The Path of Daggers - Review

The Path of Daggers (Book 8) is the worst book in the series so far, but it’s still a decent book in general. Nothing really interesting happened for about 70% of the book. It’s just characters walking/marching toward places while recapping for us how long and difficult their journey has been so far and them still deciding what their next plans are. It’s a good thing this was the shortest book in the series so far and Rand’s storyline was at least interesting or I might have rated this a 2-star book (which I’ve never rated a book that low before). The Path of Daggers is more so a filler book used as a connective thread between Books 7 and 9 and unlike the other books in this series, this one doesn’t work well as its own book. This will be a non-spoiler review and it will be covered in 5 sections: Characters, Plot, Setting/World-Building, Pacing, & my final thoughts along with an overall rating.

Image: The Bowl of the Winds being used by Elayne, Nynaeve and others.


[Characters]:

Even though the story has slowed to a snail’s pace, there is a lot of good character development going on, especially for Egwene, Elayne, and Rand. Egwene is learning to lead as the Amyrlin Seat and she’s tired of being guided at the job by the other Aes Sedai like a child and is asserting herself more and more with the other Sitters of the Hall. She’s doing a lot of political maneuvering and she’s using her knowledge of the White Tower’s laws and secret histories (taught by Siuan) to her advantage against the Sitters. Elayne is mentally preparing herself to become the next Queen of Andor and is remembering all the advice she got from her mother Queen Morgase and her nurse Lini. She goes through some obstacles and failures during her arc and I think she’s better off for it when she eventually becomes Queen later on in the series (if nothing else goes wrong before that).

Rand is really having a tough time. He’s suspicious of everyone around him. He’s now experiencing dizziness and seeing double vision whenever he uses Saidin. Sometimes, he gets wild fits and nausea, and he’s starting to adopt some of Lews Therin’s mannerisms and habits as well. There’s a huge character moment for Rand near the end of the book and it adds a new wrinkle in his already complex and sophisticated character arc in this series thus far. This book did a fantastic job of portraying Rand as a flawed character who is very much NOT invincible and not the all-powerful god that he’s being perceived as by most of the common folk and nobles in this world. Robert Jordan takes him down a few notches and shows that he can fail and make mistakes, as well as being supremely vulnerable at times.

Favorite Characters – Perrin, Lan, Aviendha, Elayne, & Rand.



Image: Graendal (A Forsaken).


[Plot]:

The main storylines follow Rand, Perrin, Elayne and Egwene. Rand is gathering a ragtag group of Tairens, Cairhienins, Illianers and Asha’man to engage the Seanchan and attempt to drive them out of Ebou Dar. Perrin, Faile, Berelain, and others are going to Ghealdan to make an alliance with Queen Alliandre on behalf of Rand and to put an end to the chaos that the Prophet Masema is causing. Elayne, Nynaeve, Aviendha, and others use the Bowl of the Winds in order to fix the weather and then continue to follow Egwene’s instructions to head to Caemlyn, while facing some unexpected foes along the way. Egwene and the Aes Sedai from Salidar (along with Gareth Bryne’s army) continue their march to Tar Valon in order to depose Elaida as the Amyrlin Seat.

There’s not many positives I can say about these main storylines. Egwene’s storyline was a little too long and drawn out. It had nice political intrigue but it was just too long. The same goes for Elayne and Nynaeve’s storyline. Like I said before, most of this book is just characters walking towards their destination and complaining about their long journey. Perrin’s storyline was good but he only had a relatively few chapters. Rand’s story was great, but it was leading to a conflict with the Seanchan, where he plans to ambush them by surprise and…….then the battle was off-screen and told lazily through a flashback/recap. It’s not the big finale, but this book already had such a lack of action so it was a missed opportunity. A fully fleshed out action sequence would have added some excitement to an already slowly progressing book. There were more chapters covering this battle and there was some more action later on with the Seanchan but some of it was also just Rand witnessing the battle and him hearing noises of thunder and shouts in the distant hills. I liked Rand’s storyline but the lack of action was a little disappointing.

I hold Robert Jordan’s book endings to a high standard and I have high expectations since he’s always outdoing the endings of each book as the series goes on, but this ending was just anticlimactic and disappointing. I was at least expecting to see the Battle of the White Tower (Egwene vs. Elaida). The structure of this ending was really weird as well. The endings weren’t fleshed out, it all ended on a cliff-hanger, and it was really just a setup for the next book rather than a normal conclusion. Perrin was gone for the latter half of the book and then he suddenly gets a concluding chapter……and it’s only a handful of pages to set up a new storyline for the next book. Egwene’s “ending” was just non-existent. Her storyline was about her marching toward Tar Valon while politically maneuvering and dealing with a potential threat, and then her ending chapter was just her announcing that they’re officially going to Tar Valon……which is what they’ve been doing for essentially 2 books already (don’t worry, that’s not a spoiler because that’s literally all that happened in her concluding chapter).

Image: Rand leading his army to confront the Seanchan.


[Setting/World-Building]:

The setting of this book mainly takes place in different areas of Altara and Ghealdan. There’s a lot of great world-building in this book. The Seanchan and Sea Folk hierarchy are explained in detail (especially in the glossary). We learn more about terms and jargon of the Seanchan as well as the different Seanchan creatures such as the Raken and Torm. There’s also tons of new information about Aes Sedai customs, laws, traditions, and secret histories. The magic system is also delved into more with an in-depth demonstration of Linking. 2 of my favorite bits of world-building in this book was learning more about Kandor and the Kings/Queens/Rulers of the other nations along the Borderlands & also the formal ceremony when a meeting is convened between the Amyrlin Seat and the Sitters of the Hall.

[Pacing]:

This is definitely the worst-paced book of the series so far. It was a very slow start with Nynaeve and Elayne traveling to the Kinswomen's farm, then Egwene’s chapters after that dragged for me as well. I thought that with the Waygates and the rediscovery of the Talent called Traveling, this series would reduce the amount of exceedingly slow moments of having endless pages of walking and long journeys, but I guess I was wrong. Even though I’m binging these books back to back and I fortunately don’t have to wait for books in this series to be released, I can definitely see why readers back then coined the term “The Slog” for these books. Book 7 has better pacing than I expected but this current book definitely lives up to that term.

[Final Thoughts & Rating]:

The Path of Daggers is really just a short filler book that is a connective gap between Books 7 and 9, but it still has great progression for many of the main characters. This book has the worst ending, the worst pacing, and in general was the worst book in the series so far but it’s still necessary and adds value to the series overall with some of the events that had occurred and the way they have affected these characters. I heard Crossroads of Twilight (Book 10) is the worst book in the series overall so I’m hoping that Winter’s Heart (Book 9) is at least better than this one.

Rating: 6/10

My Book Rankings: https://jaytargaryen.blogspot.com/p/b...


*My Rating System*

5 Stars (9-10): Amazing
4 Stars (7-9): Really Good to Great
3 Stars (5-7): Average to Good
2 Stars (3-5): Bad to Mediocre
1 Star (1-3): Terrible 

 

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