The Barnes & Noble Review Jordan Delivers! For volume eight of his enduring Wheel of Time saga, Robert Jordan brings us The Path of Daggers, a distinguished new addition in what is certainly one of the most involving, complicated, and adored series in the annals of high fantasy fiction. Jordan is highly proficient at weaving an elaborate plot full of convoluted affairs and escapades, with underpinnings of conspiracies and political or magical machinations. Also involved, as always, are the Aes Sedai, women capable of using the One Power, which spins the Wheel of Time and propels the universe. For those new to the series, a bit of background: Originally sealed away at the creation of the world, the Dark One has once again begun to touch the lives of humanity. The Aes Sedai, divided into seven houses of color, rule Tar Valon from their White Tower and live in fear of men who can channel the Power. These men, who are doomed to madness, are hunted down by the Aes Sedai and "gentled," which cuts them off from the Power so that they soon die. But prophecies of the Dragon Reborn — the one male capable of channeling the Power in order to face the Dark One — have begun to be fulfilled. At once hated and feared, and yet needed in the battle between good and evil, the Dragon Reborn is an outcast among mankind. This tremendous tale follows the same five people who — in the series' first installment, THE EYE OF THE WORLD — left their village as teenagers to find their purpose in life and take their positions in the epic struggles. Throughout these grand adventures, allthemany characters and threads of history have become even more intertwined. When the leaders of four nations join together in a secret blood oath to hunt down and destroy Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, they know the consequences of their actions — whether they succeed or fail