Rating: 
Summary: Incompetent or Greedy?
Review: I really cannot decide if Jordan has let this beast grow so huge that he doesn't know what to do with it anymore, or if he is just trying to milk every dollar he can out of it. How is it possible to write a 680 page book that doesn't advance the story AT ALL? The first half of Winter's Heart was horrible because nothing happened. But at least in the end something MAJOR was resolved. So after the first 500 pages of nothing, I was hopeful that something would happen in the end. But it didn't. If you're reading this series, skip this book. Find a summary on-line and save yourself several hours. Instead of this, you really need to read George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire. Infinitely better than what this series has turned into.
Rating: 
Summary: Fluff - Doesn't add much to the story
Review: I was disappointed with this book. For as long as it is, nothing much got done. We never really find out anything about saidin being cleansed of the taint. Not much happens with the development of the characters. It is basically filler chapters in the disguise of a book. Hopefully the next book will have more meat to it.
Rating:
Summary: Too much and not enough
Review: This could have been a five-star book. I fully understand the disappointment of many of the reviewers who felt unsatisfied after reading this book. Jordan's storytelling abilities are just as good as they have always been - you really get into what he is talking about - but then he leaves you hanging. His story has gotten so large, with so many characters, that it is almost as if each character gets only one chapter before we are moved on to the next. With so many subplots, the reader just begins to remember who Jordan is describing and then he starts in with a different character. This is a large book that needed to be twice as long, or with half as many subplots. Mr Jordan really needs to put out a new book in this series every few months (not years) in order to keep people happy with this type of sprawling epic.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing but a Status Report
Review: Robert Jordan, in his multi-year writer's block, has the gall to charge us for providing us a detailed description of exactly where he left off two novels ago.
Rating: 
Summary: Where's the Dragon?
Review: I must like to suffer, because I hurried down and bought this book that can't keep me reading for more than fifteen minutes. So much time is spent on those god awful Aes Sedai, that their names are just one big jumble. If the writer would just stick to the STORY and the characters from the first book, the reading would be much more enjoyable, and would make more sense. I am on page 447, and I keep telling myself it will get better, but Jordan must be trying to hypnotize me with his words that are in italics that cannot be verbalized. I think I'll stick with R. A. Salvator'e from now on.
Ken
Rating:
Summary: Not a Good Choice
Review: Very disappointed. Not what I expected. Certainly not the type of writing of the first 5 books. Time to move on to another series.
Rating:
Summary: What's the Hold Up?
Review: I turned page after page after page of this tome waiting for something interesting to happen. Tedium set in, my eyes glazed over, and extreme boredom took over. I now understand what "jordanitis" is all about; string along the reader and sell him books about nothing to maximize profit. I'm very close to abandoning this series the same way I did Terry Goodkind. Thank God for George R.R. Martin!
Rating:
Summary: Terrible Disappointment!
Review: While working at a bookstore in college, a coworker referred me to Robert Jordan's novels (he was on book 5 at that time). I was hooked and devoured each book in the series, unable to put them down. Even the more recent books, while slow in the plot, kept me interested. I got this book when it first came out, tried to read it and lost interest. I have half of it to read still and may not even bother. He spends too much time on details which do not carry the story. Nothing happened up to where I've read and from the reviews it sounds like nothing will either. Sigh.
Rating:
Summary: Going nowhere, slowly
Review: Perhaps the most annoying thing about this tenth volume, issued after two years and much hoopla, is that there is very little advancement of the plot for each of the characters. Mat continues his slow-motion flight from the Seanchan and his love/hate relationship with Tuon (we're given a couple of teases about Seanchan and Prophet habits of hand-chopping, but it goes nowhere), Perrin continues his utterly irrelevant chase after Faile and the Shaido, Rand his indecisive random walk around Randland, Elayne her schemes to regain her mother's throne (look for an amusing scene when a handful of noble teenagers are brought to support her cause), and Egwene, at long last, starts her siege of Tar Valon. In the final chapter, this actually goes somewhere, and we are left with a cliffhanger. Another great source of frustration is that by the tenth book of a series, you expect the plot to start contracting towards the climax, in this case, it appears, Tarmon Gaidon. This book does not do so, and it even expands the scope of the series, as pages are given to point of view characters who we saw little or nothing of in earlier volumes. However many books we thought Jordan would need to wrap things up, add one more on. "The Path of Dragons" occupied only nine days of time. This book occupies a bit more, but its start is sometime before the end of "Winter's Heart", with the result that the characters react to the apparent cleansing of saidin about halfway through the book. Frustratingly, it is not made clear if Rand was successful in his effort. I think we deserve at least that much. The level of detail we are given is ridiculous. I do not think that we need to know the ins and outs of Andoran politics to the extent we are told. The level of detail of the scenes (say, Luca's circus or the camp around Tar Valon), is again, too much. It is almost as if Jordan was trying to fill the book with fluff. There are the usual Egwenian dreams and some Foretellings and the like for us to interpret, which will keep the discussion groups busy. But with this creeping pace, how many volumes will it take to Tarmon Gaidon? Ten more? The book is not worthy of the anticipation and patience we expended waiting for it.
Rating:
Summary: In a word, "Zzzzzzzz."
Review: I believe in his "about the author" piece on the slipcovers of his novels Mr. Jordan indicates his intent to keep writing until they nail his coffin shut. So I assume that given the recent long-winded and incredibly slow books, he's just pacing himself. I must say that I hope he's able to finish the series before he checks out. For that matter, before I check out would be nice. Thus far I have purchased the hardback versions of all of Mr. Jordan's Wheel of Time books. However, after slogging through page after page of, well, nothing much at all in Crossroads of Twilight, I'm going to grab the next one--probably to be released a few decades from now--at the library. Heads up, Tor Books--I'm sure I'm not the only one.
| 
