Thank You Robert Jordan…
Saturday, December 17th, 2005
for finally starting to tie up all those loose ends you’ve left dangling for the past umpteen novels. I finished Knife of Dreams last night–a nice day’s read. Reminds me more of the first two or three, the ones that hooked me on the Wheel of Time. For one, KoD moves. Gone are the ponderous pages of details that really have little to do with the story. Most of the chapters pull the story together, not spread it further apart. Also, the number of major plot lines is managable. If I remember correctly, there are basically 5–Rand/Min/Cadsuane, Mat/Tuon/Thom, Perrin/Faile, Egwene, and Elayne/Aviendha/Birgette–compared with 10 in Lord of Chaos. Finally, KoD has more of Mat’s story than anyone else’s. Mat’s slowly become my favored character (used to be Perrin, until Faile came into the picture. I would have prefered to leave her with the Shaido, but oh well).
Jordan also didn’t seem to spend as much time dwelling on who wore what clothes and jewelry. Or maybe my eyes just kinda skimmed over those sections. Like they do when he starts introducing new Aes Sedai. Few of those names are pronounceable and after a while they all start to sound the same. I personally wonder how he keeps them all straight. Must be some database. Does he catagorize them by Ajah? By looks? (Hmmm, let’s see how many I have under “slim, short, Cairhenien noblewomen.” Only 27? Okay, then let’s add in a new one…I’ll call her Mxyzlptlk Darnitall. She can be a Green. Yeah, definitely a Green.)
As for the actual storyline, I don’t want to say too much, lest I spoil anyone’s read, but I’m looking forward to Mat and Thom’s upcoming rescue attempt (thanks Greg, for pointing that out back in October–I almost missed Thom’s part in this), Lan’s new quest, and how the heck Egwene gets out of her present situation. Oh yeah, and Tarmon Gai’don, I suppose. I wonder how Jordan’ll pull off the ultimate battle for this age and all ages.
One related comment–the artist who does the covers to these books obviously hasn’t read them. I’m assuming that the picture on KoD is of Perrin and Galina. A very small part of the story. Perrin, of all the men, has a right to the rippling muscles and broad chest. But some of the other covers of Rand just make me hoot. Especially Lord of Chaos. That one looks more like a scuzzy bodice-ripper than a high fantasy adventure. I’m assuming it’s a picture of the battle at Dumai Wells, but it really seems that poor Aes Sedai is mooning over this Rand Schwartzenegger dude. I mean, Rand’s a shepherd for goodness sake, a country boy. Even with the sword training and becoming the Dragon Reborn, I really don’t see him looking like a cover model for Muscle magazine. Oh, and if that’s supposed to be Gaul on the front cover of KoD, he going to be extremely angry–the artist has strapped a sword around his waist. No self-respecting Aiel would ever touch a sword, let alone carry one.