Knife of Dreams (Wheel of Time): 11/12 (The Wheel of Time, 11)

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While attempting to escape Altara, Mat meets his supporter and comedic foil Talmanes, who has brought a large number of Mat's personal army the Band of the Red Hand south after working briefly for the King of Murandy. Mat is surprised to learn that the Band has grown in size considerably since he last left it. Semirhage - Apparently was hanging with the Seanchan; disguised herself as Tuon to meet with Rand, took his hand, was captured. And my goodness was I sitting on the edge of my seat when Rand was in the Empress' throne room, facing what he didn't know was a Forsaken and getting his hand burnt off!

Rand lets his bond with Alanna guide him to a room that contains her, Darlin, Caraline, and Astoril, as he had expected, and also Weiramon and Anaiyella, which he had not. Rand demands to know what they are doing here. Weiramon intones that they had come to help Darlin “crush” the rebels; Alanna reports disgustedly that all they did was get a lot of men killed and undo all the progress she and the other Aes Sedai had made in negotiations up to that point. Angrily, Rand tells them he left them in Cairhien for a reason, and they will return there as soon as possible. Tarmon Gai’don is coming soon,” Rand said. The Light send not too soon. “You are going to Arad Doman to get ready for Tarmon Gai’don.”I’m only half-heartedly outdone, though, because I now know just how spectacularly this tactic is going to blow up in Cads’s face Real Soon Now, and while I certainly can’t be overly thrilled at how all that is going to go down (at least not until the eventual Jesusing resolution), I can feel a tiny bit vindicated that it did. Because I Told Her So. Nyah! Moghedien - "the spider"; captured by Nynaeve in dreamland, freed from rebel White Tower secret captivity by Aran'gar, and now enslaved to Moridin. He weaves a gateway to the Heart of the Stone; once through, he holds on to the Power, still wary of Lews Therin, though the voice snarls that Rand has to trust him. Rand greets the two Defenders guarding the room, and they tell him he might want to take a guide to find Darlin, because sometimes the corridors… change. However, we got tons of Mat and Tuon, which is always awesome, so we will take it!!! He is reunited with his band of the Red Hand and Tuon, who although fascinated by him as a flirt, finally gets to witness the greatness that is Mat while in charge!!! He is becoming a character to truly root for! It is nearly dawn in Ebou Dar after a sleepless night. Suroth wonders if Tuon is alive or dead; she has been missing for seventeen days. She thinks she is dead because the escape of the Atha'an Miere damane and the death of Tylin occurred on the same night Tuon disappeared. Two of her own sul'dam, Renna and Seta, disappeared at the same time, and Egeanin Tamarath stole a pair of damane and also disappeared. Someone is trying to disrupt the Return. If Tuon is, indeed, dead, Suroth will have to apologize to the Empress. She decides that she will kill herself before reaching Seandar if it comes to that. Tuon's der'sul'dam left nine days ago with all her sul'dam and damane. Captain Musenge left at the same time with many of his men. They have been gone too long for a simple training exercise, so Suroth thinks they are searching for Tuon. She worries that someone may suspect she is Atha'an Shadar, a Darkfriend.

Nynaeve: Well, sh*t, I continue to love Nynaeve ti al’Meara Mandragoran. She has one POV in this book, and it’s not even a full chapter, but god, is it brilliant. This is character respected, like she annoyed me here and there but never quite hated her. I did dislike her attitude toward Mat in LoC, but it’s evident from PoD onwards that she does care for him. Even if she was being obnoxious about it. I liked her arc in FoH, which I can tell is polarising for some folks, but it explored her trauma quite well. But yeah, from CoS onwards, I started loving her much more, especially during Winter's Heart, and without any hesitation, joined Rand on his mission, which seems like a suicide mission. And her affection and care for the people close to her are very much felt. But yeah, in this chapter in particular, she was quite sweet. I even liked the romantic aspects with her and Lan, it was quite cute. I do think the set-up for Lan and her relationship is terrible, but being married was the best thing that happened to Nynaeve. I loved her with her conversations here, her affection for helping Rand in his POVs, etc. Despite all her powers, at her core, she is still the Wisdom who wants to take care of her people (and loved ones). And yet, I want to know what happens in this long, drawn out series. Having struggled my way to book eleven, I think I will eventually conquer it. Now I must hope that the ending isn't a complete let down (and I realize that Jordan didn't write the conclusion, but please tell me that he left notes or an outline of how he intended things to go). In the meantime, I have to say this was one of the better books in the series. Rand isn't being a complete a-hole, although one wonders how trustworthy his Asha'man are. Elayne gets her hold on Andor, without Rand's intervention. Go, Elayne! We learn that Lan is much more than we have been led to believe (and that Nynaeve is more pragmatic that I would have given Chapter 29 has three points of view, two of which are from Perrin Aybara's POV. His first is 43% of the chapter and his second is 47% of the chapter.Galad confronts Eamon Valda, the leader of the Whitecloaks, for allegedly killing his stepmother Queen Morgase of Andor. Galad kills Valda in a duel and in the process becomes the leader of the Whitecloaks. He then decides to pledge his newfound following to the defeat of the Dark One at Tarmon Gai'don regardless of who the Whitecloaks must fight alongside. Mat continues to travel through Altara with Valan Luca’s traveling circus. Along the way he grows closer with Tuon. Thom reveals to Mat that Moiraine is alive and being held captive by the Aelfinn and Eelfinn. They formulate a plan to infiltrate the Finn’s world using the Tower of Ghenjei thanks to Olver’s knowledge of the game of Snakes and Foxes. Mat and Noal agree to accompany Thom on his mission to save Moiraine. For a moment, he thought neither man would speak, but then Gorenellin was on his feet, tears glistening in his eyes. “The Golden Crane flies for Tarmon Gai’don,” he said softly. This re-read post contains spoilers for all currently published Wheel of Time novels, up to and including Book 13, Towers of Midnight . If you haven’t read, read at your own risk. I’ve mostly never been involved in any particular fandom, the one exception of course was The Wheel of Time.” —Marie Brennan, author of the Memoirs of Lady Trent series

Bashere enters, and Rand gives him time to mourn over the fallen Saldaeans. At length Bashere tells him that the Daughter of the Nine Moons will meet Rand in three days at a manor house in northern Altara, and that she will bring six sul’dam/ damane pairs; Rand may bring a matching number of channelers, plus one other. Min takes his arm, and he tells her no; she merely answers that they will discuss it.

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Equally rewarding was to see Perrin finally not just wandering around moping but getting some action. I'm still waiting for him to get his act together 100% but he's well on his way now that he could finally kill some people (who deserved it). This book concluded so many plot threads that have been sitting out there for a while, and the delayed gratification that came from finally seeing these all come together was amazing. I can't go into detail about what these conclusions were, or even what they pertained to as I do not want to spoil anything for future readers, but rest assured they are extremely satisfying.