Jai Sedai

4.00/5.00

The Dragon Reborn is a journey of the characters, their self-discovery, their emotional growth, of adventure, and of learning their own power. It is in this part of the book where Robert Jordan has delivered an exceptional story. The worldbuilding/magic system development has some jaw dropping moments, just as I hoped. The story of Nyneave, Egwene and Elayne is the most interesting and the most satisfying, with Mat's character development being quite spectacular.

On the down side, Robert Jordan really cannot write Romance.... and I didn't get the glorious ending that I wanted, it was good, but not as glorious as the Great Hunt.

WorldbuildingThere is a ton of magic system development in this, balefire, the FUCKING quantum mechanics of Mat!, Black Ajah, dream world, tar-angreal... there is so much here! This book deserves the high score. Story/PlotWhile I think Nyneave-Egwene-Elayne and Mat-Thom story lines were very impressive, I think the Perrin plot is a big miss. It started off great but went into boring territory and slid into downright cringe moments where the Falcon romance started.. Ughhhh... Robert Jordan cannot write romance. And how many are we going to "kill" Ba'alzamon? And how many will we split and rejoin and try again ? Dialogue/ProseThe prose in this book is similar to the books before, but I didn't feel any particular example stood out to me. I also noticed a lot of repetitive descriptions..... I always enjoy Robert Jordan's painting a picture with words approach, and I get that he wants us to experience this story as we would if we were a third person observer of events. I am mostly okay with this.. but the writing could have been better.. the last couple chapters could have been more glorious and more poetic.. Character DevSolid character development for all character development for all! Even if Rand's POV is like only 3% of the book I though his state of mind and his "madness" was so well depicted. I loved the scene where he just attacks some people with a flaming sword in paranoia! I also totally get his anger and frustration at the end and how his defeat of Ishamael finally made him accept himself. "I am the Dragon Reborn!" MAT MAT MAT, I loved this character! no more words needed. Emotional ImpactI would say my emotional impact is a bit low, I was really thrown off by the Perrin storyline and the cringe-worthy romance, and the repetitive killing of Ba'alzamon... And I am a bit disappointed at how the last few chapters didn't really deliver the glory of the Great Hunt, but it could have!

3.50/5.00

Reading this book was a learning experience for me. When I finished this book, I didn't like the ending. I watched some review and I read the ending again, slowly this time, and realized that I missed many things. I am glad to have this experience since I think it made me appreciate discworld so much more. Mort is a beautiful story, and with an ending I did like. I get it now. “THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS JUST ME” - DEATH.

SPOILERS!!

Plot -> Great plot, a character driver story, which I did not pick up on in the first read through. I will strongly recommend reading this slowly. Some details like Mort realizing how time zones worked, and Mort and Ysebell's relationship and so endearing.

Worldbuilding -> This was much better. The life-story books, Binky, Death's role and Mort, the bubble of alternate reality, the gods and the whole concept of afterlife was just first class worldbuilding.

Characters -> Mort's character is subtle but powerful. The book's character development is focused on Death, and how all these Mortals are changing as a person ( or to a person). Mort himself seems pretty much himself through the book. His character is very consistent, driven by instincts and his gut, he challenges Death in many ways. Ysebell's final scene with Death where she confronts him on his hypocrisy is just gold. Then Death realizing that he is a hypocrite is pretty satisfying.

Prose -> Excellent prose. Probably I am not able to appreciate the book as much as some others because of Terry Pratchett's style. His humor is often based on similes and metaphors, which often exit from the discworld and use real-word elements, which I found disorienting.

Emotional Impact -> A very fun story, so philosophical, so deep! I loved the worldbuilding so much. Death as a character is a masterpiece of fantasy storytelling. I don't find the humor as funny as most others but I think Discworld books are funnier than most.

7.50/10.00

OK. This book was a roller coaster. For most of this book, I wasn't sure if I like it or not. Especially during the middle 40%. But the ending made up for it all.

Dark matter at the end is a beautiful story of love and family. There are some remarkable twists and turns and some truly emotional moments. The science behind Dark Matter is good, but is heavily unrealistic, and one dimensional. I say this as a true believer of the Copenhagen interpretation so I could easily be biased.

My favorite moment of the book is the tender moment between Jason and Charlie at the end.

4.00/5.00 “The Oaths are what make us more than a group of women meddling in the affairs of the world. The oaths hold us together, a stated set of beliefs that bind us all, a single thread running through every sister, living or dead, back to the first to lay her hands on the Oath Rod. They are what makes us Aei Sedai, not saidar.”

Let me start by stating that this book is wildly underrated. Widely regarded as one of the “slog” books, The Path of Daggers defies this expectation smoothly. While the slower pace of this story is undeniable, the plot stands up to the quality of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, with Rand's character developing with such grace and satisfaction. The world building makes some progress, and is certainly not the best of this series, but it is solid. A surprisingly good read, The Path of Daggers is not a slog by any means. It is certainly better than ACoS.

For those who hated this book, I do sympathize. The explosion of named characters seems exponential and unnecessary. It has become entirely impossible to remember which character is who and what the hell is the history of that character. However, Jordan does remind us of the important characters repeatedly, so the plot is still coherent. Jordan has also completely given up on writing lyrical prose. The quality of prose in general seems to be dropping off. Hopefully it will get better.

Emotional Impact -> Its hard not to see the deep and rich worldbuilding theme of WoT when Siuan Sanche tells Egwene why the Oaths make Aes Sedai, not saidar. Rand's loneliness is a beautiful theme of this story, the burden of being the Dragon Reborn, the weight of entire world on one shoulder. And finally, he looks to share the burden. The chosen one trope is done so perfectly in WoT. Elayne's return to Camelyn is a poignant moment. Cadsuane-Rand relationship is interesting, but she feels like a bad place holder for Moiraine. I miss you Moiraine Sedai. However, we have to struggle through dozens of named characters which all blend together, so the character interaction is not so engaging. The writing is so bad that many important moments fail to land well. Characters -> Rand, Rand, Rand. the loneliness, the weight of this immense burden, the stubborn refusal to share this burden with anyone, to trust anyone, is a marvelous representation of his struggles in this story. Nynaeve finally changing and controlling her temper is great, but fails to land properly as I don't recall her development in the last book. Perrin-Faile is a shit show as usual. And is the next book going to be focused on Perrin rescuing Faile? KMN! Plot -> Here is where this book is better. The plot is unpredictable for most the most part and is pretty interesting. Returning characters shock and awe in their sudden arrivals such as Logain. There are so many twists in this book, it would take a genius to plan all of this. But there are some plotlines that are underwhelming and I just wanted it to be over. Perrin-Massema being the worst. Prose -> This is bad. Jordan's numerous characters and their similar character traits make things cheap and hard to follow. Every female name in this book sounds the same. Forget lyrical prose, Jordan is struggling to write anything quotable at all. Not to mention that every significant moment in this book felt like an unsignificant moment. The writing utterly fails to stand up to the story or the worldbuilding. World Building -> Another solid WoT worldbuilding book here -> Unweaving, travelling, strangeness in the one power, the bowl of the winds and the dark one, what makes aes sedai. It could still be so much better.