Speaking of the Seanchan; one of the Forsaken has evidently killed half of the Imperial family back in Seanchan, making Tuon the Empress, may she live forever. The Darkfriend High Lady Suroth tries take over, being the next in line. First she has to eliminate Tuon, though. And that proves to be impossible, she being with Mat who leaves Luca's circus and wonderously unites with his personal army, the Band of the Red Hand, who have come looking for their lucky leader.
Tuon marries Mat before leaving him with her bodyguard, the Deathwatch Guard, to take control of the Seanchan forces from Suroth. I think Hawkwing's descendants are now all but allied with everyone else against the Shadow.
The Seanchan are odd people but, if you ignore the way they treat their servants and channeling women, they are quite alright, as Perrin discovers. He and the Seanchan forces he met launch an attack against the Shaido clan. The battle ends in a reasonably easy victory and Perrin is reunited with Faile. A funny little sidetrip that was but at least the Aiel threat is now gone once and for all.
Aram, the hot-headed Tinker who took to wield a sword and follow Perrin, lost his mind for good and attacked Perrin in the battle. He takes two Shaido arrows in his back, though, and his story ended there. Maybe Robert Jordan decided nothing was going come out of that character.
Rand's meeting with the Seanchan and the Daughter of the Nine Moons is a trap of course, Tuon being somewhere else. The trap is a weak one, though, and the Forsaken behind it, Semirhage, is captured quickly. However, before getting shielded, she manages to blast Rand's whole left arm off!
The Dragon Reborn is truly in shambles; he already had the two never-healing wounds on his side, and in addition to that, Lews Therin attempts to grasp the Power everytime Rand embraces it. In fact, he already lost control once in the book when trollocs and myrdraal attacked Rand and everyone else in the manor they were in. Luckily, Lews Therin was more than happy to keep just killing the shadowspawn and nothing else. Means to restore Rand's physical and mental health really need to surface if they want to get him into Tarmon Gai'don, the Last Battle, in a state capable of fighting anything, not to mention the Dark One himself.
Semirhage also reveals to everyone that Rand is hearing Lews Therin Telamon in his head. We shall see how people react to that; I think he should've told about it himself long time ago, that would've ended his trouble trying to hide it and someone might've been able to help him.
Mat also ends up revealing his secret of having the memories of countless deceased men. This happens when he finally asks why Thom keeps rereading the letter Moiraine wrote to him before her death. Evidently, Moiraine is alive (Ha! I called it! I friggin' called it!) and Thom, Mat, and one more have to come rescue her from some mysterious place, whose location Mat has in his memories.
The letter instructed Thom to give it to Mat only when he asks about it. The gleeman has had that letter for so long and now finally its secret has been revealed. I liked how that turned out. I guess Mat, Thom, and -- apparently -- Noal are going to a little adventure.
Elayne finally manages to get all the noble houses behind her and Andor has a queen once more. However, before that happened, she decided to go on a poorly prepared attempt to capture the sisters of the Black Ajah in Caemlyn. Elayne and the three other Aes Sedai with her walk right into a trap. The three are killed and Elayne captured and is quickly on her way to the White Tower in a wagon. Luckily for her, Birgitte, her warder, acts quickly and directs troops to intercept the Black Ajah, who are then captured in turn. Regardless, Andor is now united and ready to march into the Last Battle.
Lan finally went riding to meet his end in the Blight. However, Nynaeve tricked him and gated him to the World's End instead, and now he has to ride across all the Borderlands to get to the pass he wanted to go. And Nynaeve herself Travelled across the villages of the Borderlands to rouse the remnants of Malkier to join Lan when he goes by. I guess we shall meet the warder in front of an army later on.
It seems the White and the Black Tower are the only trouble that needs to be solved before everything is ready. Knife of Dreams ends with Mazrim Taim laughing in the midst of his loyal Asha'man. And he throws the phrase "Let the lord of chaos rule.", which means he's either a Darkfriend, mad, or one of the Forsaken (probably Ishamael if so). Rand really should've killed him when he had the chance, like Lews Therin likes to constantly remind him. Now the rogue Asha'man is surrounded by a very dangerous force.
Jordan aka James Oliver Rigney, Jr. intended the twelfth book to be the final one but he lost his personal last battle against cardiac amyloidosis and so Knife of Dreams was the last book he was able to finish. He had started making notes in case that would happen, though, and so they were able to bring Brandon Sanderson in to write the ending to the massive story. Sanderson deciced that there was too much to fit in the covers of one book, however, and it was split in three: The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight, and A Memory of Light. The last book has been delayed several times and now its release date has been set to January 8th 2013.
I'm wondering if I should go for the two penultimate books right away or save them for later. There's going to be a pause at some point nevertheless. At least I could start reading the TWoT wiki without fear of spoilers after having read all the published books.
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