The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham

The Dragon’s Path follows four different characters and has a lot of wheelings and dealings that are reminiscent of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire with some shortcomings. The premise is that the paths all lead to war, but other than the storyline in Vanai, most of this novel is about setting the table, where hopefully in future novels there will be a payoff. Cithrin is a ward of a bank who is given a task of taking out riches from the bank as the city of Vanai is at war. She encounters Marcus, a renown warrior who is lost after his wife and daughter have died, but now sees Cithrin as the daughter he couldn’t save. Geder is an out of shape son of a noble who is much more comfortable with books than with battles.



There are plenty of intriguing things that happen in this novel. It held my interest from beginning to end, and the writing was very strong. There were many Game of Thrones type maneuverings in this novel that I appreciated, which is one of the things I always enjoyed about Martin’s novels. Where it suffers is the characterization. The characters are generally unlikeable or very inconsistent. Dawson Kalliam is an example of an unlikeable character who thinks people should be judged by their place of birth and not by their accomplishments or character. Geder is an example of a horribly inconsistent character who seems absence of malice and then massacres an entire city in what was without a doubt the most barbaric and violent act of the novel. The part with the followers of the spider goddess was enjoyable, and I didn’t see the twist coming at the end with the reveal. I would recommend this novel and look forward to reading more in the series.