Barely anything happens

Here I am 2 books later and almost 50 hours later and the plot has barely progressed. A full trilogy could have been completed in the time it too to get through Crown of Thorns and Path of Dagger. I'm committed but I really hope it gets better soon, less sniffing and clothing description and some actual story progression.

15 people found this helpful

The start of the doldrums...

It's at this point in the series where the plot progression starts to slip. The most significant event of the book happens pretty early on, and while we get to see its impact over the rest of the book, those events don't really seem all that significant. Egwene's story line could have been streamlined quite a bit, and the caravan of women gets so little accomplished traveling, when they could have just Traveled and spared us all the drawn-out details.

Most significantly, it's with this book that some of the repetitive phrases and descriptions really stand out. The smoothing of dresses and folding of arms is almost ludicrous.

Even knowing that the next book is pretty Perrin-heavy, I always want more of his story than I get, and that's certainly true here. Mat is completely absent, which is okay, since he still has a while before his story stops being frustrating anyway.

Rand. Ugh. His arc might be necessary for the ultimate endgame, but it's really hard to like his character in the middle books. The scenes with him but from Min's point of view are always better than the ones from his own.

Despite these issues, the book goes by pretty smoothly, although it's more about what it hints at for the future than for anything that's actually contained here. We've set up several really interesting conflicts in this book that will eventually pay off really awesomely. It's just a shame that the setup was so unremarkable, relatively speaking. I still love the series, but this book isn't among the best.

As for the listening experience, there were a few weirdly mispronounced words here and there, but overall it was excellent. I'm concerned that by the time I finish the series I won't be able to listen to any other narrators because I'll simply associate audiobooks with these two voices.

11 people found this helpful

unrelated fluff

This book was just very disappointing after the climax of the last book. I found myself waiting for things that just never really fell into place.

5 people found this helpful

Having trouble with lots of words, and no point.

This book may be the last I read in the series. How many times is the author going to use the phrases "...smoothing her split skirts..." It's like a middle schooler trying to extend a too short essay.

5 people found this helpful

This is where the story bogs down

Would you try another book from Robert Jordan and/or Michael Kramer and Kate Reading ?

If you've made it this far, you're already committed.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Next book in the same series, I guess

Have you listened to any of Michael Kramer and Kate Reading ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, this one is just as good. They are really good.

Was Path of Daggers worth the listening time?

No, not worth the time. About 1/3 is worth listening to, the rest is bloated drivel. Jordan thinks we care about exactly what every character is wearing, in every scene. Purists might call this "world-building." The other 98% of us call it a waste of time.

Any additional comments?

So this is the book where I quit on Jordan 16 years ago initially. This story (books 1-4) starts out really great, and Jordan has some really top notch moments. But Path of Daggers man...Jordan really sucks with his female POV. Every female character has some over-arching personality trait that is super obnoxious, and he never ever deviates from that in any scene. His characters in general often feel like robots, just spouting off the same lines, giving the same glares, stares, etc in every. single. scene. Like i mentioned, the female POV's are particularly rough, and this book is loaded with storylines from the female characters. Blah. I literally find myself wanting Nynaeve, Faile, and at least 1/3 of the Aes Sedai to die. The dark one can have Perrin too. Wonder if we could trade those for the deaths of a few forsaken? I'd take that trade and I think the story would be much more tolerable.

I am going to continue listening to the series (at 1.75 speed) only because Brandon Sanderson finished the series and my brother said he crushed it. On to book 9! Can't wait for more descriptions of dresses!!

19 people found this helpful

Most Boring out of the series

Honestly nothing exciting happens. Just read a summary and don't waste your money. Its only a filler.

3 people found this helpful

It's finally over!

As I am 8 books in, I'm committed to the story, but this book was painful. NOTHING HAPPENED, but it sure took a long time for it to pass! Mind numbing descriptions of pointless details weaved with swirling lists of characters I couldn't remember and cared even less about. Here's hoping #9 picks up the real story again.

3 people found this helpful

Worst one so far

In my opinion book eight is the most pointless and by far the worst book of the series. I also need to say a lot of the characters are starting to drive me nuts. The entire story is great but the individual stories of the characters have got to be the most annoying of any book I’ve ever read or listened to. It’s like watching those horror movies and you see people that do things that make zero sense to were it’s almost hilarious. Especially the women characters.

3 people found this helpful

Very disappointed in this book

This is by far the weakest book in the series so far. Book 7 was starting to show the signs but I was so disappointed with this book that I felt compelled to write a review. While I actually appreciate Jordan's presentation of slower-paced, immersive books he seems to take this to a new art here. The pacing is inconsistent, he may spend 2 pages detailing a party walking through a portal in one section and 2 sentences in another. The story timing was disjointed it was more difficult than usual to figure out where in the timeline the section was occurring. Most of that is forgivable but this book just did not move the plot forward enough given the time invested. It's more than 90% people moving around thinking to themselves and probably less than 10% plot progress. Book 7 and 8 could have been easily combined into one book. A major set of antagonists is virtually missing throughout the entire book while excessive detail is wasted on some minor antagonists. Again, I like slow paced immersive books but there's a minimum of plot development that I expect per book and that was not achieved here. Bottom line: it's still worth reading but less enjoyable that earlier books. I was relieved when I finished.

10 people found this helpful

Wheel of Meh

This book felt a lot like filler plain and simple, a few things happened but overall it felt like things remained static

6 people found this helpful