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The Dragon's Path

(The Dagger and the Coin #1)

Daniel Abraham

3.79 · Rating details · 19,259 ratings · 1,389 reviews

All paths lead to war...

Marcus' hero days are behind him. He knows too well that even the smallest war still means somebody's death. When his men are impressed into a doomed army, staying out of a battle he wants no part of requires some unorthodox steps.

Cithrin is an orphan, ward of a banking house. Her job is to smuggle a nation's wealth across a war zone, hiding the gol ...more

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Paperback, 555 pages

Published April 7th 2011 by Orbit

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Sep 07, 2017 Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy-all, own

UPDATE: $2.99 Kindle US 7/7/19

First off, I love this freaking cover!!

I loved this book better the second time around! Must have been my mood the first time or I have evolved! The narration was great!

Anyway, the book revolves around four characters, but my favorite is Cithrin and then Geder. They seemed the most interesting to me.

I really, really hope to like the rest of the series 😊

Mel ❤️ ...more

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Jan 29, 2011 Joel rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011, 52-in-2011, sci-fi-fantasy

The star rating system is vague and imperfect. My feelings on this one are somewhere between "liked it" and "really liked it," but I decided to give it four stars because if any author deserves an extra star, it is Daniel Abraham. His first published series, The Long Price Quartet, has been named among the best fantasy series of the last decade by just about everyone whose opinion I respect. As a reward for his efforts, he was dropped by his publisher.

You could argue that this is justified, sin The star rating system is vague and imperfect. My feelings on this one are somewhere between "liked it" and "really liked it," but I decided to give it four stars because if any author deserves an extra star, it is Daniel Abraham. His first published series, The Long Price Quartet, has been named among the best fantasy series of the last decade by just about everyone whose opinion I respect. As a reward for his efforts, he was dropped by his publisher.

You could argue that this is justified, since his books didn't sell. You can argue more convincingly that the publisher didn't bother to work very hard to sell what was a rather unusual take on the genre (I mean, from what I have heard, since I haven't read it yet). In an effort to really rub salt into the wound, once they'd cut Daniel loose and he signed with Orbit for his follow-up series, a quintet (of which The Dragon's Path is the first), his old publisher decided not to bother releasing the fourth Long Price book in paperback. This means, of course, that once the hardcovers are gone, no one is going to bother reading it, because why start a series in which the fourth book is impossible to find (even on Kindle, they still want a hardcover price for it, two years after publication).

So by all means, Daniel, take your extra star (half-star, really). You have earned it. You've also written a pretty good book!

The Dragon's Path has famously (well, internet famously... actually, internet genre blog famously) been called the author's attempt to tackle "traditional" fantasy after the LPQ, which apparently confounded the legion of fantasy readers out there who are ironically unable to imagine a fantasy world that isn't set in a quasi-medieval Europe and doesn't have knights and quests and swords and dragons. So here you go, masses: a fantasy book that with a quasi-European setting. It even has a sword on the cover and the word "dragon" in the freaking title!

Ever the smart-ass, of course, Daniel Abraham is only pretending to write a cliched genre entry. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of conventions on display -- a plucky young orphan seemingly destined to play a role in larger events, a war-weary mercenary with a heart of gold, political machinations, a fight for the throne, etc. Stealing from the best, it also apes the structure of George R.R. Martin's HBO-spawning series A Song of Ice and Fire, spinning out the tale through alternating third-person limited POV chapters.

I don't know if it is because it is only the first book in the series or because things are being kept deliberately low-key, but I wouldn't exactly say this one is crammed with incident, despite its length (though don't let those 555 pages fool you -- this thing is printed in fifth-grader font with those big margins they use when they want kids to think the book they are reading is as good as Harry Potter). The politics are interesting but not very complex (or maybe I am just surprised because I understood them even without access to some sort of character index, ahem George R.R. Martin and Jacqueline Carey). There are rumors of war but only a few light skirmishes. Aside from one shocking, game-changing event, all the big stuff seems to be coming in future books (not a spoiler, really, but ending volume I with the words, "It has begun" is probably a clue that things are just getting started).

Even still, I enjoyed myself. Rather than focusing on big fantasy events, the book seems more concerned with the whos and whys of the characters anyway. Abraham considers all sides of cultural and economic issues that most fantasy books ignore in favor of more plot. The driving force of this volume is, in fact, commerce (the series is called The Dagger and the Coin after all). Our requisite plucky orphan, Cithrin, isn't a thief or an assassin or a mage, she's a banker, and her efforts to found a new bank branch take the narrative in some interesting directions. Here is a book that ends not with a battle, but with an audit. No, really, it was kind of an exciting audit.

I like this world, though it is clearly still developing. There's not a lot of magic, but it lingers at the edges of the frame, offering intriguing hints of what's to come. You get the sense that the parts that don't quite fit yet -- like the fact that humanity has been separated into 13 different races with fantastical physical attributes like horns, tusks and gills -- will be developed down the line. No live dragons yet, but at least there's a dragon skeleton. I'm in for book two. ...more

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Jun 05, 2014 carol. rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: fans of epic fantasy

Shelves: fantasy, epic-fantasy

Three and a half stars.

I cut my reading teeth on fantasy and science fiction. A regular at the local library, I had gone through their “SF/F” offerings by early teens (which is how I came to read The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant) and relied on my babysitting money and the local Waldenbooks for more current fare. The scarcity of material meant I re-read books I owned many, many times. As a result, when I encounter something that feels new in fantasy, that has a fresh take or inspired writing, I Three and a half stars.

I cut my reading teeth on fantasy and science fiction. A regular at the local library, I had gone through their “SF/F” offerings by early teens (which is how I came to read The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant) and relied on my babysitting money and the local Waldenbooks for more current fare. The scarcity of material meant I re-read books I owned many, many times. As a result, when I encounter something that feels new in fantasy, that has a fresh take or inspired writing, I tend to gush (in case you are wondering, both N.K. Jemisin’s The Killing Moon and Frances Hardinger’s Fly By Night were dazzling takes on the genre). I was intrigued with the positive buzz about Abraham’s epic fantasy The Dragon’s Path and had it on my radar for some time. Unfortunately, it felt surprisingly familiar.

This feels like a self-conscious book. You know; the kind of book that clearly started with a Big Idea instead of a great story. Abraham has both writing experience and Notable Writing Connections around him, and The Dragon’s Path feels like a genre idea in search of storytelling finesse. In fact, in an afterward interview, Abraham mentions that this book was his foray into a full-length Epic Fantasy. Had it been less self-conscious, or integrated better, or maybe had I just been generally new to the fantasy reading experience, I might have enjoyed it more.

There are four viewpoints in the story along with a fifth character who appears in the prologue and final act. Two viewpoints in the story intertwine early on: Marcus, a former elite soldier turned mercenary, and Cithrin, a half-blood orphan ward of a banking house. Then there are the separate stories of Geder, minor noble and sometime scholar, and Dawson, childhood friend of the king and a highly ranked Baron. They mostly start in the city of Vanai, Marcus trying to get free of likely conscription and Cithrin sent out with a wagon from the banker’s house in the last caravan to leave the city. Geder is experiencing his first campaign and discovering it isn’t nearly as awe-inspiring as the written stories. Dawson is scheming against another Baron in an attempt to spur the king to action. Marcus and Dawson are both experienced while Cithrin and Geder are naive and undergoing journeys of self-discovery. Overall, I enjoyed the characterization. While certainly genre typical, they feel rounded enough to be enjoyable. I was interested in Cithrin’s maturation, and the way the traveling troupe took her under their wing. Marcus was admirable but predictable as the heroic archetype (complete with dead wife and child), and Geder the bumbling youth that gets his chance at power.

A few reviewers make a point of remarking on the uniqueness of Cithrin’s role as female financier and the role of economics in the story, but I confess, I was strongly reminded of Silk in David Eddings’ The Belgariad series and his frequent lectures and demonstrations of the economics of trade and the psychology behind business strategies. Quite honestly, it felt familiar–although still enjoyable. While I respect the idea that Abraham wanted the perspective of the individual as he explores the path to war, changing from four different story lines presents a world-building challenge that doesn’t ever quite resolve. There are the Free Cities, each with their own political history; the Severed Throne, it’s rival and their political intrigue; and thirteen different races. I got the sense that certain events were supposed to be significant, but I rather lacked the context to understand why. Dawson’s plot line with complicated scheming meant to oppose other factions was particularly challenging to follow.

One aspect that sets Abraham apart are are moments of lovely writing:

“It was an evil that the city would weather, as it had before, and no one expected the disaster would come to them in particular. The soul of the city could be summarized with a shrug.”

“‘Good,’ Lerer Palliako said. He was hardly more than a shadow against a shadow, except that the starlight caught his eyes. ‘That’s my good boy.’”

A reviewer I admire mentions that it is one of the few books she re-read, and felt like a re-read was worth it for the extra understanding, once the reader has the general world-sense. I don’t doubt that. The trouble is, I’m no longer a 12 year old limited to the small fantasy section of the local library and my local bookstore. I can barely find time to re-read the few books I feel were excellent the first time around. I have no doubt that a re-read will give me more insight into the dynamics between the races, and the politics behind the Severed Throne–I’m just not sure I care. But I think Abraham will have a great epic for a new generation of fantasy readers to cut their teeth on.

also at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2014/0... ...more

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May 31, 2014 Conor rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, the-dagger-and-coin, awesome-books-are-awesome

The Dragon's Path is the first book in a planned 5 book series. I found it very similar to ASOIAF in the complexity of it's characters and the scope of the political and military struggles. Abraham has worked with GRRM for many years and he's obviously learned a lot in his time getting coffee, helping kill off the Starks and fighting off angry fans who want to know when 'Winds of Winter' will be released.

This book is told using the same chapter/POV style as ASOIAF. After reading a lot of books The Dragon's Path is the first book in a planned 5 book series. I found it very similar to ASOIAF in the complexity of it's characters and the scope of the political and military struggles. Abraham has worked with GRRM for many years and he's obviously learned a lot in his time getting coffee, helping kill off the Starks and fighting off angry fans who want to know when 'Winds of Winter' will be released.

This book is told using the same chapter/POV style as ASOIAF. After reading a lot of books lately with sloppy, rapidly changing POV's I really appreciated the distinct and unique POV chapters of each character. The more personal voice in these chapters made it easier for me to get involved with the story. It also allowed the characters (the 4 main POV's especially) to be developed extremely well. The draw-back of the split-up chapters as opposed to the WoT style of having a character's chapters run together is that at times it disrupted the flow of the individual narratives. It also resulted in me frequently skipping past the chapters of less interesting characters (looks at Marcus Wester*) to reach my favourites.

The standout character for me was Geder Palliako. Early on Geder establishes a connection with the reader due to his love of speculative fiction...er, I mean essay. However the jocks involved in this military campaign don't approve and proceed to wedgie him, take his lunch money and give him the medieval equivalent of a swirly. This sets the stage for Geder's arc aka 'Revenge of the nerd'. (view spoiler) Overall I found Geder's arc in this book to be one of the most compelling I've ever read.

The other star character for me was Dawson Kalliam. Dawson seemed to me to be a cross between the Ned Stark/Leo Atreidas mould of being a good family man and an honourable lord and the scheming, stuck up nobles that populated the background of The Wheel of Time. His plotting gave us the best insight into the politics going on in Antea and along with Geder were the most interesting chapters. I also found him to be a really well-written morally ambiguous character. He was an ambitious schemer who was willing to deal with his nations enemies to further his plans and is determined to keep the 'peasants' oppressed. However he was also a loving father and husband, a brave warrior and a loyal supporter of the king. Also he had a load of puppies. Puppies!

The other 2 characters Cithrin and Marcus West weren't as interesting. Cithrin spent most of the book as a classic fantasy trope, an orphan lEaving her home for the first time in her life due to attacks from a dangerous enemy. She is sent on an important mission that takes her on an arduous journey across the world. However about half way in her chapters become interesting as she comes into her element as a merchant banker. Her scheming and plotting was interesting and she provided an insight into economics and how it affects politics and war that is apparently a big part of the series. Another interesting break with traditional fantasy was her realistic approach to sexuality. Most male fantasy authors tend to write their female main characters as pure and chaste (see pretty much every female WoT character, Arista in Riyria) and even edgier writers err towards this with their female leads (Catelyn, Sansa and Arya in ASOIAF). However Abraham breaks with this tradition, which makes Cithrin a much more interesting and believable character.

While Cithrin became more interesting as the story goes on Marcus never did. He is the archetypal tough, experienced soldier, his backstory even includes the tragic death of his wife and daughter. As I read this book I couldn't help but compare him to Logen in The Blade Itself. The comparison wasn't kind. I realised that Logen also fell into this character archetype but that I never noticed it at the time. Maybe that's because Logen was so much funnier, more likeable and generally badass. Perhaps the difference between them that was most striking however was that Logen really seemed like a grizzled veteran, a survivor. I remember his speech early on in 'The blade itself' where he describes how he has fought in wars, battles and raids and how he had killed without mercy and begged without shame for his life. In comparison despite being an experienced soldier Marcus is still a romantic hero. According to one exchange with his second helping a refugee escape the pursuit of a hostile army with a fortune drawing even more danger to them is just business as usual. This attempt to blend cynical realism with idealistic heroism seemed forced and I struggled to view Marcus as a realistic character. Even on his own merits Wester felt like a shallow, clichéd character and I really had to struggle through his chapters to find out what would happen to Geder.

Overall this was a really enjoyable start to a series that I have high hopes for. I'm really interested to see how the intriguing characters and vast political struggles introduced in this book develop as the series goes on. ...more

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Oct 31, 2018 Mayim de Vries rated it really liked it

“There are two ways to meet the world. You go out with a blade in your hand or else with a purse.”

Here is the main thing: just because there is G.R.R. Martin on the cover, it doesn’t mean that this is a GOT book. Now, this is both bad and good news. Bad, if you wanted to read yet another GOT and good if you didn’t. What I mean to say is that: Dragon’s Path is different. Daniel Abraham is not your mediocre copycat writer who explores vampires when they are hot just to abandon them in favour of an ...more

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Mar 09, 2018 Nick Borrelli rated it it was amazing

I have to say that this book was such a breath of fresh air for me. Have you ever had that reading rut where you feel like every fantasy book that you read has essentially the same plotline, characters, tropes etc...? Well The Dragon's Path is an amazing story that thankfully takes familiar themes but somehow manages to make them seem fresh and original. Yes there are the usual quest and battle scenes that we have grown very accustomed to in the genre. But there are als interesting sideplots tha ...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Niki Hawkes - The Obsessive Bookseller added it

Via The Obsessive Bookseller at www.nikihawkes.com

While The Dragon’s Path was entertaining, I’m sad to say I didn’t like it nearly as much as the other two series I’ve read from this author (The Long Price Quartet & Leviathan).

Abraham has a talent for orchestrating multiple POVs. While it was especially brilliant in Leviathan and LPQ, it didn’t work as well for me here. I’ve been known to criticize authors who have more than two POVs because they run the risk that readers will have a hard time g Via The Obsessive Bookseller at www.nikihawkes.com

While The Dragon’s Path was entertaining, I’m sad to say I didn’t like it nearly as much as the other two series I’ve read from this author (The Long Price Quartet & Leviathan).

Abraham has a talent for orchestrating multiple POVs. While it was especially brilliant in Leviathan and LPQ, it didn’t work as well for me here. I’ve been known to criticize authors who have more than two POVs because they run the risk that readers will have a hard time getting emotionally invested with so many characters (I know people who skip entire passages when this happens just to get back to the characters they like). Up to this point, I’ve used Abraham as a prime example on how to present multiple protagonists without losing any interest or momentum from the story. I don’t think what I read in The Dragon’s Path was necessarily poor execution, I just found myself much more interested in some characters over others. I often found myself hurrying through passages so I could get back to the perspectives of my favorites – which I’m sure didn’t help matters.

I will say though that by the end of the book all of the characters eventually caught my interest, but I wish that would’ve happened much earlier on. There’s a chance the reason I felt disconnected was because he introduced each character one after the other, so it was a good 80 pages before there was a repeat POV. In his other novels, he had just as many protagonists, but he started with one or two, letting us get established with them, and then moved on to introduce more as the story progressed.

Anyway, the book had sparks of the same originality as The Long Price Quartet, and the inclusion of original nonhuman races was probably my favorite element. Well, maybe “nonhuman” isn’t the right term – they were humanlike, but of a different variety or species. I thought they added an interesting dynamic to the story. I liked the ideas so much I wish there had been an even stronger focus on their differences – everything from mannerisms to physical attributes – because I found myself sometimes forgetting that some of the characters weren’t “human.” That said, there were definitely a few great drop-in references (I noticed more at the end than at the beginning), I just would have liked there to have been a little more.

So I’ve kind of established that I enjoyed the second-half of the book a lot more than the first, and part of that has to do with how well it ended. The ending offered a cool “reveal” – one which has me especially interested in continuing on in the series. This author has dazzled me so much in the past that I definitely have hope that the second book (The King’s Blood) will grab me where the first did not.

As you can see, most of my objections to the story are preferential, and I’d like to clarify that there really wasn’t flaw to the way the story was written – I just would’ve liked to see slightly different approach. Because of that, it would still definitely recommend this title to other fantasy lovers, but only after handing them A Shadow in Summer (LPQ #1) first. And for science fiction fans, you can’t get any more kickass than the Leviathan series. ...more

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Mar 10, 2016 Emma rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, favorites

I've been a long time picking up this series..in the end I didn't pick it up at all- it picked ME up and charged through the story with me in tow!

'There are two ways to meet the world. You go out with a blade in your hand or else with a purse.”

And this was one of the things I loved about this book. It is an example of the fine balance between war and economics.

This is character led story telling at its best.: they change and evolve, grow and transform. The world building was fabulous. I would lo ...more

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Oct 09, 2014 Igor Ljubuncic rated it liked it

Shelves: daniel-abraham, fantasy

OK, so this is a weird book.

The fact Martin, GRR is a buddy did not help. Because I could not escape the feeling of heavy influence on our present author.

It seems Daniel has heard of epic books and that, if you want praise from Martin, should contain dragons, puppet shows, nice clothes, a sense of noble melancholy and pending doom, characters that are gritty and confused and human, and such like.

Sounds good.

But the execution is, like I mentioned, weird. First, there are three or four main charac ...more

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Nov 10, 2016 Tammy rated it it was amazing

I guess it's a good sign when you read the first few chapters of a book and start searching google for similar books. Man, this book was amazing. Less action, but more character development, realistic dialogue, unpredictable plot twists and just awesomeness.

Geder was my favorite character and i cant wait to see how his story unfolds. Vincen Coe was another favorite, a man of few words, usually lets his sword do the talking but his loyalty is what i love most about him.

The Dragon's Path has intr ...more

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Sep 15, 2012 Ashley rated it liked it

Shelves: orphalins, violent-and-epic, war, books-about-writers, fantasy, manly-men-and-their-manparts, treasure-and-adventure, audiobooks, political-plots-and-maneuverings

11/4/2014: I didn’t go in to this book expecting to be disappointed (quite the opposite, in fact). It just worked out that way.

Firstly, The Dragon’s Path is the first in a five book epic fantasy series. It’s a multiple POV novel, in the style of GRRM, although with only four POV characters instead of who knows how many at this point. The four characters are Dawson Kalliam, a noble who gets embroiled in political intrigue of the court; Cithrin Belsarcour, a young orphan raised as a ward of a ban ...more

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Sep 05, 2020 Manuel Antão rated it liked it

Shelves: 2020

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

Good Dribble Drab: "The Dragon's Path" by Daniel Abraham

Does it matter if books, novels, stories call it what you like, are hmmm fantasy when they kinda think they are factual enough? Crime fiction is a thing and criminal behaviour crops up in classics (haha, is that like health behaviour?). Does the glamourising of murder, for instance, and of the murderer matter? Because mostly, almost invariably, it is not glamorous. I've read a sta ...more

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Sep 08, 2017 Maria V. Snyder rated it it was amazing

I finally finished listening to this one! The narrator is fantastic - he did a great job with the reading and the voices, which I think for an audio book is key! The story is also well done - it's an epic fantasy and has a great cast of characters and plot and I was drawn into the world. It didn't seem too heavy with the details, but there's lots going on and the pace is brisk. If you enjoyed The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, you'' like this one as well! ...more

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Jul 24, 2017 Paul E. Morph rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2017

I absolutely loved Daniel Abraham's fantastic Long Price Quartet when I read it a few years ago, so I'm quite surprised it's taken me so long to start his other major fantasy series, The Dagger and the Coin, of which this is the first volume.

I'm happy to say I enjoyed this every bit as much as I did the LPQ books... perhaps even a little more!

The world-building is superb; you really get a sense that this is a fully realised world and that there's so much more going on outside the parameters of t ...more

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Jan 27, 2014 Rob rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, author-male, own, audio-book, own-backlog, read-2014

Executive Summary: An enjoyable start to a fantasy series that seems to focus more on politics and the economy than it does on battles and magic.

Audio book: I initially really struggled with the audio book. This wasn't Pete Bradbury's fault. Rather there is a lot sort of dumped on you at the beginning and it would have been nice to go back and reread which isn't always possible for me when I'm listening.

By the second day I had my bearings though, and will continue on with this series in audio mo ...more

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Jul 03, 2011 Algernon (Darth Anyan) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2011

Probably the best new fantasy epic in 2011. I already read and liked The Long Price quartet, but Abraham has upped his game in this ambitious project. The influence of George R R Martin I think is clear in the grand scale of the world, the low but powerful magic that is more a dark threat than an active presence, and most of all in the careful development of the main characters and in the unexpected / brutal twist in the storyline. In the interview at the end of the book Abraham also mentions an ...more

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Mar 22, 2015 Kaitlin rated it it was ok

First up, let's get something clear, this book doesn't have any actual Dragons in it, despite the name, and The Dragon's Path is actually a road which connects various places in this world which was once made by Dragons (back when they were in the world). I don't know if going into this book I should have known that there were no dragons, because I would say that the title is misleading, but unfortunately I didn't realise and therefore the distinct lack of Dragons was a source of constant disapp First up, let's get something clear, this book doesn't have any actual Dragons in it, despite the name, and The Dragon's Path is actually a road which connects various places in this world which was once made by Dragons (back when they were in the world). I don't know if going into this book I should have known that there were no dragons, because I would say that the title is misleading, but unfortunately I didn't realise and therefore the distinct lack of Dragons was a source of constant disappointment for me.

Moving on to the other points of the book, this was my first Abraham book and I have to say one thing which really stood out to me was that Abraham really has a strong interest in creating a convincing economy. This series is called the Dagger and Coin series and I think that that's a far more apt name than the title of the book as this series certainly has a heavy focus on money and banks, loans and greed.
I personally wouldn't consider myself to be avidly intrigued by economy, and whilst I don't necessarily think it's a bad think for an author to have as a prominent part of the book, I wish I'd known that that was what I was diving into before I had started the book.

This story certainly seems to have a very slow build up. I found the first three quarters of this book very, very slow and somewhat tedious in places, as I say maybe if I had gone into it with more knowledge of what I was getting into maybe it wouldn't have been quite as much of a shock, but I just found it very hard to connect with any of the characters because so much of the plot was focused on something I barely knew anything about. Unfortunately because of the first 3/4 being slow by the time that the story really did kick off and keep me interested it just wasn't enough to recapture my attention.

I have heard from various people that this book is not great (since starting it and updating on Goodreads my thoughts) and that the next few in the series are a lot better. I can certainly say I could see how that could be the case. The ending of this book did leave me very interested in the potential of where the story could go, and there's a lot which takes place at the end which surprised me. However, because of the slow beginning I don't know how inclined I feel to want to continue, so if you have read the series and you've continued, just how much better do the next books get? Is it truly worth giving another shot??

This story focuses on a few different people, we have Wester who is an older Captain who's been through some tragic things and is working as a guard for hire. He's a fairly cynical and sad character because of the things he's had to cope with, but as this story goes on his personality and drive is put to the test and I think he became a better character as the book went further.
We also follow Cithrin who is a young ward of the Bank as she attempts to stray from the town with a large chunk of the bank's wealth in tow when there's political mayhem breaking out. She begins as a very shy and worried character, but she soon became my favourite character and I liked her storyline the most out of all of the characters we followed.
Next we follow Dawson who is a friend of the King and believes that there may be some sort of plot involving a rival of his afoot. He is a powerful man, but he's also always had a rivalry with the man he suspects and so proving the validity of his beliefs is certainly hard for him to do.
Geder is a young soldier who is not really anyone of note when we begin the story. He's obese, he's not really very good at fighting and he's far more interested in books than anything else. However, when suddenly forced into a commanding role he has to change and adapt to the situations he faces and this certainly gave some shocking results.
Finally we have Master Kit who is the head of a troupe of actors. I found that there were some sections of this book where I definitely liked seeing the plays put on by Kit and his troupe, but there was also always something a little mysterious about him too.

Whilst I think we have the beginnings of some wonderful characters I don't think that they're truly given the chance to flourish in this story. I believe that over the course of a series it may well be that some of these become wonderful and gripping stories, but for the most part it was only Cithrin's story that I found I liked, unfortunately.

I would say that if you have a keen interest or strong understanding of economy and politics then you may well love this story but for me it was a lot of laying out the groundwork for a much bigger plot. I think there's a lot of potential for the book and series to become far more intriguing, and I think there's a lot I'd still like to know more about, but for this book alone it was only a 2.5* rating for me, just okay.

Let me know if I should continue on and what you thought if you have read the book/series as I'd really appreciate your feedback! :) ...more

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Aug 31, 2016 Scott Hitchcock rated it really liked it

Shelves: epic-fantasy

Very well written first installment of series. I enjoyed the story arc of all the characters but especially Geder who definitely took a different path than I thought at the start. Two of the main story lines only touched briefly a couple of times so I'll be interested to see how they affect each other. ...more

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Dec 08, 2017 Emelia rated it it was amazing

A great start to a series !
Really enjoyed this book.
Will write a review when I finish the series.
A very good book...and 3 more to go, can't wait ! ...more

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Oct 31, 2012 Jonathan Terrington rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, favourites, favourite-series, gritty-reads, fantasy-sci-fi-challenge

4.5 Stars

When it comes to writing modern fantasy it appears that authors need to do one of two things. They need to write something unique or edgy, something or a treatment not seen before. A prime example being how J.R.R Tolkien took Norse mythology and turned it into his own mythology of the world or how Brandon Sanderson took the idea of the physics' based magic system and made it his own. The second thing authors can do is to write very, very well: the best examples being E.R.R Eddison or Me
4.5 Stars

When it comes to writing modern fantasy it appears that authors need to do one of two things. They need to write something unique or edgy, something or a treatment not seen before. A prime example being how J.R.R Tolkien took Norse mythology and turned it into his own mythology of the world or how Brandon Sanderson took the idea of the physics' based magic system and made it his own. The second thing authors can do is to write very, very well: the best examples being E.R.R Eddison or Mervyn Peake. Daniel Abraham may not be a very good writer at the aesthetic level of the aforementioned but he is very good nonetheless, his work here is in fact surprisingly well written with its own unique style.

There is no doubt that The Dragon's Path is inspired by G.R.R Martin, but with all respects to Martin, I find that this novel performs better than A Game of Thrones and the subsequent novels. The main reasons for this are that, though Martin and Abraham have different approaches, Abraham's novel feels like a more solid historical fantasy novel. The world and the characters feel more fleshed out, more realistic and the sense of grittiness isn't perpetrated by a sense of artificiality. This is mostly carried off because Abraham is remarkably subtle with his work and though not ashamed to introduce topics of sexuality, death and war, is mature in his handling of those subjects in a way that is not offensive. In short: Daniel Abraham knows how to write in a way that few other fantasy authors writing now do. In fact the one reason I could not bring myself to give five stars to this novel is that the plot felt lacking in some aspects as part of an entire planned series.

Of course, that provides a segue into discussing the plot itself. The novel is set in a fictionalised world (as is the tendency with these fantasy epics, a nuisance isn't it?). In this fictionalised world the reader finds out that it is a world built upon the ruins of a world populated by dragons. These dragons are now long deceased, having it appeared, help create multiple variations of humans. There is a suggestion of humans like mermaids and human races with tusks in their chins but in this first entry it can be hard to distinguish. In this world, there is the hint of a grand religious destruction set to occur, a destruction alluded to at the beginning and end of the novel. However this is the subplot of the novel and no doubt will feature in the series as a whole.

This particular novel follows a set of four particular characters whose interactions in the world are individual and yet have particular connecting roles which are particularly important in this particular imaginary world. Or to clarify, the four characters are: 1. Marcus Wester - a grizzled old, soldier who at first seems archetypical and later is shown otherwise 2. Cithrin - an orphan taken in by the bank of Vanai and placed in charge of delivering the bank's gold from a war threatened nation 3. Dawson - an advisor and friend of the King of an empire under threat who wishes for nothing more than to uncover traitors to the throne and 4. Geder - Geder is a soft seeming noble scholar who is placed into a difficult environment and proves himself as a hero. Of the characters his viewpoint was perhaps the most fascination, but only just.

Each of the characters in the novel is designed to have both black and white elements to them. In other words to be both a hero and a villain in many regards. The characters each play to the archetypes. Marcus fills the role of the old, war hardened soldier, Cithrin the role of orphan girl, Dawson the role of nobleman with influence towards the king (think Eddard Stark) and Geder as the naive scholar turned hero. Yet, despite the use of tropes or archetypes Abraham manages to create something that is fascinating and well written. Perhaps because instead of allowing the tropes to do all the work of writing for him he uses the tropes to allow identification with the characters and then proceeds to further develop his storyline. In short there is a level of depth and intrigue to Abraham's work that when compounded with his sensibility and subtlety in handling characters, worldbuilding and plot makes for a fascinating, well handled opening to a series.

Those looking for the next intelligent gritty fantasy should try this novel. I have also heard that Abraham's first series, beginning with A Shadow in Summer, is one of the most unique fantasy novels around currently. And certainly this novel has compelled me to want to read more of Abraham's oeuvre. Abraham can write, he can write well and he understands how to craft a novel that feels like a historical tale (with a sense of magic and intrigue that I have personally found lacking in the denser novels of G.R.R Martin). I would rate this as one of the fantasy novels to check out and Abraham as one of the fantasy authors to watch for the next few years. ...more

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Oct 05, 2020 Marc *Dark Reader of the Woods* rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, high-fantasy

Who wants to get on their medieval banking drama, yo?

A high quality, modern, straightforward fantasy from a reliable author with established bonafides. It reminded me a lot of Joe Abercrombie's First Law books in its approach to characters and plot progression, but despite a comparable quantity of deaths overall, it lacks the nihilism needed to classify it as grimdark.

I liked most of the characters with the exception of Dawson, the rigid nobleman maneuvering to make his vision for the kingship ...more

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Jan 29, 2014 Penny rated it really liked it

Shelves: adventure, fantasy, scifi-fantasy-club-2014challenge, low-fantasy, bookclub, scifi-and-fantasy-club-bookshelf, series

I really enjoyed this multiple POV low fantasy story. This was the first Daniel Abraham I've read, although I've enjoyed his work in the writing duo James S.A. Corey.

The characters are diverse and although it's seldom the case in multiple POV books, I found myself invested in all of them. I usually have favourites and not-this-one-again's fairly early in a series of this sort, but that didn't happen this time. I found each of the main characters engaging and interesting enough that I was always ...more

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Jul 18, 2016 Solseit rated it really liked it

This is a book that is a must in fantasy literature, and it is a solid 3.75. It has the right amount of war(ish), political intrigue, unusual elements (a bank!) and a veteran.

The PoV are enough but not too many to confuse the reader.
The characters were okay for me, nothing special and nothing bad. I did not connect with any but I was extremely intrigued by the story and it was a difficult book to put down and stop reading.

Yet, I believe had a "big" miss which is the overarching story was pret ...more

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Oct 12, 2014 Jenna Kathleen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, buddy-reads

Where are my dragons?!

Despite the lack of dragons, this book was great. I wasn't expecting much when I started, but I am now excited to see how the rest of the series will unfold.

Dawson was an incredibly boring character and it took awhile before Geder grew on me, but he had wonderful character development and I am sure it is only the beginning for him. I loved Marcus and Cithrin. The setting with the bank made the world very unique and well-developed. ...more

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May 16, 2011 Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2-stars, epic-fantasy, fantasy

I'd heard great things about this author in the corners of the internet I frequent, so trying out his new book seemed like a good idea. The beginning didn't grab me, but in the first chapter we meet an acting troupe putting on a play that so cleverly mocks epic fantasy--"despite the actor's warnings [that anything could happen], the good triumphed, the evil were vanquished"--that I was intrigued enough to continue. And so I did, even though as of about halfway through the book I found myself dis I'd heard great things about this author in the corners of the internet I frequent, so trying out his new book seemed like a good idea. The beginning didn't grab me, but in the first chapter we meet an acting troupe putting on a play that so cleverly mocks epic fantasy--"despite the actor's warnings [that anything could happen], the good triumphed, the evil were vanquished"--that I was intrigued enough to continue. And so I did, even though as of about halfway through the book I found myself disliking it. Fortunately for me, it's a quick read for 555 pages; there aren't a lot of words on a page.

The story follows four main characters about their lives (in the military, in banking, in court intrigues) as their world seems to be heading toward a major war. Sometime. The relative lack of action didn't bother me so much as the fact that this is by no stretch a standalone book, with its stopping point seeming almost arbitrary. I do think the first book at least in a fantasy series should be able to stand on its own. But there are things of interest in the characters' plotlines; what killed this book for me were the characters themselves.

There are four major POV characters, with the page time divided up more or less equally among them. The level of character development is probably above average for fantasy, and they'd have been fine for an action-packed type of book, but for something slower and more contemplative I was expecting psychological depth more along the lines of what we see in Robin Hobb's books, and there was none of that here.

A couple of mid-book SPOILERS follow.

Marcus is essentially the good-hearted military man with a dead family; nothing new or captivating there.

Dawson is interesting in a meta kind of way. Abraham is trying to play with fantasy's traditional conservatism, and so he gives us a character who might have been a hero in another book: a man who loves his family and is absolutely opposed to the threatened changes in his world. The difference here is that the extreme classism required to uphold a system of "nobles" and "commoners" isn't glossed over; he thinks of those outside of the nobility as "low, small people" who "understood nothing that wasn't put on the table before them." The people he's fighting against support restrictions on slavery and the creation of something analogous to a House of Commons. But while this is clever, I strongly disliked Dawson and so asking me to be in his head for a fourth of the book was a tall order.

Geder is truly awful. His storyline is where the book really lost me. Abraham seems to think a character's ordering 10,000 people slaughtered out of spite makes that character interesting, rather than despicable; he seems to think that if a character who does such a thing also loves his father and is a scholar, that makes him "gray" rather than truly awful. It's a sad reflection on the fantasy genre, with villains who so often are pure evil in every aspect of their lives, that when a character comes along who's about as "gray" as a Nazi commander in real life, some people actually like him. And we spend another fourth of the book with Geder. If there was more narrative awareness of how awful he is I might have hated him less.... but there isn't much, and I've actually read that Abraham sees him as a "sympathetic geek." The idea that an author would expect me to feel sympathy for a mass murderer honestly creeps me out.

Cithrin was the only main character to be both somewhat interesting and somewhat likeable. I did like her storyline; it's about banking and you don't see a lot of that in fantasy, and she certainly breaks the mold of the typical fantasy heroine. Still, she wasn't enough to carry the book by herself.

/SPOILERS

There aren't nearly as many supporting characters as you'd expect in a multi-POV epic fantasy. Those we do meet are rather flat for the most part, although a few seem interesting. I'd have liked Jorey's POV rather than Dawson's or Geder's; it might have made the book more bearable.

Otherwise, I was not impressed with the book. The world Abraham has created has history, but no culture, no sense of place; he seems to think because it's quasi-European readers can fill in the blanks, rather than his researching interesting aspects of European history or inventing new customs. The writing style is nothing special (at one point he describes the "close-built wooden buildings" of Vanai). The inclusion of thirteen "races" of humanity, some with fur, some with horns, etc., seems extraneous, and they all more or less live together, again, with few hints of any culture. It is nice that there's little magic, and what we do see is unique. But.

In the end, this book had nothing to make it stick out to me. I don't care what happens to these characters and their world in the next book. Abraham has some interesting things to say about the fantasy genre, but it wasn't worth reading a novel for them. Come on, GRRM, I'd have expected better from one of your recommendations. ...more

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Oct 25, 2010 Liviu rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read_2011, 2011_release_read, genre-fantasy, top_25_2011_novels

Excellent series debut and while a partly introductory book, there are a lot of goodies, a great ending at a perfect stopping point and potential for this to become of my top series of all time.

I will add more as the release date gets closer and of course I will add the full FBC review later in the year but for now if you want a reasonable comparison, i would say that this reads like a much better Way of Kings without all the unnecessary verbiage that was such a drag there - traditional fantasy ...more

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Mar 24, 2018 Sad Sunday (If I say it's bad, it's bad) added it

Shelves: not-finished

DNF at hell knows how many % since it's hard to tell, since my ebook of "The Dragon's Path" had addition book at the end.

Verdict for this book:

Plain Jane.

description

You can smell G.R.R Martin everywhere (well, he even left his name on the cover - in my edition there was his quote that you should totally read this). And it's a fantasy that is easy to understand (go to Fifty Shades of Grey universe, you evil The Black Company) and despite continuous plot and stuff happening, somewhere you find yourself not ...more

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Sep 12, 2014 Dara rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: series, lady-protag, read-2014, fantasy, reviewed

The Dragon's Path is a story more concerned with character, politics, and economics more than battles and magic. We follow a mercenary, a bumbling soldier, and a banker throughout most of the story. I enjoyed the book despite having some issues with it.

What I really enjoyed about the book is that it's a nice change from what I've been reading lately, mainly the Malazan series. The Dragon's Path isn't grimdark. It's not doom and gloom, battles all the time, and solidering. Daniel Abraham focuses ...more

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Jul 12, 2016 Andrew rated it it was amazing

The Dragon's Path is the book I've been looking for for years. This is made all the more painful given that this book has been sitting on my to-be-read shelf for almost four years, waiting. The more I read it, the more I found myself agreeing with the GRRM blurb on the front: This book ticks off nearly every box on the list of things I look for in a good fantasy story. It's original, yet familiar. It's epic, yet doesn't shy away from letting you get into the heads of deep, believable characters ...more

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May 21, 2012 Lisa rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, epic-fantasy

Full Review at Tenacious Reader: http://www.tenaciousreader.com/2015/0...

The book is reminiscent of a historical fantasy. There are references to dragons and different races of humans, but really there is not much “fantastical” (creatures or magic) in this book. Which is honestly fine by me as I most of my favorite books are low fantasy. There are four main characters that are really two sets of two, meaning Cithrin and Marcus’s storylines intersect and Geder and Dawson’s storylines intersect. T Full Review at Tenacious Reader: http://www.tenaciousreader.com/2015/0...

The book is reminiscent of a historical fantasy. There are references to dragons and different races of humans, but really there is not much “fantastical” (creatures or magic) in this book. Which is honestly fine by me as I most of my favorite books are low fantasy. There are four main characters that are really two sets of two, meaning Cithrin and Marcus’s storylines intersect and Geder and Dawson’s storylines intersect. Though I feel it was really about Cithrin and Geder more than their companion perspectives. Or maybe I just favored those two enough that they overshadowed the others. I don’t say that because any of them were bad. I just definitely had preferences for Cithrin and Geder. I will also mention, none of these characters are perfect people. All storylines have some moral ambiguity and shades of grey. This is something I love as I find it much more relatable and exponentially more interesting than black and white good versus evil.

I do have a confession to make in this review. I am a complete sucker for the girl dressed as a boy trope. I just love it for some reason, so I was thrilled when I realized that the one female perspective in this fell into that. Maybe it shouldn’t amuse me as much as it does, but hey, we all have personal preferences/weaknesses/quirks/tropes we love. This is mine. Cithrin is an orphan who was taken in by a banking house. Being intelligent and raised in a bank, she has a serious head for money and business. By a strange turn of events, she finds herself alone on the road with an incredible amount of wealth (the bank’s treasury). Cithrin is a young woman, and there is a bit of coming of age for her, but it’s not an overwhelming part of the story. She’s young, she’s placed in extraordinary circumstances and she has to grow, adjust and learn to survive.

Being the first in five book series, there is a lot of set up in this book. When I think back, there were definitely some big events, but for the length of the book I feel like more of it was getting familiar with everything and set up for future books. I am not complaining! I love epic series and there was not once in this book that I felt the pace was slow or that I was sludging through world building info dumps. It all just flowed, and suddenly the book was done.

Overall this was an enjoyable read, I do plan to continue the series and just hope it won’t take me years to get to the next one! ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Play Book Tag: The Dragon's Path 4 stars (POLLS)	1	6	Oct 10, 2020 11:26AM
Fantasy Buddy Reads: Dragon's Path [Oct 15, 2018]	105	46	Nov 22, 2018 05:01AM
Buy the Ducatus coin for a future in investment	1	2	Sep 10, 2018 10:37PM
Dragons & Jetpacks: The Dragon's Path - Overall Discussion - *SPOILERS*	27	48	Oct 07, 2017 05:25AM
Grimdark Fantasy: Jan/Feb Group Read The Dragons Path *NO SPOILERS*	33	59	Feb 08, 2017 01:42PM
Grimdark Fantasy: Q & A with Daniel Abraham	20	60	Feb 08, 2017 04:54AM

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About Daniel Abraham

Daniel Abraham

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Daniel James Abraham, pen names M.L.N. Hanover and James S.A. Corey, is an American novelist, comic book writer, screenwriter, and television producer. He is best known as the author of The Long Price Quartet and The Dagger and the Coin fantasy series, and with Ty Franck, as the co-author of The Expanse series of science fiction novels, written under the joint pseudonym James S.A. Co ...more

Other books in the series

The Dagger and the Coin (5 books)

Books by Daniel Abraham

A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel, Volume One

The King's Blood (The Dagger and the Coin, #2)

A Shadow in Summer (Long Price Quartet, #1)

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Quotes from The Dragon's Path

“There's ways you can trust an enemy you can't always trust a friend. An enemy's never going to betray your trust.” — 104 likes

“That's one of the things Yardem used to tell me that actually made sense. He said that you don't go through grief like it was a chore to be done. You can't push and get finished quicker. The best you can do is change the way you always do, and the time comes when you aren't the same person who was in pain.” — 30 likes

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