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.

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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!!

26 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.

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I' M STARTING TO PULL FOR THE DARKSIDE

From book 5 on the women are depicted as becoming more and more selfish, deceitful and basically intolerable. The men are mechanical, boring and insane. To applaud a hero they must have some redeeming qualities like respect for honor , loyality, sensitivity to the suffering of the the weak. I think with Jordan gone the purpose of character has been lost. I don't care who wins out there are no worthy choices

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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.

13 people found this helpful

what happened? nothing

Jordan gets so caught up in characters in this book that he forgets to tell a story. I mean an entire book as a set up book, why put your readers through that. Matt, my favorite character, isn't even in the book. It's also getting annoying that everyone is a jumpy asshole ready to snap everyone's heads of for doing anything at all. If I hadn't heard from other readers that the last books were worth it to get through these middle books I would have quit the series right here. Here's to book 9, moving on.

13 people found this helpful

the best of the best

You are reading the best epic fantasy series there is. period. It may take a while to get into it but you will. There are 2600 plus characters but don't get scared teenagers read this every day. You will know these peoples as "friends" and "enemies" and like your own family. Read by the dynamic duo of recitation kate reading and michael kramer... they pull it all together .. I switch genres just to listen to them... It [the series] is really one huge wonderful story broken into 14 too short books that nobody wants to see ended..I can not express how good these books are. I have started 16 different friends reading TWoT and they are all addicted. You think that maybe the books are enchanted some how???
If fantasy is your genre you have arrived....... paul t.

12 people found this helpful

Very bad audio editing

Although the story itself was alright, the audio editing was horrible quality with many bits of audio repeating due to careless editing and some very strange audio artifacts sneaking in every once in a while.

Kate Readings reading style does not appeal to me as she over dramatisizes some of the speech leading to some very annoying listening, every time she tries to portray a female character speaking in distress it sounds rather annoying.

12 people found this helpful

Another stellar read!!!

What did you love best about Path of Daggers?

If you have read the whole series to this point, the depth of the character development is paying off in spades!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Master (or Lord) Matt Cauthen has grown into this exciting and legendary warrior/leader/horn blower!

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

yes, and this is another GREAT performance

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

this is a dumb question

Any additional comments?

keep reading this WOT series... it just keeps getting better!

10 people found this helpful

Jordan rules

I have loved this book series for many years. It is a cult classic and a great sci fi fantasy series. I read everyday and I am now listening to the whole series again. I love this series and even the new book written by another author after Robert Jordan died.

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