Robert Jordan - A Knife Of Dreams

The previous three books of Robert Jordan's Wheel Of Time saga have been tedious to say the least. But, with the Lan + Moiraine prequel (which was the last book released by Jordan) being so promising, I was looking forward to reading Book 11 - Knife Of Dreams, with some interest. Having finally done so yesterday, here's my take on it..

While things have definitely picked up in KoD (in terms of momentum), Jordan seems to have lost track of all the myriad characters that he's introduced in previous books. There are just way too many loose threads, and the holes in the logic have grown to drive-a-truck-right-through proportions.. Similarly, the threads that have been tied off have been done so rather clumsily (presumably in a rush to set things up for Tarmon Gai'don which has a looming presence throughout this book), and many characters are just plain ignored.

All in all, either everything seems to have gone big on RJ or he just doesn't care any more and just wants to to be done with the flaming thing :P I suppose all the negative feedback that he's been receiving (over books 8-10) lately hasn't helped..

However, all that said, it was still a good read. Mat Cauthon never fails to disappoint, and he's given the lion's share of the attention in this book. But on the whole, it fails to meet expectations or prior standards..

While I was looking forward to KoD, the book that I am itching (and understandably so as its been 5 whole years since the last book) to read is George R. R. Martin's highly anticipated A Feast Of Crows - Book 4 of the A Song Of Ice And Fire cycle, which is due out next month.

-K
P.S There's a WoT character index that will very likely prove useful if you're ever stuck wondering "who is this guy?"..