Knife of Dreams
Initial feelings after finishing Knife of Dreams, the 11th book of the Wheel of Time: [insert unintelligible keysmashing].
...Now that that's out of the way. *deep breath* Holy carp & mother of GPS and all the other lovely autocorrected exclamations. If the last two books were mildly boring/frustrating and lacking in the "getting shit done" department, this... more than made up for it. And I've been told it only gets better from this point on. (Also, getting to the books I haven't read at all before. I'm way too excited than I should be.) The downside is that I've only two books left and then I'll have caught up with the series and will have to wait along with everyone else for the last book to be published next January. Which is, like, a forever away.
Anyway. Shall we?
The Good:
Galad motherfucking Damodred! I never really liked him before this, he was too inconvenient a character at many points, not to mention never got a PoV until now, but simply offing Eamon Valda would have put him right into my good books; turning out to be a decent guy after all is just an added bonus. Plus, he's still beautiful as daylight, which is definitely a bonus in a cool character (although by no means a requirement). Also, on an unrelated note; Eamon is an actual (real) name? My spell check isn't whining over it... o_O
Rodel Ituralde is back (or still) in action!
Egwene in the Tower fighting her own battle and winning at least as often as losing. Also, the encounter with Mattin Stepaenos. (Sure, go ahead and add old, grandfatherly king/commander/soldier figures to my list of random character-fixations...) Although I wish people would quit believing Rand has murdered all those people, some of whom were killed by the forsaken, killed themselves, or in the case of Morgase Trakand, are actually freaking alive! But, can't help it, I guess. When you're the Dragon Reborn, people tend to expect the worst. The previous incarnation, after all, did break the world and slaughter everyone in sight in his madness. (Yes, I'm talking about you, Lews Therin Telamon. <3)
Logain! <3 Or, should I say, Lord Logain? Anyway. And the battle at Lord Algiarin's manor in Tear. Ogier war cry! Lews Therin seizing control over saidin from Rand and blasting away, holy crap. And later on Logain the ambassador to the Sea Folk. "Mourn if you must. But mourn on the march to Tarmon Gai'don." (But what are all the Asha'man doing in Illian & Arad Doman? Over half the Black Tower?? I hope we'll be seeing more of that soon...) Also, Davram Bashere continues to be awesome & alive, and I'm hoping that he'll stay that way, in both regards.
Nynaeve sending Lan away. Nynaeve extracting a promise from him to not turn down anyone who wishes to ride with him, to Tarwin's Gap & to Tarmon Gai'don. And then proceeding to make sure that he'll have the whole freaking Borderlands riding with him. <3 I was at uni when I read this part and yeah, suffice to say I shouldn't be reading this shit in public. The Golden Crane flies for Tarmon Gai'don! Anyway, regardless of how Aragorn it may sound, this whole Lan the Uncrowned King of Malkier thing is one of my favourite things in the whole series.
...Yeah, moving on. Hmm. Now that Faile is rescued and the Shaido have decided to bugger off back to Threefold Land, dare I hope that I've seen the last of them? It really was my least favourite story arc so far. And Galina got precisely what she deserved! Also, Tam al'Thor is back in action! <3 (And, huh, Taim really stirred up the Two Rivers with his recruiting trip, by the sound of it? Yeah, so much for that old fic...) Also, while we're on the subject of Perrin's story arc, I'll have to throw Grady & Neald in here, too. They're not getting much screen time, but from what little we do get to see through Perrin's eyes, they're slowly but surely climbing on my list of favourite Asha'man. They just seem so... no-nonsense, doing-what-must-be-done... trustworthy, even? Yes, that's the word. They seem trustworthy. A rare thing in this series, the way things seem to be developing.
And, oh! High Lord Darlin, King of Tear! :D And Caraline! <3 I'm so happy for them and hope they'll live through whatever is to come. For such minor supporting characters, they've certainly made a ridiculously strong impression. On me at least.
Even Elayne is getting stuff done in Caemlyn. She finally has the backing of ten Houses, enough to claim the throne, fuck yeah!
Tuon. I finally came to sort of like her, during this book. Okay, I'll admit, Furyk Karede helped me reach that conclusion. And roflcake, Mat is now a married man! AND a member of the Seanchan Imperial family! :D Oh, this is way too awesome. Both the battle Mat led against the traitorous Seanchan who came to murder Tuon, and Tuon's unexpected return to Ebou Dar and foiling Suroth's plans, were equally awesome and yeah. Pity Suroth wasn't revealed a Darkfriend as well, besides being a traitor, but I guess this'll have to do for now.
The Bad:
Taim. No, I can't be happy about his one on-screen appearance in this book. I know there's been strongly suggestive (if not definite) evidence before that he's a Darkfriend, but now Jordan presents him as... well, an asshole, to put it bluntly. And I cannot appreciate that. No. I refuse. All right, he doesn't act precisely wrong, but the whole scene just stank of "look at me, I'm the biggest mofo around and I can do whatever I like" - which he probably can, at least within the Black Tower's bounds, but... it's just... uncool. And Mazrim Taim is not supposed to be... uncool. He's the epitome of coolness. And I know he's Jordan's character to write precisely as he wishes (well, wished) but..! No. Just no. And what's with him letting the Reds bond any willing Asha'man? Let the Lord of Chaos rule, okay, but still.
So now who's bonding whom, anyway? What will happen to Rand's orders to let the Aes Sedai following Egwene bond a number of Asha'man to equal the number of Aes Sedai bonded by Asha'man? Will there be twice the number of bonded Asha'man to Aes Sedai? Or won't Egwene's lot get theirs, now, just because the Reds got there first? What the actual fuck is Taim playing at? Also, what was with the Mishraile stunt? It seems to me that Mishraile was referring to Asha'man already bonded - by the Aes Sedai with Rand, or by whatever sisters the Egwene lot had sent? What is going on here? I demand answers.
Uh. Yeah. That was pretty much my only major complaint in the whole book (and I expect to be coplaining about the same thing till the end of the series. Fuck you, RJ, and the horse you rode in on). I could mention Masema the Massively Annoying Prophet of the bloody Dragon Reborn, Aram turning against Perrin, Rolan's death (he was a cool character even if he chased after Faile a tiny bit too enthusiastically) and Lini's continued misconception that Perrin slept with Berelain (what is this, anyway, the Bold and the Beautiful??), but they're really minor things in comparision. Hell, even Berelain herself behaved in this book and didn't make me want to tear her hair off!
The WTF:
Not related to this specific book, precisely, but something that I've come to notice more and more. Someone once described the world of WoT as "a world of beautiful people", and well, a lot of the characters are described as little short of stunningly beautiful. But I can understand that. RJ likes (liked) his eye candy exactly as much as I do. I can fully well understand that. But what I see is a world of freakishly tall people, or a world of freakish height differences. Like, we have people described as tall. Then we have Logain, whose height and broad shoulders are emphasised every freaking time he's on screen (so to say). Then we have a passage where we're told that Logain is a large man, but not as large as Rand. Okay. Rand is the hero so naturally he's got to be the tallest man around, right? (Not to mention that I still have trouble seeing Rand as such a massive man; he wasn't described as such in the beginning, and there's not really been any mention or him growing physically.) I think only Lan & a few Aiel are described as taller than Rand. Which then must make Lan seriously massive. And Nynaeve is always described as short, if not quite Cairhienin-short. They must make a seriously peculiar-looking couple. Not to mention what Lan & Moiraine used to look like (even though they weren't a couple per se). And then we get to the tall women. Elayne is suddenly described as tall, also. She seems to have grown off-screen like Rand and now there's suddenly few women who can match her height (except for the Aiel, again). Every time someone in Elayne's presence is described as tall there's the addition of "but not quite as tall as Elayne".
And then there's the opposite, the short people. Davram Bashere is described as short in every possible turn, but still he seems to be taller than most women, or at least few women are described as taller than him. Uh. Are the default height differences between men and women so big in this world? I don't know many seriously tall men in real life - I know they exist, but so many of my male friends are mere centimeters taller than me (or, in case of our dear keyboard player, seriously shorter than me) and I don't consider myself by any means super tall. Anyway. What I wonder is just this: don't all those super tall people and super short people breeding ever produce people of average height??
Also, ethnicity/colour seems rather random in this world. Sure, there's some clear stereotypes - Aiel have red/yellow hair and grey/blue/green eyes, Cairhienin are pale with dark hair, Saldaeans have somewhat Asian features, Domani have copper-coloured skin... But then there's the odd completely black person here and there with no real logic as to where the freaking hell they came from. The Seanchan empire seems to have super-dark people and super-white people completely at random and in no particular hierarchy. (I'm not saying there should be a hierarchy, but shouldn't there be mixed people as well, if there's nothing to stop them from interbreeding?) The Imperial family seems to be as black as they come, and then there's pale, blue-eyed blonds right next to them. And there seems to be both randomly in every social class of the Seanchan we've been shown, so there doesn't seem to be anything to stop them from mixing.
...Yeah, this is probably all for now.
...Now that that's out of the way. *deep breath* Holy carp & mother of GPS and all the other lovely autocorrected exclamations. If the last two books were mildly boring/frustrating and lacking in the "getting shit done" department, this... more than made up for it. And I've been told it only gets better from this point on. (Also, getting to the books I haven't read at all before. I'm way too excited than I should be.) The downside is that I've only two books left and then I'll have caught up with the series and will have to wait along with everyone else for the last book to be published next January. Which is, like, a forever away.
Anyway. Shall we?
The Good:
Galad motherfucking Damodred! I never really liked him before this, he was too inconvenient a character at many points, not to mention never got a PoV until now, but simply offing Eamon Valda would have put him right into my good books; turning out to be a decent guy after all is just an added bonus. Plus, he's still beautiful as daylight, which is definitely a bonus in a cool character (although by no means a requirement). Also, on an unrelated note; Eamon is an actual (real) name? My spell check isn't whining over it... o_O
Rodel Ituralde is back (or still) in action!
Egwene in the Tower fighting her own battle and winning at least as often as losing. Also, the encounter with Mattin Stepaenos. (Sure, go ahead and add old, grandfatherly king/commander/soldier figures to my list of random character-fixations...) Although I wish people would quit believing Rand has murdered all those people, some of whom were killed by the forsaken, killed themselves, or in the case of Morgase Trakand, are actually freaking alive! But, can't help it, I guess. When you're the Dragon Reborn, people tend to expect the worst. The previous incarnation, after all, did break the world and slaughter everyone in sight in his madness. (Yes, I'm talking about you, Lews Therin Telamon. <3)
Logain! <3 Or, should I say, Lord Logain? Anyway. And the battle at Lord Algiarin's manor in Tear. Ogier war cry! Lews Therin seizing control over saidin from Rand and blasting away, holy crap. And later on Logain the ambassador to the Sea Folk. "Mourn if you must. But mourn on the march to Tarmon Gai'don." (But what are all the Asha'man doing in Illian & Arad Doman? Over half the Black Tower?? I hope we'll be seeing more of that soon...) Also, Davram Bashere continues to be awesome & alive, and I'm hoping that he'll stay that way, in both regards.
Nynaeve sending Lan away. Nynaeve extracting a promise from him to not turn down anyone who wishes to ride with him, to Tarwin's Gap & to Tarmon Gai'don. And then proceeding to make sure that he'll have the whole freaking Borderlands riding with him. <3 I was at uni when I read this part and yeah, suffice to say I shouldn't be reading this shit in public. The Golden Crane flies for Tarmon Gai'don! Anyway, regardless of how Aragorn it may sound, this whole Lan the Uncrowned King of Malkier thing is one of my favourite things in the whole series.
...Yeah, moving on. Hmm. Now that Faile is rescued and the Shaido have decided to bugger off back to Threefold Land, dare I hope that I've seen the last of them? It really was my least favourite story arc so far. And Galina got precisely what she deserved! Also, Tam al'Thor is back in action! <3 (And, huh, Taim really stirred up the Two Rivers with his recruiting trip, by the sound of it? Yeah, so much for that old fic...) Also, while we're on the subject of Perrin's story arc, I'll have to throw Grady & Neald in here, too. They're not getting much screen time, but from what little we do get to see through Perrin's eyes, they're slowly but surely climbing on my list of favourite Asha'man. They just seem so... no-nonsense, doing-what-must-be-done... trustworthy, even? Yes, that's the word. They seem trustworthy. A rare thing in this series, the way things seem to be developing.
And, oh! High Lord Darlin, King of Tear! :D And Caraline! <3 I'm so happy for them and hope they'll live through whatever is to come. For such minor supporting characters, they've certainly made a ridiculously strong impression. On me at least.
Even Elayne is getting stuff done in Caemlyn. She finally has the backing of ten Houses, enough to claim the throne, fuck yeah!
Tuon. I finally came to sort of like her, during this book. Okay, I'll admit, Furyk Karede helped me reach that conclusion. And roflcake, Mat is now a married man! AND a member of the Seanchan Imperial family! :D Oh, this is way too awesome. Both the battle Mat led against the traitorous Seanchan who came to murder Tuon, and Tuon's unexpected return to Ebou Dar and foiling Suroth's plans, were equally awesome and yeah. Pity Suroth wasn't revealed a Darkfriend as well, besides being a traitor, but I guess this'll have to do for now.
The Bad:
Taim. No, I can't be happy about his one on-screen appearance in this book. I know there's been strongly suggestive (if not definite) evidence before that he's a Darkfriend, but now Jordan presents him as... well, an asshole, to put it bluntly. And I cannot appreciate that. No. I refuse. All right, he doesn't act precisely wrong, but the whole scene just stank of "look at me, I'm the biggest mofo around and I can do whatever I like" - which he probably can, at least within the Black Tower's bounds, but... it's just... uncool. And Mazrim Taim is not supposed to be... uncool. He's the epitome of coolness. And I know he's Jordan's character to write precisely as he wishes (well, wished) but..! No. Just no. And what's with him letting the Reds bond any willing Asha'man? Let the Lord of Chaos rule, okay, but still.
So now who's bonding whom, anyway? What will happen to Rand's orders to let the Aes Sedai following Egwene bond a number of Asha'man to equal the number of Aes Sedai bonded by Asha'man? Will there be twice the number of bonded Asha'man to Aes Sedai? Or won't Egwene's lot get theirs, now, just because the Reds got there first? What the actual fuck is Taim playing at? Also, what was with the Mishraile stunt? It seems to me that Mishraile was referring to Asha'man already bonded - by the Aes Sedai with Rand, or by whatever sisters the Egwene lot had sent? What is going on here? I demand answers.
Uh. Yeah. That was pretty much my only major complaint in the whole book (and I expect to be coplaining about the same thing till the end of the series. Fuck you, RJ, and the horse you rode in on). I could mention Masema the Massively Annoying Prophet of the bloody Dragon Reborn, Aram turning against Perrin, Rolan's death (he was a cool character even if he chased after Faile a tiny bit too enthusiastically) and Lini's continued misconception that Perrin slept with Berelain (what is this, anyway, the Bold and the Beautiful??), but they're really minor things in comparision. Hell, even Berelain herself behaved in this book and didn't make me want to tear her hair off!
The WTF:
Not related to this specific book, precisely, but something that I've come to notice more and more. Someone once described the world of WoT as "a world of beautiful people", and well, a lot of the characters are described as little short of stunningly beautiful. But I can understand that. RJ likes (liked) his eye candy exactly as much as I do. I can fully well understand that. But what I see is a world of freakishly tall people, or a world of freakish height differences. Like, we have people described as tall. Then we have Logain, whose height and broad shoulders are emphasised every freaking time he's on screen (so to say). Then we have a passage where we're told that Logain is a large man, but not as large as Rand. Okay. Rand is the hero so naturally he's got to be the tallest man around, right? (Not to mention that I still have trouble seeing Rand as such a massive man; he wasn't described as such in the beginning, and there's not really been any mention or him growing physically.) I think only Lan & a few Aiel are described as taller than Rand. Which then must make Lan seriously massive. And Nynaeve is always described as short, if not quite Cairhienin-short. They must make a seriously peculiar-looking couple. Not to mention what Lan & Moiraine used to look like (even though they weren't a couple per se). And then we get to the tall women. Elayne is suddenly described as tall, also. She seems to have grown off-screen like Rand and now there's suddenly few women who can match her height (except for the Aiel, again). Every time someone in Elayne's presence is described as tall there's the addition of "but not quite as tall as Elayne".
And then there's the opposite, the short people. Davram Bashere is described as short in every possible turn, but still he seems to be taller than most women, or at least few women are described as taller than him. Uh. Are the default height differences between men and women so big in this world? I don't know many seriously tall men in real life - I know they exist, but so many of my male friends are mere centimeters taller than me (or, in case of our dear keyboard player, seriously shorter than me) and I don't consider myself by any means super tall. Anyway. What I wonder is just this: don't all those super tall people and super short people breeding ever produce people of average height??
Also, ethnicity/colour seems rather random in this world. Sure, there's some clear stereotypes - Aiel have red/yellow hair and grey/blue/green eyes, Cairhienin are pale with dark hair, Saldaeans have somewhat Asian features, Domani have copper-coloured skin... But then there's the odd completely black person here and there with no real logic as to where the freaking hell they came from. The Seanchan empire seems to have super-dark people and super-white people completely at random and in no particular hierarchy. (I'm not saying there should be a hierarchy, but shouldn't there be mixed people as well, if there's nothing to stop them from interbreeding?) The Imperial family seems to be as black as they come, and then there's pale, blue-eyed blonds right next to them. And there seems to be both randomly in every social class of the Seanchan we've been shown, so there doesn't seem to be anything to stop them from mixing.
...Yeah, this is probably all for now.