THE PATH OF DAGGERS (The Wheel of Time #8) by Robert Jordan ⭐⭐⭐

Phew. Another one down, and I’m feeling the burn.

The start to 2021 kicks off with the eighth installment in the Wheel of Time, familiar territory at this point. It takes a nice dip in page count for the series, but the effort to break through the finish never diminishes. I’ll call it a feat of my own that I made it this far before the constant entry of new names and faces started overwhelming me. Jordan really kicked it up a notch with that, sometimes introducing names simultaneously only one or two letters different. For any following this journey, the WoT Compendium app is a must. Shout out to whatever dedicated soul created it.

With each book, my appreciation for this massive undertaking of a series grows, regardless of the slower expository entries along the way. I can be slightly bored or judgmental of little things as I read, yet constantly amazed at the big picture. It’s an epic jumble that just keeps chugging along. Still six books from the end, the pull toward the finish is growing.

I’m curious if Jordan always envisioned this as a fourteen book series, or if he just kept chasing the story as it came. That many volumes allows lackluster entries to creep in to any series. I gave this a three because it seemed to kind of just happen in front of me, rather than sucking me in. Giving a lower rating feels kind of absurd because the series is so strong as a whole, and the writing grand in scale, but there needs to be some deviation between the entries. Otherwise it would be a list of fourteen 5-stars.

This three doesn’t really equate to a random one-off three leaving a bad taste in my mouth. It was a good book, yet one I spent most of my time seesawing between restlessness and annoyance for how much is left. At least I’ve seen the heights this series can reach, and there’s at least gotta be one more to come. Just the possibility of that one should be worth continuing on.