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The Path of Daggers

The Path of Daggers

Book Eight of 'The Wheel of Time'
Epic FantasyFantasy
Pages
624
Published
1998
Language
English

Synopsis

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.

Prose complexity
7/10

Vibe

AdventurousTense
QuestMultiple POVsFound Family

Genres

Epic Fantasy Fantasy High Fantasy

About the author

R
Robert Jordan

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, James Oliver Rigney Jr. (1948-2007) wrote under the pen name Robert Jordan and became best known for the epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time. He served two tours as a U.S. Army helicopter gunner in Vietnam, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Bronze Star, then took a degree in physics from The Citadel and worked as a nuclear engineer for the Navy. A fall and a long convalescence in the late 1970s turned him toward writing full time. Before fantasy...

Characters

Egwene al'VereProtagonist

Maneuvers her rebel Aes Sedai toward the White Tower, revealing a steel few expected of her.

Elayne TrakandProtagonist

A young noblewoman and channeler who claims the throne of Andor while navigating a Seanchan invasion.

AviendhaSupporting

Lends her strength to the weather-working and remains tied to Rand's fate.

Perrin AybaraSupporting

Escorts a fragile alliance through dangerous country as the war widens.

Nynaeve al'MearaSupporting

An Aes Sedai and Elayne's mentor, helping her navigate politics and magic in the face of growing threats.

All characters in The Path of Daggers

Frequently asked questions

  • What does the title The Path of Daggers mean?

    It comes from a Seanchan saying, 'On the heights, all paths are paved with daggers,' meaning that the higher one rises, the more perilous every choice becomes. The phrase reflects the precarious positions the characters occupy as power concentrates.

  • Is The Path of Daggers the shortest Wheel of Time book?

    Yes. By page and word count it is the shortest novel in the main fourteen-book series. Its brevity, combined with a narrow time span, is part of why readers debate its pacing.

  • Why does this book feel slow to many readers?

    It falls within the stretch many fans call the slog, covering a short period in close detail with little large-scale resolution. The groundwork it lays pays off in later volumes, but the installment itself is light on climaxes.

  • Does this book finally fix the broken weather?

    Yes. The effort begun with the recovery of the Bowl of the Winds comes to a head here, reversing the Dark One's unnatural heat and bringing a hard winter back to a sweltering world.

  • Did The Path of Daggers make the bestseller lists?

    It was the first Wheel of Time book to debut at number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list, beginning a streak the next several volumes continued.

  • Is Rand's use of the One Power becoming dangerous?
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