"The Path of Daggers" begins the second half of Robert Jordan's 14-volume "Wheel of Time" series.

The book progresses the story: a group of heroines use an ancient artifact to reverse the unnatural global warming brought on by demonic forces of darkness in a previous novel; and Elayne finally returns to Caemlyn to ascend to the throne, vacated by her mother, who disappeared two books ago; Rand - the "Dragon Reborn" battles an invading army and fights to retain his sanity which is eroded by his use of mystical powers.

It is not a bad book in a decent series, but it has already gone on longer than needed.

"Daggers" is the shortest in the series and the first to reach #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list.

One would think Jordan would learn his lesson from this and begin writing shorter novels.

Alas, this was not the case. Jordan continued to plod along, slogging through his story. On to volume 9!