Wheel of Time 11: Knife of Dreams (spoilers)

Cafe Society
1

Well, I didn’t sleep much last night, or get much work done today, but I finished it.

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First of all, this is EASILY the best book since The Fires of Heaven. Stuff was actually resolved. Things that were set up, occurred. It was crazy!
Likes:
-Egwene in the tower. It might be a bit contrived (Ta’vern?) that they didn’t kill her immediately, although that Elaida is sure unpredictable, but I really enjoyed her scheming
-Tuon and Mat. I love me some Tuon.
-Nynaeve rallying the Malkier. Awesome.
-Finally learning more about how Moiraine is going to be rescued (although this was one thing that didn’t get resolved at all)
-Semirhage being captured. About TIME one of the Forsaken just plain screwed up. And the little exchange between her and Cadsuane was absolutely priceless.
-Some parts of the Perrin/Faile storyline. Perrin kind of making friends with the Seanchan I liked. Tam’s cameo I liked. Galina’s and Sevanna’s fates I liked (although they worked out almost too perfectly) (along with Suroth’s fate). But I really was sick of Faile and her escape plots. Not because I hate her the way some people do, but because, come on, it’s been going on for like 4 books already. Just move ahead to the rescue already!
-The overall atmosphere of the book, with all the signs pointing towards the dark one’s touch, the crazy rearranging buildings, the village of the dead, etc.

Dislikes:
-Elayne’s entire storyline. One of the things that sucked about Crossroads of Twilight was how much attention was paid to that boring and irrelevant mess, and it stayed rather boring and irrelevant. And the whole “well, there’s a house with at least two black ajah in it. So let’s send 4 channelers in blind, including our pregnant queen, and hope everything comes out OK” business was just pathetic. (And what happened to the balefire rod?) (And why on earth didn’t Rand and/or Avi show up to rescue her? Couldn’t they feel her distress through the bond?)
-Related to that, the revelation of who killed Vandene. Are we supposed to care? I’ve already forgotten who it was.
-I’m also totally uninterested in Lelaine and Romanda, and all related mysteries and politics. (Although at least they finally figured out what was up with Halima.)

Overall, though, a big thumbs up.

Currently relevant BIG questions:
-What is Demandred up to?
-What is Mazrim Taim up to? Is he just a random DF?
-Will RJ actually conceivably remotely finish the series in one more book?

2

What’s revealed in Moiraine’s letter to Tom? Spoiler box it, but I have to know!

And is the series heading toward any sort of finale? I mean, by the end of 11 are we seeing the beginnings of Tarmon Gai’don?

3

[spoiler]
Mostly what we’d already suspected… they can rescue her from the tower of Ghenjei, using what they know from Snakes and Foxes. It has to be Thom plus Mat plus one other unspecified man, presumably Noal “Jain Farstrider presumably” Charin.

yes

4

All right, I’m going to have to buy that shit tomorrow. :slight_smile:

5

Twenty pages from the end … I love this book.

There’s been a lot of possible-ta’veren activity around Egwene. But if she were ta’veren, Nicola could spot it–that’s one of her Talents. I think the entire Tower, including and especially the Novices and Accepted, are just so desperately looking for someone to cling to, and Egwene more than fits the bill, especially when the Aes Sedai are practically ignoring them in favor of barely-restrained catfights. I think Elaida, much as I dislike her, is not going to go down in history as the horrible Amyrlin she could be painted as. Egwene remembered something in her Accepted testing called “The Great Purge.” If nothing else, Elaida set the Black Ajah hunters loose on the Tower, and she’ll be remembered for that.

I tolerate Tuon. She amuses me at times, but I’m awfully sick of her crap. But I heart Mat with every fiber of my being, especially when he’s flustered and swearing, so I’m all for the Tuon and Mat chapters.

This is not the only scene in the book where I actually cried. That was beautiful. (As an aside, I cried when Nynaeve lost her block, as well)

I’m cool with no resolution as long as I know that somebody’s thinking about it.

Given the way everything else has gone for Our Heroes, I didn’t expect that to be so easy. I know Rand’s incapable of it, but Min should have just put a knife in her heart right then and there. You can’t learn anything from Semirhage, and although it’d be nice to put her on trial and stuff, that didn’t work so well with Moghedien.

Tam’s appearance made me jump up and take a victory lap around the coffee table (much the same way that Elyas’ reappearance in PoD did). It’s about frickin’ time somebody got around to telling him that Rand’s the Dragon, too. I have a great deal more respect for Faile than I used to, so I don’t mind her chapters as much, but yes–her entire imprisonment and rescue went on way too long. And I can’t believe she didn’t so much as flinch when Perrin killed Rolan right in front of her.

And Go, Morgase!!! Your daughter will be very proud of you, if you don’t die before you get back to Caemlyn.

I loved the rearranging hallways. Absolutely fantastic. The Pattern becoming looser scares the crap out of me–completely creepy.

I’m not going to argue, it is boring, but it’s not as irrelevant as it seems, I think, and it was a great deal less boring this time around, so I’m cool with it. :slight_smile: I don’t trust Elayne’s new Guard Captain guy. His description doesn’t quite match Taim’s understudy Mishraile, but I can’t shake the suspicion. Sure, she’s got the throne, but if half her Guard turns against her, that’s bad news.

Yeah, don’t quite get that. I’m sure Rand and Avi were both busy–and at the distance they were, the sensation they get isn’t “OMG I’ve been KIDNAPPED!” They know if she’s hurt, and that’s about it. Even Birgitte thought that she was unafraid through the whole thing. That’s not going to get a lot of notice from somebody who’s not right there.

Popular consensus was either Sareitha or Careane, but I had actually had my sights set on Sareitha, so I was somewhat surprised. I’d been secretly hoping that Adeleas was masquerading as Vandene and had killed her because Vandene was Black.

And yes, we were supposed to care. :slight_smile:

And Sweet Marshmallow Jeebus, it took them long enough. I’m not a big fan of the wrangling of the Hall, either. Storm the Tower and call it good. I know that’s not feasible, but I’m getting sick of it. Oh, and Narishma’s eulogy for Hopwil was another teary moment for me.

Lews Therin seizing saidin from Rand and decimating the Trollocs has now made it into my personal list of Top Five WoT Moments Evar!!1!11!! Best battle since Dumai’s Wells, I think.

I have to say, Mat accidentally getting telepathic Rand/Min porn has been amusing me for days, now. Loial’s wedding was adorable, and I sincerely hope that we get to see a little of his speech at the Stump. Rand losing a hand and just getting right back up almost made me cry, too–I’ve realized he’s angsty, I’ve realized he’s completely devoid of hope, and I’ve even realized he’s more than a little bonkers–but that just made me sad.

I have a little list of things I’m still thinking about, but as I said, I’ve still got 20 pages to go. Maybe one of them will get resolved, so I’ll wait. :slight_smile:

6

So… have you finished it yet?

That part I believe (and that was what I thought was so good). What was a bit contrived was the whole “well, we’ve captured the leader of our enemies, who has committed a crime (as we see it) that is, by tower law, punishable by death. But let’s not kill her! Let’s let her roam the halls, talk to many people where we can’t overhear, and keep her alive, trusting that it will all come out right!”. Very contrived.

Whatever happened to them?

Does Rand, or anyone with him, have any idea what happened with Moghedien? I think they should still her and reheal her so that she’s vastly weakened in the power, then slap an A’Dam on her and interrogate the SNOT out of her.

Yeah, I wonder if she’ll ever tell him that the guy he killed had just risked his life saving hers?

Of course, now she should be with people who are basically on Elayne’s side, who can Travel. That’s probably the reunion I most look forward to… (Of course, once Elayne knows, the next step is to tell Gawyn. What was he up to this book, anyhow?)

See, that’s the thing. I have no idea who either of those two people are. Nor do I care.

Those were both awesome scenes.

7

I just finished reading this tonight. I wasn’t blown away, but it was far better than some of the really drecky ones he’s been pumping out lately. The fact that something - ANYTHING - actually happened puts it head and shoulders above Crossroads of Twilight, of course.

Things I liked:
The very last scene. Very spooky, and pretty much confirms that Taim must be a Forsaken of some sort. IIRC, we’ve never heard a non-Forsaken use that phrase.
The Trolloc battle, though it seemed rather pointless (more on that later). But any excuse to see thousands of Trollocs get chewed up by Rand ‘n’ Crew is OK in my book.
Egwene in the Tower. Contrived, yes, very much so, but so very satisfying.
Faile’s rescue. Not because I cared about her or that whole storyline, but just because IT’S FINALLY OVER!
Ditto on Elayne finally getting the crown. The battle at the gate was somewhat nifty, as well.
I probably would have enjoyed Narishma’s eulogy more if I could remember who he was talking about or what happened to him. Ah, well, I’ll reread the whole series when the final book is released.
Nynaeve and Lan, as has already been mentioned. Plus, there wasn’t a lot of her in this book, which is usually a plus, IMHO.
The fact that someone finally mentioned Finnland, giving us hope of a resolution of that whole thing.

Things I didn’t like so much:
Mat and Tuon. Meh. Wake me when he loses his eye. I just generally really don’t care a whole lot about the Seanchan, especially now that the whole Empire has conveniently been wiped out, so we know we’ll only ever have to deal with the folks that have already moved over to Randland.
Rand losing his hand. Yes, it was done movingly, but really, how badly is our hero going to get carved up before the end? Give the guy a damn break! At least Semirhage didn’t tell him she was his father…
Perrin plopping Masema’s followers in front of the fleeing Shaido seemed awfully out of character for him. He’s not the type to dispose of people he doesn’t like in that way.
Speaking of people, there are still waaaay too damned many of them. It seemed like every time RJ switched to a new group of people, it took him ten pages of stilted descriptions to remind us who all was there. Count me in as another one who didn’t care which of the namelessly interchangeable Aes Sedai killed that other interchangeable AS who had a sister. Especially since they all died two seconds later.
Pillow friends. Yes, RJ, we get it. There are gay people in Randland. Now let’s never hear that incredibly goofy phrase again, please.

Things that were missing I want more of:
Slayer. What the hell is with that guy? Ditto Shaidar Haran and Padan Fain.
Verin snuck off again at the start with her usual cryptic comments. She’s one I’m still curious about.
Moiraine. Yeah, we know she’s alive and she’s going to be rescued. Throw us a bone and do a quick POV chapter, please? Really, is ANYONE going to be surprised when she shows up again?
The Seals on the Dark One’s prison. “We really need to find those seals!” “Yeah, we sure do!” “Yep…” “Uh-huh.” “Let’s not talk about them for the rest of the book.” “OK.”
The Forsaken. There are never enough Forsaken scenes

And that brings me to my biggest complaint, not just about this book, but the series in general: The Forsaken Aren’t Scary!!!
Let’s think about this. These are the 13 most bad-ass, evil, nasty, Bond-villainy type geniuses from the previous Age, unfailingly dedicated to the cause of EEEEVILLLL, with more knowledge and know-how in their little fingers than supposedly is present in all of the great minds in the world put together, and what the hell do they do with their time?! They mainly hang out, criticize one another’s wardrobe, and, well, yeah, that’s pretty much it.
What do we see from the Forsaken in this book? The biggest, meanest bad-ass of them all tells them all to stop trying to hurt Randy-poo, and they all say, “OK, boss!” Well, except for Halima-gar, who was presumably behind that stupidly inept Trolloc raid. Did she really think that was going to accomplish anything?? We also learn that Moridin is Ishamael reborn, an unexpected revelation that was so shocking and surprising that people started calling him “Morishy” at least two or three books ago.
Oh, and let’s not forget Semirhage’s masterful tactical maneuver: “Mwahaha! I’ve tricked Rand (who I’m not going to hurt, remember) into meeting me here with my two or three helpers! Oh, crap, he brought people who can channel with him, and they’ve seen through my incredibly simple disguise!! I never could have predicted he’d do such a thing! Well, better burn his hand off…ah, fuck! I’m screwed.” They’re like the evil Three Stooges.
So…yeah. I’m predicting that when Tarmon Gai’don actually does happen, the Dark One will stumble out of his prison, slip on Mat’s disembodied eyeball, and fall to his death on Cadsuane’s knitting needle. Rand will then get killed when he sneezes and Min forgets which sleeve has the hankie and which sleeve has the knife.
Wow. That ended up sounding much more negative than I intended it to. I really did quite like this book. I guess I just have some pent-up emotions regarding this series that I had to let out.

How long until book 12? (Which I can’t see being the last book unless he rushes things much faster than he shows any sign of doing)

8

Stuff that I noticed, liked, and didn’t like.

First of all, why are there only 6 replies to this thread? Did RJ lose THAT many readers with the exerable “Crossroads”?

Anyways…

Semirhage - Why did she wipe out the royal court? I like the fact that it happened, but what was her reason? Also, her ambush was so half-assed it was pathetic. “Maybe these guys will walk into my trap and forget they can channel - either that or they won’t suspect it’s a trap. Anything else and I’m f-zucked.”

Mazrim Taim - So, does his last line there indicated that, yes, he is Demandred? Certainly one of the longest-run debates in the series.

Aram - WTF? In the end we find that he’s a truly pointless character. I think RJ looked around and said, “Well, shit. I’ve got to start wrapping stuff up or my sales will continue to plummet. So much for Aram’s subplot.”

Which leads us to…

A whole lot of stuff in here seems to me that RJ did say to himself, “Woops, gotta get things zipping towards the conclusion.” In some ways that’s good…but it shows that if he hadn’t pissed away 600+ pages in CoT some things might have had more of a satisfying resolution.

People seem to be getting some of their brains back, with things like Rand saying, “Well I suppose we should be getting around to taking out those Waygates soon.” Really, Rand? You should have done that about 30 seconds after you knew how to Travel…

I too think that Egwene is t’a’veren. I think that the TAV-spotter women can only spot make TAVs, and there are probably male ones that could spot female TAVs. Have we ever even heard of female TAVs? If not, I’ll bet it’s because there used to be so few male channelers, and they didn’t last long.

Some things I may have missed because I didn’t do any rereading before this book came out but still noticed:

Everyone seemed to have a switch flipped where they previously were happily marching along going “blah blah blah gotta do this thing blah blah” to “blah blah Tarmon Gai’don is happening next Tuesday, gotta get my ass moving here”.

Finally the plothole with Shadowspawn using the Ways makes sense.

The thing with Mat/Tuon kind of ended (for me) with a big “pfft…and so?”.

Nynaeve actually used her bitchy manipulativeness for good. Imagine that!

The Tower of Ghenji…so…are they headed there? Or is it more of a “Eh, eventually” kind of thing?

Tam didn’t know Rand was the Dragon Reborn? Then he’s an idiot. Everyone seems to know some of the Prophecies, and many seem to know alot of the Prophecies. I always thought of Tam as a worldly and educated man. Apparently not…He should have suspected the moment he found a frickin’ baby on Dragonmount.

I agree that Elayne’s whole storyline was totally irrelevent and pointless. And there were some things that just never made any damned sense to me. Birgitte had to make a deal with the Windfinders to make a Gateway for her because the Kinswomen were…? Moving reserves around doesn’t cut it for me. Sorry. A legitemate succession becomes a civil war because…? Boring and pointless as far as I was concerned. It was padding to stretch out CoT, nothing more.

Elayne reminds me of another “uh oh, better speed things along here” moment. Was there any indication that Elayne didn’t totally trust her guard captain until the moment we learn she’d had him followed five times? Did it never occur to have someone follow the follower so when two men enter a building and one leaves that, yes, it was him?

Darkfriends - 4 Aes Sedai vs. two isn’t smart, even ignoring what actually happened there. They had like 8 windfinders. Sure, not getting involved in the war, blah blah etc, but I think saying “So, do you really want to let a bunch of channeling Darkfriends free? Didn’t think so. Come on, we’re going. Let’s grab the Kinswomen, too.” would have taken care of the problem. Hell, start the building on fire and ambush them when they come out.

Vandene…who cared? Were there ever any good clues as to it being Careane? Anyone else think that RJ has created far too many characters and the lack of people being able to keep track of them has become a problem? A lot of the time when I see a name I don’t know who it is until something important is referenced. Quick, name three Aes Sedai that swore fealty at Dumai’s Wells. Exactly…

What was Semirhage doing shooting Rand with a fireball? If it’ll blow a guy’s hand off I’m pretty sure it would have taken his head off, too. I thought they weren’t supposed to kill him?

Why is it no channeler has figured out to build a ten foot high wall of Air around their position? After that you just slaughter to your little heart’s content.

Faile - thank god it’s over. Now she can (hopefully) be moved back to a fifth-string character who only appears because it’s a scene from Perrin’s POV.

Finnland - another “better wrap things up” bit. The only reason I say that is, well, since when did Mat know so much about them? Did he even know their frickin’ names before? Because he suddenly seemed to be a frickin’ encyclopedia there.

Pillow Friends…he sure seemed to hint around on this stuff pretty vaguely before. Were various girls “sharing secrets” his original hints regarding some good ol’ lesbian action? Anyways, it seemed pretty in-my-face in this book. I don’t mind, but it sure seemed more…discreet before.

Sammael might be alive? Wow, neat. Why do we think that? More importantly, why do the Foresaken think that? Any clues would be nice.

I agree on the Foresaken. They escape from being Bound, immediately assume positions of power all over the world and then…promptly stick their thumbs up their asses and do nothing.

It looks like Demandred actually did something (recruiting a hundred or so DreadLords, or so the last scene would make it appear to me). Of course, if Demandred IS Taim that doesn’t explain why Lews Therin didn’t recognize him. Unless Taim was using an illusion, which Rand must somehow have been able to detect.

Anyways, I liked the book, but RJ still spent too much time on minutae and not enough on stuff that mattered. And, again, if he hadn’t pissed away 600+ pages in CoS maybe he could have done some stuff with some of the missing characters people actually care about…

-Joe

9

Merijeek, I plan on getting a little more detailed on the rest of your stuff when I get back from lunch, but just one quickie right now. :slight_smile:

Taim cannot be Demandred, as proven at the end of Winter’s Heart, when Demandred didn’t recognize a bunch o’ prominent Asha’man. Taim is definitely a Darkfriend, will probably be elevated to Forsaken-level (if he hasn’t been already), and is certainly taking orders from somebody who knows the Lord of Chaos line. If you’re looking for a new Forsaken in the Black Tower now that Osan’gar is taking the dirt nap, I’d look at Taim’s new favorite, Mishraile.

Although he was bleeding heavily, last I saw him. :slight_smile:

10

Great. Hopefully the thread won’t die too quickly, then.

Of course, does this leave us any idea who Demandred is? Any tiny little clues at all?

-Joe

11

YES! I was going to mention that too. That was so totally pointless. Aram goes nuts and dies, and Perrin’s reaction is basically, “Huh, that sucks. Guess I shouldn’t have given him that sword. Oh, well. Time to go find out if my plan to have all of Masema’s innocent followers slaughtered worked.”

Actually, yes, there was. He was a complete dick in the last book, so we knew he was up to no good. He was the one spreading the rumor that he was Elayne’s Dragon-baby-daddy.

Not that I can think of, and I’m having a harder and harder time caring. The only clue we used to have was that LT kept ranting and Demandred when Rand saw Taim. He’ll probably turn out to be some servant that was mentioned once in passing, and RJ will be, “But I said he was tall and had black eyes! Weren’t you paying attention? It was OBVIOUS!”

12

There are few things on this earth that make me happier than getting to show people what a WoT geek I am. I’m actually quite shameless. So here goes. :slight_smile:

There have been references to Demandred being “in the south.” Of course, this was several books ago, and whoever said it (Sammael, IIRC) was in Arad Doman when he said it, so everything’s south. Big fat lot of help that is.

I can’t imagine Demandred wouldn’t want to be too far from Lews Therin–have to show him up somehow. With the Taim angle nixed, best bets at the moment are Mishraile, Birgitte’s new second (with the fortuitous army), and Asunawa, the High Inquisitor. I think Jordan may have put an end to the Whitecloak angle by now, but how can a force as large and easily misled as the Whitecloaks not have a Forsaken guiding them?

The only other thought I have is that Demandred had something to do with the Amayar’s mass suicide–Tremalking is certainly south of everything else.

You can check the WoT FAQ, as well, they may have a good “Where Are They?” piece, I haven’t looked at it in a while. A lot of good stuff there, though I’m certain it hasn’t been updated for KoD yet.

The Aram storyline bugged me, too. Yes, he’s gone bad. We all knew that. But his death seemed way too abrupt. Maybe we’ll get unintentional consequences in the next book, but I’m severely doubting it. I recall reading once that Jordan didn’t intend to make the series this long, so he ended up with characters that had to hang around because the one important thing they had to do kept getting pushed further and further back. Aram seems, to me, to be one of these characters. I always thought, though, that he was going to go bad, Perrin would have to kill him with the axe, and that would be the impetus for going back to the hammer.

Elayne’s guard captain has been bad from the start. We knew he was a Darkfriend from the get-go–he had already appeared as Hanlon, then we got the not-so-revelatory info that he was using the name Mellar. I have to reiterate that I really don’t trust the new guy and his very convenient army, though.

Tam knowing that Rand is the Dragon–he didn’t seem surprised, you have to give him that. There’s sufficient evidence in the books (and the new prologue for EotW that was released in the split-paperback series) that Tam knew at least the gist of the Prophecies. I’m willing to bet that at some point he said “Hey, wait a minute–I found a baby on Dragonmount …” I think he “knew” from the first Trolloc attack, but just didn’t want to believe it.

I think most of Mat’s Ael/Eelfinn knowledge has been hanging around in his head this whole time, and he simply refused to think about it. But then, in my opinion, very little Mat does is wrong. :slight_smile:

Jordan has repeatedly said that Sammael is gone, gone, gone. Somebody’s been using his face, yes. I don’t think it could have been Halima’gar, but I’ll have to reread that chapter in order to be sure. Taim is my best bet on this one, or Demandred himself.

The one thing that bugged me more than anything else this time around–where in the holy heck is Gawyn? At the beginning of CoT, he was chilling outside Tar Valon, and then informed Elaida had a job for him. What was the job? Where was he sent to do it? Is he cleaning the White Tower gutters, or what?

sigh Work calls. And just when I was really getting started … :slight_smile:

13

Pretty weak. Sexist pig does not mean he’s a Darkfriend.

That’s a pretty long road to walk pretty damned quickly. Unless I missed something, of course.

-Joe

14

What is this new prologue of which you speak? Where might I access it?

15

I just wanted to drop in here to let Drae know that I have finished the book! I don’t have a lot to add, but…

Moments I cried (or at least misted up)
*****“Does my Husband ride alone?”
(Incidentally, I cried when Nynaeve broke her block, too. The Lan and Nynaeve storyline has always been one of my favorites, from the moment she tracked them after Shadar Logoth to now.)
*****Min explaining Rand’s lack of reaction to losing his hand
*****Tuon musing about the Lion on the Hill
*****The honey in her breakfast and the pillow for Egwene-especially when she pushed the pillow aside.
*****When Elder Haman took the axes down off the wall and tossed one to Loial.
(I have been waiting forEVER for the Ogier to become the total badasses I know they can be)
***** “Eben Hopwill! Remember him!”

My chuckle moment was when Lan told Nynaeve he’d miss having his back clawed. :smiley:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a good book month for me. Gabaldon on 9/27, then Jordan on 10/11.
Oh, and Drae, I’m starting the new Carey duology (The Sundering). Have you read any of this one?

Beth

16

Talk about a ‘the fuck did that come from?’ moment!

And why should we care? I didn’t even know who they were till I flipped back to the glossary! One of the few times I’ve flipped back there and found a group I didn’t remember. Usually it’s like, “Who (flip flip flip) not listed…damn”.

I hadn’t thought of Demandred being responsible for that one. Then again, the mass suicide was triggered by the big sa’angreals being used for the Cleansing. Rand melted the big hand hold the crystal (or Nynaeve did, can’t remember which statue was which) So, it was Rand, not Demandred. Unless Demandred found a way to get that prophecy out there in the first place. And if so, why?

Sorry to be unclear. I’m not a moron - we got the fact that he was a Darkfriend from the start. However, was there any evidence that Elayne didn’t trust him? That was my question. Because before this book I certainly don’t remember anything.

And what the hell are we doing still wondering who Messanna is. For the hell of it I’m going to guess Laras (head of the kitchens). We know she’s in the White Tower…but besides that?

He also said that we could work out who killed Asmodean…

Anyways, I guess it’s just because it’s been a while and I did my best to block out CoT…but where do we even get the idea that anyone has been masquerading as Sammael? I’ve apparently totally missed that.

That’s another one that is close becoming another “who cares” at this point. The only thing I can think of him being useful for is either rescuing Egwene after Eladia tires of her meddling or causing Egwene problems by rescuing her when she doesn’t want to be rescued.

-Joe

17

Okay, nobody answered this one before so I have to ask again…

Is this thread so completely dead because Robert Jordan lost THAT many readers with CoT? Surely most big fans of the series have already blown through Knife of Dreams…

And I thought there were quite a few WoTers on this board.

-Joe

18

EotWhas been released as two separate mini-books. The first one has a new prologue. It’s no big deal–just read it in the bookstore. :slight_smile:

Beth, I haven’t even read the new Gabaldon yet–it’s been a hell of a summer. I’m looking forward to it, though. But the back-clawing cracked me up, too. I have slightly more respect for Nynaeve after that.

I’m pretty sure she distrusted him as far back as WH, but I’ll have to check on that.

Argh. Stupid work. I’ll be back!

19

Not that I’ve been a member here while you guys were discussing other books or anything, but yeah, I’d guess he lost a lot of readers with CoT.

I mean, think about it…people were slobbering all over themselves wating for the next book to come out, and then they get 600 pages where…pretty much nothing happens.

wtf? I mean, we’re shelling out nearly 30 bucks for a big kick in the nuts? I think that’s when a lot of people decided they’d contributed enough to RJ’s great-great-grandchildren’s trust fund.

20

I’ve got my money on Danelle, but who the hell cares anymore?

It was in the KoD Forsaken chapter, right at the beginning. :slight_smile: I almost missed it, myself.

I think a lot of the die-hard fans are waiting on this book, to see what the readers (and not the critics) say. Or maybe nobody cares anymore. Little from Column A, little from Column B.

And on any other day, I can post to my heart’s content, but today people keep giving me work. sigh