The Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan

From Publishers Weekly
The eighth book of Jordan's bestselling The Wheel of Time saga (A Crown of Swords, etc.) opens with a renewed invasion by the Seanchans, a conquering race whose arsenal includes man-carrying flying reptiles and enslaved female magic-workers as well as powerful soldiers, many of whom have joined the Seanchans out of fear of the Dragon Reborn. The Dragon himself, Rand al'Thor, appears in only a small part of the narrative, but during that time he endures the ugly experience of seeing his magic kill his friends, heightening his fear that his destiny is to slay everyone he cares about. The first third of the book is a little slower paced than is usual for Jordan, emphasizing the growth of relationships, but the action picks up soon enough. More compact than some previous volumes in the saga, this one has the virtues readers have come to expect from the author: meticulous world-building; deft use of multiple viewpoints; highly original and intelligent systems of magic; an admirable wit; and a continuous awareness of the fate of the turnip farmer or peddler caught in the path of the heroes' armies. Unlike some authors of megasagas, Jordan chooses his words with care, creating people and events that have earned him an enormous readership. For sheer imagination and storytelling skill, if not quite for mythic resonance, The Wheel of Time now rivals Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

When this one came up on my WoT re-read, I was not super stoked. I've read it at least half a dozen times in the 12 years since it came out, but this was the first time I didn't hate it. I call that progress

4.00/5.00 “The Oaths are what make us more than a group of women meddling in the affairs of the world. The oaths hold us together, a stated set of beliefs that bind us all, a single thread running through every sister, living or dead, back to the first to lay her hands on the Oath Rod. They are what makes us Aei Sedai, not saidar.”

Let me start by stating that this book is wildly underrated. Widely regarded as one of the “slog” books, The Path of Daggers defies this expectation smoothly. While the slower pace of this story is undeniable, the plot stands up to the quality of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, with Rand's character developing with such grace and satisfaction. The world building makes some progress, and is certainly not the best of this series, but it is solid. A surprisingly good read, The Path of Daggers is not a slog by any means. It is certainly better than ACoS.

For those who hated this book, I do sympathize. The explosion of named characters seems exponential and unnecessary. It has become entirely impossible to remember which character is who and what the hell is the history of that character. However, Jordan does remind us of the important characters repeatedly, so the plot is still coherent. Jordan has also completely given up on writing lyrical prose. The quality of prose in general seems to be dropping off. Hopefully it will get better.

Emotional Impact -> Its hard not to see the deep and rich worldbuilding theme of WoT when Siuan Sanche tells Egwene why the Oaths make Aes Sedai, not saidar. Rand's loneliness is a beautiful theme of this story, the burden of being the Dragon Reborn, the weight of entire world on one shoulder. And finally, he looks to share the burden. The chosen one trope is done so perfectly in WoT. Elayne's return to Camelyn is a poignant moment. Cadsuane-Rand relationship is interesting, but she feels like a bad place holder for Moiraine. I miss you Moiraine Sedai. However, we have to struggle through dozens of named characters which all blend together, so the character interaction is not so engaging. The writing is so bad that many important moments fail to land well. Characters -> Rand, Rand, Rand. the loneliness, the weight of this immense burden, the stubborn refusal to share this burden with anyone, to trust anyone, is a marvelous representation of his struggles in this story. Nynaeve finally changing and controlling her temper is great, but fails to land properly as I don't recall her development in the last book. Perrin-Faile is a shit show as usual. And is the next book going to be focused on Perrin rescuing Faile? KMN! Plot -> Here is where this book is better. The plot is unpredictable for most the most part and is pretty interesting. Returning characters shock and awe in their sudden arrivals such as Logain. There are so many twists in this book, it would take a genius to plan all of this. But there are some plotlines that are underwhelming and I just wanted it to be over. Perrin-Massema being the worst. Prose -> This is bad. Jordan's numerous characters and their similar character traits make things cheap and hard to follow. Every female name in this book sounds the same. Forget lyrical prose, Jordan is struggling to write anything quotable at all. Not to mention that every significant moment in this book felt like an unsignificant moment. The writing utterly fails to stand up to the story or the worldbuilding. World Building -> Another solid WoT worldbuilding book here -> Unweaving, travelling, strangeness in the one power, the bowl of the winds and the dark one, what makes aes sedai. It could still be so much better.

I congratulate everyone who has the perseverance to continue on while envying those who had the force of will to just forget about how this epic story is supposed to end. Here we are at book 8 and like book 7, very little of the main plot actually happens. Most of the book are again devoted to describing in excruciating detail of how the main characters tend to act and think, with very little variation, mostly accomplishing nothing except introduce filler and making characters feel one-dimensional. Of course, there's now also a bit of slavery coming in so expect to see a lot of boxing and switching in addition to the breasts of book 7. Yes, I'm ranting, but I'm still reading. I don't know what Jordan was hoping to do when writing this book. The focus on the main characters appears to be more on Egwene this time, but there's a bit of the others. His style is still there and when the main plot moves an inch, you can tell that his superb writing skills are still there. It's just that, strangely, he indulges in the over-description of very trivial events, very trivial one-off characters, and very trivial dialogues. If you can still stomach the incredibly wordy descriptions, there's still bits of gems here and there.

The Path of Daggers certainly isn't the greatest of the books so far. But it does set up some very interesting story hooks and cliffhangers for the next book.

I feel like the Wheel of Time is sort of a mess. It begins with 3 ta'veren (special people twisting luck and chance in the pattern of time) leaving town, with two ladies who want to train to become Aes Sedai (female wizards). These 3 are constantly being harassed by dreams. And all of a sudden they aren't. The same goes for the Egwene. Dreams, dreams, dreams. Oh no. Not anymore. Nobody seems to want to learn from anyone. And normal conversations are out of the question.

That said. It's still a magnificent series, because of the epic world building, the multitude of characters, and the very well thought-out magic system.

Oh and this book finally has some dragons!