| Author: Robert Jordan | Series: The Wheel of Time |
| Rating: 7.5 | Reviewer: Valashain |
| Genre: Fantasy | Publisher:Tor |
| Pages: 880 | Orig Pub Date: May 1996 |
| Binding: Paperback MassMarket | Cover Illus.: Darrell K. Sweet |
I am enjoying my reread of the later Wheel of Time books, more than I should probably. Because the first five books already had a review on fantasybookspot, I started in the middle of the series. At this point I am considering rereading those as well. Even if A Crown of Swords is where the cracks in Jordan's work begin to become annoying it was a very enjoyable read. Besides if you held on for this long in the series you ought to be used to Jordan's peculiarities by now. Not as good as the previous book Lord of Chaos and nowhere near the best in the series, A Crown of Swords is still a decent entry into his series. However, he does make things a lot more difficult for himself by adding more story lines and characters to what is already a rather complicated story.
A quick recap of what everybody is up to... like with Lord of Chaos I can't really tell you anything meaningfully about the content of the book without assuming you have read up till book six at least. I will do my best not to give too much away but if you haven't read Lord of Chaos beware, spoilers ahead.
At one point in Lord of Chaos Jordan had most of his main characters gathered in either Cairhien or Salidar. In this book they begin to scatter again though. Rand, in the company of Perrin and Faile returns to Cairhien after escaping from the White Tower Aes Sedai. He finds that in his absence one of the Cairhienin nobles has taken the Sun throne. He punishes Lady Colavere severely for this but the effect is not quite what he was looking for. After that it is back to business for Rand, juggling his various interests as well as finally paying attention to the Seafolk and the rebels in Cairhien and Tear, and of course his plan to get rid of Sammael and conquer Illian. He offer Perrin several positions but Perrin wants to go his own way. Finally, after a staged fight Perrin leaves with a small army to bring the Prophet Masema to heel. He's been ravaging Gehaldan in the name of the Dragon for some time now.
Mat, Nynaeve, Aveindha and Elayne have arrived in Ebou Dar in search of the bowl of winds. This doesn't appear to be quite as simple as Elayne and Nynaeve imagined, the Rahad is vast and dangerous. The Aes Sedai already present in Ebou Dar don't make matters easier either. The situation forces Elayne and Nynaeve to make some uncomfortable decisions regarding Mat, as well as stand up to the Aes Sedai. To complicate matters even further they stumble across an ancient Tower secret, something Egwene will be most interested in. Mat in the mean time, can't wait to get the lot of them out of Ebou Dar, especially after he is introduced to Queen Tylin of Tarabon. As it happens, he is the last to leave.
Back with the Salidar rebel faction Egwene is trying to consolidate her power of the rebel camp. They are slowly moving north to Tar Valon, gathering an army as they go. The rebels are anything but united though. There seem to be three major currents in the camp, headed by Sheriam, Romanda and Lelaine respectively. Under the surface there is an awful lot more going on though. Egwene exploits some of these minor currents to her advantage but she needs more if she is to become more than a figurehead.
On top of all that Jordan also introduces a new group of channellers (the Kin). He also elaborates on the situation of the Shaido Aiel, the return of the Seanchan, the defeat of the Whitecloaks (and the slaying of one of my favourite secondary characters, Pedron Niall), Elaida's continued string of poor decisions and various plots by the Forsaken.
You'd think that with all this content the book would be fast paced. Unfortunately it isn't. Especially the affairs in Ebou Dar, even if a lot of things happen that are important to later books, seem slow at times. It also scatters the reader's attention in a hundred different directions. Especially the various undertakings of the Forsaken (of whom the Dark One seems to have a steady supply) can be confusing and appear counter-productive in a lot of ways.
I still wonder whether we needed the retelling of the Battle of Dumai's Wells from the Shaido point of view was really necessary. Or if the introduction of another group of Aes Sedai in the White Tower working on a secret project (or maybe I should call it a witch hunt) is vital to the series. Is Morgase important enough to demand all that attention? And Cadsuane, I certainly hope he has plans with her because she is by far one of the most annoying characters Jordan's come up with. The introduction of the True Power, this late in the series, doesn't quite work for me either. The Forsaken are quite formidable enough as it is. In short, the balance between detail and progression of the story has tipped in this book.
That being said, there are some very good parts in A Crown of Swords as well. The argument between Moghedien and Nynaeve reaches spectacular and violent new heights. Probably one of my favourite parts in the series. Brigitte and Mat getting drunk and Elayne suffering the consequences is another great scene and Tylin and Mat are hilarious at times. Rand finally settles his affairs in Illian and leaves us with a number of questions to ponder (who lend him a hand at Shadar Logoth? Where is the king of Illian?). Unfortunately for the reader, most of these events happen towards the end of the book. I suppose you could say Jordan needs a long time to get going in A Crown of Swords.
It's easy to loose patience with this book and just give up halfway through. In the end I still think it was a rewarding read, in the last hundred or so pages Jordan wraps up a lot of things. Most reader will at this point by in for the long haul anyway. A Crown of Swords book is a test of endurance for the real fan of epic fantasy. Hang in there and you'll be rewarded with an exciting finale. Which is probably more than you can say for the next book. The Path of Daggers is often named as the least favourite in the series by fans. I will be reviewing book eight in a couple of weeks.
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