Author: Robert Jordan
Published: May 1996
Publisher: Tor Fantasy
Series: The Wheel Of Time #7
880 pages
Seven down, seven more to go. (Okay, six more to go really, because the last one isn’t published yet). I am going to warn you right now this ‘review’ is more of a collection of thoughts, and is a bit all over the place.
A Crown of Swords begins pretty much right after the final events of the previous book, Lord of Chaos. To be honest, I don’t feel a whole lot actually happens in this book, and what did happen certainly did not require 880 pages to tell. Rand is trying to keep control and stability in Cairhein, and also tries to convince the Sea Folk that he is the Coramoor of their Prophecies. It’s all very political and all the discussing and arguing occurs at a snail’s pace; frankly, not very interesting to me. Egwene sends Nynavae and Elayne off to find the Bowl of the Winds, and doesn’t really pop up after that. Nynavae and Elayne’s chapters were fairly interesting, but their search progresses so slowly. And then there’s like a couple chapters regarding Morgase and whatever’s up with her, and her chapters inched by as well. I guess what I’m trying to say is, the entire plot moved very, very slow.
Then suddenly at the end, it’s like the entire story realized it was moving at a slow speed and it decided to fast forward the last handful of scenes! (Spoiler, highlight to read: The reason it feels this way is that all of a sudden, Rand just pops up in Illian and takes down Sammael. Seriously. It happened so freaking fast, I was like, “Isn’t Sammael supposed to be super strong or something? How did Rand kill him so easily?” Then again, Rand is not 100% sure he killed Sammael … ) So I was not very satisfied with the ending. It was too sudden and abrupt.
Character-wise, I’d say everyone is pretty much the same, though there is a few developments. Like Nynavae. Spoiler: She marries Lan and now, suddenly, she’s trying to be all nice and perfect. It’s a bit weird. I never really cared about Nynavae — she’s actually my least favourite character, because I find her way too bitchy and angry, but I guess such events change women … maybe …
Also, there is a surprising amount of sex in this book. Not that I have a problem with reading sex (and it’s always off-camera and/or suggested, so it’s not like anything was described in detail), it’s just that the previous books had none, or very little, and then suddenly in this book, everyone’s hooking up! Okay, not everyone, but it sure feels like it. It’s not really a complaint, more of an observation.
Speaking of which: Min and Rand. Min has always been a practical, down to earth kind of girl but around Rand, she’s become this huge flirt. It’s weird! I mean, I know this isn’t unusual behaviour, for girls to act a bit more flirty and girly around the guy she likes, but it feels like almost too big of a personality shift. Then again, I don’t think Min really ever had a solid, concrete personality like Nynavae.
There’s also a new character introduced in this book, Cadsuane. She is a very old, highly respected Aes Sedai and it sort of feels like she’s come in to take Moiraine’s place. Certainly she is trying to “teach him manners”. I am not sure how I feel about her yet. Her role in the story is not really defined at all, I don’t really know why she suddenly decided to appear. All it was said was that she finds such events like the Dragon Reborn interesting. Regardless, I am a little intrigued by her presence and I have a hunch she’ll have a much larger role in future books, but I really hope she wasn’t written in to be the new Moiraine. Moiraine is my favourite character, no one can take her place!
Not going to complain about the lengthy clothing descriptions or Jordan’s female character I’ve been over that. It’s still present in the series.
Overall, I think I have mixed feelings towards this book. It was slow, but the events that did happen were fairly interesting and I enjoyed reading the book when the plot decided to actually progress, though not all plot progressions were satisfying. I am a little wary of the books to follow in the series, because I have been warned by several friends that the plot continues to slow down more and more — possibly to milk the series — so we shall see.
My Rating: 3/5
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