The Path of Daggers

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!

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.

Executive Summary: This is definitely one of the weaker books in the series so far, and there are a large number of pages where it feels like very little happens. I'm still enjoying my reread, but I know that things will only get slower before they finally pick back up again.Audiobook: Doing this book in audio is pretty much a must for me now. I don't think I'd have managed to read it very quickly otherwise. Micheal Kramer and Kate Reading are fantastic as always.Full ReviewThis book should maybe be renamed The Path of Squabbles. There is so much pointless bickering at times, it really bogs part of the book down.There are a few very big plot developments here, one near the beginning, but most of them occur near the end. That leaves a lot of pages in between where I was left wondering what the point of some of these chapters were.And if that's not bad enough, Mat was completely missing. We got a lot of him in the last book, and he seems to like to take time away, much like he did with Perrin in [b:The Fires of Heaven 13895 The Fires of Heaven (Wheel of Time, #5) Robert Jordan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327866286s/13895.jpg 588034].My other problem is that I find myself starting to get annoyed by many of the characters. I think my affection for many of them at different parts of the series helps carry me through, but I feel like a lot of this could have been edited down.I'm still enjoying my reread, but I'm dreading the next two books a little bit. Of course the end of this book left me eager to pick up the next one soon, but that's often the case with this series, even in the weakest books.

I enjoyed reading this book, though I will admit that the plot does not progress very much. The end of the novel contains numerous cliffhangers for the next book, which perhaps clouds my judgement. Still, I enjoy the WoT books because they are so immersive and rich in dramatic irony and suspense, and this book keeps that up. The book does not contain Mat's POV, which I didn't mind because I don't like him as a character.

5/10

Kan het nog trager dan boek 7? Jazeker! Ik overdrijf niet: meer dan 200 bladzijden aan een stuk zijn gebekvecht tussen een hele reeks vrouwen te paard op weg naar een boerderij.

(Alle verschillende Sea Folk-personages zijn trouwens van “interessant en intrigerend” in het begin ondertussen helemaal overgeslaan naar “arrogant en saai”. Bleh.)

Perrin is, euh, op weg naar ergens?, denk ik. En dan komt hij een resem Shaido tegen, maar niet vooraleer we pagina's en pagina's en pagina's en pagina's en pagina's en pagina's en pagina's en pagina's en pagina's (you get the point) gelezen hebben over al wat hij denkt en voelt. Mat is afwezig in het boek.

En Rand is omringd door mensen die hem eigenlijk geen van allen af kunnen. Little wonder, want ‘t is ondertussen ook een complete urk van een vent geworden.

Dóór al de nonsens lezend, is het wel ergens verfrissend om te zien hoe ingewikkeld het eigenlijk is: in tegenstelling tot veel andere boeken/reeksen, is het in Wheel of Time pijnlijk duidelijk dat iedere partij zijn of haar eigen agenda heeft. Zelfs een minuskule stadstaat als Mayene heeft nog zijn eigen waardigheid en zijn eigen intriges, en iedereen kijkt naar iedereen met meer dan veel wantrouwen.

Koppel dat aan een nominaal hoofdpersonage, Rand, die enerzijds de redder des mensheids zou kunnen zijn, maar anderzijds ook niet, waar de ene helft van de partijen (Seanchan, White Tower) controle over wil krijgen en die zelf ook iedereen wil/moet manipuleren om te krijgen wat hij wil, die een wapen maakt (Black Tower) waar hij eigenlijk nooit vat op heeft gehad, en die hoedanook langzamerhand krankzinnig lijkt te worden – da's wel boeiend, ergens.

Ik kan me ook geen reeks of boek voor de geest halen waar het concept van fog of war zo nadrukkelijk aanwezig is. In tegenstelling tot pakweg de raven van Song of Ice and Fire is er in Wheel of Time weinig of geen communicatie. Op een paar uizonderingen na, als er via de droomwereld Tel'aran'rhiod gecommunceerd wordt, weten zelfs de hoofdpersonages niet van elkaar af.

Absoluut niet aangeraden als boek op zich. Een geluk dat ik zeer snel kan lezen, en dat het boek zich bij uitstek leent tot snel lezen: ondanks het aantal woorden is, ahem, de informatie-densiteit bijzonder laag.

Dit is trouwens waar ik Wheel of Time opgegeven had, 15 jaar geleden. Benieuwd wat er mij nog te wachten staat.

Path of Daggers was a very drawn out book. A lot happened in the way of character development, but as far as anything fast paced and gripping? There were only a handful of scenes. I did find it interesting how saidin begins to act and the reason behind it, and there is a strange sickness that still has me puzzled. Cadsaune is beginning to intrigue me as well as frustrate me. I believe her intentions are good, but she's on that Aes sedai high horse and won't come down. I was annoyed that a character left on a cliffhanger in Crown of Swords is only mentioned once in passing by Rand. I am hoping you find out the character's fate in the next book. I do understand there is only so much that each book can hold, and maybe Jordan knew this book was dragging and purposefully makes us go to the next just to find out what happens. It certainly is an appropriate hook. Elayne is starting to get on my nerves. Her actions towards the end of the book make me want to smack her, and her inane quest to claim Rand. She's a control freak that needs to realize what she wants she can't always have. And finally, As I'm getting closer to the end of the series I am listing all the loose ends left behind and I hope they are all neatly tied eventually.

Every time I think I couldn't love this series more, Robert Jordan proves me wrong. I really am blown away by the man's talent to transport me so completely into not only another world, but different people's perspectives. I am surprised at how much I care for SO MANY of these characters now, and not just the ‘core group'. Even side characters play larger roles than you might first suspect. It's glorious storytelling.

THE WHEEL OF TIME

1) The Eye of the World ★★★★
2) The Great Hunt ★★★★★
3) The Dragon Reborn ★★★★★
4) The Shadow Rising ★★★★★
5) The Fires of Heaven ★★★★★
6) Lord of Chaos ★★★★★
7) A Crown of Swords ★★★★
8) The Path of Daggers ★★★★

I knew this was going to be bad but dear god I hated this. I completely zoned out over and over again. The beginning was okay because at least SOMETHING happened but I got about halfway and just decided to look at chapter summaries the rest of the way. Seems like there was a good ending but there was still a long road to get there so I'm out. I'm giving it 2 stars instead of 1 for the beginning and apparently the ending was good. The rest is garbage

So finally we come to it. A book that falls below the pace and interest level of its predecessors. We wander across the world with different groups but no significant advancement of the overall plot. Repetition is palpable and skip reading becomes a norm. The chess pieces feel they are being moved into position but not fast enough for my liking. The introduction of Cadsuane had bought hope but I guess she must wait for another book to have her time in the limelight. Soe interesting set pieces aside, there is not much you will miss if you give it a skip. Purely for the hardcore WOT fan which is not such a bad thing to be:-). Onwards!