The shorter length does not make this a light installment. The Path of Daggers is interested in unstable gains: an alliance secured, an advantage discovered, a position apparently strengthened. Jordan keeps showing how little certainty those gains actually buy. I find that more persuasive than an uninterrupted march of victories.
Rand's increasing hardness matters because it changes the quality of his judgment. His problem is not merely that enemies oppose him; it is that he has fewer ways to hear other people without first translating their words into threats. Egwene's approach to authority supplies a different study in calculation, patience, and learning what a title can accomplish.
The cast remains widely scattered, and readers who want a particular favorite may find the distribution frustrating. Some threads stop at a point that feels more like a pause than a conclusion. As a bridge, though, the novel does useful damage to the assumption that its heroes now understand the tools they have acquired.
— Cory Lane