Welcome to the Binge Project series! These Binge Projects will feature me reading or watching an entire run of comics, books, TV shows, or other media in rapid order, then writing expansively about the experience. This installment will be a slower process, as I work my way through the lengthy “The Wheel of Time” book series.
Previously: Book 1 (The Eye of the World), Book 2 (The Great Hunt), Book 3 (The Dragon Reborn), Book 4 (The Shadow Rising), Book 5 (The Fires of Heaven), Book 6 (Lord of Chaos), Book 7 (A Crown of Swords)
And now, The Wheel of Time Book 8: The Path of Daggers.
It’s funny the way a series can sometimes make you feel bipolar. Find something long enough that has enough peaks and valleys in quality (say, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), and you can start to feel like a crazy person, alternately declaring greatness and massive frustration. One week after easily my most critical installment of this Binge Project, I’m adding The Wheel of Time to my Bipolar Binges list. Just when I was worrying that the series might be going off the rails, it storms back into a special place in my heart.
To some degree, we’ve been here before. I did my first lengthy complaint about writer Robert Jordan’s Angry Women Trope back in Book 4, expressing frustration with the mixed feelings this problem kept leaving me with. But then Jordan toned down his gender problems considerably in the following book, making The Fires of Heaven arguably the high point of the series thus far. So after ramping the Angry Women back up to almost unmanageable levels in Book 7, Jordan repeats that history with an even more dramatic lessening of the problem in Book 8. His pattern suggests it might always be an on again/off again problem with Jordan, but I’m hopeful that it’s real sustainable improvement this time. Really, it’s only the Sea Folk women who embody the Trope much at all in this book. His worst serial offender has usually been Nynaeve, who we saw undergoing genuine growth in that area during this book. Her marriage to Lan, and determination to save his life from the trauma of Moirane’s “death,” have had a major impact on her holding her anger in check. Perhaps we can see her as a strong woman without being an unreasonable, even hateful one, like she had been at times in the past.
Jordan has already fully formed at least one such woman in Egwene, which is part of what is giving me hope that the improvement is sustainable this time. As I’ve said before, I had my issues with Egwene in the past, but her improvement over these past three books has been breathtaking. Suddenly, she’s a challenger for my favorite character. Surrounded by women who want to use and intimidate her, she kept her cool and played things beautifully in Book 8. She didn’t push her hand right away, but slow-played things until the moment was perfect to strike. Her manipulation of the Hall was downright masterful, pushing the declaration of war and then seizing wartime powers to absolutely blindside everyone who thought she was beat. Egwene has become a strong, confident woman who doesn’t take any shit but doesn’t come across like a shrew or harpy, either. That’s a major, major development, and arguably the highlight of a really good book. And now, we get to see the siege of Tar Valon begin, hopefully meaning that Book 9 is all-out war between the Aes Sedai factions — a long-teased possibility that I’m extremely eager to see.
And thankfully, the positive treatments of women were actually present throughout the book, rather than be isolated to any one person. I don’t know what the female version of the word “bromance” is, but Elayne and Aviendha have a really sweet and surprising one going on. Elayne finally arriving in Caemlyn late in this book was a relief, as I’ve been impatient for that storyline to kick into gear. (I still don’t really care much about her mom in disguise and Morgase’s romance with Tallanvor, yet.) Min has always been pretty great, the one reliable exception to Jordan’s women problems; I’m not sure I’ll ever get to the point where I’ve had too much of Min. Hopefully, Rand’s trio of love interests will all meet up soon, or at least Rand meet up with more than just Min. It’s been a long time now since he actually had any interaction with Elayne.
Despite being a fairly new character, Seaine’s journey quickly becomes a fun one in this book. The tension of not knowing who is Black Ajah has been a strength for several books now, but I’m glad that we start to see that being unraveled in this book. It was a great scene, watching her gain allies as each swore on the Oath Road, heightening the suspense until they finally get their first confirmed Black Ajah in Talene. I’m looking forward to watching that hunt continue. As the siege of Tar Valon is about to begin, the number of factions and intrigues among the Aes Sedai is only growing. I assume Egwene is going to win, but I can’t imagine how she’ll actually put the Tower back together again.
Elsewhere, Cadsuane is one of Jordan’s stronger new characters in a long while. She debuted in Book 7, but I don’t believe I wrote about her then, still not quite sure what to make of her. Now, I’m pretty sure she’s going to be awesome. She’s tough and stubborn and won’t back down, but again, she earns it as just a strong woman, not a bitchy one. She’s almost like a glimpse into the future of a fully realized version of the path Egwene is on now. Her and Sorilea could prove a formidable duo, and I look forward to seeing how they try to push Rand back toward the right path.
And they’ll need to, because this book continues the journey of Rand increasingly looking like he’s losing his way. Even grasping saidin is an issue now, and he’s becoming colder, angrier, and less trusting with every passing day. There’s something mysterious and significant going on with Lews Therin, and I don’t even have any real guess as to how that relationship/dynamic between Rand and Lews Therin will ultimately play out. It’s been a fascinating character arc that clearly isn’t done yet. Min seems the only thing holding him together at times; I’m definitely rooting for her to get the best part of whatever love square plays out between Rand and the three women.
A major part of that arc in this book was Rand’s offensive against the Seanchan, a villainous group that I think I’m coming to enjoy more each time they appear. I don’t think we’ve ever seen Rand quite so much on the razor’s edge as we did during those sequences, struggling to keep control over so many issues — over saidin, over his own sense of self, over his Asha’man, over his ostensible allies. And we end that war with him losing all of the above, striking out wildly with Callandor, unknowingly defeating the Seanchan but also killing many of his own. Cadsuane’s later warning about Callandor gives us two intriguing teases: one, that he might wield it again bonded with two women (Elayne and Aviendha?), and two, that his next move is to use the most powerful sa’angreal of all. The latter is especially enticing, as it’s been teased for some time now, and I don’t understand yet what his goal will be with it.
Mat didn’t appear at all in this book, forcing a delay to see if he’s finally on track to meet the Daughter of the Nine Moons, now that he’s so near the Seanchan. The strategy of giving a major character the book off was previously done with Perrin in Book 5 and worked well. Meanwhile, Perrin got one of the slower storylines in The Path of Daggers. He’s accumulating a lot of important people around him, most notably Morgase and crew, but it takes him the whole book to get to Masema. I wasn’t thrilled about Faile and company getting kidnapped at the end, as I’m pretty ready to be done with the Shaido. But two people did pique my interest quite a bit in his storyline. One is the long-awaited (by me, at least) reintroduction of Elyas, one of the most enjoyable characters in Book 1 whom I’ve been impatient to see again; he has a fun interaction with Perrin in discussing Faile in this book, and hopefully he’ll have more to do (read: wolf stuff!) soon. The other is Balwer, the former White Cloak spymaster who’s now in Perrin’s party. I’ve liked his combination of being so unassuming and secretly capable. With Pedron Niall dead, it’d be nice to see him permanently in Perrin’s service. While we haven’t gotten enough insight into the character yet to be certain, I get the vibe that Balwer might not have really been a White Cloak zealot anyway, but maybe just enjoys the work itself as a master of secrets and information.
The Forsaken are relatively quiet in this book, but it’s clear that Moridin might be the Big Bad among their number, furthering my suspicion that he’s Ishamael. Graendal believes Sammael is dead, which ruins my theory that she saved him, but I’m not quite ready to buy his death yet (getting closer though). We get yet another new addition to the group in Cyndane, whose strength in power would seem to mark her as yet another Forsaken member reborn. Lanfear, perhaps? Sammael? Asmodeon? There wouldn’t seem to be a ton of options. In any event, I’m looking forward to the revelation of who’s who there, and hope it’s not too much longer (though I suspect it might be). And also, what’s up with Shaidar Haran? Still guessing that he’s the Dark One himself leaking some of his power/self into a Myrddraal, but who knows. He might be an even Bigger Bad than Moridin. Finally, it’s driving me crazy trying to guess who Mesaana is impersonating in the White Tower. In this book, Alviarin notes her skirt with scrolls at the hem, and I really feel like we’ve seen that description of someone before, but I can’t remember who if so. It’s driving me nutty, to the degree that I had to stop myself from looking for the spoiler for her identity. I thought Verin at one point, but that doesn’t fit (though Verin is definitely up to something.)
But for all my preoccupation with which people are a Forsaken in disguise, it turned out to be the human element that posed the final danger in this book. Because of Lews Therin’s ramblings, there’s always been an element of distrust with the Asha’man, but as Rand grew increasingly on edge, the sense of suspicion kept growing. But since we readers also saw Rand increasingly losing it, it was hard to tell how much of his distrust was warranted and how much was paranoia — or even more specifically, which Asha’man would he ultimately be correct about? Dashiva was a surprise to me to be among the villains. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised after the way he confronted Rand before the fighting at Ebou Dar, but I was; I thought his frequent dazes were all a red herring.
So where do we go from here? Open war between Rand and Taim’s followers? It seems likely that Taim must be behind the attack, though if so, I’m not sure why Rand didn’t attack Taim at the end (perhaps fear of Min being caught in any crossfire). It also seems Rand still probably has a couple Asha’man loyal to him, but will it be enough? The Black Tower going full renegade would throw a wrench into a lot of stuff. And where could Logain fit in all that? We know now that he’s at the Black Tower, but from his remark, he and Taim seem likely at odds. Perhaps he becomes Rand’s ally in that conflict?
As expected, there’s a lot of intrigue coming to a head. Now we move to Book 9, which I’ve been told is among the very best of the long series. With any luck, the highs will continue in this roller coaster called The Wheel of Time.
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NEXT TIME: Winter’s Heart, Book 9 of The Wheel of Time