Review: The Dragon's Path

The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Having some time to kill on a plane a few weeks back, it felt like a good idea to try my hand at another epic fantasy, especially as my regular go-tos are ones I'm currently caught up on. The Dragon's Path is mostly good-to-great, and, perhaps more importantly, definitely scratches that itch that I was looking to solve.

Like any good long-term epic fantasy read, this one has its share of point of view storylines. There's the orphan girl, the noble heir, soldiers and politics, and all of these stories are, to Abraham's credit, interesting without staying too long. Even with my favorites like A Song of Ice and Fire, you have point of view characters that you want to ignore for a time to get back to the plot points you like, and this book doesn't seem to have that same sort of drag. It's not to say there aren't favorites - I'm personally partial to the story involving Cithrin the orphan banker - but nothing feels like filler or a way to keep the characters involved without giving them anything to do.

If there's a downside, it's that the story doesn't feel epic yet. Unlike ASOIAF or The Stormlight Archives, this feels a little lighter in both structure and story. This is not a bad thing at all, and it's in fact welcome in some regards, but if you're looking for that "true epic," this might not be the thing you're looking for. Then again, we're a number of books into the overall story now, so it might pick up significantly in the later volumes.

Overall, probably closer to a 4.5. Definitely a series I intend to continue, and definitely something that fills a significant void in what I've been reading of late.



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