The Path of Daggers is shorter than some of the other books, but it doesn’t really feel lighter.
By this point everybody has power, titles, armies, alliances, or some combination of all of it, but Jordan keeps showing that having more power doesn’t necessarily mean anybody has more control.
Rand is probably the clearest example.
He’s getting harder, more suspicious, and more convinced that he has to handle everything himself. Some of that makes sense because people really are constantly trying to manipulate or kill him, but you can also see how much harder it is becoming for him to hear advice without immediately wondering what somebody wants from him.
That’s where Rand starts worrying me more. It isn’t just that he has enemies. It’s that he’s getting to a point where almost everybody starts looking like a possible enemy.
Egwene is learning how to use power in a completely different way. She’s much more patient about it. Instead of trying to force everyone into place, she’s figuring out what her position actually lets her do and how to make people underestimate her until she’s ready.
I liked that contrast.
Rand is basically trying to hold everything together by force while Egwene is learning how much can be accomplished by waiting, watching, and choosing the right moment.
The biggest issue for me is how spread out everybody is.
There are so many characters and separate storylines by this point that sometimes you can go a long time without seeing somebody you actually want to read about.
And Mat isn’t in this book at all, which I definitely noticed.
When one of your favorite characters disappears for an entire book in a series this big, you feel it.
There are also storylines here that don’t really feel finished. They reach a stopping point, but it feels more like Jordan saying, we’ll come back to this later, than giving you an actual conclusion.
Still, I don’t think the book is pointless.
A lot of what happens here is about showing that these characters still don’t fully understand the power they have, the people they’re dealing with, or the consequences of some of the choices they’ve already made.
By now they’ve survived enough that it would be easy for the series to start making them feel unbeatable.
Jordan doesn’t do that.
If anything, the more powerful they become, the more ways they seem to find to screw things up.
Who I’d recommend it to: Anyone already committed to The Wheel of Time. This one feels more like part of the larger journey than a book I’d single out on its own.
Caution: The story is spread across a lot of characters, several threads feel unfinished, and Mat is completely absent.
Discussion question: Did Mat being gone make this book drag more for you, or were you invested enough in Rand and Egwene that you didn’t really miss him?
— Cory Lane