Welcome! After many months of chapter-by-chapter re-read and reaction blogging of Robert Jordan’s A Crown of Swords – the seventh book of The Wheel of Time series – I have made it to yet another end and another beginning in this circle-themed series. You can find my chapter recaps HERE.
Now I will endeavor to review the entire book as a completed project. There will be no spoilers beyond this book in my review. There will be spoilers for *this* book and all of volumes that preceded it, though.
“There can be no health in us, nor any good thing grow, for the land is one with the Dragon Reborn and he one with the land. Soul of fire, heart of stone, in pride he conquers, forcing the proud to yield. He calls upon the mountains to kneel, and the seas to give way, and the very skies to bow. Pray that the heart of stone remebers tears, and the soul of fire, love.
-From a much-disputed translation of The Prophecies of the Dragon by the poet Kyera Termendal, of Shiota, believed to have been published between FY 700 and FY 800”
“Master of the lightnings, rider on the storm, wearer of a crown of swords, spinner-out of fate. Who thinks he turns the Wheel of Time, may learn the truth too late.”
— From the the fragmentary translation of the Prophecies of the Dragon, attributed to Lord Mangore Kiramin, Sword-bard of Aramaelle and Warder to Caraighan Maconar, into what was then called the vulgar tongue (circa 300 AB)
The Plot
via library.tarvalon.net:
Elaida sends fifty Red sisters, led by Toveine, to the Black Tower to gentle any men learning to channel, under the impression that there will be at most two or three men who can channel. She believes that raising Egwene means the Aes Sedai in Salidar will return to her, since if they were serious in their rebellion, one of the more senior Aes Sedai would have been chosen. She has secret plans working among the rebels. In Alviarin‘s presence she has a Foretelling that the Tower will be whole again and the Black Tower rent. Alviarin is confirmed to be of the Black Ajah. Mesaana teaches Alviarin Traveling.
Sevanna, along with the strongest of the Wise Ones who can channel, prepares to attack those holding Rand (this is likely a retelling of Dumai’s Wells from the Shaido viewpoint). They attack and are driven back. Sevanna and her Wise Ones summon Caddar, who arrives with Maisia. Someone, probably Moridin, watches them. Therava brings Galina, who has been captured. Galina is named da’tsang. Sammael brings them an Oath Rod. He gives them nar’baha which he claims will let them Travel. They use it and it spreads them everywhere across the continent. Sevanna takes the Wise Ones with her. It is revealed that the nar’baha are just pieces of stone and Caddar had channeled the gateways. A figure watches.
Morgase urges Niall to help her take Andor back as soon as possible. He learns of the Seanchan, but is murdered before he can tell anyone. Valda takes control and pressures Morgase into sex. Morgase privately renounces the Lion Throne and the High Seat of House Trakand. She is stopped from committing suicide by Lini. The Seanchan attack and take over the Fortress of Light; Morgase is taken to Suroth, who is angered by Morgase’s use of Suroth’s first name. Balwer takes them away from Amador.
After the events at Dumai’s Wells, Rand gives the Aes Sedai into the care of the Wise Ones, to Taim‘s displeasure. He takes Asha’man bodyguards. Rand learns that Taim has taken the title of M’Hael. They Travel to a point outside Cairhien, then walk the rest of the way. They are told that Colavaere has taken the throne. Faile and Berelain are both acting as Colavaere’s attendants. It is revealed that Colavaere had Meilan and Maringil murdered. Rand confronts Colavaere in the Grand Hall of the Sun during the third Sunset Convocation. Instead of sentencing her to death, Rand strips her of her titles and exiles her to a farm. She commits suicide. Rand learns that other Aes Sedai are in Cairhien.
Rand goes to Caemlyn, hoping to find Elayne, and learns Caraline Damodred and Toram Riatin are setting up in opposition to him. He learns there are nine Aes Sedai known to be in Caemlyn. He leaves Morr there. Rand sends the army gathered in Tear off to Illian with two of the Asha’man, Hopwil and Adley.
Back in Cairhien, Rand tries to send Berelain back to Mayene after an assassination attempt. Cadsuane arrives and tries to provoke him, asking if he has started hearing voices. Idrien arrives from the school and tells him of Fel‘s death. Rand tells Min of this and they comfort each other.
Perrin and Rand stage a fight over the Aes Sedai prisoners, to give Rand an excuse to send Perrin away, though in reality he goes to Ghealdan with Grady, Neald, Masuri, and Seonid, as well as some Wise Ones. Loial goes with one of the Asha’man, Karldin, to visit the stedding and guard the Ways.
Rand convinces himself that he raped Min and withdraws completely. She brings him out of it and makes him see sense. They admit their love for one another. She tells of a viewing of Rand and another man merging, and one of them dying. Rand goes to meet the Sea Folk, taking Bera, Alanna, Rafela, Faeldrin, and Merana, putting Merana in charge of them. Min sees that they will be loyal to him. His ta’veren effect helps in the negotiations, with the Sea Folk giving away more than they intended, much to their surprise. He leaves Merana and Rafela to negotiate and goes with Min to deal with the rebelling nobles camped outside Cairhien.
Caraline recognizes Rand but says nothing. His ta’veren effect works on her and Darlin, who reveals he would be happy to support Rand, but feels he no longer has a choice. Cadsuane and several other sisters are in the camp, as is Fain, with Daved Hanlon and Toram Riatin, who, due to Fain’s influence, hates Rand.
Toram and Rand duel with practice swords. This is interrupted by fog attacking the camp. One of the Red Ajah sisters present is killed. Rand uses balefire, causing Cadsuane to slap him and tell him never to use it again. Fain stabs him with the dagger from Shadar Logoth. Samitsu partially Heals him, but she says she believes he will die. Darlin carries him out. Min tells the full story of Rand’s capture and they return to the palace in Cairhien. Here, Flinn tries his Healing, sealing the wound away.
Rand wakes two days later, having been Healed further by Corele. Min tells him that Cadsuane is to teach him and the Asha’man something they need to know. He hears the army is almost on Illian, so he Travels to Bashere and his men. He takes them and the Asha’man directly into Illian, where the Asha’man set off all of Sammael’s traps. He chases Sammael to Shadar Logoth. Here he sees Liah. While Rand is attacking Trollocs, Sammael strikes at him and he loses the Power. A man arrives and helps Rand. They both use balefire, with the streams crossing, causing double vision and a loud clang. He drops hints that Sammael is at the Waygate then leaves, claiming plans will have to be abandoned if Rand is killed. The man did not use saidin. At the Waygate, Rand sees Sammael turn to look at Liah, who Rand balefires, as she is about to be killed by Mashadar. Sammael disappears and is presumed to have been killed by the dark mist. On his return to Illian, Rand is pronounced King by the Council of Nine.
Moghedien is taken by Shaidar Haran to Moridin, who has two cour’souvra, mindtraps, one of them hers.
Elaida is woken by Alviarin, who tells her that Rand has broken free and twelve sisters have returned. Alviarin takes control of Elaida by threatening to reveal both this and the fact that sisters were sent to the Black Tower. She orders some sisters punished for keeping angreal and others praised, in order to cause dissension amongst the Ajahs. Elaida visits Seaine and sets her looking for traitors, which Seaine take to mean Black Ajah. Seaine enlists Pevara on the search.
Egwene struggles for some control over the Salidar Hall, using the fact that Sheriam, Lelaine, and Romanda cannot stand each other to occasionally get her own way. Talking with Siuan, she learns Sheriam has sent sisters to the White Tower and has not told the Hall because she fears Darkfriends. It occurs to her that Elaida may have done the same. She feels Moghedien escape, which prevents her taking advantage.
Nicola tries to blackmail Egwene about pretending to be Aes Sedai before she, Nynaeve, and Elayne were raised. Egwene threatens her and Areina in the real world and in Tel’aran’rhiod. She talks to Melaine, Amys, and Bair and reveals she is Amyrlin and warns them of Moghedien. She has visions of Gawyn and Mat.
Theodrin and Faolain swear fealty to Egwene. Faolain also tells her how much she dislikes her. Egwene sends them to see if anyone saw Moghedien escape. She tells Siuan it should not matter how strong in the Power she is. Romanda and Lelaine complain about Delana wanting to name Elaida Black.
Halima, known as Delana’s secretary, seems to help Egwene’s headaches. In truth Halima is most likely causing them, but wants to have Egwene dependent on her.
Elayne and Nynaeve are in Ebou Dar; they go to the Sea Folk in the city to get help with the ter’angreal they are looking for. They recognize the description as the Bowl of the Winds. After no success in finding it, they send Birgitte to Mat to tell him he is to help them.
Mat gambles on horses, with Olver as a jockey. He sees Mili Skane, a Darkfriend, and follows her to Jaichim Carridin‘s place. On the way he picks up a signet ring of a fox scaring birds. Sammael tells Carridin not to go after Mat unless he gets in the way.
Mat goes to see the Queen, Tylin, and leaves a note about Carridin. Her son, Beslan, takes a liking to him. Returning to the inn, Mat is attacked by a man in his room. Birgitte visits Mat, who remembers Birgitte from Falme, and they talk in the Old Tongue. They agree to keep each other’s secrets. They get drunk, which affects Elayne since she is bonded to Birgitte. On Birgitte’s return, she tells Elayne that Mat wants an apology and thanks for rescuing them from the Stone. Aviendha and Birgitte both agree that he is owed an apology.
Mat annoys Elayne and Nynaeve by saying that it was nothing when they apologize. They promise not to demean him and to listen to his advice. He moves to the palace where teh Aes Sedai are. Upon leaving, they are accosted by Setalle Anan, who refuses to believe they are Aes Sedai and takes them to the Kin. When they insist they are Aes Sedai, Reanne throws them out and threatens to spread their descriptions. Setalle recognizes one of them as someone she met, but the woman claims it was her grandmother’s sister. Elayne begins to think about the ageless look. They are attacked on the way back to the palace.
Mat is pursued and caught by Tylin. The girls set him watching the Kin. He attends a festival with Beslan and his friends, where they are attacked by beggars.
Elayne is brought before the other Aes Sedai, who threaten to punish her for talking to the Kin. When she learns Carridin is claiming her mother is alive, she loses her temper and threatens the others, who realize she stands above them. She forces them to go and meet the Kin.
On the way to a meeting with the Sea Flk, Moghedien tries to balefire Nynaeve but is put off by pigeons. Nynaeve’s boat and bodyguards are destroyed. She almost drowns, but gives in, thus overcoming her block against the Power, and survives. Lan pulls her out. They get married and she fetches the Windfinders.
They go to the Kin, who agree to take them to the store of Power-related objects. Mat arrives, having just found it himself. They thank Mat, who is told of Moghedien by Lan. At the store, they are confronted by Falion and Ispan. Mat saves Elayne from a gholam, which is injured by his medallion. It kills Nalesean during the battle. They return to the palace, where Mat uses his being ta’veren to make the Windfinders agree to go wherever Elayne and Nynaeve want. Mat goes off to find Olver with his men, Thom and Juilin. The Seanchan attack at this moment and he gets trapped under a wall.
What I Liked
Mat Gets to Shine
Ever since The Dragon Reborn (Book #3) wherein we as the Readers finally got our first Mat POV chapter, Mat has been a fan favorite. He is the rogue with a heart of gold character in this series and Jordan writes him exceptionally well. When we spend time in Mat’s mind, we notice his extreme attention to the details happening around him, the degree to which he downplays even to himself, his own better angels, and his accurate and humorous assessments of the people around him – both good and bad. Mat is a fun-having hero who works very hard to convince you that he’s not and he’s a delight to read.
This is the first book in the series wherein Mat is the primary POV character from among our now quite large ensemble cast and Jordan highlights him by putting him in a crazy city that simultaneously demonstrates Mat’s incredible adaptability and what it would look like if he were trapped in an impossible situation. Ebou Dar is a city not unlike a rowdy Old West saloon, with gambling and violent fights around every corner. Mat is a fish in water with respect to this, though, commenting internally not on those dangerous surroundings but upon how polite everyone in the city is (a politeness that is enforced by the aforementioned danger of the place.) On the other hand, Mat is trapped in a terrible situationship with the city’s sexually predatory Queen Tylin, and we see what Mat looks like when his Trickster talents are of no use. It’s easily his darkest moment in the series and he still manages to pass the whole thing off as comedic, if you are not reading it closely.
The close of the book is Mat’s best moment in the series so far. He fights off a new-to-the-series type of Shadowspawn that the One Power cannot touch – a gholam – and saves not only Elayne’s life, but also the cache of One Power objects they were trying to recover. Mat whirling his ter’angreal medallion and yelling “You can’t have her!” at the gholam is just peak fantasy.
Subsection: The Mat and Elayne Plot Arc
Mat does the near impossible in this book and delivers for Elayne a great plot arc. When we start the book, she continues her inexplicably rude treatment of him. Did he deliver a letter to her mother in Caemlyn as she asked? Yes. Did she later find out he walked up on one of the Forsaken in doing so? Yes. Did he learn of a plot at this moment against Elayne’s life and then cross the continent to kill her assassin? Yes. Did he succeed in killing her assassin? Yes. Did he find out she was taken captive in the impregnable Stone of Tear by Aes Sedai and then go in, alone, and rescue her? Yes. Did she show any gratitude at all for any of this? No. It’s never really made clear why Elayne treats Mat the way that she does, however, we are forced to assume that she just adopts Egwene and Nynaeve’s characterization of him, entirely, and ignores her experience with him. Honestly, it’s bizarre and it’s on the long list of reasons for why Elayne is a difficult character to actually like.
Finally… FINALLY… someone from outside the SuperGirls group (Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne) finds out what Mat has done for her and calls Elayne out. In this case, it was Birgitte Silverbow, who found out in an incredibly memorable chapter wherein she and Mat went out drinking together. Aviendha hears the story from Birgitte, tooo, and tells Elayne that she has a lot of toh (obligation) toward Mat and that she needs to make amends. For several chapters, Elayne insincerely tries to meet her toh. She’s only concerned about how Aviendha feels about her. Even in the midst of this public and insincere effort to make things right with Mat, Elayne still hid from Mat that Moghedien was in the city and that two of his men were killed by her. She took it upon herself to chew Mat out over his treatment of Queen Tylin, and then she laughed at Mat when she found out she had the situation completely backward. Mat, nonetheless, offers to give her his ter’angreal to keep her safe from Moghedien knowing that it would put him at serious risk and knowing she’d likely not want to give it back. For the first time, Elayne begins to reconsider her views of him. Then a few pages later, Mat saves her life against a nearly unstoppable new Shadowspawn.
In most stories, this would be the start of a romance arc between these two. She is pretty, Mat notices that she’s pretty, and this is a relatively standard though exceptionally executed “rogue wins over the prim princess” plot. We won’t get that in this series. However, Elayne is now won over and filled with respect for Mat. It was very satisfying to read.
Nynaeve and Lan
Nynaeve is one of my favorite characters in the series, massive flaws and all, because I understand that her flaws are coming from a good place. It was immensely satisfying to see a woman who is known for her anger and prickliness feeling giddy with joy when she finally gets Lan. Jordan wrote that whole scene SO WELL.
She spent most of her life alone, believing she would always be alone. She was an orphan. Her first occupation was Wisdom – a job that almost never marries. The guy she wanted belonged to someone else and to a cause that he believes will kill him. Then… she got him. It’s even better, and extremely fitting, that she finally breaks her block in this exact moment, too. She never had access to love, joy, and happiness until now. She can finally surrender to saidar without first going blind with rage. It’s a good parallel.
Nynaeve has had a lot of fantastic moments in this series (maybe more than any other character), but I think this one is my favorite.
Ebou Dar
Aside from one thing (I’ll cover it below), I really enjoyed this setting. Jordan does a great job with the world-building here. He took the feel of an “anything can happen” Wild West Saloon and made it into a technologically late Medieval fantasy location. The city was almost its own character and it was a lot of fun.
Min Farshaw
She makes the Rand sections tolerable. Jordan’s messianic character is a paranoid, PTSD suffering, voices-in-his-head having, lonely, arrogant mess. Rand has needed someone in his corner, supporting him, since the first book. It’s been a palpable weight, that was hard to recognize as a weight, until we finally see someone carry it. Min in this book is the character we’ve all been waiting for.
The conceit of Rand’s character is that he has three love interests, but Jordan has really only written one… Min. Rand has hardly ever spent any time with Elayne. The last time he saw her, she wrote him an inexplicable “I hate you” going away letter. (She also immediately started flirting with Thom after she did that, but that’s another book.) Aviendha loved Rand at first sight for reasons we’ve never explored from her POV, and she spent nearly all of her time with Rand insisting that she hates him. Every woman in Rand’s life – Moiraine, Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne, Aviendha, Sorilea, and now Cadsuane – try to get Rand to do what they want, because they believe the thing they want is what is best for him. It’s not made better that they are often wrong in their beliefs. Min is the first character who tries to help Rand do what he wants and to make it work. Of the three love interests for Rand, she’s the only one where Jordan actually shows us instead of telling us. (With the other two, you have girls with red, or red-gold hair, and they either have a dimple or Rand sees her walk around naked semi-regularly, so maybe that would make more sense in a visual medium.)
Min is a complicated and well-fleshed out character, too. She argues with Rand. She flirts with him. She enjoys making him blush. She has her own interests – including reading philosophy and flourishing her knives. She reminds Rand of where he came from. We read her own self-consciousness in her own POV sections. She does all of this without trying to control Rand. As a result, she has more influence over him than anyone else. (This is exactly how saidar works, too, and I think Jordan goes out of his way to subtly make this point about functional gender dynamics throughout the series.)
What I Did Not Like
The Rampant Sexual Assaults
Jordan is always very careful to imply and insinuate, or to do a “fade to black / flashforward” rather than to put things like this on the page. That remains true here. He’s very conscientious about keeping his series YA friendly, or at least YA friendly adjacent. That said, several characters are raped in this book. Morgase, Mat, Moghedien, and Egwene all suffer in this way, though with the last two in particular it is very subtly implied, to the point you might miss it if you aren’t paying close attention.
In a grim, dark, Horror Fantasy (such as this series is) this is the sort of thing that you expect to happen eventually. However, 1) we got a lot of it, to multiple characters, all at once in this book, and 2) by cloaking what happened in so much subtly, Jordan steals or lessens the serious sense of impact the characters and the readers should feel.
The Pace of the Series
As a standalone book A Crown of Swords is a very fun read. In the context of the series as a whole, though, the pace in this one feels much slower and the stakes feel much less urgent. The best way to describe the book is that it comes across a very entertaining side quest. (Imagine a Star Trek episode where they do a two or three episode arc on a weird new planet.)
Did finding The Bowl of the Winds really need its own book? What were the Aes Sedai up to in the palace in Ebou Dar while Elayne and Nynaeve were doing the job they were sent to do? (It felt like if they had helped, the bowl would have been located much sooner.) Rand was kind of a background character in this book – though his adventures were enormous consequential (settling the Rebels via Fain and killing Sammael.) Perrin doesn’t really do anything except have drama with his wife and with Rand, before leaving for Ghealdan.
Perrin – Faile – Berelain
I’m just not a fan of this love triangle that isn’t a triangle because Perrin isn’t even a little tempted. Jordan hasn’t sold me on why Berelain is trying so hard. He hasn’t sold me on why Perrin and Faile aren’t communicating more openly. This hasn’t devolved to the level of what it’s like to read Nynaeve and Elayne bickering with each other for chapters on end while in the circus, but it’s not much better than that.
Sammael’s Death
Did he actually die? I don’t like not seeing it on the page. My strong impression though is that we are supposed to believe he definitely died.
I also just didn’t like that he decided to stage his fight with Rand in Shadar Logoth. Why there? The argument that he wanted to do it somewhere that Rand had a prior victory is incredibly weak. There are much better options than this place. It just seemed like we needed to see Sammael die permanently, and not via balefire because that was getting too repetitive, so the plot came up with a reason to let Mashadar do it. Maybe that’s fine if we actually get to see Mashadar kill him… but we didn’t.
Salidar Politics
I just can’t really bring myself to be invested in the “Egwene politics her way out of puppet status and into true leadership” plot arc. I might have enjoyed this more if it were Elayne, given her background in politics growing up. Even Nynaeve played politics before the series started. Egwene as a political genius feels a little too much Mary Sue plot armor to be realistic, in my opinion. Maybe if she ever thought aout her Dad the Mayor, and what he did in various situations, it would help. Does this arc give Siuan something to do? Sure. And to some degree, this is somewhat satisfying for *her* plot arc. It just doesn’t work for me with Egwene.
Maybe I just need to give it more time.
Morgase and the Whitecloaks
I have never been particularly invested in the Morgase plot. It seems she has an important role yet to play, at some point, but with so many characters to keep track of, my level of care only stretches so far. Jordan in borrowing her character name from King Arthur inverted her role. In Arthurian Legend, Morgase was a powerful witch and in control of her surroundings. Depending on the story, she uses magic against Arthur to conceive Mordred by him. Jordan’s Morgase is an incredibly weak “witch” and ruler, and her entire arc to this point is just her continuing to fall to new lows. In this book, she is raped by Valda and almost commits suicide before she is stopped from jumping from a tower when her friends notice what she’s about to do. Maybe I’ll appreciate her arc if it ever goes back up at some point, but we don’t get there in this book.
Queen Tylin
As I made clear in the chapter summaries, I believe she was raping Mat, through a combination of actual force and situational coercion. Bad things happen to our beloved characters sometimes, but I am allowed to despise the characters who bring about those bad things. If I wasn’t suppose to despise her, Jordan needed to give me a reason to feel differently about her in other siutations.
INTERESTING NEW STORY ELEMENTS
- This book features “Moridin” taking control of the other Forsaken. We are not told yet, but it’s almost a certainty that Moridin is Ishamael in a new body. He is much saner now than when we saw him in the first three books. I look forward to finding out whether that makes him more formiddable.
- Shaidar Haran: Along with Moridin, we also see a new super myrddraal in this book. He represents himself as something like an avatar of the Dark One, directly. That could become very interesting.
- Padan Fain has dramatically increased his power level. He can unleash something like his own (and even worse) version of Shadar Logoth’s Mashardar everywhere he goes now. As a wildcard character, he’s going to be extraordinarily dangerous both to the Shadow and to the Light going forward. On that note, I’m interested in the interplay between the slash he gave Rand and the one Ishamael put there.
- Halima is Balthamel in a new body – a woman’s body. “She” seems to be using Compulsion on Egwene, though we have not seen that confirmed overtly on the page other than via Egwene having headaches. In my opinion, it is strongly implied that in addition to Egwene keeping her apprised of every decision she makes as Amyrlin, it’s likely Halima is also raping Egwene. (The last time we see them together, Halima sends Egwene to go take a bath, suggests that they meet again that night in Egwene’s tent, and Egwene complies as though she is not entirely in charge of her own decisions.) Jordan is very subtle in that depiction, so subtle in fact you can argue against my interpretation. However, if a notorious pervert Forsaken has a beautiful young Amyrlin alone in her tents, wherein “she” is already using the One Power to cause headaches on this pretty young Amyrlin, and “she” give said young Amyrlin scalp massages… well, what do you think is happening when we as the Readers leave that tent? If Halima is sleeping in Egwene’s tent sometime soon, that will confirm it for me. There’s a lot of menace here, even if it’s difficult to see.
Final Thoughts
My experience with A Crown of Swords was a lot like the one I had with The Dragon Reborn. I really enjoyed the first 98% of the book, dark moments and all. Then I felt slightly underwhelmed by the ending because Ishamael/Moridin played more of an “out of the blue” role than I wanted, because I was expecting a different Forsaken to be the book’s primary antagonist. It’s not that it was a bad ending either time, but after the long multi-book build-up with Sammael, I was hoping for more payoff… with him. I felt that way about the ending with Be’lal, too, back in TDR. On the other hand, Jordan lays a thin ominous self-congratulatory cloud over Rand’s acceptance of the Crown of Illian, such that I was able to come away wondering if there was a defeat hidden within this victory. That feeling definitely provides the Reader with a strong desire to pick up the next volume of the story and continue onward.
Even if one were to come down on the side of not enjoying the ending, the book that precedes it makes the effort worth it, anyway. The plot is quick paced and exciting throughout, and it delivers what might be my favorite series moments for both Nynaeve and Mat. ACoS also leaves us on several big cliffhangers to drive the early plot of the next book. Egwene is in the clutches of one of the Forsaken. Mat is buried in rubble. Nynaeve and Elayne are fleeing the city ahead of an arriving army of Seanchan damane. I’m looking forward to seeing where things are going.
Have you read A Crown of Swords? If so, what did you think?
