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

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.

Rating:
Summary: Wake me up when its finished, please.
Review: What else can be said about this horrific book? The sheer amount of paper & ink spent detailing what the characters are wearing is absolutely mind-numbing. When you've got to rely on good reviews from the likes of brown-nosing want-to-be writers who call the general public a bunch of dim-witted bulbs, because they can't appreciate "good literature", then you know you're in trouble. No, this is not "good literature"; it is stupid. And it's a slap in the face to every customer who naively slapped down their hard-earned money for this gargantuan book in the futile hopes that Mr. Jordan has decided to write for us mere mortals again. This book is boring, slow, ponderous, & about as exciting as my college algebra textbook. Please, for the sake of your sanity go pick up something else, anything else!

Rating:
Summary: Waste of Paper, Time, Effort, etc. etc. etc
Review: A recent positive review compared this series to a chess match, moving all the pieces in place.

What a load of tripe! This would have to be the slowest, longest, poorest played chess match in history.

If you like endless description of what the characters are wearing, with little if any plot advancement, then this book is for you. Or if you want to read pages detailing the washing of silk (Who on earth reading a novel wants this?), read on brave reader. Perhaps an aid to sleep is what this book really should be marketed as.

If you want to read great fantasy (as opposed to poor) read George RR Martin. There's honestly no comparison. Martin's work, as opposed to this mess, is focused, dramatic, exciting, has evolving characters, and is fun to read.

Rating:
Summary: The general public clearly does not write for a living.
Review: To be perfectly honest, the responses to this book so far are absolutely comical. A large number of "layman reviewers" say the same things: that they previously thought Jordan was the dominant figure of modern fantasy, and that now he has somehow lost his gift or gone senile or "sold out" as it were. The sheer volume of geriatric whining that has gone on here about Crossroads of Twilight illustrates with perfect clarity why these people are on the internet complaining instead of on the road fulfilling book signing engagements.

COT is preparation. An education in chess would help the lot of you significantly. If the end has been determined-meaning you know the goal that has to be accomplished and have rightly calculated the events that have to transpire in a particular order for the goal to be reached (you want to take the king, but the king is directly defended by his queen and 1 pawn, which are in turn defended by a bishop, which is serving to block the necessary rank and file angles you require to achieve victory. Therefore, you remove the defenders in a specific order then apply irresistble pressure to the king. If you rush this process, if you do not complete the necessary preparation of your offensive, when you go to make it happen, youll soon find yourself on the receiving end of a lot of pain) then the final sequence of events have to be set up exactly right or the whole structure is going to fall apart like the plot of a sci fi channel movie.

COT again is preparation. Jordan is moving the pieces, subtly, into their necessary positions. The final sequence of attacks will not begin until it is time. The only person on earth who knows how all this is going to end is Robert Jordan. The only person on Earth who knows how to make it all come to pass is Robert Jordan. The comedic part of all this criticism is that we can see with great clarity why powerful writers succeed, and incompetent writers make themselves into critics, and that is the presence or lack of an eye for subtlety and also like the chess master the ability to see not one or two moves ahead, but through deep calculation to see the entire game through from its current point.

The bottom line is this: 1> Dear critics, when your next book is published, send it to Mr. Jordan and im sure hell be glad to send back a written review of it. 2> You are clearly not capable of the subtle and deep thought required to create an entire universe and plot its origins, its present, and its great future events to come in such a way that it all comes together with clear resolution. Otherwise you'd be doing it, and we'd be buying your books. Leave the deep art to the adults.

I have complete faith that an author as skillful as Mr. Jordan will not have suddenly in the course of one novel lost his ability to write. I havent heard any reports of him having a stroke or forgetting English, so to expect such a leopard to suddenly change his spots is ridiculous. Jordan is making preparations and he is doing it for a particular reason. Your inability to see what those preparations are for and your infantile cries of "I want the good part now!" are absolutely laughable. Have some patience and let the man finishing crafting his work. It's ridiculous to start a judging fair on a work of art that still wont be completed for another three years...its not DONE.

So stop being so bloody pretentious, assume a little humility, and show proper respect by allowing Robert Jordan to make HIS book series HIS way.

And RJ, those who understand the craft have little doubt that you will continue to hold their imaginations in your hand until the last letter is written.

Rating:
Summary: Potboiler that WON'T end
Review: This series had a good start for the first three books or so, but it has devolved into many plotlines that are sometimes skipped for entire books. That would be okay if the story kept moving, but instead we are subjected to multi-paragraph long descriptions of characters dress and beliefs and then the character is never seen again. That isn't good writing, that is fluff and filler.

The only reason I bought this book is because I had thought there would only be 10 books in the series since the pre-quel is out. Foolish me. Not only has Jordan given up putting serious effort into the series, he will NEVER FINISH IT. I not only suggest no one read this series, I suggest no one read this author unless you are into masochism.

PS: How do you look at a ceiling and see that the square tiles "interlock"? I mean, how can they be squares, yet be seen by an observer to interlock?

Rating:
Summary: The Most Awesomely Bad Fantasy Book Ever
Review: I could not believe how incredibly bad this book was. I never finished it. When my bookmark fell out and I tried to find my place, I literally could not differentiate between what I had and hadn't read because it is so unbelievably monotonous. I am done with this evil farce called Wheel of Time, more appropriately Waste of Time.

Robert Jordan is plauged simultaneously with description diarrhea and plot constipation, a lethal combination, resulting in a book that should realistically be about twenty pages long for the complete lack of anything happening. Jordan is bogged down in this stagnant pond of his with useless minor characters that nobody cares about that are as numerous as mosquito larvae on the surface of the stagnant pond. This book is actaully slower than stagnant, because it takes place in the time frame of the ninth book over three drawn out uneventful days. Something sort of useful happens at the end, according to my friend, but I will save myself three or four words and not be a spoiler. The characters, main characters at least, are annoying as ever, and I won't even start with the five thousand other characters the story tracks without purpose and that won't die or go away. Jordan should take a hint from George RR Martin, who keeps his cast in check by killing off characters, even main characters occasionally.

Crossroads of Twilight is horrible in every sense of the word, so horrible that it does not even deserve the one star I was required to give it. Simply put, it sucks. Don't read it. I recommend it only for insomniacs who might want to read themselves to sleep in two seconds flat. This book is not worth the eight dollars you pay for it. In fact, it's not even worth getting paid eight dollars to read it. So please don't read it. Please don't encourage Jordan to write more stagnant books in what could have been a great series. Wheel of Time had little potential after the fourth book, but Book Ten killed it once and for all. So it goes.

P.S. My friend's sister read the 9th and 10th books out of order and did not even realize it. Goes to show that this book is totally worthless.

Rating:
Summary: Skim reading is the key and even then it might not be enough
Review: Loved the first four books...end good review.

To tell you how bad the latest books in the series are, the hardcover edition of winter's heart or is it winter's gate, I forget, has been on the same shelf in the bookstore at a bargain price of $6.99 and still hasn't sold. I believe it has been lying there for over six months now in the bargain books section. I skimmed crossroads of twilight. AVOID IT!!!

I pity newbies who are pulled into the first books of the series. The one star ratings aren't jokes.