Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan
Just finished the eleventh tome in the Wheel of Time series, and I can say that, overall, it was a pretty good read. Or listen, actually, since I chose the 34-odd-hour audiobook route. It makes for a more interesting commute. RJ hasn't lost his touch, and he's finally sped things up a bit, although not too much time passes in the course of this novel. Fortunately, when RJ gets detail-oriented, it's still a fairly brisk read (unlike Dr. Tolkien), so I was able to handle the not-very-intertwined fates of (primarily) Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, Nynaeve (who gets the best scene in the book), and Elayne (as well as several hundred minor characters) as they went about prepping for the Last Battle by fighting a few skirmishes of their own. Precious few plotlines were wrapped up in this novel, but at least things are moving forward towards the finish in his next book, tentatively titled A Memory of Light.
I think it's a requirement of high fantasy that the supporting cast is more interesting than the main character...Bilbo, Frodo, Belgarion, Rand, etc...none of them are as engaging as their buttkickin', swashbucklin', spell castin', wisecrackin' associates. I suppose that's because an entire novel about Mat or Prince Kheldar could get tiresome.
Just an observation.
Talking to yourself is a sign of impending mental collapse.
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