The Dragon's Path (The Dagger and the Coin series Book 1)

The initial challenges for the POV characters are compelling and keep the pages turning, but at about the 35% point, the story takes a dark turn and stalls out with very little foreshadowing an urgent need to continue the story.Cithrin is a likable character who pulls at the reader’s heart. However, once her initial challenge is over, she too quickly crosses over from young innocent to cutthroat business woman, and the potential for young love is blotted out. Her story seems more of a how-to business venture than fantasy adventure.Geder is an underdog who loves academia. He seems rather harmless, but he is the butt of everyone’s jokes. It’s when he manages to do something heroic that his story builds momentum, but his actions are despicable.The older male characters are rather jaded, and one seems to spend time with bigoted cronies, which is unappealing. He may be a key political player, but at this point I don’t want him to succeed. Another older male could be an exciting character as he has fighting skills, but his job as babysitter/bodyguard is boring most of the time. The other elderly character is kept to the side so much that his story, while it is likely the driving force of the series, is ignored for too long in this first book.I decided that at the 35% point, I’ve read the equivalent of a first book in a series, but I still don’t know why it matters if any of these characters succeed. I don’t particularly care for any of them now. Why does it matter if they fail in the grand scheme of things? There needs to be more compelling stakes revealed with more urgency. When I see there are thousands of pages to read in this series, but I don’t care for any of the protagonists to succeed, I see no point in investing a bajillion hours reading this series. I need to really love at least a few characters to bother spending more than a few evenings reading about them.The author has a wonderful talent for describing settings with vivid imagery. The world in this series is very believable and immersive. The book is line-edited at a high level. Just wish I could care more for the characters.

The Dragon's Path marks the sixth book I've read from Daniel Abraham. Abraham has been a favorite of mine ever since his Long Price Quartet. His more recent science fiction debut, Leviathan Wakes, under the pseudonym James S.A. Corey was also impressive. Although Abraham's first series never garnered wide spread popularity, I never doubted he would one day put himself among the bestselling authors in the speculative genres. The Dragon's Path, Abraham's first installment in The Dagger and Coin Quintet, is the first step on the road that will lead him there.Unlike the Long Price Quartet, which eschewed a lot of genre tropes that permeate fantasy, Abraham embraced many of them in The Dragon's Path. The setting is decidedly European medieval. It has dragons, magic (albeit minimal thus far), swordplay, and religion. While the setting is... expected... how Abraham tells his story is anything but.Abraham ignores the genre tendency to use the heroes journey (monomyth) as the primary narrative force. Instead, he takes his artful, yet familiar world, and uses it to tell personal stories. The plot is built around four point-of-view characters - Cithrin, Marcus, Dawson, and Geder. It all begins when the free city Vanai comes under attack sending Cithrin on a mad dash to escape the city with the riches of the Medean Bank (think Goldman Sachts) in tow. With Marcus and his crew as her only protectors the pair represent Abraham's coin.In contrast, Dawson and Geder - noblemen of great and no repute respectively - are the dagger. Interestingly, this side of the story has almost no connection to the other, sharing at most 25 pages of "screen time". Dawson, the King's childhood friend, is at the head of a coalition that would reject social reforms (think Magna Carta) and maintain the status quo of a class based society. Caught in the middle of the political wrangling, Geder must overcome his reputation as a laughing stock scholar before he gets trampled by those jockeying for position.One of the reasons the novel has been met with such mixed reviews is that not one of these characters is terribly likable. They all exhibit admirable traits at times, but not one escapes Abraham's unique ability to color his characters with shades of gray. Even Cithrin and Marcus who are most definitely trending (to steal a twitter term) hero have character flaws that are difficult to see past. For me, this made it too easy to put the book down in between chapters.Similarly problematic is that the story itself underwhelms with very little action. I don't mean in a swashbuckling sort of way (there isn't that either) but there's just not a ton that happens over the course of 550 pages. Nothing that resembles an "epic" arc gets going until the conclusion and it's quite clear that The Dragon's Path is all about moving Abraham's pieces into place. Unfortunately, for a first book in a series that's a difficult place to start. Abraham is asking his readers to invest considerable time into a story that hasn't even really begun.However, it's easy to make the mistake of disliking a book because it isn't what it "should" be. Like Pulp Fiction or Get Shorty, The Dragon's Path is a character study more than epic fantasy. While I am certain future novels in The Dagger and Coin series will have a more epic scope, this is a novel about real people in an unreal world. Each of Abraham's primary characters have their own story that could have been self contained novellas. He stitches them together in a coherent way and drops hints about how they'll come together in the future.As a character study, I think The Dragon's Path is incredible. Geder and Cithrin are extremely compelling and I fully expect one or both to become iconic characters in the fantasy pantheon by the series conclusion. For a reader who's looking for a traditional epic fantasy adventure, this may not be the best choice right now. Moving forward, I have faith that Abraham will produce a series that exceeds his brilliant Long Price Quartet and sells a few more copies too.The second book in the series, titled The King's Blood, is due out next spring. I'm literally counting the days.

The character development in this book was outstanding. I truly cared about Marcus and Cithrin and Yardem.The noble fops, not so much.

Excellent book

The Dragon’s Path is an intriguing and character-focused fantasy release that helped me get out of a reading and review slump that has lasted 3-months.The first entry in The Dagger and the Coin series, The Dragon’s Path mainly follows 4 point of view perspectives, 3 of which I really enjoyed reading. These main characters are Cithrin, an orphan bank ward, Marcus, a warrior of some renown, Geder, an upper-class intellect yet substandard soldier, and Dawson, a man of influence in one of the capital’s leading families, who is friends with the King and an expert dualist. The latter, the individual I’ve written the most about in that brief summary, is the character I enjoyed following the least, however; he was crucial in presenting the views of the upper echelon with the political unrest and turmoil brimming.Cithrin’s chapters were a joy to follow and some of the most unique. Through her, Abraham presents some really interesting moments where she ponders investments, banking, insurance, loans, and running businesses and it was engrossing. I personally have some experience in insurance and finance so found these parts pretty fascinating. Her progression and growth throughout is one of the novel’s highlights too.If Cithrin represents the Coin of the series title, then I’d hesitate to guess that Marcus may be the Dagger. This is ambiguous at this point in the series though as there are many elements of mystery and conspiracies throughout this first entry. Returning to Marcus though, he’s got an illustrious past serving the military, has had family tragedy that haunts him, and seems to be a humble caravan guard captain at present. He’s sometimes brooding, intelligent, dangerous (whether this is shown or not in this novel I won’t divulge), and begrudgingly has a sense of duty and right in certain circumstances. His page time crossed over with another character frequently and their relationship is one of the main draws of this book to me. My assessment is that Marcus is destined to be massively important in the overall tale, and his relationship with another main character made me purchase the second and third books of the series before I was even halfway through The Dragon’s Path.Like Marcus, Dawson’s point of view perspective crosses over with that of another main character, so, although I didn’t like reading Dawson’s views as much as the others, I’d estimate that a quarter of his page-time was through the eyes of another member of the ensemble, so I often forgot my minor irks with him. I’m not sure why I didn’t like him as much. Perhaps due to him being quite pompous and classist, he’s meant to be less likable. Whatever the case, he is still a fine character for this world and the story so far. It might be a frequent trait in multi-POV fantasy novels but I definitely have a soft spot for cross-over point of views, when as readers we can witness the same event and get two very different takes on it, (something John Gwynne does very well in The Faithful and the Fallen).Geder’s tale in The Dragon’s Path is exquisite, bizarre, unpredictable, and kind of delightful! I don’t want to say too much about his story but I felt like I’d travelled half the map of this epic fantasy world with him, fully witnessing the highs and the lows that some major fantasy characters don’t see the like of in entire trilogies. I found him the most complex and rewarding so far.The Dragon’s Path is firmly invested in fantasy, yet, in this novel, the extinct dragons, the heroes of old, the magic, and the gods are mainly just the lore and knowledge of the present-day characters. They aren’t showcased as being current and having any major influence on this finely crafted and well realised world. This novel focuses on the people, plots, struggles, hardships, wars, and courtly drama. I think that the otherworldly and strange powers that may be lurking in the shadows of the sidelines will take centre stage in the subsequent novels. If so, I’m interested to see how the stakes change and the effects it has on the characters I’ve very much enjoyed following here.Another element I’ll quickly discuss is that I love fantasy reads with complex and unique magic systems, where I can try to figure them out and understand the rules. Magic such as this isn’t present in The Dagger and the Coin yet, but the possibilities are hinted at and I await with bated breath if more is revealed in The King’s Blood.The Dragon’s Path dragged me out of my reading slump where many other highly rated fantasy books failed. I will score it a 7.5/10 which is down to my overall enjoyment, how neatly the stories wrapped up, and I am excited by the potential that is shown here and how promisingly it sets up the series. Abraham seems to be a fine writer, this novel presents good plotting and pacing, fine main characters, and a few gems in the second tier. The Dragon’s Path also features a well-worked mixture of both action scenes and gripping dialogue moments. I took a chance on a series that I knew little about, and am content that I did. The Dragon’s Path, although not quite brilliant, did reinvigorate my passion for reading. As much of that is down to what could come next, on top of what was featured here.

This was hugely enjoyable and satisfying read. The Dragon's Path is book one in a completed quintet and if the next four keep up the excellent standard found here, it has the potential to be a classic series.George R R Martin describes this as everything he looks for in fantasy: me too. The world building is rich and varied. The plot is intricate and clicks together well but it's the characters that will stay with you. Multiple point of view structured books are a gamble; because if one character is weak, that chapter will suck the life from the book and destroy the momentum. That's not a problem here. All the characters are fascinating - not necessarily likeable - but fascinating all the same.There are two characters in particular who are simply outstanding creations. First is Geder: a bullied, put upon, bookish but highly intelligent minor noble, he is a revelation. His story arc stunned me in a truly positive way.Next is Cithrin: a young woman who was orphaned and brought up as a ward of the bank. As with Geder, she shows growth albeit in a more subtle and complex way. Both are a marvel.It's also a unique novel in that it uses finance, economics and trade to rationalise and explain characters actions and interactions. If I've made it sound dry, don't worry it's not. Abraham makes it very accessible and it blends seamlessly into the plot as all good exposition should.The magic element is perfectly executed. This review is as spoiler free as possible but the magic is something I haven't seen much of in the genre and it's such a clever thing and has the potential to create intriguing plots.One slight problem was the character of Dawson. As stated above not all the protagonists are likeable and he is absolutely odious. But he's still interesting and that's what counts. It was a brave choice to have chapters based around him but it works.Complex, satisfying and highly recommended. 10/10.

The first chapter hints at a mysterious, deeper story line, that is no doubt going to run through x future books in the series. However nearly the whole of the rest of the book after this first chapter is a somewhat standard, girl coming of age story line. The deeper element of the plot isn't revisited until right near the end of the book; it feels like this will be really strung out. And I feel short changed. One or two of the characters (who may be meant to be the 'good guys') aren't particularly likeable. It is difficult to rate this book without reading the next in the series. Maybe that's the point...

The story kept me interested enough to read all 5 books.Main characters were well fleshed out.Some interesting ideas such as a banker being the hero ...not sure I was convinced about how her financial genius could save the world though.But , in between lots of navel gazing, philosophy and planning , there is very little action. From memory there is excitement 57% of the way into book 3, 20% into book 4 and at the end of book 5.It also doesn't help with such a pedestrian story that the final plan is something that occurred to me half way through the second book and could have been implemented at that stage except none of these heroes thought of it until we got to book 5. But any right minded half intelligent character would have.Passed the time but pretty costly books as well..can't totally recommend.

It’s like fantasy by numbers. I’m not a huge fantasy fan so maybe I’m missing something but this seems a bit turgid and samey. Like a low-wattage Game of Thrones. I’m only 12% of the way through though, maybe it’ll get better…