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

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

List Price: $75.00
Your Price: $47.25
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Wheel Turns...Slowly but Surely
Review: I think that we've come far enough along the Wheel of Time Story to recognize that Jordan's tale is a massive undertaking, more akin to The Lord of the Rings (that is, a huge story broken into three books) than to other fantasy series (where each book tells a complete story, yet is part of the overall epic). And this translates into Jordan no longer even trying to "finish" a book by its end; rather, he simply finds a breaking point and stops telling the story. This has been the rule for the past few books, and Crossroads of Twilight is no exception.

As disappointing as that may be -- and yes, I, too, am waiting eagerly for resolution to smaller plots that have been building for the past few books -- I am willing to go along with Jordan for the heady ride. His writing remains excellent overall, although at times he lapses into familiar descriptions. And his character development is superb -- each person who makes an appearance in the saga is treated as a player important to the overall story. The main characters are all at a crossroads of sorts, where they must make important decisions. Jordan gives us a few chapters each about Mat, Perin, Elayne, Egwene and (to a lesser degree) Rand, about how these characters make their decisions that will, ultimately, have an impact on the overall story. (The results of these decisions await, alas, for another book.)

The only true complaint I have is two-fold: the prologue did not capture my attention, and at this point, I have no way of keeping tabs of who all the supporting characters are (mainly Aes Sedai). Some of those names are a mouthful.

That being said, I am once again eagerly awaiting the next installment. (I am guessing that the series will run for 13 books; the number 13 has been important throughout. Maybe Book 13 will be called The Breaking of the World.)

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Nothing happened?
Review: I wouldnt say that nothing happened, since after i read this book, an end to this series is very unlikely in my eyes. there wasnt any action at all and the story wasnt brought forward, but Jordan introduced some new problems and characters. This really got me frustrated, and i feel like a junkie, who doesnt get the thrill anymore, but cant let go of his addiction.
Please Mr. Jordan: release us!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Step back and see the larger picture
Review: I am motivated to write my first Amazon.com review by the scores of negative reviews of this book.

My review: Yes, we're still in the midst of the long set-up to the series climax. No, we haven't returned to the days of "a Forsaken must die in the last chapter of each book" installments that began the series, and that seem so wildly popular amongst a certain subset of the fan base ("Why isn't anything _happening?_"). And yes, I was a little exasperated when I realized that two-thirds of the book would be gone before we even pulled even with the last chapter of book 9.

However, this is still a very good, extremely well-written book. I rate it a weak 4 stars, or a strong 3 stars. Count me amongst the camp that enjoys detailed explanations of the world and its characters. (Call me crazy, but I actually read every word of Les Miserables, another book where people like to say "it's good, but only if you skip over those 100 page chapters where Hugo talks about French history.")

In books 7, 8, and 9, people complained that major plot lines and characters were left out. So in this book, we go into relative depth on four to five major plotlines instead of our customary two. And what is the response? Clamoring for Mr. Jordan to "leave something out," to "get to the point," et cetera.

Step back and see the big picture, folks! Having just finished rereading the entire series right before this book was released, I am able to see the bigger picture of this story better than people who read Winter's Heart 2 years ago and then picked up Crossroads of Twilight without any refresher. And you know what I found? The story is definitely moving; it is definitely progressing. But it is doing so at a scale that is larger than any one book. Upset that Perrin wasn't included in book 8? Reread the whole series. You'll see that his story line is touched on late in book 7 and early in book 9. Mr. Jordan actually does an amazing job of advancing all of his story lines at a good pace, but you have to read at least several books in sequence in order to appreciate it. Reading any one book by itself, particularly after a long delay, does not do it justice.

Now some will claim this further evidence that Mr. Jordan is an inept storyteller; that each and every book must have a set up, transition, climax, etc. I choose instead to appreciate the entire series as I believe Mr. Jordan intended it, and marvel at the epic scale on which this story is written.

All of that said, I look forward to the series beginning the acceleration towards its conclusion. I believe Crossroads of Twilight sets us up well for that acceleration to begin in the next installment.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A BIG WAIST OF TIME
Review: A big waist of time , the only thoughts that come to mind in regards to book 10 of this series. The 95 page prologue was bad enough, but the chapters just ramble on about nothing that has any relevance to the story line. Endless chapters about shawls and smoothed skirts brings nothing to the story. What started out a series of well written books has now become filler. I hope that Mr Jordan writes the final book before fan loose interest and move on.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: It wasn't that bad...
Review: OK, this was most definitely not Robert Jordan's best book, but I also don't think it was his worst. Overall, this series began with 7 great books, and then book 8 came. And it was terrible. Book 9 was much better than book 8, and I thought almost back to the high standard set in the first 7. This book is similar to book 8, yet I think it was much better. Tuon's character begins to develop and things start to move on with the rebel Aes Sedai. There was definitely not enough of Rand(only 30 pages!!) and the sections about Perrin were horrible, but it starts to move forward near the end. This used to be first rate fantasy, but now it is only just better than mediocre.

If you want a real fantasy series, read George R R Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" or Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth".

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Marginal or Setup for the Finale?
Review: As you might have surmised from all of the reviews, Book 10 is 95% character development, 5% plot advancement. In fact, this installment carries the story timeline only one to two weeks from when Book 9 ended.

Because very little time has elapsed from when we last read how Rand and Nynaeve cleansed saidin, you can imagine that not much plot advancement is possible. However, it is within these very few days that significant choices and changes are presented to each of the supporting characters, as alluded to by the book's title. Each person has come to a crossroad in their lives, with twilight suggesting an impending dawn of Light or eternal darkness.

This doesn't refute any of the comments that describe how R. Jordan repeats himself on the various cultures and traditions that are already cannon to avid readers. Also, the appearance of several new characters adds more complexity, since the list of major and minor characters is already more than 100 at this point. However, when the series is completed, readers may realzie that CoT is a necessary pause to recoup the storyline and redirect the characters towards the much anticipated finale.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The Low Point
Review: I feel sorry for Robert Jordan. I do. He has seen his last 3 books trashed and Crossroads of Twilight will probably be the low point in this series for Jordan. As everyone has said the first 7 books of this series soldified Jordan as a great fantasy writer. The most recent books have dragged, this one being the worst. The book took 680 pages to cover a week or two. The Eye of the World covered a time span of a couple months and the books that followed it did the same up until book 7. I still enjoy the series but why end book 9 as Jordan did if he was not going to cover Rand and the cleansing of the Source. There was too much details put into the story, things I don't think will be too important when this series draws to a close. I didn't need a summary of what happened in the last couple of books. As it is there was not much to talk about anyway. Nothing happens with Elayne, Rand, Egwene, Nynaeve, or Perrin. The story ends quite the same as the last one ended, with much foreshadowing of great events happening. Frankly I am getting tired of reading about Perrin traveling the countryside searching for the Shaido and Faile. This book at least should have solved a couple of the cliffhangers of book 9. It didn't. The cleansing of the source maybe mentioned twice. Jordan, i believe, has 2 choices for book 11. Either make something happen, or continue to write hundreds of pages about meaningless details, and lose the fans that you still have. I myself lost interest in the series after A Path of Daggers only to pick it up again. Maybe I made a mistake. I hope not. Despite all my cricitism I do have a few praises for the book. Jordan did an excellent job developing MAt's character as he comes to grips with his fate. And the book does provide tantalizing clues of what is to come (Even though it should have come to pass in these book). My recomendation is that you should buy the paperback version of this book in 1 year. You should still read this book despite some advice saying that skipping this book is fine. You will have problems understanding Mat and Perrin if you do not read this book. The reason for buying this book in a year is that there will not be such a long wait for you until the next book comes out. All we can pray for is that the plot gets moving again and that Jordan presents his readers with something to latch onto before he loses all of them. ONE MORE CHANCE, Mr. Jordan.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: RAFO? No, RAFN.
Review: Often times in on-line discussions in which he has participated, in interviews, and in commentaries, Robert Jordan has been asked detailed plot questions by devoted fans (like me) concerned about where the "Wheel of Time" series is going, or what will happen to one or more of the major characters in books to come. Jordan's answer, more often than not, is "Rafo" -- "Read and find out." Well, Mr. Jordan, I've read, and I've read, and I haven't found out a darned thing! I think I will invent my own acronym: RAFN. Read and find nothing.

I can think of a couple of other appropriate acronyms as well: "RAGC" -- Read and go crazy. How about RADOF? Read and die of frustration?

Whatever you come up with, CoT has got to be the worst Jordan book of the series by AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE. This is particularly frustrating to me since, as Christmas presents, I have bought four hardcover copies of books 8-10. With shipping, etc, that's ~ 140 bucks for TOR and Mr. Jordan, and both should be ashamed to take more than about five cents each for their efforts.

I won't go into the plot here, since there isn't any. Most of the major characters mill around and dither for nearly 700 pages, and the plot is barely advanced at all. As has been par for the last four or five books, RJ introduces another twenty or so minor characters, most of which we will presumedly never see again. All they do is talk about trivia.

As a 62-year old reader, I have read all the great science fiction and a good bit of fine fantasy, from Heinlein to Asimov to Stephenson to Tolkien. After book 5 (The Fires of Heaven), I was ready to canonize Mr. Jordan. I have now relegated him to the crowded classification of hacks who get a little success, get full of themselves, and decide to produce "literature" for the rest of their days. Give us a break, RJ, while there's still time! Reread The Eye of the World, and get back on the track!

Note that the only reason I rated this book one star is that the Amazon rating system doesn't go any lower. I would personally rate it 0.01* at best.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Dull, boring, dog weenie
Review: What happened? This book was terrible. I kept dozing. To many wining women. The are like NOW, those petty feminists. I want battles and peoples heads, and bodies blowing apart. These books are getting too cartoonie. The strategies posed by Rand and his crew are sensless. He should have smashed the white tower, making those snobby feminists kneel to his authority. There can only be one head on creature (army) he is forging. Rand is turning into a panzy. Next time he pulls his Heron marked sword out, he'll don his ballet tights on too.I'm starting to think Mr Jordan is a Liberal.(ooooo, thats real low, there less than dung)I still have faith in Mr Jordan, and will get his next book.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: many wasted hours i'll never get back
Review: This series could have been great. It's worthless drivel at this point. The reasons have been given a thousand times already, so I won't repeat them. Don't buy it. Go check our George R.R. Martin's 'Song of Ice and Fire' series instead for a real fantasy saga.


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