Crossroads of Twilight: Book Ten of 'The Wheel of Time' [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Rand Before: Used to be caring (remember how he made Bela run for Egwene?),yet strong willed, and an overall good-guy. Remember when most of the story was about him?

Rand Now: Absolutely does not care what anyone says or thinks, and does whatever he wants to whoever he wants. Not even 3% of this book concerns him.

Perrin Before: Big, strong, gentle. Took his time to think about things, never did anything rash. Didn't like to be in charge, but took control when he had to.

Perrin Now: Rash, angry, pushes people around, cares about nothing else but Faile...NOTHING ELSE.

Egwene Before: Smart (she could read people like nothing else), strong willed, seeking adventure - generally fun-loving

Egwene Now: So, so, so stupid. I mean, those flaming headaches come along ONLY when her Saidin infested servant girl is around, and angry at her (sometimes AT THE EXACT MOMENT OF HER DISPLEASURE), and only her Saidin infested servant girl can make them go away, AND whenever her Saidin infested servant girl is out late, someone dies FROM SAIDIN! I just can't take her stupidness.

Nynaeve Before: VERY strong willed, kind of a witch, but generally good intentioned. Quite mature.

Nynaeve Now: As all the characters 'matured', in a sense (they no longer think about things that are juvenile, generally), Nynaeve has actually de-matured. She runs around like a giddy school girl now, doing anything anyone tells her to, and swooning over Lan. I mean, the only time you see her in this book is watching Lan practice sword-fighting, where she is described as practically 'bouncing up and down in her seat, rooting for Lan'. And it's only practice! And Lan is whomping the other guy, no contest! ugh...

Lan Before: Quiet, composed, deadly, past shrouded in mystery and greatness.

Lan Now: Forsakes everything he used to be to yell at people, making sure they don't hurt Nynaeve.

Tam Al'Thor Before: One of the characters in the first book who I was so looking forward to getting to know better. His past seemed so interesting! For sure, Rand would want to talk to him and figure all this stuff out...especially when he learned to travel, and it would be nothing to take a day or so out of his schedule...

Tam Al'Thor Now: I am convinced that he no longer exists.

The only saving grace of this book - Mat. Mat is the only character who simply hasn't changed much...he's still good-old Mat, and completely hilarious. I think the only thing different about him is that he swears A LOT now...which is funny.

The moral? I don't like the characters anymore - they're stupid, mean, angry, devilish, self-centered, and all around bad people. At least Mat is SUPPOSED to be a 'bad' person...anyway, I don't even want them to win. The Forsaken now are the underdogs, and I like them better. I must say that it would be absolutely brilliant for Jordan to turn the good guys (ever so slowly, as he has been doing) into the bad guys, and the bad guys into the good, however, because I know this will not happen - this last installment is just one more step in the complete destruction of everything Jordan started.

But was he ever really that good? I know he was very good at creating moments and plot twists that made the first books very good, but behind it was a cardboard cutout backdrop. Each city was far too different for their geographical proximity...if only to intentionally be that different. This while every one of these "diverse" cities seemed to be made up of nothing but Palaces, Inns and people selling their wares on the streets. All of these books suffer from a repitition of backdrop and environment, including dress adjusting, palaces, inns, sniffs, etc. In short, while Tolkien, Donaldson and Martin manage to write fully 3D in scope and drama, Jordan seems to only be a 2D writer, and after 10 books...it's finally caught up with him.