Customer Reviews

Crossroads of Twilight: Book Ten of 'The Wheel of Time'

5 star:		(112)
4 star:		(103)
3 star:		(193)
2 star:		(344)
1 star:		(1,367)

 

 

I'd just like to list the main characters, mentioning who they were, and who they now are.

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.

I just finished this book. I'll admit I probably wouldn't have read it if I had to pay for it, but I work at a bookstore and so got to read it for free. I read it on my lunch breaks and it still took me a couple of months to chew through. This is the first book in probably five or six years by Jordan that I have read, and I was a bit disappointed as to how far his prose has decayed. I won't restate the typical and completely justified complaints regarding this book, and if almost 2,000 reviews averaging only 1.5 stars doesn't convince you, then perhaps the one slightly new point I bring to this may.
I noticed in this book that practically none of the plot elements from the first couple of books are even mentioned, much less dealt with in detail. For instance, does anyone remember when that guy that went insane over the dagger (can't remember his name, because Jordan hasn't dealt with him in approx ten years) crucified the mordraal (sp?)? Wasn't that just the most powerful and wicked scene painted on paper? Weren't the mordraals kind of creepy and cool? Whatever happened to trollocs? Remember when Rand grabbed his (step?)father's sword out of his cabin and fought off those trollocs in the middle of the night? Wasn't that exciting? Remember what a stud Lan was and how you totally wanted to be like him? Wasn't the ogier culture kind of interesting? Does anybody even think about these plot elements anymore?
I'm just bringing up these points because I noticed in this latest book that none of those elements exist. Nothing really exciting or interesting happens. In fact, nothing happens at all. Now, don't get me wrong. Not every book needs to be a rollicking sword-and-sorcery amusement park ride. But this IS the fantasy genre, not history or modern literature (not particularly known for its action sequences). It's ok if Jordan no longer likes the use of steel or magic to solve plot problems, but those problems STILL need to be solved, at least in some way. He also needs to do so in a rapid enough manner (maybe over the course of one 600 page book?) to keep even the most dedicated of reader's attention. Frankly, none of us are the most attentive of readers, if we compare ourselves to, say, 16th century French nobility. Perhaps they had the time to slog through what is, at this point, NEARLY 6,000 PAGES OF PROSE. In my life, with my schedule, I just need a little more than court intrigue and silly one-dimensional caricatures to keep me interested.

There are enough reviews on here to tell you this is a horrible book without getting into each detail. I bought this in hardcover as I was adicted from books 1-7 and the 9th was better than 8 at the least. Not only is this a great waste of my time, but the drawn out plot lines and character development bits are starting to fold on themselves.

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.

I really enjoyed the first Wheel of Time books. Then it started to deteriorate into more and more pointless and endless detail of dress, looks and what have you. In my opinion Robert Jordan is just milking his readers of as much money as he possibly can before he uses another ten books to begin the ending of the story. It is sad to see such a good writer wasting his own and his readers time in this way.

I had to force myself to read this book. After reading the other 9 books, I though I have put in too much time into this series to abandon the whole thing. This story is moving way to slow for me. The good parts of the book are too short. I have decided to wait another 5 or six years when the whole story will be complete and then read the rest of the books. There are other books out there in then mean time.

I've never read a 600+ page book where nothing happens. Literally nothing. At the end of this book you are essentially where you were at the end of book 9. I have no clue as to what the point of this book was. I can only assume that Jordan has either run out of ideas, or he is simply writing for the money now. The early books in this series were so good, and so promising...they have really taken a turn for the wrose. Hes still a better than average fantasy writer, but hes going to loose alot of readers if he doesnt turn it around soon.

To me though, even more frustrating than the lack of events in the book, is the pitiful glossary....which wouldnt be a problem if he didnt have 200 or so characters you need to keep track of, many of whom have similar names. He seems bound and determined to introduce every aes sedai in existance into the books, as well as every minor and major noble. How the heck are we supposed to keep all these people straight? I eventually gave up trying and just tried to finish the damn book.

I hope that what alot of people here are saying is true, that this is merely a setup, and that events will start happening again...because if he turns out any more drivel like this, theres not going to be anyone around to read books 30-40 when some events might actually occur.

As a last word of advice, check this book out from the library if you must, dont give him any money for writing drivel like this, he doesnt deserve it with this effort. Lets just hope future efforts can redeem him.

I fell in love with Robert Jordans world about 8 years ago. The charcters were rich, the story was intriguing, the writing was purposeful. I felt for Rand dealing with the reality of insanity and trying to protect his friends. All the characters seemed to have a heart a place in the wheel. But now we are inundated with every name of every peasant, aes sedai, king, queen, prince, lord, horse, dog, chef and lackey that Jordan can come up with. Obviously the publisher has seen Jordan's books as a cash cow and are trying to have him milk it out. The last few books could have easily been consolidated into one 700 page book. When you take a whole chapter to describe the quickness one can travel through a portal and yet it takes a whole chapter, it defies 'quick'. This may all be leading up to a grand finale, but who will care, who will be there. I think most readers will grow weary of the same old pace (if you can consider going no where a pace). I will now forgo any more WOT books, and read something worth while, like the phone book (it has a smaller cast of characters).

All these "nothing happens" reviews are clearly being written by people who don't actually READ books to find out what happens, or to fully escape into alternate worlds; they just 'read' a book to experience grand plot explosions and gratutitous so-called romance. These are the same people who like shoot-em-up movies with explosions every 7 minutes and who made Titanic the highest grossing movie of all time. They've got no attention span to speak of, and they frankly shouldn't be reading Robert Jordan's work. It's far too good for them. My advice is: if you DIDN'T LIKE COT, QUIT NOW. You won't deserve the fabulous ending that's obviously in the offing.

For those who wonder at the "lateness" of my review, hey, I did what any REAL READER does--I started at the beginning, and worked my way up. The more I re-read Jordan's work, the more impressed I am by how small details add up to enormous things. Even things from TEOTW have consequences in this book. That takes real writing, and serious control of your world.

That said, I think that this is the densest piece of work that Jordan's done to date in Randland. I'm still re-reading, trying to pick up all the clues--and some of them are very small--that will help me solve the hundred mysteries included in the series. It will take me until the next one comes out 2 years from now to really be sure of what I think I know about most of them. Jordan is a genius, and I'll pay DOUBLE next time.

Finally, after two years, I can sleep again. I finally know what each character (great and small, but mostly small) felt, saw, thought, wore, smelled, ate, etc during the climactic events closing out book nine. I can hardly begin to describe my excitement at reading 5 pages of description about how the Aes Sadai choose there seats at their town hall meeting.
Jordan has also introduced a new interesting liturary vehicle, the "slow down the plot until it actually travels backward in time" technique. Using this innovative tool, we may finally be able to answer the question that has been plagueing us all since book one... "how did the forest squirrels feel as they watched Moirain, Rand, et al. leaving the Two Rivers at the start of their epic adventure?" Of course, given his current pace, we won't hear about it until book 20...

This is the 10th volume in the long running Wheel of Time series. I am not convinced this series will ever end. Jordan claims that he has known the ending since before he began writing the first book, but it doesn't appear that he is that much closer to completion. He claims there is going to be 2 or 3 more books. But he said that same thing 2 or 3 books ago. We'll see.

With that out of the way, I'll start talking about the book. Ever since the incredible ending to Winter's Heart , I've been eagerly waiting for the next WOT novel. A release date was set, and pushed back. Finally I was able to buy this book and start reading. I was expecting and hoping that the book would follow up from the ending of book 9. I soon realized that most of this book takes place at the same time as the pivotal event of Winter's Heart , so while the story can advance for the other characters, not a lot of time will pass (and so not that much closer to the Last Battle). Because of the time constraint, not a lot of action happens. This is not a bad thing because the other characters needed some time to have their stories developed more.

The character that benefits from this the most is Mat. He had been sorely lacking in the previous couple of books and his chapters are the best of the novel. Perrin and Egwene suffer from the same problem. Nothing happens until the end of their appearances in the book where Perrin makes a very importance decision that may have serious ramifications throughout the world and Egwene actually acts instead of just sitting at the siege at Tar Valon. Elayne is also featured in several consecutive chapters in the middle of the book and while they are moderately interesting....i'm really wanting the whole succession situation in Andor to be resolved.

Even though Winter's Heart had such an incredible ending and my hopes for the pace of the series to pick up again....it hasn't. Crossroads of Twilight is a fast reading book, but there is not a serious advancement of plot. Most likely this is because WOT is really one large book and not a 10 + volume series. It is one story and in any novel, there are slow parts and character development parts....and unfortunately we get entire novels of that. This is one of them.

This is not to say that Crossroads of Twilight is a bad book, because it is not. It is a good one (when taken as part of the greater series). I couldn't put this book down and I wasn't ready for it to end.

Any complaints I have with the book are ultimately small. I enjoyed Crossroads of Twilight very much and I am already anticipating book 11 in this series even though it will likely be 2 years until I see the next book. The book was good and the series is excellent. While I want more out of some of the books, I'm not disappointed with the series at all.