The Path of Daggers

With the Bowl of the Winds recovered, Elayne, Nynaeve, and Aviendha labor to turn back the Dark One's unnatural heat and restore the broken seasons, even as the conquering Seanchan press inland behind them. Rand al'Thor leads a desperate campaign against the invaders in the south, drawing on the male half of the One Power in ways that grow steadily more reckless and costly. In Andor, Elayne moves to claim a throne that is far from secured, while Egwene marches her rebel Aes Sedai toward the besieged White Tower with a plan few of them suspect. The eighth volume of The Wheel of Time is the shortest in the main series and one of its most divisive, covering a narrow span of events as the long war of attrition grinds on. It is a book of positioning and consequence, where partial victories carry steep prices and several storylines tighten toward confrontations still to come.