A Path of Daggers (Book 8) -- Discussion thread WITH SPOILERS

[Erin99]

So I better start this thread in case Hoopy's book arrives from the US...


What to write here without giving spoilers? Hmmm. Well, book eight is the only book in the series without a whizzbang ending. Indeed, the book seems as if it should be combined with book nine to make one uber long book with an amazing, shocking finale! It would probably stop us major fans complaining at the short lengths of these next few books, too.

An interesting fact: the title of the book comes from a Seanchan saying: "On the heights, all paths are paved with daggers."


So, in terms of plot, there's Egwene doing Awesome Things, Ny and co. still attempting to set the world's weather to rights, Perrin on the march, and Rand and co. trying to hold up the world as always.

I see this book as the build-up to the awesomeness of book nine's ending, but that's not to say lots doesn't happen in it. It will be interesting to see others' reactions.

 

[Erin99]

So, it appears this thread will sit empty! While I was off the computer for a week, Hoopy read the book and is now 200+ pages into the next one!

Blimey. Hoopy just flies through books!

 

[HoopyFrood]

Well, just so it doesn't stay empty!

Spoilers abound, so Harebrain, come get your fill

Er...yeah, Egwene is totally getting awesome. Every time she manages to get one over the rest of that lot I love her a little bit more.

The little epilogue bit at the end of the book confused me, it mentioned all the rumours and one about a war between the two Aes Sedai groups and for a while I thought Jordan was going to be frustrating again and not even show that. Maybe he still won't. I hope so, he keeps skipping over things I really want to see!

Also, this sickness thing with Rand is interesting. I hope it's the taint finally affecting him (and not something that's individual to him) because for all the fear and scariness built up around the taint and the madness and that's why men can't use it, I'm yet to see anyone actually affected by it. Unless it's a ruse perpetuated by women for all this time! Dun dun dunnn.

I do hope he cleanses it though, that'll be epic. Definitely something awesome to put on the old CV.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Alsssssooooo...

I was reading through the glossary, just to see of there was anything of interest.

So it was telling me that two more Forsaken have been resurrected, one of which is the...Oh, LOL, I've just found out by mistake. I just looked up Moridin to see if I was spelling his name right and in all of meta-descriptions in the results it was all telling me it's Ishamael! Because I was going to say up until the glossary, I thought Moridin was a whole new character that had been introduced as Bill's favourite.

Now I forget how Ishamael died. Was he the one Moiraine took out, like the badass she is/was? Oop, no, he was the one pretending to be ol' Bill. OK, I'm up to date now.

Also, there's the woman with Mog, I forget her name but it means 'last chance'. Considering only one female Forsaken has died thus far because Rand's a tool, I'm guessing it's Lanfear? (Unless another one has died off page, but I doubt it, I think they're all largely still accounted for, even the shadowy one lurking in the Tower).

 

[Erin99]

*cheers hugely for Egwene*

She turned into one of my favs. Oooooh yes.

And yeah, that epilogue was weird in the sense that it was all about rumour, about how people thought this giant battle between the two Aes Sedai groups had happened. It took me a couple of reads to get that it was all false, just showing the wider world's ignorance of events. He wouldn't skip over something as important as the war between rebel Aes Sedai groups, though, don't worry - it would be vital to the plot!

So, about Rand. You obviously do believe - like I did - that his mind voice is real? Cos you say you don't see symptoms of madness... (If you haven't seen effects of the taint on men, then it's still to come, cos I do remember reading a lot about it.)


And heh! Yeah, Moridin was the insane one, Bill. He's quite sexy now, eh? Long haired, handsome, a little less flamey eyed...

And yes, though there's some new names in the later half of the series, mostly they're just old characters with new faces. I think that's what some had issues with - they didn't like that Jordan brought killed Forsaken back to life, cos they thought Jordan didn't know what he was doing and threw it in randomly. But I like the idea. The Dark One is, after all, like a god. Why can't he bring back non-balefired people, especially if they were loyal servants?

 

[HoopyFrood]

Yeah, when I read the first line of the rumours I thought "oh god, he's done it again, the next book is going to start with Eg all set up as true Amrilyn ('cos that's totally what will happen!) and I won't get to see the fight!" but then as the epilogue carried on I realised he was just doing some rumours.

Yeah, I can agree with those people, it was interesting when ol' Bill brought back a couple of Forsaken, but if he's going to keep doing it with practically all of them, what's the point in even killing them in the first place? How miffed would you be as Rand or whatever, having to kill them again!

Of course Lews is real! Mostly because it would be a really oddly specific way to go mad, otherwise. But yeah, I'd like to start seeing some effects just so I can actually get a real sense that using the male half is actually dangerous. So far it's just been secondhand telling of such.

I reckon when Rand does cleanse it (he's totally going to, right? That'll set it all up nicely for the Last Battle, like last time, with men and women working together again) he sound get Ny involved because she's like, the Ultimate Healer, or should be (will be ) OOOH, because he's got those two statue thingies that have enough power to challenge the Creator, so he does need a woman to help!

 

[Erin99]

Hmmm, I can't say too much, but Jordan set something up by making baddies only truly killable by balefiring. It works as extra conflict in the later books, in a way, and is yet one more obstacle to overcome... Soon you should start seeing hints.

And ooh! I like your predictions!!! Those would be awesome...

"oh god, he's done it again, the next book is going to start with Eg all set up as true Amrilyn ('cos that's totally what will happen!) and I won't get to see the fight!"

I'm being forgetful as usual. Which scene did you want to see that Jordan skipped?

 

[HoopyFrood]

Mat and the Shaido guy! I had a feeling that the dude and Rand weren't going to end up fighting each other, just because I felt like it was one thing Jordan would subvert at that point, and that it would be Mat instead. So when they can face-to-face I was all "yaaaaay!" Especially as it was, like, Mat's first major fight and the other dude was a badass Aiel fighter. Against Mat's Luck. Who wouldn't want to see that fight?

But no.

 

[Erin99]

I have to admit being disappointed in that as well. It would have been an awesome fight, and funny... in that "I don't want to be a hero" way that Mat has.

However, one thing Branderson's REALLY teaching me** is to keep only what's relevant in a story. (He takes it to extremes, but still...). I knew you should cut everything cutable, but not quite to what degree. Now, I see that Jordan left it out because the book was already huge, and was the fight *really* necessary? Sure, it would have been fun (and he probably wrote it before removing it), but the Shido dude wasn't the main threat any more, and we knew Mat was capable of defeating him...

Still would have been awesome, though.




**Not literally. Unless I can channel a living dude? Oh, and why have I switched to calling him "Brandy" to Seph these days???

But yes, I'm working my way through Seph's Kindle Branderson books. I'm on book three of Mistborn now. VERY cool magic system. Brandy's hailed as the next Robert Jordan, but I can't give him that title myself, though he is good with plotting and magic systems, and regardless of what he claims, he SO adapted his style to fit in with the WoT (and very well done he did it, too!). I don't think Jordan will have a replacement, for me.