Path of Daggers: Is This Book a Joke?

I still don’t believe this is the actual book. I’m expecting Robert Jordan’s widow to pop out of the door with a camera. She’s going to laugh at me, then hand me the actual book. That’s more believable than this being what the Path of Daggers actually is.

Hoo boy, the Slump is going to be every bit as bad as I’ve heard.

The Wheel of Time turns and ages come and pass. The Seanchan have returned, adding yet another problem for Rand to tackle. But it seems he’s finally starting to bite off more than he can chew. Meanwhile, Nynaeve and Elaine use the Bowl of the Winds and Perrin travels to make another important alliance and take care of the so-called Prophet of the Dragon.

This book is a mess. It hops from character to character before any of their plots can really get going. Not to mention that half of the conversations in this book are abruptly cut-off by random explosions! Seriously, this book felt like a god damn Michael Bay movie at several points! It gave me fucking whiplash!

Of the Wheel of Time books, this is definitely one of the more action-packed. Unfortunately, none of the action is all that interesting! Most of the cool stuff happens off-screen and all we get starts and ends too quickly to be interesting.

All of the interesting plots end before they can really begin. Perrin’s plot finally gets started right at the end of the book. Mat is nowhere to be found. All of the interesting stuff in Elaine and Nynaeve’s plot happens right at the start, then nothing happens for the rest of the book! Rand’s plot is a jumbled mess that is super boring!

Then there’s the ending. Which is so abrupt, so inconclusive, and so unsatisfying that I genuinely thought it was a joke. I was legit laughing for a solid twenty minutes and muttering, “No, that can’t be it,” to myself like a maniac. That isn’t a joke, I actually did that! I did not, and do not, believe it was the actual ending!

Not to say this book is all bad. It does have its moments! I actually really liked the first few chapters! Elaine has a pretty badass action scene that I was super engaged with (I actually liked a chapter with Elaine in it; I never thought I would say that), Perrin’s plot brings him together with one of the more minor plotlines in a cool way, and Rand finally busts out the damn crystal sword! While these scenes are ultimately small in comparison to the book as a whole, which is really bad, they do help keep it from being completely unbearable.

Getting through this one was rough. It had its moments, but the whole thing was so messy and unsatisfying that it was hard not to space out. Path of Daggers is definitely the worst one of these we’ve talked about so far.

I won’t say it’s the worst one I’ve read. Because books nine and ten are way worse than this one.

This is gonna be a rough few weeks, boys and girls.