Customer Reviews

The Path of Daggers (The Wheel of Time)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I only have one thing to say:

"WILL IT EVER END?"

In common with the other reviewers, I agree that this volume drags on the series well past its true end. The best description I can find for it is...total tedium. Bogged down in endless sub-plots, still introducing new characters into a series which already has far too many (so many that most of the interesting ones now hardly appear). If one had not already invested so mch time in following the series, well... If we want to know how it is going to end up, perhaps we should just read Terry Goodkind's series (much more concise), which by some strange synchronicity seems to have much the same characters, intentions and plot. Which way does the telepathy flow, I wonder?

R. Jordan continues to shape the World and his heroes' story with a very talented writing but so many characters of different weigh tend to slow the tale's tempo. Politics got the best over breathless action and living mystery, and the reader has got difficulties while trying to hold to the pattern. How could R. Jordan miss the point with Mat Cauthon, while leaving him in such a desperate situation in book 7 ? However the author set so many springs ready to go loose in the Path of Daggers that book 9 is most expected. In no way should the end be reached beyond a book 10...

My desperate hopes of a conclusion to this fine series was dashed half way through this otherwise gripping read. If it had been the fifth book in the series, the lack of any possibility to an end of the story would have been acceptable, but after eight books the end indicates a further twenty! Maybe the author has deisgned the series to fill a standard width bookshelf for our visual comfort ... I think not.

Robert Jordan is a talented writer, the Wheel of Time series is his best. Unfortunately book 8 The Path of Daggers was lacking depth, contents and a follow up to the rest of the series. I waited 18 months for the book and once I opened the book,I knew something was wrong. The fonts were large compared from the others and there were less pages also.

Mr Jordan if you are reading this make a proper job of the next book.

Without a doubt jordan is a very talented writer. The Wheel of Time series started off very promising, however, it now seems that the new ideas are drying up. Path of Daggers is just a rehash of the previous two books. There are no new ideas, the plot does not move forward at all and the books are getting thinner and thinner. It seems Mr Jordan is milking this series for all it is worth to the detriment of the story and his readers. It is about time Mr Jordan got on with things and bought the story to a close, but without a Deus Ex Machina ending as per Crown of Swords.

One to miss for all but Wheel of time fanatics.

this entire book could be summarized in about 100 pages. the story isn't going anywhere and i don't even want to count the pages devoted to the ponderings of perrin about his beard. RJ claims to be a writer, well write something good and don't drag the story just to get more money

As the tital suggests this is just another filler book, in what seems to be an attempt to creat the longest series in history regardless of the quality of the writing or story content.

Down hill since book 3.
From the 4th book onwards i have been increasingly dissapointed by the ever increasing predictable cliff hanger endings, and comeplete lack of movment in story until the last 2 chapters.

Why is it so dull?
The combat sceens are either non existen, poorly described (they just dont excite the imagination like some books do), or skiped, like the epic fight in this book which we were all waiting for between Rand's Ashmen, and the Seachen army and then suddenly there is no fight, it skips passed it to the aftermath, and thats it... its the same with what they do in movies to save on money, behind a closed door, some gun shots go off and the hero walks out.
The level of pointless detail in some parts makes Lord of the Rings seems like a light read, and iv lost count of how many times the same argument or fight or moaning has been played out between Elain and Naive (forget the correct speeling, appologies).

How telling is the filler?
Well having decided to re-read book 8 (dont ask why, i dont know my self, had time to kill), i discovered that you could miss out entire (yes entire) chapters in the book and the story was still understandable, speeking only for myself, that in itself is very telling, when a whole chapter in a book does not progress the story, that it can be missed and doesnt change anything.

My only conclusion, aside from making lots of money on sales, is that by making it such a struggle, you end up feeling like the charicters in the book on the long monotonous drudge to some where.

I'v finshed book 8 now and really am in no hurry to get book 9, im at the point where i no longer care about the charicters because i know the story is so dull.

*** Update ***
A friend recently asked me if they should start this series and automatically i said no, and i guess thats all that i really have to say

Most people who read Lord of the rings and truely love it will generally agree that the story is just too short. When you start the Wheel of Time saga you hope that it will carry on......but now.. well it's dragging on too much.

It looks to me that even Robert Jordan is at a loss of where to go with the WoT storyline. Just like the previous book, Path of Daggers is slow and nothing, absolutely nothing happens! Unfortunately I can not stop myself bying WoT books, especially now I have come so far, but please please please finish it soon and start something fresh! Hopefully with starting a new (shorter?) series will the writer return to the form he showed with the earlier volumes of WoT!