Path of Daggers, The: Book Eight of The Wheel of Time (Mass Market Paperback)

1-half the women in this series should be dead from the labors they are forced to go through as prisoners of the Aiel, especially from dehydration. These unrealities have been running for several books now, but only in PoD does it actually become a problem. Anybody who is unaccustomed to such physical hardships (especially women, for the obvious reason of the time period) should not be able to do it at all, no matter how fearful the Aiel are. Your body simply cannot handle it, no matter what.

2-looking at the descriptions of the winter (snow to the knees) would make it at least -20 Celsius. No matter how modest you are, when you're stripped in the winter to bare skin, you would not care one bit about being naked in front of men. You would die, or at the bare minimum, get a severe case of frostbite. That of course never happens. Apparently, fear makes people invincible in Jordan's world.

3-Jordan's incessant urge to tag "under her breasts" whenever he says "she crossed her arms" is downright ludicrous, at the least. It's a given that somebody is crossing their arms over their chests/under their breasts, so why does he need to say it? Unless it's a different way than the obvious (over her hips) it's useless and an added three words for every page.

4-I'm sick and tired of "switches" and "boxing." Do women carry switches in their pockets? How often are they used - every page? Whatever Jordan calls it, it's a whip. Substitute "switch" with "whip" and tell me that that's not more than a LITTLE disturbing. "Boxing ears" is no better, because that's just a light way of saying PUNCH IN THE FACE. Again, substitute "boxing" with "punching" and see the impression you get. What kind of women are these, to go around whipping and punching people left and right?

5-description is limp and dead now. Every time saidin is held/released, literally 1/3 of the page is dedicated to how it feels; 2 pages on undoing a weave; 7 pages (literally) on various people asking (literally) the same questions; 2 pages on somebody undressing (okay, so that's in book 9, but the principle is still the same); 1 page on people asking to be Aes Sedai. And the list goes on. It's a waste. He describes every incident that's useless; not the relevant ones. When Mat got his new memories, there was only one example of Mat letting his military-knowledge slip, from the supposed dozens. When several people ask the same questions, Jordan literally describes at least 6 instances.

6-at least five consecutive chapters in a row are given to each group of characters; only one of those is worth anything. It's not a matter of 5 chapters doing something that can be condensed into one chapter. There literally is only one chapter that should be included at all.

7-the Aiel are seemingly immortal. They should be bogged down considerably with the snow (that goes to their knees) but it's little more than an inconvenience. It should reduce their armies considerably, but no, they're too strong for that, of course. Strong will and strong fear can make people do anything, after all.

(PS, excluding Mat was a horrible decision, but I can let that pass. It's more a personal thing since he's my favorite character, but still. The only thing that gets me through these books is the thought, "three more chapters until Mat! Five more chapters! Half a book! 300 more pages!" and so on and so forth. It took me 2 months to finish this book without those little rewards.)

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