Knife of Dreams

Book Eleven of The Wheel of Time

By: Robert Jordan

Narrated by: Kate Reading, Michael Kramer

Length: 32 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

Now an original series starring Rosamund Pike as Moiraine!

Since its debut in 1990, The Wheel of Time® by Robert Jordan has captivated millions of readers and listeners around the globe with its scope, originality, and compelling characters.

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

The seals of Shayol Ghul are weak now, and the Dark One reaches out. The Shadow is rising to cover humankind.

In Tar Valon, Min sees portents of hideous doom. Will the White Tower itself be broken?

In the Two Rivers, the Whitecloaks ride in pursuit of a man with golden eyes, and in pursuit of the Dragon Reborn.

In Cantorin, among the Sea Folk, High Lady Suroth plans the return of the Seanchan armies to the mainland.

In the Stone of Tear, the Lord Dragon considers his next move. It will be something no one expects, not the Black Ajah, not Tairen nobles, not Aes Sedai, not Egwene or Elayne or Nynaeve.

Against the Shadow rising stands the Dragon Reborn...

The Wheel of Time®
New Spring: The Novel
#1 The Eye of the World
#2 The Great Hunt
#3 The Dragon Reborn
#4 The Shadow Rising
#5 The Fires of Heaven
#6 Lord of Chaos
#7 A Crown of Swords
#8 The Path of Daggers
#9 Winter's Heart
#10 Crossroads of Twilight
#11 Knife of Dreams

By Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
#12 The Gathering Storm
#13 Towers of Midnight
#14 A Memory of Light

By Robert Jordan
Warrior of the Altaii

By Robert Jordan and Teresa Patterson
The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time

By Robert Jordan, Harriet McDougal, Alan Romanczuk, and Maria Simons
The Wheel of Time Companion

By Robert Jordan and Amy Romanczuk
Patterns of the Wheel: Coloring Art Based on Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time

Listen to more books in The Wheel of Time series.

©2005 The Bandersnatch Group, Inc. (P)2005 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC and Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"Explodes with motion, as multiple plot lines either conclude or advance, and the march to Tarmon Gai'don, the climactic last battle between the Dragon Reborn and the Dark One, begins in earnest." (Publishers Weekly) 

"The battle scenes have the breathless urgency of firsthand experience, and the...evil laced into the forces of good, the dangers latent in any promised salvation, the sense of the unavoidable onslaught of unpredictable events bear the marks of American national experience during the last three decades." (The New York Times) 

"Jordan has a powerful vision of good and evil, but what strikes me as most pleasurable...is all the fascinating people moving through a rich and interesting world." (Orson Scott Card)

Better than the last few, but

Well things finally get moving again in this one. We've been suffering through the last couple of books, but now we've got some action, and finally resolution to a couple of the plot lines. Only problem here is we're still hearing way too much about the Aes Sedai. They still come off sounding like a bunch of spoiled children arguing over their little plots while the world comes apart around them. It seems to come off as petty bickering instead of political intrigue, but you can suffer through that to get the rest of it.
Like others have said, too much Aes Sedai, not enough of Matt, Perrin, and Rand. But if you've gone this far, through 10 books, including a couple that were downright painful, then you'll be pleased with this. Now, stop reading reviews, you know you were going to buy it anyway. Just click add to cart and be done with it...well go on.

Getting us there!

I loved the first 7 books of this series, and then felt let down by the next three. I kept thinking to myself please just get me to the last battle! And then book 11 came, I almost didn't get this book, I didn't know if I had anymore to give to this series. Well I am so glad I did get this one, it restored my love in the wheel-of-time series. It returned to the core party, it tied off loss ends, and made a very good start at getting us to the final battle. I felt the urgency growing!

I will not give away anything, however I must say there is one very emontional part that was written to tug at the heart strings, and it did, I wanted to join the golden crain and stand by it in the last battle!

If you have read the last 10 books, you must, must get this one! If you are thinking of starting a new series with lot of life I can recommend this one now with no hesitation.

See you at the last battle!

There is NO audio skip!

The part with Egwene in the tower is supposed to end there, for the time being. I work in a bookstore so i opened the book to that chapter, and the part with Egwene stops just as abruptly in the book. The story continues later so dont worry :)

Chapter 25 is truncated

Missing the last half of the chapter, key chapter for Egwene too. Is there an update or fix?

Stuff is happening! It's happening!!

You didn't make it here if you are not a WoT fan...(except for the one reviewer who seems to think skipping a few books is a reasonable thing to do...).

At any rate - there are no long courtships (well...except for "Precious" and "Toy" - but it's not annoying), everyone has pretty much fallen into his or her role, and we're back on track, making significant progress toward the last battle.

There's excitement, and victories, and...well, there are still 3 more books (was going to be 1, but Sanderson wisely changed it to 3. The first of the three is even better than this one, BTW).

I would strongly suggest going back through the first 11 again before starting the last three - but short of that, DEFINITELY do this one. If you go back and listen/read a second (or more) time, you'll notice that this series is ... amazingly ... coherent...

Anyway - after ... a thousand or two pages of ... seemingly little movement - this book (if not the one before) gets things back on track.

If you're a WoT fan, and I KNOW you are (except the lady who skipped a few books), you WILL like this one.

Audio skips

I love the Wheel of Time books, and have enjoyed listening to the audio version. However, in this book there are places where the audio cuts in and out. It's like having a conversation with someone who is on a mobile phone in an area with sketchy reception. I had hoped it was just a bad connection with the cloud player, but downloaded it only to find out that it is the same. It is simply a bad copy of the recording and needs to be replaced.

Someone please get this author an editor!

The Wheel of Time series can be so exasperating. My son and I joke that every time a character so much as crosses paths with someone else, you're doomed to hear that new person's entire back story, relevant or not. It gets exhausting following all the plot branches. I just want to get back to the main characters, primarily the men. The horrible women characters are extremely annoying: juvenile, arrogant, always angry, contrary to the point of ridiculous, and generally not likeable. The men are all baffled and bemused by the women, but fall for them nevertheless for inexplicable reasons. The characters are constantly making silly, generalized comments that start with "Men!..." or "Women,..." It makes you wonder what on earth Jordan's personal relationships must be like! And then there are the spankings: Everyone spanks everyone in these books (yes, we're talking adults, both men and women). It's bizarrre...and pretty laughable. Still, despite all the shortcomings, it's an interesting story...Well, at least, parts of it are. We've actually skipped several books now and other than a few lingering questions (that wouldn't have been worth the zillion hours we'd have to have waded through to get the answers), it's been no great loss. In spite of all my gripes, I am looking forward to the final battle.

So, you'll read it anyhow

So, if you're like me you're in for a nickel, in for a dime on this series. If you've read the other 10, you're bound to read this just to see what happens.

Welcome to Knife of Dreams, the second to last book of the Wheel of Time series and well...its good, but its no Great Hunt, Shadow Rising, Fires of Heaven, its not even a Crown of Swords.

Dont get me wrong, its still enjoyable because Jordan is finally getting around to fulfilling all of the prophecies and foretellings that characters have had over the last 10 books, but I get the feeling that while he still writes in big blocky paragraphs, he is rushing to tie things up.

Overall, if you've read the entire series you're reading one of the better ones since book 7, but read w/ gaurded expectations as this isnt a mind blowing experience.

Yeah, right, you'll buy it anyway, just like me!

Sure, read the first TEN books and skip number eleven cause some reviewer didn't like it? RIGHT!! the book was a good one, and I have the same complaint as the other ten from RJ, too heavy with Aes Sedia plotting, too light on the boys, and a total setup for number twelve. Ain't it grand!!
We RJ fans will always happily spend our money on books in this series and complain later, at the same time trying to get our friends hooked on the wheel of time series and extolling it's virtue to the world.

Likes punishment

I've listened to all of these books twice and both times I cant help but see that this author and editor love to punish the main character and empower all the female characters! So if your up for a book where the main character bows to all the females when he's supposed to be the savior of the world have at this is the book for you!! I've got my hopes that Brandon Sanderson can save the last few books but Harriet is still editing so it will be a tough save!

Great return to form... such a shame though..

It's a shame that this was Jordan's swan song, as this was a brilliant return to what readers were used to, and completely supassed my expectations.

Book 10 was very hard to finish reading as a novel, and even in audible form, despite the narrators excellent efforts, it was a fairly dull book.

Knife of Dreams not only corrected Book 10's problems, but it is possibly Jordan's best, if not very close to The Shadow Rising. This book has more action in it's prolouge than occured in the previous book!
It sets a relentless pace and moves the storyline along at an appreciated rate.
Mat is extremely funny as always, and this book brings a welcome, if bittersweet ending to the Faile-Shaido story arc.
Michael Kramer and Kate Reading brought their usual good work to the narration, I couldn't imagine Wheel of Time without them!

It was a shame Jordan died afterwards. Sanderson did a great job following up Jordan's work, but Jordan himself will be missed greatly.

Poor quality recording

Good book sadly let down be a very poor recording that frequently jumped and seemed to miss the odd sentence

Enthralling book, poor format

The book is fantastic and has kept me hooked throughout. Definitely a step up in storytelling from the previous instalment. However, the audio file seemed to have corrupted bits where the audio would cut out and then skip forwards. This was especially frustrating when it got to a part that was integral to the plot and then suddenly it had skipped past important parts! Great book, but maybe it's the audible format that has greatly let it down.

good book poor production

good book well read but all the chapters are out of order found myself spending more time trying to find the next chapter then listening to the audio book. good chance I have missed / reread some parts makeing it irratateing at times.

Too...many...names...

Good shit, but come on with the weird fucking names!

There are far too many to keep track of and they're completely strange so it's impossible to remember them, and sometimes the pronunciation of the names change... even during the same book!

The recording isn't very good

The recording keeps breaking up in this recording which is annoying! Sounds like the tape was a bit old before transferring to digital.

Great story. Shame about the skipping

The story is amazing. Highly recommend to anyone. The recording is another matter. It skips and chatters at multiple places throughout and is most annoying as whole sentences vanish into silence in places.

Coming Together

It's good to see parts of the many stranded stories within the Wheel Of Time moving towards completion. For a long time it seemed that things were just moving along but now it's difficult to put the book down. Can't wait for the next in the series.

Last book written by Robert Jordan.

Such concentrate condensation of treads woven from immense quantities of precursory paragraphs. This is my go to nostalgic fix for the ingenious creation as posed by the creator.
Narrators are awesome.
Overall awesome.

Quality Book with cracking Narration!

Title says it all! Epic series! The story like the others is engaging and brilliant!