Rating: 
Summary: It took me weeks to read this.
Review: I wanted to love this book, but ended up having to force myself to read it at times. Sometimes, I could not even finish a single chapter before drifting off. I know some of this has been said already, more than once, but there is a reason for it; it's true.I am loosing track of who is who and who is doing what. Okay, well, I guess I know who is doing what; they are all doing nothing. I would root for the bad guys, but they don't deserve to win either. The attempts at political intrigue were never the strong points of this series, and I wish Jordan would move on where they are concerned. They are becoming less interesting and less believable. The book was not all bad and boring, but a lot of it was a waste. Some of the chapters about Egwene were interesting, though it ended just as it started to go somewhere. I am very seriously thinking of waiting until I read all of the reviews before I purchase the next the book, if I purchase it at all; I will definitely not pre-purchase it this time. I think anyone that paid for this book should get the next one for free. It is bad enough that they are selling the previews as e-books, but now they appear to be selling an entire book as a preview; and not even an interesting one. Some say this is all setup for a future book. How much more setup do we need to pay for? A book, even as part of a series, should have a beginning, an end, a plot, and a point. I think this book may very well have failed to mee those requirements, on every count.
Rating:
Summary: Sloppy, irresponsible writing at its worst in Crossroads
Review: The biggest problem with a monumental series like wheel of time is that it takes so long to get into it (although you always feel like your building up to something spectacular). By the time you realize it's mediocre, poorly and overwritten fantasy, it's too late; you are committed to finishing the series. Thus I bought volume 10 hoping that Jordan would finally get to the point, especially after the briefly exciting progress at the end of book 9. Boy was I wrong After a 2 year wait, we are rewarded with a slow moving, plotless piece of drivel that spends 600 pages boring the reader.
I am sick of Jordan's obsession with gender. Every variation of plot involves women plotting ways to put men in their place, while the men cluelessly plunder on.
I cannot believe any editor would accept an author' complete lack of concise, clear, writing. An entire novel which does nothing to move the plot forward is irresponsible, sloppy, and outright rude to its readers, who will no doubt be forced to buythe next book after two more years of wait before another modest plot change.
If Jordan was a true fantasy writer of any substancial talent, he could control his writing and somehow reign it in after 10 800 page novels. Crossroads of Twilight was in short a dismal disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: Puh-leaze!
Review: I was hooked after reading the first book of this series. The plot moved quickly, it was interesting, the characters well fleshed out. The excellent writing continued for several more books. Mr. Jordan, what happened to you? The last two books are dead in the water. NOTHING, I mean NOTHING interesting happens to the story or the characters! What is the point of writing two entire books which do nothing to advance the plot? Set-up is good and necessary but only the amount of set-up which is relevant and assists the reader. I am extremely disppointed that I just read an entire book in which no plot advancement occurs. I'm sure I'll keep reading, because I do want to know what happens to these characters in the end, but let's get a move on, here!
Rating:
Summary: The Extra Star is For Mat...
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Great reviews, though
Review: All the hilarious reviews that this pile of crap of a series has generated almost makes the series itself worth it. Every few months I find myself sifting through the Amazon.com reviews for the latter WOT books, and enjoy myself thoroughly. Kudos to you all smart people out there who certainly have more of a way with words than Mr. Jordan. I have to confess that I'm violating a principal by writing this review. I haven't read the book. In fact, I haven't read beyond Book 4, which as I gather from the reviews, was a good place to stop anyhow. I merely wanted to share my views. I don't feel bad for giving this a 1-star rating anyhow, as I'm sure if Amazon had a 0-star rating, all the ratings past book 4 would need to be significantly adjusted, and this book would have 1/2 a star instead of 1 1/2. I remember meeting Jordan in Ann Arbor for the book signing for "Winter's Heart". A friend of mine had recommended me the series (back in high school, I'm getting my doctorate now, so you can see the passage of time has been ridiculous) so I thought it would be a nice gesture to get her a signed copy. Mr. Jordan waded into the room, and people applauded. When it died down, he waved for the people to continue applauding. It was perhaps a humorous gesture then, but now I cannot help but view it with disgust at his smugness, arrogance, and self-complacency. Long story short, I met my friend. I gave her the signed copy of "Winter's Heart". She gave me a copy of George R. R. Martin's "A Game of Thrones". I've stopped reading Jordan, and have never looked back. Sometimes I think Jordan plans on a grand finale. Maybe all the characters will die in the end. It would end with a climatic burst of energy. Even if it were so, I don't think it justifies the last few books he's written. Nothing justifies it, not even if he ends with the best book ever written in any language. I can't wait for Jordan's next book, because the reviews he generates are awesome. :)
Rating: 
Summary: Enough is enough
Review: I have been reading the WoT novels for over ten years now, and re-reading. For years I have marvelled over the extraordinary complexity of Mr. Jordan's world-building skills and the continued attention to detail. Like so many others, I eagerly awaited the tenth installment, Crossroads, and having now read it, can say that Mr. Jordan has lost control over the story-line as he focuses on peripheral characters or avoids advancing the plot in favor of character development. Lets face it, if the characters are not fleshed out sufficiently after 9 books and their goals and motivations revealed, its just not going to happen in book 10. Moreover, it is long past time that certain events took place. For example, two books back the "rebel" Aes Sedai commenced the siege of the White Tower. Except wait, by the end of book 10, it still doesn't happen (sorry to give that away). Something's been going on with Mazrim Taim and the Black Tower for over three books, but no plot advancement there in book 10 either. (While we could speculate, wouldn't it just be nice to actually know by this time). I could go on, but in short, I only have the following to say: Enough is enough.
Rating:
Summary: To be brief (something Jordan will never be)
Review: Upon seeing Jordan's new Wheel of Time prequel on the book shelves, I literally screamed.
"Dear God," I exclaimed to my wife, "He's _going_the_wrong_way_!!"
If you ever liked the series, but not become one of the "Jordan-can-do-no-wrong" true believers, this book will probably just about kill it for you. Pages upon pages of new characters who are little more than a couple of twitchy mannerisms. Action that isn't (some of you may remember the multitude of chapters of the situation with Perrin, Faile, and the Shaido in book 9? Well, it STILL isn't resolved in Book 10.) A "prologue" that goes on until page 96. Oh, and maybe fifty pages that actually advance the plot- in a 797 page book, NOT counting the glossary. Robert Jordan is wasting our time. If you MUST punish yourself, join me in swearing only to buy the man's books in paperback, used. And please, don't encourage him by buying the prequels, of which we are now promised THREE. Jordan, get a freaking editor and LISTEN TO HIM OR HER.
P.S. Someone who dismisses the criticism of Mr. Jordan's works as "geriatric" in one sentence and demands those critics "leave the deep arts to the adults" has no place implying that they have some greater understanding of writing, sir.
Rating:
Summary: Difficult to get through
Review: I have to say that Book 10 left me feeling very dissatisfied and almost angry that I now have to wait who-knows-how-long to get some closure on the multitude of unresolved story-lines. I don't have the excited anticipation of the next volume as I had after finishing all the previous volumes. It's more like "The next book better be really good to have made this one worth the reading." The feeling is disappointment- disappointment that I had suffered through hours of anticipation, thinking maybe something exciting would resolve in the next chapter. That's the only thing that kept me from putting the book down half way though. All the book seemed to do was set up each individual story line in a new direction, in painful detail, but then nothing big came of any of them in this volume. Give me a crumb and I would have been at least partially satisfied and willing to wait in excited anticipation for the next book, but I wasn't even given a crumb. I expected something exciting to come of the cleansing of sadin but it was such an anti-climax that I was almost stunned. It was treated like it was almost meaningless to the characters & story- but when so much emphasis was put on the taint and how men who can channel go insane, and Rand's physical repulsion and struggle every time he touched the soruce because of it, and how the Ways were tainted by it, etc. how could the cleansing be treated as so unimportant? I still don't understand what happened!
There are so many situations set up in this book without resolution that if the next book doesn't resolve them in an exciting way, I will probably be very angry. I find my sentiments strange in itself but I've just read every book 1 to 10 (for the second time, this time with no pause between books) for about a month now (that's 1 book read in about every 3 days.) Jordon has had me in his grips where I couldn't put a book down to get to sleep at a decent hour or take the appropriate time and effort to eat right, that I just can't believe he lost it with this book. I can't believe the author would keep his fans hanging so painfully unless he had a real whopper of a book 11. I believe that Robert Jordon has done too good a job in this series to fall flat now just when things are really building to such a critical mass. He may have needed this volume to begin changing the direction of the series and the characters so he could build the foundation for what's coming as he gets closer to the final battle. I just hate where he left off with a crisis at the end of each story-line and character, but maybe there's a reason why.
I will hold judgement until I read the next volume.
So I have to agree with the other reviewer who recommended that people should maybe wait to read book 10 until book 11 comes out and then read them one after another. To me, volume 10 seems like 1/2 a book- all the painful set-up to the excitement sure to come... Maybe book 11 will resolve what was built in book 10. I don't know, but I'm sure hoping that is the case.
...But I still can't help feeling like he should have had volume 11 written and published right after volume 10 to make up for what he put all his devoted fans through... to make it worth the suffering! :)
Rating:
Summary: Crossroads is a deciding point
Review: Their is a lot of critisism, and some praise for this book, and I think both sides need to realize that this book is exactly as it it titled, a Crossroad. This is the turning point, and as described by the chessboard comparison is setting up for the books that follow, may they come soon. However, what this also means is that we see that Rand is okay, Elaine is still fighting for the throne, Eqwene is still laying seige to Tar Valon, Perrin is still looking for his wife, and Mat is still trying to escape. The only thing new is that we know Rand is okay... this book would have been better as the first half to a book that provides us with something new, and a much better sence of acomplishment. My recomendation would be to read this book when the next book shows up, assuming its reviews are far better.
Rating:
Summary: Please Listen Carefully
Review: Long ago I had the joy of reading a wonderful book called 'The Eye of the World.' Its writing was succint, its insights were well put and, like the best of Tolkien, it was spun in such a way that while it left so much open, it closed with having made its point.
However, Jordan has now passed from the 'epic' stage to the stage of inefficiency. The Wheel of Time was wonderful because it provided us with a world rich with fresh semiotic relationships, an environment that was palpable and, more importantly, well told.
Jordan has now replaced this high quality of story telling with a slowness and turgid nature that cannot retain the freshness and the richness of the new codes we have been given. Instead of showing, he is telling, as if he has removed his characterization from the context of a narrative and placed it into a textbook. Instead of high fantasy, he has dipped into the sloppiness of the low.
This is not by any means the 'game of chess' the recent reviewer described it as, nor does it exist at some higher plane of intellectual discourse of which the layman is incapable of understanding. This is not Pynchon or DeLillo; this is not high Shakespeare; this is not 'Being and Nothingness,' if you wish to expand the analogy to encompass philosophical discourse; this is the result of quantity over quality.
As a writer, I know that even if one has a set idea of what the plot will eventually come to and how it will come to it, taking too long to 'get to the point' and reach some sort of conclusion will cause your writing to drop off in quality.
Jordan should have learned this from studying the greats in fantastic fiction--grand does not equal long. Tolkien conjured up a timeless, limitless epic in four installments. There is a reason he did write 100 installments instead. Jordan needs to make his point, or suffer the sort of aesthetic decay that it pains a common writer to see.
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