Path of Daggers a low point?

[Jocasta Braithe]

Spoilers everywhere for book 8 and the beginning of book 9. Ye have been warned.

I just finished, and I swear I slept through the last third of the book. I enjoyed some of the earlier stuff with the Bowl of the Winds and the Kin, plus the sequence where Elayne has to undo her gateway weave was one of the most suspenseful in the whole series so far, but the book basically died after that. I... yawn. Rand... yawn... Seanchan.... yawn... new POV Seanchan character who will be killed in 20 minutes and never heard from again.... yawn. Brief moment of excitement with Asha'man deserters... yawn... yawn... yawn.

Am I alone here?

Things seem to be picking up with Winter's Heart. I am noticing that I am much more invested in the women's storylines than Rand's right now. I hope he gets more interesting again soon. I do love Elayne/Aviendha and the Seaine/Pevara bits.

 

[Atarah al'Norahn]

You are definitely not alone! It's a very popular opinion that Path of Daggers is one of the slowest points of the series.

Though I do LOVE the hunt for the Black Ajah plotline that gets advanced a bit in this book. It's one of my favourite plotlines in the entire series. And I do enjoy seeing Egwene and the Hall.

I think one of the hardest things for me about TPoD is...there's NO MAT! :eek

 

[Leala ni al'Dareis t'al'Caleum]

Elayne and Aviendha were my favorite part of that book.

The lowest point in the series for me was Crossroads of Twilight.

 

[Thaddius al'Guy]

Elayne and Aviendha were my favorite part of that book.

The lowest point in the series for me was Crossroads of Twilight.

I think that's everyone's lowest point.

 

[Atarah al'Norahn]

I didn't want to say it, but...yeah. It does have some redeeming qualities though, so don't get discouraged Jocasta

 

[Leala ni al'Dareis t'al'Caleum]

Atarah is right. It's not all boring. You can power through it! :sword

 

[Aduiavas Ida]

Yeah, Path of Daggers and Crossroads of Twilight are the two most boring books. With Winters Heart only slightly better

But as a reward, Jocasta, Knife of Dreams and the three next books are AMAZING

 

[Tobias Carawin]

Path of daggers and Winter's Heart are the slowest of the series for me. I think it picks up in Crossroads of Twilight and then the following books will keep your attention and prevent you from putting them down.

 

[Jocasta Braithe]

I'm still in the Winter's Heart prologue, but so far it's a LOT better.

It's ironic because I'd been waiting to get to PoD because of the awesome cover art of the three girls (Elayne, Nynaeve and Aviendha, although before I read it I assumed it was Elayne, Nynaeve, and Egwene.) I should've got the version with the army and flags on the cover. More representative of the book as a whole.

 

[The Gambler Matrim]

I powered through the slower books on my first read but anytime I do a reread now I just use the WoT encyclopedia website to get a chapter summary on parts that bore me. So I still get refreshed on what is taking place but it only takes me minutes to do so.

 

[Axis m'Troutilas]

I don't mean to sound like an old man....

But it was worse when PoD first came out after having waited two years for it.

Especially after Crown of Swords being pretty interesting

 

[Jocasta Braithe]

I can only imagine. Things are picking back up for me at the end of Winter's Heart.

 

[Aduiavas Ida]

Yes, it does that

 

[Thaddius al'Guy]

I barely remember much of PoD and CoS. It's been close to 20 years since I read them last though. I'm slowly making my way through the series again via audio books

 

[Axis m'Troutilas]

Crrossroads should feel like a pickup again

Not a lot of time passes, but it gets more interesting.

And then gets better from there after Crossroads.