captured so often that we know even if they are captured it won't matter, they just escape. Or the characters seem to be invulnerable. Characters like Elyne and Rand and Egwene never feel fear (as we're constantly being reminded). One of the reasons the early books were so exciting was because the characters were terrified, and that feeling of terror and excitement was passed on to the reader. Now that the characters are never afraid or even nervous that sense of danger and excitement of the early books has been lost. So it's not only annoying that Rand feels invulnerable and does stupid things but it ruins the whole atmosphere of the book.
I think these are the main problems. It may be too late to resolve most of them, even if RJ would listen to the likes of me.
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