The Path of Daggers (The Wheel of Time, Book 8)

by Robert Jordan

Audio cassette

English language

Published Oct. 20, 1998 by Publishing Mills.

ISBN:: 978-1-57511-045-5

(12 reviews)

From Publishers Weekly The eighth book of Jordan's bestselling The Wheel of Time saga (A Crown of Swords, etc.) opens with a renewed invasion by the Seanchans, a conquering race whose arsenal includes man-carrying flying reptiles and enslaved female magic-workers as well as powerful soldiers, many of whom have joined the Seanchans out of fear of the Dragon Reborn. The Dragon himself, Rand al'Thor, appears in only a small part of the narrative, but during that time he endures the ugly experience of seeing his magic kill his friends, heightening his fear that his destiny is to slay everyone he cares about. The first third of the book is a little slower paced than is usual for Jordan, emphasizing the growth of relationships, but the action picks up soon enough. More compact than some previous volumes in the saga, this one has the virtues readers have come to expect from the author: meticulous world-building; deft use of multiple viewpoints; highly original and intelligent systems of magic; an admirable wit; and a continuous awareness of the fate of the turnip farmer or peddler caught in the path of the heroes' armies. Unlike some authors of megasagas, Jordan chooses his words with care, creating people and events that have earned him an enormous readership. For sheer imagination and storytelling skill, if not quite for mythic resonance, The Wheel of Time now rivals Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

2 editions

Kadomi@buecher.pnpde.social reviewed The Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #8)

In the middle of the slog

2 stars

This was the first full WoT book I hadn't read before and as predicted, it was a slog. Nothing much happened. Perrin and Faile are always a huge miss for me. The only bits I was interested in were Egwene trying to control her rebel Aes Sedai, and the Seanchan. But seriously, you read hundreds of pages, for not much going on.

I have complained before that I feel Jordan did not understand the way female relationships work. This time, his focus on corporeal punishment for and from women, turned out to be unsettling for me. Women get spanked, hit with a switch, and so on and so forth. The book is from 1998, why was this considered okay then? I don't know. But I will see this series to its end.