The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham (August 2013 Read)

[Geoffrey, Moderator]

If you're tired of epic fantasy that's all about the humble farmer who turns out to be the Chosen One destined to vanquish the Dark Lord with the very fabric of reality hanging in the balance, then Daniel Abraham's The Dagger and the Coin series may just be for you.

I haven't spotted a Chosen One or Dark Lord yet. The stakes seem to be more mundane, and that's a good thing. There's very little magic so far. And although the story is about politics, war, banking, and commerce, violence and epic battles do not take center stage.

The main viewpoint characters so far are:

Captain Marcus Wester, formerly a brilliant general who has killed a king, now leader of a mercenary company and trying to avoid being conscripted into another war. He comes up with a rather interesting solution to his dilemma.

Cithrin, ward of a banking house, raised to be a banker though not quite yet of legal age, who is tasked with seeing her bank's wealth to safety as war comes to her home city of Vanai.

Geder Palliako, a socially awkward, bookish nobleman, oft bullied by his peers, who is part of the Antean army marching on Vanai.

Baron Dawson Kalliam, a high-ranking nobleman of Antea and friend to the king. He's very rigid and devoted to tradition, believing that the social classes are born into their positions and that order is maintained by observing the kingdom's customs.

Not spoiler free:

Marcus and Cithrin are the only ones I really like out of these.

All of the characters have their redeeming qualities and moments. Even the ones I don't like aren't all bad. It's just that, for me, some of the character traits and actions of Dawson and Geder are so bad that they outweigh the good. A reader who is not libertarian will probably take less of a dislike to them, particularly Dawson.

We're meant to like Geder in the beginning, and Abraham does a good job of this, but by the time you get halfway through the book it becomes clear that he is capable of monstrous deeds. He's like one of those kids who shoots up his school. Take someone who is socially awkward, who has difficulty connecting with other people, who lacks real-world experience and knows only what he's read in books, who has been bullied and mocked by his peers, then give him real power over the lives of others. It's a recipe for disaster.

So what's your take on the book so far? Do you agree or disagree with any particular point I made? Do you find yourself sympathizing with Issandrian's cause more than Dawson's?

[Jack]

I really enjoyed Dragon's Path, and I don't often go in for the fantasy/hero's quest stuff. Joe Abercrombie is one of my favorite authors, but beyond that, I've tried to become absorbed in some Brandon Sanderson/Patrick Rothfuss/Brent Weeks and etc. many times over, and it usually doesn't take. In fact, I started Abraham's other fantasy series and the first book didn't grab me enough to finish it.

The Dragon's Path (and the next in the series, The King's Blood; haven't read the third yet) remind me a lot of Abercrombie's work. Like with Abercrombie, we feel like we get to know a few of these characters pretty well, and what we learn is that they're interesting and unique and not formulaic at all; and then they do something completely unexpected (you mention Geder above -- that kind of thing) which nonetheless seems perfectly plausible. You can see, at least in retrospect, how a puzzling or even alarming choice of action flows from who the characters really are, even if you wouldn't have seen it coming in advance. That's really hard to pull off, I think, particularly in fantasy, which strikes me as overall less character-driven than many other genres.

I like the emphasis being off epic battles with their banners and vanguards and heroic deeds and whatnot and on petty politics, selfish treachery, and above all economics. If there's another fantasy series that pulls off making *commerce*, on the investment/risk allocation/negotiation/bidding for government contracts levels an engrossing central theme, I've never heard of it. It's done really well, here. In fact, I would go so far as to disagree and say there really isn't a Chosen One/Dark Lord emphasis in this series (so far), and that's something that makes it kind of unique and really refreshing.

[Geoffrey, Moderator]

I like Sanderson, haven't read Rothfuss or Weeks yet. Abercrombie's First Law trilogy is fantastic.

I'm page 74 of The Tyrant's Law, the third book in this trilogy by Abraham. It's at least as good as the first two books so far. The larger conflict hinted at in the first novel is heating up and a new complication is introduced in the prologue.

I agree with what you say in your second and third paragraphs. I think epic fantasy tends to be more plot and setting driven than character driven, which is not to say the characters aren't important. Also, the setting tends to become like another character. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire and Abercrombie's books are more character driven.

My initial reaction to the first book was that there wasn't a Chosen One or Dark Lord in sight, which I think is a good thing, but I have to take that back a bit now...

SPOILER WARNINGS for those who haven't read the books.

Geder is Abraham's Chosen One character, but Abraham is subverting the trope here because Geder is the patsy of an evil goddess (perhaps a Dark Lady). I just hope the stakes stay more mundane and don't creep into the typical Chosen One/Dark Lord cosmic territory with the very fabric of reality hanging in the balance. It is looking like the fate of the world in a political sense is at stake though, because the Spider Goddess's priests aim to cleanse the world in fire and blood then subjugate what remains under a theocracy devoted to the goddess's subjective truth.