The Path of Daggers

Somewhere along the way, the Wheel of Time books became comfort reads. I don't necessarily need anything to happen. There are 6 books left to tie up loose ends (and one prequel that details how two characters met). I know many of the big plot points that are yet to come. In the meantime, I'm content to sit back and hang out with these characters in this world. Some still bug me, but it's the sort of affectionate annoyance you get for younger siblings. Oh Perrin, I'll think as I shake my head, will you ever figure out this marriage thing?

Kudos to Robert Jordan for creating such an incredibly detailed and immersive world. With so many well-realized characters. Yes, I still have to look many of them up, especially the tertiary characters who only seem to show up once every other book. But a quick trip to the WoT wiki is enough to jog my memory. In the meantime, I'm learning more about the geography, history, and politics of this world than I think I ever knew about America. And I love watching things change. There are so many ripple effects at play here, so many contradicting agendas and unforeseen consequences and Jordan really does a fantastic job of juggling all of them.

So things are slow. But thanks to various subplots, there's still a lot happening. Especially at the end of this book which is largely transitional. The big battle comes 100 pages before the end, leaving Jordan with plenty of time to tie off some loose ends and transition into new subplots. It's still a whole lot of table-setting, but I'm excited for the back half of the series. People mostly have more power, and it'll be interesting to watch them try to hold on to it and to see what they decide to do with it.

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