The Path of Daggers

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.