Robert Jordan: Crossroads of Twilight

Hi

Crossroads of twilight is the tenth book in The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.
My copy has 660 pages and I’ve got it for quite some time now so I can’t remember where I got it.
This is a reread.
You can find all my Wheel of Time reviews here.

* SPOILERS! *

Right now, I’m actually regretting my decision to reread the series.

Why does Jordan think it necessary to recount everything that happened in the previous nine books? We’re not stupid. This is book nine; we know what’s happened so far. Who would start a series with book nine?

The plot in this installment goes nowhere. It’s at a complete standstill and this book is almost superfluous because so little is happening. Whatever does happen is only the aftermath of the previous novel. Endless rehashing of the channelers’ reaction the the cleansing of Saidin and little else.

Tuon and Egeanin are unrealistic, egoistic, self-important, stupid and self-involved.
I can only admire Mat for coping with those women the way he does. In his place they’d have gotten a few slaps a long time ago.

Perrin bores me to death and I absolutely hate Faile. I wish they’d both just die so we could get rid of them. Or maybe Faile could die so Perrin could go back to being the strong character he was before he got involved with Faile. Even reading about Perrin actually doing something would be a nice change. I hate this plotline even more than the first time I read The Wheel of Time books. I don’t see why they should have such a big part in these books. Both are disconnected from the rest of the world and they aren’t really important for the overall plot too.

Elayne seems to be the main focus of this book and though I don’t really hate her, I really dislike her. She’s so stupid! And Aviendha’s attempts to adapt to the court are cringe-worthy. Their plotlines really don’t work for me. Countless eye rolling moments to be had with these two characters.

Taims plans for The Black Tower are Rands fault. He left them alone for too long without even checking in on them from time to time.

I’m tired of reading about Egwene’s wobbly chair. I like her storyline, even the truly mundane things like the papers on the provisions and the army. It gives us a view of how much work a camp that size is. But I hate to read the same thing over and over again (like the wobbly chair). I would have liked to know more about her plan so the suspense would be higher. Now she’s captured a few pages after revealing the plan to us. I was surprised (the first time I read it) but now, upon rereading it, it would have worked better had we had more foreshadowing.

Crossroads of Twilight is definitely a slow book that doesn’t add anything new to the series. You could almost skip it to be honest but I do wish you wouldn’t because the series overall is pretty good and enjoyable.

3 STARS

Happy reading
Helena