Review: The Path of Daggers

The Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

**Possible spoilers

A Path of Daggers is the low point for me in the Wheel of Time series. It can easily be summed up as various groups of catty women vying for superiority over each other. Seriously, the first third consists of Elayne and Nynaeve, Aviendha, Birgitte, the rebel Aes Sedai with them, the Sea Folk, and the Kin, all trying to out-do each other on the way to the Farm. Once they get to the Farm, they finally use the Bowl that they spent the whole last book searching for. This scene is great, but I feel that it could have happened as part of the last book, making it even better. We could have done without 200 pages of describing only a couple of hours riding on horses.

Even my favorite strand of the story, Egwene's, is so full of maneuvering that it is difficult to tell her group of Aes Sedai from those in the rest of the book (although I think Egwene is brilliant and by far the best woman in the whole lot).

In addition to Egwene's rebels and Elayne's crowd, there's Elaida and Alviarin at the White Tower, and a bunch of other Aes Sedai with Cadsuane, not to mention the Wise Ones and Aes Sedai with Perrin and in Cairhien. It just gets bogged down at this point, and there's not enough humor to counteract all the irritation that characters are feeling about each other. And the Sea Folk! I liked them when we first met them on the way to Tanchico but it turns out they are the most dreadful with their superiority claims.

I am also not fond of the Perrin story at this point because he's in Ghealdan tracking down the Prophet and running into the Shaido. For some reason that's just not my favorite part of any of these books. I dislike Masema and the Dragonsworn, and I am not too fond of Sevannah and the Shaido. I'd like to move on. But not a whole lot happens with Perrin either, except for another new plot-line being introduced. It starts to seem like hours are weeks with how much detail we get on not a whole lot actually happening.

Then when we get to Rand, it's not just slow, but at a standstill. We find that Rand is avoiding going back to Cairhien, and he mainly sits on his horse in the middle of rainy battle against the Seanchan, surrounded by all of his political enemies, getting sick every time he tries to channel, raving at a madman in his head, and feeling sorry for himself. It's one of the darker times that he goes through, and I can't wait for it to move on. The action does pick up a little at the end, after Rand finally gets done with the battle, but I can't say more without spoiling it.

To top it all off, there's no Mat at all, and I missed him.

A couple of important things do happen in this book, so I slogged through it, not wanting to miss any of those details that can be so important later. I put it behind me with relief, though. The worst is over.




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