The Path of Daggers

And the Wheel rumbles on.
But off-road.
Traditionally, fantasy stories of coming of age heroes saving their world from personified evil (Dark One, Dark Lord, the Dark, etc.) go "from Shire to Mordor" in relatively direct sequence.
In Jordan's WoT, this central plot is, well, not central, and almost immaterial, from "Lord of Chaos" (Book 6) to this point and, I am suspecting, until Brandon Sanderson wraps up the series from Jordan's notes for Books 12-14.
What is interesting to me is, I LIKE this redirection. :)
It is the human stories in this cast of seemingly thousands that makes the WoT stand out for me. Multiple human conflicts and storylines occuring in parallel -- well, with excruciatingly slow movement toward convergence - with show more well-realized characters, old and ever more new, as well as fully realized nation and unique cultures all being transformed by events and unexpected changes as the Wheel trundles mercilessly on.
The best stories, for me, are of people undergoing change not of Powers.
It is my wanting to know what happens next to ALL these characters' story arcs (I find I care for them all -- and that is no mean feat for an author to accomplish) -- that keeps me reading.
I still find the "gender war" in depicting the sexes as inherently unable to understand one another a bit off-putting, but I note this and read on. show less

I don’t think I’ve put it into words before now, but it coalesced while reading Path of Daggers: My biggest problem with the Wheel of Time series? It’s not the braid-tuggings (though *really* now) or the characters’ bickering or even the fact that nothing at all seems to happen for almost entire big fat books. My other biggest problem is that it took almost a quarter of a century, two authors, at least two primary cover artists, and kept expanding from five to eight to ten to eleven to twelve to FOURTEEN books, and that after book – what, six? The font and margins got bigger and the number of pages got smaller. But nope. My biggest problem with the series can be summed up in one word.

Spankings.

Seriously.

Not even kidding.

(I show more haven’t written a review in forever, and my first one back is largely about spanking. *facepalm*)

Everyone in this series has trouble sitting down at some point. Paddled, strapped, slippered (I don’t know if I’ve ever heard that used as a verb before, but it computes), pinched or beaten with the Power, or just plain old-fashioned smacked on the “bottom” … everyone, or pretty damn near. I should do a study. I should count ‘em in the next book like I did the braid-pulls.

It’s unfortunate. It contributes to the weird farcical aspect that has so frustrated me about the writing – along with the bickering and braid-tugging and stereotypes, spanking could be said to slot into the lowest form of humor, and – even when it’s appalling – simply has a stupid humorous facet to it that won’t allow for it to be taken seriously. I wonder if Jordan was trying so hard to avoid Tolkien-esque high fantasy that he overcompensated, to the point that none of his characters maintain any dignity. (NONE.) Dragon Reborn or Amyrlin Seat or groom or scullery maid, it doesn’t matter – someone is bound to come along who will give you a smack (or twenty) on the bum. ( show less

Er was wat minder sprake van herhalingen, maar de hoeveelheid personages en plotlijnen zijn me iets teveel geworden in dit boek. Op een gegeven moment haalde ik Cairhien en Caemlin steeds door elkaar en begreep ik niet altijd meteen wie wie was.

En toch spreekt de wereld en het verhaal op zich me nog steeds aan. Ik krijg nu pas wat meer sympathie voor Rand, omdat zijn strubbelingen nu bij mij meer echt overkomen.

Maar ik wil weten hoe het met Matt is en hoe het met Faille afloopt. Dus ga ik meteen door met boek 9. Dat is ook meteen het laatste boek dat ik herlees, want daarna ben ik toendertijd gestopt. Dus vanaf boek 10 is het verhaal echt nieuw voor mij.

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

The best thing I can say about The Path of Daggers is that it is significantly shorter than the last few novels have been -- only 700 pages (mass market paperback) compared to the 900-1100 page novels that have preceded it. There is much less of the repetitive backstory. I guess Mr. Jordan finally realized that new readers aren't jumping in at this point.

However, that's not to say that there are 700 pages of plot here, either. For again, most of the pages are devoted to minutia such as nearly every word spoken during one of Elayne's 3 hour long rides, every thought that Perrin has while walking around his camp, etc. Most of the significant action is squeezed into the last couple of chapters. The show more story is still interesting, but The Path of Daggers doesn't advance it far enough.

But what's annoying me most is that the female WOT characters are the cattiest bunch of women I've ever encountered. Supposedly the Aes Sedai are dignified, cool-headed, and calm, but yet we see them constant bickering, back-biting, squabbling, thinking about their positions relative to others, and worried about what everyone else is thinking. For such powerful women, they are continually showing their shock, getting into petty disagreements, trying to out-wit each other, widening their eyes, adjusting their shawls, and smoothing their skirts (apparently this is an indication of uneasiness, though I have never actually seen an uneasy woman smoothing her skirt). And why the heck are adult women SPANKING each other?!?

I find it irritating that women leaders are portrayed this way while the powerful men are portrayed as hard, reserved, and distinguished. I'm sure that Mr. Jordan meant for his female characters to seem strong, but they just come across as bitchy. I really can't figure out why they all take each other so seriously.
Read more Robert Jordan book reviews at Fantasy literature. show less

This is the second shortest ("only" 685 pages) and second-worst rated ("only" 3.92) of the series, and I'm inclined to think that there's a correlation there, as this one seems to have been MOSTLY just a lot of moving people into place. It ended just as there was a lot of BIG action about to happen, and there were characters who'd been left in peril in the previous book that didn't get a mention here. But I suppose that it's inevitable that there are entries in a series that are just first halves of what may have been originally a single much larger book. I suspect that the next book will probably have a bit more action and hopefully some resolution for poor Mat & Olver (and others).

“How do you know when a woman wants to kill you?” Rand mused.

“When she knows your name?” Dobraine did not sound as if he were joking.

For all the time it took them to find the Bowl of the Winds in [b:A Crown of Swords|13890|A Crown of Swords (Wheel of Time, #7)|Robert Jordan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1358542379s/13890.jpg|791214], they certainly get to using it quickly enough in [b:The Path of Daggers|140974|The Path of Daggers (Wheel of Time, #8)|Robert Jordan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390508613s/140974.jpg|1098593]. It's the first of a series of truly epic uses of the One Power in the series, magic use that actually feels epic on a scale I've only rarely seen in other series.

Unfortunately after that, a show more lion's share of the book is taken up by Perrin going to Ghealdan to stop the Prophet of the Dragon. Along the way he collects a couple queens (and somehow no one notices the one?) and right at the end Faile is kidnapped by the Shaido--I did mention we weren't done with them.... Both are interesting enough plotlines, but already take too long just in this book, let alone what I know is coming ahead. Sure, it's not entirely fair judging this book on ones yet to come... ¯_(ツ)_/¯

On the other hand, Egwene's plotline in this book is actually pretty cool. I generally enjoy scenes of an underdog leveraging little known rules to gain the upper hand. And now she's actually on equal enough footing to make the conflicts with the rebel Hall interesting. I expect good things from that plotline.

And then finally, there's the final battle. Rand and the Asha'man, once again attempting to drive the Seanchan back, this time using the sa'angreal Callandor, the Sword That is Not a Sword. Unfortunately, it has something of a flaw and Rand manage to kill many of his own men. It's certainly an intense scene. Oy.

And then to add insult to injury, on Rand's return to Cairhien, rogue Asha'man led by Dashiva tear apart the palace in an attempt to kill him. Oy oy.

Overall, a solid beginning and end, but a slog in the middle. There's probably a comparison to the Wheel of Time / the Pattern here. show less

Ah, so this is the book that starts the extremely boring stretch. At times I felt like I was reading someone's diary rather than an epic fantasy novel. Readers spend more time in the characters' heads than they do actually seeing any action, and I honestly couldn't care less about what every person in the world is thinking.

Rand is by far the most excrutiating person to read about. Jerk Rand + the Seanchan is just not a good combination. Those battles are so boring, and Rand is just no fun to be around, however sympathetic you are of his many, many burdens. I read most of his sections with glazed-over eyes, and it was only my stubbornness that kept me from skipping his pages entirely.

Elayne FINALLY makes it to Caemlyn after several show more chapters featuring her thoughts. All that succeeded in doing was making me want to murder those Aes Sedai, Kin, and Windfinders. Seriously, that group had too many power-hungry women for any normal person to be able to endure. Sadly, her plot line is only going to get worse. . . .

We don't see a lot of Perrin, which is just as well because he spends all of his time trying to figure out women, with occasional thoughts about Masema thrown in there. Perrin would be so much more likeable by so many people if Robert Jordan didn't force us to dwell with him on his every thought.

Egwene's story is the only plotline of the book that actually interested me. It's fascinating to watch her earn her title of Amyrlin Seat, and it is immensely gratifying to watch Romanda and Lelaine be heeled in. Why are all Aes Sedai incredibly annoying? Anyway, thank you, Egwene, for providing us something worth reading about.

However, even though at times reading this book was a bit tortuous, I appreciated that events seemed to move along fairly quickly, at least in comparison to the last book. After the Bowl of Winds sequence was wrapped up, we see the effects only a chapter later (thunder building in the distance), and within a few chapters everyone is complaining about the snow. It was quite a relief to actually see the results of an important event take place immediately, and to not have people still finding out about it 3 books later. The weather, at least, doesn't have to be bound by WoT's incapability to communicate. Sheesh.

I've never heard of an author who forced his devoted fans to endure so much crap but who still managed to keep hold of a huge fan base. That mystery will forever marvel me. show less