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What our customer's say!

"Second worst book of the series", While we finally get a conclusion on the Bowl of the Winds (which started in Book 6), we unfortunately get a new situation with Faile and the Shaido (which lasts an ungodly 3.5 books!). While Crown of Swords started the downturn in the tight exposition, this was brutal in some spots. The Elayne chapters, along with the annoying bickering with the Windfinders, were nigh unreadable. What's worse, Mat is missing from the entire book (after a cliffhanger ending for him in Book 7). While Rand's scenes were interesting, there was really no movement for him in this book. A weak entry, and sadly, not the worst book of the series.

"Thoroughly disappointing.", The Path of Daggers was originally published in October 1998 and was released two and a half years after the previous volume (which had ended on a cliffhanger), the longest gap between books in the series at that time. As a result, expectations for this book were high. When the book finally arrived, people were taken aback by its slimness (at least compared to other books in the series) and its failure to address that cliffhanger from the prior volume. Reviews of the book were negative and even today some fans continue to cite this as the weakest book in the series (although the majority agree that that honour goes to the tenth book). For a series that had almost been immune to criticism up to this point, this book marked a serious turning point for the worse.

The book opens in the aftermath of events in A Crown of Swords. Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, has been proclaimed King of Illian after killing the Forsaken Sammael. His satisfaction is short-lived, however. The Seanchan have returned in great force and in a blitzkrieg campaign lasting several weeks have swept through the south-west of the continent, conquering the kingdom of Tarabon and capturing the cities of Amador and Ebou Dar (the capitals of Amadicia and Altara, respectively) in rapid succession. Already fearing they might march on Illian next, Rand concocts a plan to bottle them up in Ebou Dar, but is unaware that there are those in his own ranks who are preparing to move against him.

Meanwhile, in Ghealdan Perrin makes contact with Queen Alliandre as part of his mission to track down and neutralise the increasingly insane and dangerous 'Prophet of the Dragon', Masema. At the same time, the leaders of the Borderlands have led a vast host southwards for an unknown reason. Nynaeve, Elayne and their loose and fractious alliance of Sea Folk Windfinders, Aes Sedai and Kin have recovered the Bowl of Winds from Ebou Dar and now have to use it to restore normal weather to the world, unaware of the consequences of their actions. And in the White Tower Elaida walks a fine line as she is blackmailed by Alviarin into doing things that will shatter the sisterhood, whilst her secret agents continue their hunt for the Black Ajah.

A plot summary of Path of Daggers sounds exciting, and the news that the book features a significant military showdown between Rand and the Seanchan should be impressive. However, The Path of Daggers is beset by numerous problems that prevent it from being fully enjoyable. First off, the level of filler in this book is much worse than any previous volume. There are several chapters where characters are riding along arguing with one another, or discussing the plot, or making it clear how much they hate one another. These points are slammed home again and again by Robert Jordan for no clear purpose. The battles between Rand and the Seanchan are intriguing and the messy ending to the engagement is an important moment in the series, but it comes far too late in the book. Perrin's story proceeds at an absolute crawl and he barely has any screen-time in the book, whilst Mat has none. Jordan's point that Mat is recovering from his wounds and thus isn't doing anything interesting in the story at this moment is well-taken, but at the same time the ambiguity of Mat's fate in the prior volume was part of what made the book's ending powerful and interesting. It being completely ignored for four and a half years until Book 9 was annoying. However, re-reading the series now this isn't so much of a problem.

Up until The Path of Daggers, the structural and writing problems with the series could to some extent be ignored because the story was still compelling and the reader was encouraged to read on no matter what. However, at this point and through the next two books these problems start to actually interfere with the readability of the books. The pace slows to a crawl and events that would have been covered in a few chapters in previous books now span entire novels. For some reason Jordan ignored the basic writing maxim that as you build up to a series finale you have to increase the pace and intensity of events, and as a result the series becomes somewhat more difficult to read in-depth from this point on.

The Path of Daggers (**½) doesn't suffer from quite so many problems as it did on first release, but it still represents a significant failure in both writing and editing that makes it a shadow of the book it could have been. The book is available in the UK from Orbit and in the USA from Tor.

"GOOD GRIEF!", I started this series before i could shave:
3 kids
1 wife
college
4 jobs
2 major moves,
and a bit of hair loss later, i'm still reading about Rand, Matt and Perrin (and 312,456 other characters that i've filed away under "i hate that i have to remember you and your blasted, nonsensical name. especially since you'll probably not pop up again in the story untill book 17, and by that time you will share the same syntax, syllable length and letter configuration as 457 other characters of similar importance introduced since. In addition to not remebering who you are and why you suddenly interrupted an Aes Sedai tea party complete with serenity, dignified reserve and calm surface chatter about ice peppers from Saldea, i have to read a 7 page description of your feelings about the said Aes Sedai's choice of tea." And while that appears to be a long mental file to keep characters confined in, you should actually try reading these books and keep every freaking character straight!)

I once watched a PBS special about cab drivers in London. Doctors had discovered that there is a part of our brain that stores the necessary details we need to travel about our little corner of the world. For London cabbies, who have to recall VAST amounts of detail in a city that seems to have been designed by drunken Lugarders, this part of their brain was COSIDERABLY larger than average. So much so that when compared side by side to that of a "normal" brain, i gasped at the difference. Then something occured to me that had me quickly regaining a sense of serenity; i realized that this portion of my brain must now fill up my entire skull due to the amount of detail necessary to keep up with the story. Jordan himself must have two seperate heads just to store all that detail in. Mensa here i come!

Then another thought occured to me that shattered the icy calm of the void: The doctors said that this part of the brain grew because of NECESSARY detail. That leaves me with only one conclusion: If cab drivers in London NEED all the detail that causes their brains to swell, then the inverse must also be true; filling the brain with useless detail must in turn SHRINK it. If after reading THE PATH OF DAGGERS i have even a raisen left in my skull, i'll consider it a victory. TOO MUCH DETAIL that does nothing for the story. It is NOT "rich" storytelling to embelish every single page with line upon line of fashion, food and mood descriptions while relegating important plot advancements to a paragraph or two. That is called fleecing the sheep. And like sheep, we're stupid enough to keep reading to find out, one day, what actually happens at the end.

My advice to anyone who loves fantasy:
If you must read this series, become a cabbie in London to fight off the effects of the brain shrinkage. It's what i've chosen to do.


"A lot of character interaction/detail, less action", The Path of Daggers starts where the previous book, A Crown of Swords concluded. Roughly a month to a month and a half passes throughout the 8th book.

In A Crown of Swords, Rand conquerors the city/nation of Illian and kills the Forsaken Sammael. He is then named King of Illian and presented the Laurel Crown (the "crown of swords") by one of the Lords of Illian, the head of the Council of Nine. Nynaeve & Elayne found the Bowl of the Winds and were on their way out of the city of Ebou Dar to use it to fix the weather, Egwene was still struggling to be Amyrlin Seat, Perrin was sent by Rand to find the Prophet of the Dragon (a soldier they had met in The Great Hunt, book 2, who had gone mad with his fanaticism toward Rand, preaching his coming), and Mat had left Nynaeve & Elayne and stayed in Ebou Dar only to come across the invading Seanchan Army and get caught in the cross-fire.

This book is slow moving, like the last book, the plot slows down a lot and not much in the way of action occurs in The Path of Daggers. There are a few scenes of action, and 2 brief fight/battle scenes, but overall the book wasn't filled with much action scenes.

Rand continues to try unite all the people of the world to fight in the Last Battle, and faces uphill battles within his own group of allies (the nations he conquerors) who don't fully trust him, a man that can channel. It also doesn't help that in addition to the mistrust those under him have toward him, and each other, the Forsaken are in the background pitting against him. As I read each book in the series, it becomes ever more complex and at finishing this book, I thought to myself, "How will Rand ever be successful?"

I expected the Forsaken to be against Rand, but there are also people in the world that are against him and simply either don't believe or don't want to accept he's supposed to save the world. You'd think people would put the world's interest before their own (ya know, the Dark One is going to break free and then there will be no pieces of the pie for anyone!). Rand has to continually fight these undercurrents around him to unite everyone, and he grows increasingly short-tempered and frustrated that people can't see what he sees, which is the Last Battle is coming and all the petty selfishness has to end.

Other obstacles facing Rand include the ever-present voice of Lews Therin inside his own head and his doubts of his sanity, a new fatal wound over-top an old one he received in a previous battle with one of the Forsaken. An old wound that never fully healed, and which may be the death of him in the end. Also, at the end of A Crown of Swords, during his battle with Sammael, he crossed paths with a strange man and this encounter with this strange man has caused Rand to have problems wielding saidin (blurry, double vision, and nausea). So, Rand has a lot on his plate and it only grows as time goes on. The brief fight scenes are in the Rand chapters of the book, but were very mild and short.

Nynaeve & Elayne finally use the Bowl of the Winds, with the aid of other Aes Sedai, and 2 other groups of women that can channel (The effects of using the Bowl you read about later in the book, the descriptions of storms and gusts of wind, with winter coming with a vengeance). The Kin of Ebou Dar (runaways and women put out of the White Tower that grouped together in Ebou Dar in secret) and the Windfinders of the Sea Folk (women who utilize the One Power over the weather to ensure good sailing). It is the latter group of women that Nynaeve & Elayne needed the most to help fix the weather, and it was amusing to see the interactions of the various women as they jostled for control over each other.

In Perrin's chapters, not much goes on, he was sent by Rand to get a hold of the man that calls himself the Prophet of the Dragon and reign him in (he's basically a crazy man and causing all sorts of trouble). So Perrin's perspective just details his thoughts on the matter and how he will go about confronting the Prophet.
There are no chapters from Mat's perspective, at the end of book 7, Mat had run afoul of the Seanchan Army invading Ebou Dar and a wall fell on him. For those that wonder why Mat is not in this book, there is an interview that Robert Jordan did back in 1996 (I think it was 1996) where Jordan explains the reason why Mat wasn't in this book was due to the fact, "Well, if you had a wall fall on top of you, you'd be in pain and agony. I didn't think reading about Mat's recuperation was all that interesting so he's not in The Path of Daggers."

Egwene finally gains the upper-hand, somewhat, against the 2 factions of Aes Sedai led under 2 Sitters for the Hall, and it was gratifying to see Egwene come more into her position as leader of the rebel Aes Sedai. I think it will be interesting when Egwene finally meets up with Elaida (the Amyrlin of the White Tower Aes Sedai), not to mention Egwene's eventual meeting with her childhood friend, now the Dragon Reborn, Rand. Anyways, Egwene's chapter ends with her finally leading her rebel Aes Sedai and her army toward Tar Valon and the battle between the two Aes Sedai groups. The brief paragraph describing this moment, Egwene finally in view of Tar Valon, was well-told even though it was so short. I could almost see the resolve and determination of Egwene as she rode toward her goal:

"It has begun," Egwene agreed. And the Light willing, soon Elaida would fall. She was supposed to wait until Bryne said sufficient of his soldiers were through, but she could not stop herself. Digging her heels into Daishar's flanks, she rode through into the falling snow, onto the plain where Dragonmount reared black and smoking into the white sky.

I would say the biggest weak point of this book was the fact it did move so slow. It is a lot of talking, but you do learn a bit more about other characters, the secondary characters. If you have been reading all the books up to this point, it is a decent addition, but I wouldn't recommend anyone starting with this book as you'd only be confused. It's not the best book, but it does continue the story of Rand and his friends, and that's the only reason why I liked reading this book. I love reading about the Wheel of Time world and I really want to know how everything ends for the characters in this world. Despite that weakness, I enjoy reading the detailed descriptions of characters, Jordan wrote with detail, and for some that can get annoying or tiring but I personally like a lot of detail.

"Just plain wrong", I bought path of daggers on cassette and have been both confused and upset with it. I have enjoyed listening to the well done and unabridged first 7 books read by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer. For some reason on the 8th book Jordan decided to have somebody else narrate it although the original narraters pick back up in book 9.
What I dont understand is why if you are being paid to read a book, the eigth in a series no less, that you didnt at least listen to some of the previous narraters so you could pronounce names and places the same.Mark Rolston seems to go out of his way to pronounce EVERY name differently. It is hard enough in this series to keep up with who is who without trying to figure out which person he is talking about because the pronounciations are completely different.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"Not Free SF Reader", The chicks are doing the more interesting thing here, using the ter'angreal to do their own version of a weather control machine, or at least a weather fixing machine.

Rand is involved in yet another large armed conflict, and gets a bit crazy, which ain't good if you were a soldier there, on either side.

Easily the worst of these books so far, and a lot of pointlessness.




"The Path of Daggers: Book 8 of the Wheel of Time", I've loved every book in this series by Robert Jordan! Interesting characters, interesting land, interesting action.

"Another well-written book that goes nowhere", I can understand the frustration and the cynicism underlying many of the reviews of this book. I share most of them myself. Robert Jordan has created an immense (!) world and so many characters it's impossible to keep track of them all. Thank goodness for the chapter-by-chapter summaries supplied by the writers of the Wikipedia entries, or I'd be hopelessly lost most of the time. However, there is a lot of good writing in this book - the characters are far less irritating than in previous outings, and their interactions are far more interesting. Unfortunately, in terms of plot, this book goes absolutely nowhere.

It reminds me of Book 6 (Lord of Chaos), previously my least favourite book in the series. I get the feeling from reading this book that Jordan is using the book to set up the next one - there are tons of things that are moving forward, and everyone always seems to be "on the verge" of doing something, but then he jumps to another storyline. Thus: Rand has defeated the forsaken Sammael and has conquered Illian. He now turns his sights on the Seanchan, who have invaded several southwestern nations. Egwene solidifies her position as leader of the rebel Aes Sedai and heads to attack Tar Valon. Elaine finally (!) arrives in Andor to stake her claim to the throne of that country. Perrin goes after The Prophet for Rand. Unfortuantely, not a single one of these stories is brought to a conclusion. However, the most annoying part of it all is the continued splintering of groups to such a huge degree that it's impossible to keep track of them all! For example, there are now the following groups of Aes Sedai: Those left in Tar Valon loyal to Elaida, those in Tar Valon working for the rebels, the rebels with Egwene, the rebels with Nynaeve and Elaine, the expelled Aes Sedai "knitting circle" (also with Nynaeve), the kidnappers Rand captured, the rebel emmisaries with Rand, the independent Aes Sedai with Rand, those with Perrin, those that belong to the Black Ajah, etc. That's not even counting the various groups of Windfinders and Wise Ones who can also channel. No wonder nothing happens - if Jordan were to spend just 5 pages on each of the groups he's created, the book would probably be 1000 pages long.

The frustration is perfectly exemplified by the Prologue in this book, in which he introduces YET ANOTHER army/group, marching toward Rand's territories. He spends 10 pages on them in the prologue and then they are never heard from again in the rest of the book! ARGH!

All these complaints notwithstanding, the book actually reads quite well, and is not as confusing as some would lead you to believe. It's just unfortunate that Jordan appears dedicated to milking this series for all it's worth, knowing we poor suckers will keep buying the books. After all - if you're reading this review, you've probably already decided to read the book, right? As Homer Simpson says, "How can you go this far and not go farther?"

"Tired of...", This series (up to book 4/5) was one of my favorites. There were little things that bugged me, but I considered it to be a masterpiece.

A coupld of things have caused me to completely give up on this series after this book.

* Detail is great and all, but please make something happen. There are very few books that I haven't finished, but I was close with this one due to the lack of real events furthuring the story.

* ENOUGH with the 'Men are stupid, tug on my braids' mentality! RJ likes to infuse his charecters with the inability to understand the opposite gender. When will they learn what most mature adults learn? If I didn't know better I'd say that RJ is a feminist man-hater.

I could overlook these annoyances when the rest of the story was fantastic, but that just isn't the case with this book.

"The Wheel of Time keeps turning...and turning...and turning...", This series has become a complete disaster.

As the plot gets more and more complicated, it also gets more and more meaningless. Mr. Jordan is apparently set on dragging this series out for another ten books at least. New subplots are introduced with each book, and there are now so many characters that it is hard to keep their names straight. There has been little to no development on the overall plot since the fourth book. It seems to me that if Rand suddenly died, and the plot ended, it would take another three books to tell what happened to the rest of the characters! (in exhaustive detail, of course) I generally find myself cheering when a character dies because it means that there will be one less person to hear about in the next book.

Improbable events happen regularly, in order to stretch the series as far as possible. For example, most of the Forsaken have been killed by the seventh book. ("Damn!," thinks Mr. Jordan, "I had planned to keep them around until book 27") Instead of bringing out the next logical bad guy, the Dark One, the Forsaken are now being brought back to life, so that Rand has to kill them all again! This is such a poor excuse for a plot event that I laughed when I first read it. Similar events include Egwene becoming the Amyrlin seat and Birgitte becoming Elayne's warder.

The characters are vain, immature, and unlikeable. They are mostly involved in unlikely romances, usually with multiple people. The men mope about, feel sorry for themselves, and make unbelievably stupid decisions. The women are cattish, delight in tormenting the men, and are astonishingly ungrateful. I have yet to find a truly symapthetic character. Character relationships are just as bad. (Mr. Jordan is more obsessed with sex than Sigmund Freud was.) Disliking a person seems to be the only prerequisite for falling in love with them.

Though this has been harped on in previous reviews, it is absolutely true: Mr. Jordan is completely obsessed with writing about insignificant little details. From exactly what each and every character is wearing to exactly what each and every character is thinking, in each and every scene of the book, Mr. Jordan lists everything that is unimportant to the story. Below is a description of a character blowing their nose (I have chosen Nynaeve), in the style of the Wheel of Time series. You can see the excess of unnecessary details used to describe any action.

"Nynaeve excused herself from the conversation about why Rand hadn't seen Elayne. Gathering up the hem of her Domani dress in pale green silk, Lan's favorite color, she turned away from the women at the table, who were entusiastically chattering on about Rand's personal affairs. 'Ninnies,' thought Nynaeve, "they should be doing something useful, not idling their time away here. If they were from Emond's Field when I was wisdom there, the women's circle would set them right'. She sniffed loudly is their direction, and gave her braid a violent tug. She put her hand into the pocket of her high-necked gown, and drew out a red linen handkerchief, with an attractive paisley border. She remebered that it had been a gift from Lan from when he had still been Moiraine's warder. Her cross expression softened as her thoughts turned to Lan. She absent-mindedly tugged down the neckline of her dress, exposing a wide expanse of pale bosom, and fiddled with a strand of pearls that she wore around her neck. Lan liked pearls, she remembered. She wondered what the other women at the table would say if she got a room at the inn to share with him. They would probably say she was behind as forward as that Mayener hussy, Berelain. She suddenly realized what she was thinking about. 'Light burn Lan for making me think about Berelain,' she said to herself, 'men can be so mule headed sometimes.' She resolved to box the ears of the next man she met, just for being born a man. Elayne, who was sitting down at the table next to her, asked Nynaeve if she liked the new light blue silk dress with the lace collar that she was wearing. 'Hmmph,' said Nynaeve, 'it probably cost as much as a small village. You should be more careful with money Elayne. We are not in your mother's paalce at Caemlyn.' She gave her braid another angry tug."

If you have read any of the other Wheel of Time books, my advice is: do not read any more. This series hasn't gone anywhere since the fourth book, nor does it shows signs of going anywhere in the future. Robert Jordan will almost certainly die before he is able to finish of this series.