Crossroads of Twilight (The Wheel of Time, Book 10)

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Customer Reviews:

My ever-so-detailed story about the book [Posted on 2008-08-03]
The rubber soles of my shoes had touched the dusty hardwood floor of the bookstore when I had walked into the bookstore. I took one step. I took another step. And finally, I was at the white bookshelf, when I found an ounce-thick book called Crossroads of Twilight.

My fingers and the soft palm of my hand had touched the book and all the dust flew off the book as I had moved the book from the shelf all the way over to the counter. I had taken the money I needed to pay and placed it onto the wood counter. When I had gotten home, I sat down on the dark red leather couch and I opened the book and the first chapter. I had began reading all the words on the page because it was part of a story.

A week later, I had finished the book and all the thoughts were in my mind about how awful this book was. I had placed the book down on the shelf, and my mouth moved as the words came out of it about how awful it was. Then my feet had touched the floor as I walked over to the chair where my laptop was, and I placed my rear on the chair as I began to sit down and use it. Then I placed my hand on the mouse, and my fingers had touched the keys on the keyboard which typed in the adress to a website called Amazon. Words poured out onto the screen as I then began writing this review.

Flaming awful [Posted on 2008-08-05]
Is it bad that I now keep a highlighter in my hand as I read the WoT books? I go through and highlight every time someone gets their coat, cloak, shawl, dress, skirts, or stole described, is tall for a Cairhienen, is short for an Aiel, fingers their weapon, or adjusts anything. No joke, in one of the books one of the characters stops herself in mid-thought to ask herself "Who cares about dresses?" Even better than describing someone's coat, I just read a passage where he said someone wasn't wearing a coat! Hardly a page goes by that I don't have a passage to highlight. I'm actually re-reading the series just to see if it's really as bad as I've complained...and it looks like it is. I hear 11 is good. I sure hope so.

Not as bad as I thought it'd be [Posted on 2008-08-27]
3.5 stars. The events in the beginning of this book, told from Mat, Perrin, and Elayne's perspective, occur simultaneously with the ending scene of the previous book, Winter's Heart. The last several books, beginning with A Crown of Swords, have slowed down time-wise considerably with events occurring a few days to a week after the conclusion of a prior book. Therefore, the plot also slows down, and it is still winter in the WOT world. Probably 2 years since everything unfolded in the first book, The Eye of the World.

Now, that said, what did I think of this book? I agree with many others that the plot slows to a crawl in this book. In fact, not much action occurs, not much plot development takes place (of what has been introduced already in the series) in Crossroads of Twilight.

However, that doesn't meant there isn't anything going on in this book. There are several plot threads introduced that cause interest and speculation** (**Note: I will discuss this further at the end of the review). As there are only 2 books left, (well, possibly 3 books if the final book is split into 2 volumes, but as B. Sanderson is currently at work on the final book, I can't say for sure), you can be sure that major plot-lines will be tied up in the next book or the final book. I look at the 10th book, Crossroads of Twilight, as the lull before the storm.

Everything seems boring and you can't see anything big happening that's obvious, but what new developments *does* occur is behind the scenes. It's subtle, and you have to be patient, as this book provides more clues about various characters. Sure, I love action-filled scenes as much as the next reader, but the political intrigues and twists are a big part of this world and its characters. Depicting such matters can be slow-moving, as all the players have to be set up on the chess board in such a way that will come together at the end.

If you've reached this book and haven't realized by now that this was one of Jordan's intentions for this world (that people, even when they *know* the end could be coming, they're still looking out for # 1), well I'm saying it now.LOL. The scheming, changed loyalties, questionable motives, the insular nature of people to mention a few, are all what make this fictional world fascinating to read about. For example, something called "The Game of Houses" (manipulation, plotting, and scheming of noble houses) is played to a large extent in one country, Cairhien, but to a smaller extent everywhere else as well. Saying one thing, meaning another, all in subtle tones. At one point or another, *every* character in this series has engaged in some form of manipulation and scheming, and hiding of a secret or two. Every character has a secret. Every character is more than he or she appears on the surface.

The twists and turns are intentional on the author's part, and in order to get from point A to C, you'll have to navigate the murky waters of point B to get there. That's how I view this book, it's set up and geared toward major stuff going down later on, so that is what I meant when I said this book is like the lull before the storm.

A brief summary of where the previous book, Winter's Heart, left off: An incredible feat was struck against the Shadow, with Rand and Nynaeve cleansing the Dark One's taint from saidin and the Forsaken unable to prevent this from happening, slinking away in defeat. Mat sneaks out of Seanchan-controlled Ebou Dar with his group, which includes the kidnapped heir to the Seanchan throne, Tuon (who also happens to be his future wife, not that he's pleased about that!), Perrin is on the rampage to locate his wife Faile held by the Shaido, and Elayne is in Camelyn securing her claim on the Lion Throne.

In Crossroads of Twilight most of the chapters are devoted to Perrin, Elayne, Mat, and Egwene with little of Rand (there are brief chapters told from his perspective). Winter's Heart leaves you on a cliff-hanger, after all that happened, you expect Rand to be in the front and center as you learned in Winter's Heart there were Darkfriends in the Black Tower, and that his second-in-command, Taim, in charge of the Black Tower could be a Darkfriend as he ordered Asha'man to kill Rand in book 8, The Path of Daggers. Not to mention, the fact Rand cleansed saidin.

With the other characters, Perrin is still searching for Faile, Elayne is still trying to secure the throne of Andor for herself, Egwene is still on the march with her army and trying to figure out how to get control of the White Tower and Tar Valon, and Mat has escaped from Ebou Dar and is hiding out at a traveling circus (this group will be familiar, as Nynaeve & Elayne hid in this group in book 5, Fires of Heaven).

**Despite the fact there weren't any forward developments of the plot in each of the character perspectives, I still enjoyed this book. While it's not the best book in the series, there were several plot-lines that caused me to wonder what will happen next. I love figuring out puzzles, trying to understand what the answer to various character motives, basically, what is the agenda or goal here?

For instance, a new character is introduced in the prologue chapter (he was given a brief scene in a prior book, but I didn't find importance in this character at the time), and it made me wonder what role he will or might play in the future. Another character seen before, Logain, another false Dragon, is seen planning "something" and I'm very curious to know where that plot thread will go. One of Rand's generals, Bashere, seems to have something going on the side, a secret that maybe Rand doesn't even know and makes me question his loyalties to Rand when I didn't before. He seemed to be solidly with Rand, but now it seems up in the air how loyal he is to Rand.

Those are just a few unanswered questions, new ones that have cropped up, so I don't think this book is the bust that so many are making it out to be. Yes, compared to earlier books (The Shadow Rising or The Fires of Heaven), the book is *very* slow-moving but I do think it was needed. It is the book that sets up what will come in the later books. So while the book can drag in some places, overall I enjoyed the book. One more book to go, Knife of Dreams, and then it's a long wait for the final book to be published!

Very disappointing [Posted on 2008-11-17]
Wherever epic fantasy writers ply their trade, scribbling scenes of magical convergence or enormous battles between steel-clad knights, there are whispers of a dire warning: "Remember Crossroads of Twilight." This is a book that has gained a certain infamy in fantasy circles, which even the most ardent Wheel of Time fans are hard-pressed to defend, and serves as an object lesson to every writer of a long, complex series of what can happen if the writing discipline slacks and they lose control of the narrative.

Winter's Heart ended with a number of storylines in progress and Crossroads of Twilight picks up on them. Briefly, Mat Cauthon has escaped from Ebou Dar but has inadvertently wound up with Tuon, the Daughter of the Nine Moons, as his prisoner. Perrin's wife Faile is a prisoner of the Shaido Aiel and Perrin and a band of reluctant allies attempt to locate her. The renegade Aes Sedai have Travelled to Tar Valon and besieged the city, but Egwene's reluctance to unleash bloodshed results in a morale-sapping stalemate. Elayne's attempts to secure the Lion Throne continue. Rand al'Thor recovers from the exhaustion caused by the Cleansing of saidin. And that's about it. The only major new storyline is General Rodel Ituralde of Arad Doman organising an offensive against the Seanchan, which is intriguing and is naturally only featured for a few pages and then not mentioned again.

Crossroads of Twilight's structure is not very well thought-out. Jordan's intent was to provide a catch-up following each band of characters from where we last saw them in Winter's Heart to the moment of the Cleansing, a major world-shifting event and arguably the biggest moment in the series to date. And if he had done this say in the first 100 pages, or in the prologue, this would have been a good idea as people's misunderstanding of what that event signifies goes on to play a major role in events in the series. The problem is that he takes far too long to pull this off. We only start moving on beyond the Cleansing in the last 50-100 pages or so of the book, and aside from a mildly startling cliffhanger ending to Egwene's storyline, there is no real climax to the book. It just judders to a rather unsatisfying halt. And the great irony is that the Cleansing itself is largely proven irrelevant: most people, when told what it was, flat-out refuse to believe it, making the whole book feel like an exercise in futility.

So, we have a 700-page novel in which not much happens. Everyone's storyline crawls forward at an insanely slow pace, with entire chapters featuring little beyond descriptions of forests or characters discussing what has happened earlier in the plot for no discernible reason. There are good moments buried amidst the dross, such as Perrin realising the limits of his morality, the true nature of Shaidar Haran being revealed or Egwene's intelligent plan to resolve the siege of Tar Valon, but getting to them is like wading through treacle. There is no momentum to the story, especially as every couple of chapters we rewind to a point before the Cleansing, move a few days forward, and then rewind again with a different bunch of characters. The bulk of the book takes place only across a few days (whilst The Great Hunt, for example, covered about six months) and progress is torturous.

Crossroads of Twilight (*½) is by quite some margin the weakest book in the series and one of the most disappointing fantasy novels ever published, considering how good some of the earlier books were. The few decent moments are drowned amidst literally hundreds of pages of empty, pointless prose and padded minutiae. The book is published by Orbit in the UK and Tor in the USA.

As bad as everyone says it is [Posted on 2008-11-21]
And maybe worse.

Absolutely nothing of interest happens. For hundreds of pages. Just lots of skirt smoothing, and hair fussing. Oh yeah, and there are weevils in the grain.

I should stop here. Robert Jordan has used up all of the extra letters out there.

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