Robert Jordan knew he was dying when he was writing "Knife of Dreams" - the eleventh book in his epic "Wheel of Time" series. This knowledge undoubtedly gave him a sense of urgency to move to the story as quickly toward the finish line as possible.

Jordan did pick up the pace a bit. He (sort of) resolves the following:

  • Perrin's attempts to rescue his kidnapped wife Faile, while she conspires to escape
  • Mat's relationship with the Daughter of the Nine Moons
  • Rand suffers a serious physical injury
  • Elaine is officially named Queen of Andor

By the end of this book, Egwene remains the only major character without a resolution of a major plot line.

However, true to form, Jordan cannot help himself as he describes unnecessary details that in no way advance the plot. For example, he feels compelled to set a scene by describing the clothing worn by each character.

Before his death, Jordan prepared an outline to finish the saga and solicited others to write the final chapters. Brandon Sanderson ended up taking on this task, although it took him three novels to do so - in contrast to Jordan's prediction that all loose ends could be tied up in one more volume.

Despite its weaknesses, KoD is the strongest WoT novel for some time. I am looking forward to seeing how Sanderson completed the story.