Knife of Dreams

By: Robert Jordan

Narrated by: Kate Reading, Michael Kramer

Length: 32 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Wheel of Time is a PBS Great American Read Selection!

Now in development for TV!

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 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. 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. 

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. 

TV series update: "Sony will produce along with Red Eagle Entertainment and Radar Pictures. Rafe Judkins is attached to write and executive produce. Judkins previously worked on shows such as ABC’s Agents of SHIELD, the Netflix series Hemlock Grove, and the NBC series Chuck. Red Eagle partners Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon will executive produce along with Radar’s Ted Field and Mike Weber. Darren Lemke will also executive produce, with Jordan’s widow Harriet McDougal serving as consulting producer." (Variety)

The Wheel of Time New Spring: The Novel

The Eye of the World

The Great Hunt

The Dragon Reborn

The Shadow Rising

The Fires of Heaven

Lord of Chaos

A Crown of Swords

The Path of Daggers

Winter's Heart

Crossroads of Twilight

Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

The Gathering Storm

Towers of Midnight

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)

Chapter 25 is truncated

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

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.

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 :)

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.

Poor sound

The quality of the recording is not up to scratch. Lots of artefacts and cutouts occurring from time to time.

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 issues

Their audio files for this book need some work.
Not even through the prologue yet and the audio has been garbled beyond recognition a few times.

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.

Love the story .. But audio jumps

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Goes without saying, I am a fan of the story. I of course agree it tends to go off in too many side plots, and it is easy to get confused who is on the side of the shadow, pretending to walk in the light. That being said, I am still a fan and can't wait to see how it all ends.

Only complaint about this particular audio book is that in part three somewhere, Reading is narrating a part about Egwene in the Tower, and it all of a sudden jumps to Kramer narrating about Matt or Rand (forget which one), in another part of the book. Feel like I lost some reading there.

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.

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.

Awful recording.

The book seems great, if you've got this far through the series already it'll definitely be enjoyable. But the record ding is absolutely awful and gets complete unusable at the end. Narrators change the pronunciation of names multiple times, and sections of the audio are disordered or completely missing. It's like the book got put through a shredder and then loosely reassembled. A shame, as I was enjoying it, but have no choice but to return it now.

The golden crane flys

The first time in my life I've been brought to the point of tears by an Audiobook. This book is by no means perfect but some scenes, in particular the one from my title, we're wonderfully written and preformed.

Worth buying if you can tolerate Kramer's Style

If you come this far into Jordan's epic you know what you are getting. The story continues and this nears the end of the so-called 'slog'. (the term people have applied to the sometimes turgid read of the later books). Again there are more characters than you can keep up with but it's all classic Jordan and he is now setting up for his grand finale. One massive point however is their insistence to employ Michael Kramer. He narrates large chunks of the texts in his towdry, one dimensional style. It is ironic that some of his voices are Seanchan who typically speak in a monosyllabic drawl, as I find his actual voice to be quite similar. It really starts to grate after awhile. Robert Jordan spent his life creating a magical world full of wonderful, dynamic characters and yet they choose a narrator who struggles to do more than two separate accents. Worse is they have used this guy to cover Brandon Sanderson's work, so now that is tainted too.