I still remember it like it was yesterday.... Putting down the first book of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series and saying a silent thank you that I was a latecomer to this wonderful world. There were already EIGHT more books in the series for me to enjoy.

Throughout the next couple of months I had a fantastic time. There was always something to read. The second, third and fourth books enhanced the engrossing tale and I just couldn't read quickly enough.

That was then.

Somewhere along the line, Jordan lost his oomph. The Eleventh and most recent installment in the Wheel of Time series is a tiresome snore of a read, which feels more like a chore as we trudge towards and eventual end for the series we hope will be redeemed in its conclusion with a return to the initial excellence.

Jordan's tale of the reborn Dragon in his eternal struggle against the Dark Lord and his minions was fresh and detailed. The world is as rich as anything Tolkein ever dreamed up, with fascinating factions such as the matriarchal and mystical Aes Sedai and the fanatical and corrupt Children of the Light. Unfortunately, Jordan seems to have forgotten what made his books interesting: Exciting adventures, battles, quests, interesting cultures, heinous yet complex villains and likeable heroes we could get behind.

By the time of Knife of Dreams, Jordan somehow, inexplicably, has sucked his own story dry of almost any redeeming feature. Practically gone are the always interesting Children of the Light, with the bland Shaido Aiel somehow persisting into this book when really they should have been done away with long ago. They serve no purpose but to provide a vehicle for Perrin's wife Faile, a tedious and irritating character who has no place occupying a storyline which sucks up at least a third of the book.

I'm not sure why Robert Jordan has felt the need to drag out tedious elements of his story at the expense of actual plot progression. For over two books now, including lengthy parts of this one, we have been sent to Caemlyn to hear about Elayne's morning sickness, or what she had for dinner and the relative level of weevil infestation of the food. Page after page of dialogue as Mistress Harfor and Master Corly (or whatever their names are) discuss the matters of state. Why are we hearing this? There's actually a page and a half where the struggle for succession in Caemlyn actually becomes interesting, where people finally are forced to declare their support for Elayne, other than that it is a horrid, excruciating trudge through the pages.

"Jordanisms" are thankfully slightly fewer in this book. Don't get me wrong - There's still far too much "smoothing of skirts", "folding arms beneath her breasts" and women thinking to themselves that men are "wool-headed", but thankfully "braid tugging" is down at least 30%, but that could be because Nynaeve doesn't have much to do in this book. Seriously, each book in the series would probably be a dozen pages shorter if Jordan didn't repeat himself so often with these tired devices and by spoon feeding us the same info via the "thoughts" of characters over and over and over again. How many times do we need to hear that Egwene wants to "deal with the black tower" for example? Thankfully she has bigger things on her plate in this book so we didn't have to read about her thinking it every six pages, but unfortunately we do get a lot of the familiar stories of bare bottom caning and resulting soreness. Too much is the same.

I think the biggest problem Jordan has faced with this book, and the preceding, even more unreadable volume, is that the series needs to end and he has far, far too many pieces left on the board. Take the Aes Sedai for example. These women were once fascinating, but there must be two hundred different Aes Sedai in play, along with myriad Sea Folk wind-finders, Kin, Aiel wise ones and miscellaneous other characters. The rich and varied characterisation was once a major strong point of this series, but now there are just too many people in too many places to keep track of. As a result, the author can't spend much time on anyone and the character suffers. Midway through this book Aes Sedia murderers from the black ajah were unmasked and dealt with - when I read it, I had a vague memory of the murder, but you could have told me the women in question had been anywhere in the land at the time of the killings and I would have believed it.

The one positive thing about this volume is it does show signs Jordan is trying to tie up some of the million different threads he has going. The question of Caemlyn has finally been dealt with, albeit about 600 pages of tedium too late, and the Shaido are by the climax FINALLY settled with.

Unfortunately, two books of positioning players and cleaning up of loose ends doesn't make very interesting reading. In fact it is very hard to keep reading, especially when a moderately interesting part of the book suddenly presents you with "more Elayne" in the next chapter. Ugh the pain I felt when I glanced ahead and saw no relief for 50 or so pages.

Unlike many disenchanted Wheel of Time fans, I cut the series a lot of slack. There are many who feel the series became unreadable after book six, however I found series fine until the tenth entry, with the exception of the first half of book eight (in other words, the prologue).

I never thought I wouldn't be excitedly hoping for the final book in this series, to finally discover the outcome of the final battle between Rand and the powers of darkness. Unfortunately, this series has run out of steam. The last two books could have been covered in a few pages of cliff's notes.

There's no doubt I will read the final edition when it is eventually released. I have come too far to give up now and I can only hope the series goes out with a bang and some of its former glory.

Knife of Dreams is unfortunately a very uninspiring book, more about the tying up of uninteresting loose ends and repetition of the same old situations with the same characters reacting in the same way we have read about a thousand times before. This series could have been a great epic, one of the greatest of all time. It is sad to see it peter out into such dire, unreadable dreck. Let's hope the finale gives the suffering and loyal fans who are still reading their well deserved reward.

Recommended: No