Knife of Dreams

Publisher's Summary

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.

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.

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)

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!

30 of 31 people found this review helpful

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.

12 of 12 people found this review helpful

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.

28 of 30 people found this review helpful

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.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Good luck Robert

If you follow Robert Jordan you are probably aware by now that he is currently fighting a life threatening disease and his family and fans face the prospect of loosing a literary genius. Robert Jordan has given fans of fantasy one of the great epics, as I write this I pray that he he is given the the time to write us an end for this great work and goes on to create many more. Many thanks Robert and may God speed you back to good health. Start at the beginning and read them all… some slow paced….. some fast….. some lows but many highs…. Overall, authorial brilliance.

12 of 13 people found this review helpful

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.

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

Audio errors

There were a few parts in this audiobook in intense areas of the book that the sound skipped out on. Since it is a digital copy, I know it is not a problem with the “tape,” So there may have been a problem with the master copy from which this digital edition comes.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

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.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

this version of the audio book has several skips

skips from digital encoding were very jarring during the story. ps Matt is a badass.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

the audiobook tends to skip at various points.

skipped in various points. had to go back through the book to know wha events occurred when.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

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.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Poor quality recording

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

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

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.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

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.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

the wheel of time

such a great series to read or listen,I'm ready for the last two books now

Gripping

Gripping from start to finish. The final battle is approaching and this book starts to pick up speed. Battles ensue, alliances are made, scores are settled. I couldn't stop listening, The characters have fully grown into themselves now , very satisfying for the reader/listener who has followed these characters since they left the Two Rivers in book one. Now I have to wait 12 days for my next credit!!

Best of series (so far)

In my opinion, this had the most going on story-wise in the series so far.

good book poor production <br />

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.