The Path of Daggers

by Robert Jordan

Reviewed by Coral

Perrin is on a mission from Rand. While those near Rand believe that Perrin has been sent away in dishonor, he has really been sent to bring the Prophet of the Lord Dragon under control.

As Egwene and her army and Aes Sedai march on Elaida, she struggles to take control of her faction and to make everyone understand that she will not be their puppet leader any longer.

The Seanchan continue their advance, catching Nynaeve, Elayne and Mat in their path. Rand marches to stop them, but is this an enemy even he can’t face?

At this point, I am skimming the books a lot, just wanting to finally get to the end of the series. There are just too many characters and too many never ending plots for me to care about. At least in A Song of Ice and Fire and The Sword of Truth I can feel like things are happening and are moving towards an ending (though they both also felt drawn out in some places). Here, I feel like all we are doing is treading water, waiting for the final battle, with nothing really important happening in between.

I hate how most women in the book have a plot that revolves around a man. Elayne’s mother has gone from being the puppet of one man, to wanting her throne back, to having Lini trying to marry her off to one of the soldiers loyal to her. Even Siuan Sanch’s story is now about her feelings for Gareth.

I hate that Mat wasn’t even in this book. Considering he was in a city conquered by the Seanchan, it would have been nice having something from his perspective, but instead we get nothing. And his army feels that he needs them and they decide to do … nothing. They go into service of someone else and wait for Mat to come find them.

There’s only two books I’ve read previously left before I get to books I haven’t read yet, so I think I remember a little of where the Seanchan plot is going and if I am right I don’t think I will like how it ends. They go around enslaving people and I want them to be defeated in the end and for all their slaves to be freed. I worry that the story won’t go that way.

As soon as I realized Mat wasn’t in this book, I really had no strong feelings for it one way or another.

Grade: C