The Wheel of Time Reread: Book 11 - Knife of Dreams
*SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THIS AND OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES*
Find the full list of posts in my full re-read of the series HERE
So, we've reached Knife of Dreams. And with it, we finally reach the end of Part 3 of The Wheel of Time. No more waiting. No more Bloat. By the time we reach the end of this book, the world is beginning its inexorable slide into Tarmon Gai'don. The Final Battle. And with this, the pace of the writing returns to its best.
Goodbye, Robert Jordan
The first thing we have to address is that this is the last book in the series Jordan completed before his death.
Jordan always intended this to be the penultimate book in the series. I can remember at the time him promising that no matter how long he had to make it, there would only be one more book, The Memory of Light. Of course, we people of the future know how that panned out. But we'll talk more about this in my next post.
But what I will say is it's welcome that Jordan's final book was a return to form. Knife of Dreams isn't one of the best in the series. It doesn't, for example, have any significant or Top Ten moments from the series. But we do see a return to the tight pacing from Parts 2 and 3.
A change of pace
Jordan's writing style throughout this series has never been what you could call swift. The way I've always thought about it is as a series of smaller novellas. Each character or plot arc would be followed in its entirety, rather than jumping between different ones throughout the book in a more linear manner.
This isn't a bad way to do things. It has its benefits, especially in such an epic series. With so much happening at once, keeping the focus in this way makes it a lot easy to read by only requiring us to keep one line of action in our minds at a time. But it also has its downsides, especially when the plot or character currently in focus isn't one you find interesting.
But as we get into the final chapters of Knife of Dreams, Jordan shakes things up. We start to jump between characters more, first changing for each chapter and then jumping about within each chapter. I have to assume this was on purpose, with Jordan wanting to create a sense of events beginning to speed up to the final confrontation. And by the end, we really do feel as if we're on the precipice, ready to tip forwards into the final act.
Once more, let's look at world-building
Yes, I'm beating this drum again. Because I will never stop beating the drum of how outstanding Robert Jordan's world-building skills were. And for his final novel, he leaves us with yet another example of his skills.
Through The Wheel of Time, Jordan has introduced us to multiple cultures and peoples, weaving them into the narrative flawlessly. And by this point, we've reached a point where we feel we know them all. And then, with just a few lines, Jordan expands the world yet again.
At this point, we know who the Seafolk and the Olger are. Both peoples began as mysterious but eventually became familiar. But just as we feel complacent, Jordan reminds us their cultures are so much more than we've seen or will ever get to see.
With the Seafolk, it's their reaction to the mass suicide of the Amayar. With the Olgar, it's the Book of Translation. We don't get shown much of either. They are only mentioned in passing and mean very little to the main plot. It's only in the reactions of the characters that we can see how important these things are.
But just with these few spare lines, almost peripheral, Jordan manages to make these two cultures one more vast and mysterious beyond our knowledge. A reminder the world of The Wheel of Time is far more vast than even this epic story can cover.
The call-back of call-backs
In The Eye of the World, the very first book of the series, Rand and Matt are travelling with Bayle Domon when they notice a strange tower in the distance. We're told it's a famous landmark, nothing more. One more wonder to impress these two boys who've never been outside their own village. It's never mentioned again.
Until now. Ten entire books later, when Matt learns he needs to visit the Tower of Ghenji. And wouldn't you know it, it's the tower he saw back in the first book.
I love this because it makes the tower more than just some deus ex machina, thrown in as a random place he'll be able to conveniently find the thing he is looking for. It's something that's been set in place naturally, without us ever realising how important it would become.
Now that is foreshadowing.
Representation and Equality In The Wheel of Time
In previous posts, we've discussed Jordan's problems Jordan when it comes to gender politics and relationships in The Wheel of Time. But as I was reading Knife of Dreams, I noticed how impressively multicultural and diverse the world is. There's a lot of classism and jingoism, yes, but hardly any explicit racism or intolerance.
It's especially impressive considering when this series began. A lot of fantasy from the late 'eighties and early 'nineties had a serious issue with whitewashing. Characters would all be white, with anyone of a different race explicitly from "exotic", far away countries. Often, the only one the protagonists have ever met or even seen. But in The Wheel of Time, people of colour are simply part of the world. Explicitly mentioned in the description of scenes, yet without ever making their presence more or less important or expected than anyone else.
I noticed this specifically with the Seanchan. I wrote in my last post how the Seanchan, when you look closely, are actually one of the better cultures in the world to be part of. Not exclusively good, of course, (especially if you're a traveller), but with a lot more social mobility and a strange sort of freedom. And once I had noticed it with them, I realised it was pretty much the same, to a lesser or greater degree, with most of the cultures.
I wouldn't go as far as to say Robert Jordan did everything right or couldn't have done better. But considering his generation and contemporaries, I can't help but consider it impressive.
And so, where does The Knife of Dreams leave us?
Well, no less a place than the brink of Tarmon Gai'don. The dead are walking, the final sign that the Final Battle is almost here. Matt and Tuon are married, and Tuon is back with her people. Faile is free, and Perrin is once again able to return to the task Rand had originally given him. Rand is ready to do whatever it takes to remove all distractions that might keep his forces occupied when he needs them to face the Dark One.
But things don't pan out as hoped. Robert Jordan passed away two years after this book was published, leaving it in the hands of his widow, Harriet McDougal, who called on Brandon Sanderson to complete the series. Which means, rather than one final instalment, we have three more to go. Starting with The Gathering Storm.