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.

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.

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.

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.

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.