Rating: 
Summary: Frustrated?
Review: Do what I do. Start pulling for the Dark One. The dithering males don't deserve to win Tarmon Gaidon and the women simply deserve to die period. Have you ever seen a greater collection of hags in your life? Round up the lot of them and right when they begin to sniff and pull their braids and smooth their skirts, balefire them in their ample bosoms. Give em hell Shaitan.
Rating:
Summary: End in Sight?
Review: I think the first two books were strong and looked to be ending with a third installment. This would have been really nice but instead book three started introducing new landscapes and new characters, which would be fine if the new characters were really different from the original ones or if they moved the story and the reader to a conclusion of the series. How many all-knowing older women, veteran warriors, charismatic rouges, etc can one farm boy meet? Quantity of characters types seems to have dominated the series rather than strong characters. Instead of the one distant Aes Sedai we now have literally dozens. And that is before all the new types of magic that the last five books have introduced that were not mentioned at all at the beginning of the series. As a result, by book ten you hardly see the core cast and when you do see them they are only acting as foils to introduce new characters. The characters you've been reading about for years spend book ten doing nothing, and the supporting cast or entourage each of them have acquired are now taking center stage. If you read books one through three really hoping to see what king of husbands and wives the characters would become in books seven through ten then this book is probably for you. If you really liked the new spouses and wanted to see more of them instead of the original characters, this book is really for you. If you are like me, and read books one through six with the promise that a small cast of characters were out to do something important, well, it still isn't anywhere in sight. I read books three through six eagerly waiting for all the pieces to come together. That promise has become a distant memory. Book ten continues the trend of just mucking things up. I've stuck it out this long hoping to see some epic conclusion but the basics of a story are missing - a beginning, a middle, and an end. With each new book the middle and the end become that much more confusing and unsatisfying. And now with prequels the beginning is even in question. Plus, the new cast of always expanding characters really cheapens the actions of the core cast. How epic can the ending of a ten book (plus) series be if it hinges on the actions of characters who were only introduced in the last couple of books? I mean, if these new characters are that important shouldn't they have been mentioned in the first five books? Or shouldn't they have been the main characters to begin with?
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty bad, but it looks to get better... (I hope)
Review: The main problem with this book is that nothing important happened. If I'm not mistaken, this book starts a couple days before book 9 ends, and only a month or so passes. If you haven't read it yet, don't bother. Wait for book 11, and then read book 10 + 11 and something will (probably) happen. Everyone who's read this already knows about how Jordan spends too much time describing everything, so I won't talk about it. I think book 10 was mildly interesting at best the first time I read it, and when I reread the series I skipped almost all of it. I think the main reason I don't like this book is that most of it is spent on Elayne, Perrin, and Egwene, who are boring characters in my opinion. Well, that's not exactly right; the situations they are in are boring. I just can't make myself care about Egwene's power struggles with her insignificant rebel Aes Sedai, or the games between the Andoran houses (I can't remember their names), and Perrin might be interesting if he ever did anything. Another problem with this book is that the main character (as much as there is a main character) isn't mentioned for about the first five hundred pages. Rand literally does NOTHING this whole book. On the other hand, I also really liked the parts about the Seanchan (even the long descriptions of the skull cup), just because I find them interesting. I think Mat is hilarious and the sections with Tuon were awesome. I think that if the book was about two hundred pages longer, there would be far fewer complaints. A lot of things ALMOST happen in this book. This bodes well for book 11, so long as characters aren't ignored. I don't think RJ is totally stupid though, and that makes me worried. He probably had a good reason to end where he did, which makes me afraid that there are hundreds more pages to go before anything worth reading occurs. Book 11 will either resolve a lot of things or it will end up going into totally aggravating digressions. My biggest worry is that Suroth and Semirhage will get a collar on Rand in the next book, and all of the book will be spent on Rand being really upset and trying to break free (AKA Box & Dumai Wells). This would bring nothing new to the story, and I hope Jordan doesn't waste our time with it. I would much prefer it if Arath and Suroth just trip down some stairs and Rand says "Well, I guess I'll just come back later when this Daughter of the Nine Moons is around. Maybe I'll go have a chat with Egwene and Elayne."
Rating:
Summary: Long Day's Journey Into Nothing Much
Review: How can Robert Jordan write 700+ pages and have each of his characters in virtually the same position they were in at the beginning? With all the other Wheel of Time books, I got to a point where I couldn't put it down. With this one, I got to a point where I couldn't wait to get it over so I could read the next Aubrey/Maturin novel on my shelf. The novel goes on and on and on amid endless discussions and reflections by all the characters about what a tight spot they're in--which they are--and at the end, they're in the same tight spots. NOTHING of significance has occurred! A reader could skip this book entirely (and what a time-saver that would be), go from "Winter's Heart" to whatever the sequel to "Crossroads" will be, and not miss a thing. All the little details of Jordan's rich world began to look like meaningless filler; I became very conscious of how frequently the Aes Sedai twitch/smooth/adjust their shawls, and of how the Ilianer accent do be coming out when an Ilianer character do be stressed. The fact that nothing actually happens in this volume, combined with the fact that the next Wheel of Time book is a prequel to "Eye of the World", makes me wonder if Jordan has just run dry.
Rating:
Summary: Mr. Robert Jordan, please read:
Review: Mr. Jordan: The entire book could have been written in 20-25 pages. Stop it with the drama and cut to the chase. We (and there are a lot of us) are fed up with reading page after page of meaningless dialog and self thought. This is just another 700 pages of actionless nonsense. We have read each of the other nine books, and we after going this far, we will probably read another. So please, please, please end the torture have the charachters do something - anything. Myself and other readers look forward to your next book - - - but fool us again, and we will wait to buy #12 from the remainder bin.
Rating: 
Summary: What happened???!!
Review: Perhaps I am being pointlessly redundant but I want to speak anyway. I used to love WoT. I LOVED books 1-4 and 6. I own them in paperback and hardcover because I reread the paperbacks so often they were beginning to fall apart. 5 wasn't a favorite but I figured that it was a blip on the road to excitement. Then came 7. And then 8 And 9. Each became more and more irritating. Each moved more and more slowly and seemed to focus on the least interesting people in the series. It reached the point where I actually never read 9. I listened to it in whatever order I could get on CD's borrowed from friends. But the ending was encouraging. I decided to give 10 a chance. ARGH! Who in their right minds builds up momentum and then decides to gabble on and on and ON about dresses and politics of countries we don't care about at all? Why do the characters behave contradictoryly to logic? For people who are supposed to be political geniuses they forgot the most obvious things. I think I could run things better. Anyway end of rant. But it is the nature of a fan to live hopefully. Maybe we can get ourselves another Winter's Heart and have a book that is readeable (I have given up on getting another Shadow Rising).
Rating: 
Summary: !!!!!what????
Review: After scanning multiple reviews which dismally dismissed this book as a never-ending, slow-moving, book with too much attention devoted to detail written by a money-hungry author, i have become so disgusted that i am writing my own review.
First of all, almost every review seems to think that Jordan is dragging out the series so long because he desires more money.
Look at this from an authors point of view. Imagine, dedicating over a decade of your life creating and enriching a world and characters which you have created. Now, envision having to stop writing about them, except perhaps occasional short stories for your own pleasure, forever. Do you think Jordan could honestly take up his pen and write a fast moving, stuning conclusion to the series? he would lose a part of his life, and the majority of REAL fans would be disappointed. Those who claim to be fans, after a short period of time, would merely shift their criticism from the slowness of the books to the disappointing and hastily written ending.
the book itself i found very enjoyable. True, i did not race through the pages as i was prone to do with earlier novels, but it kept me captivated, and i found myself thinking about it for quite a while after i finished.
My only complaint is its length. For a time, Jordan's books have been getting progressively shorter; i would love to see a 58 chapter book of The Shadow Rising calibur.
Thee fact that i desired it to be longer, however, almost defeats its purpose in criticizing the book when you take into account that this signifies that the book was very enjoyable and i would have liked to enjoy myself for a while longer.
I think that those of you who so harshly criticize this book have forgotten the thirst you must have once felt for more WOT books, and if there are less positive reviews of this book, it is merely because those who truly appreciate WOT dismiss this ignorant criticism with a chuckle.
If you are wavering between deciding whether or not to buy this book, BUY IT! please ignore the other harsh reviews and know that i speak from my heart when i say that this book upholds the glorious tradition started by the Eye of the World.
Rating:
Summary: Of course there's lot of detail...
Review: Of course there's a lot of dull detail in this book. However, Jordan does add everything for a reason, as he states. I recently re-read the entire series from book 1 through Crossroads and I noticed a few things. A few of the books start off VERY slowly, so I struggled through for the first 100 pages or so. He also recaps a lot. One of the books devotes an entire prologue of about 100 pages to recapping the end of the previous book. Forgive me for not remembering exactly which book. I also paid attention to the details and found seemingly insignificant details from 5 books back popping up and making perfect sense. It seems that the very thing that everybody is complaining about in this book is Jordan't foreshadowing. Plus, nothing really starts to happen until closer to the end of Crossroads. I have faith that the next book will be better. He wrote himself into a rut and now I think he's trying to get out of it. Whenver we read a series, I think we need to think about the author's intent and try to look at the big picture. We come from an impatient society and this series has drawn out for more than a decade. I think a lot of people expected Crossroads to wrap it all up and that'll be the end of it. But if we look at Jordan't big picture, we should hopefully see that there's still some more story and Crossroads is trying to build up to a grande finale. Although it was a weak buildup.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, yes, I agree. But...
Review: 2.5 stars Yes, I agree with most of you. This book sucks, and it is definitely the worst of the series. There are many reasons why, and there's probably nothing I can say that hasn't been said already, but there are some things that I must say. First off, Jordan is NOT lengthening the series for money. If you really look at this claim, it's ridiculous. Jordan already has tons of money, and he already has plans for what he will write after WoT. So he makes money whether he's writing Wheel of Time or not, which makes the claim that he's fattening his wallet with WoT books completely groundless. No, Jordan BELIEVES in what he's writing. You may ask how can he believe, why can't he recognize the trash he just put out? Well, remember, he's the only one who knows how the story will end, and looking at the story as a whole puts a different perspective on things. I do believe that fans will also be more forgiving once the final book is out. Let's look at the big picture. Pretty much everyone is in agreement that books 1-4 were wonderful. Then after that, things started going downhill. I personally think that things started going bad at book five, got worse on six, got the worst at seven, starting getting better in eight and nine, and then of course reached its all-time low with book ten. What basically happened was that things started moving slower, there wasn't enough action. Some people think it was the abundance of plot threads. I think that's part of it, but more than anything else it's all the little comments and thoughts on mostly irrelevant things. I remember Jordan saying in an interview that he puts everything in there for a reason. So, while I read Crossroads of Twilight, I paid attention to all the little bas+ards that he put in his sentences. And I discovered that, it was true, he did put everything in there for a reason. All the little bas+ards DID affect us, in a very subtle way, by showing us what the characters were feeling at the moment, their perspective on everything. But they're far from necessary. Jordan needs to learn many things can be IMPLIED. By using the correct words and phrases, he can tell us things without actually having to tell us. There are many authors that can do this very thing. Like George Martin. The reason I bring him up is because he's also writing a mammoth saga, with a complex plot. But I find the story easy to follow, nonetheless. Why? Because George Martin doesn't waste time with such trivialities. We're not stupid, Mr. Jordan. We can figure out some things on our own. We don't need three paragraphs to tell us that somebody is p1ssed off. We can probably figure out that Egwene's not going to like the tea, since she's already in a p1ssy mood. We know that those Aes Sedai are gonna be twitching those shawls, because they're all b1tches anyway. No need to spell it out. Jordan always said that there are events that he has to keep postponing till the next volume. Well here's the reason right here: all the little bas+ards that he dumps upon each book. Well finally it's caught up to him, in this book. Crossroads of Twilight is the catch-up book. All the excess from the former books is dumped here. That's all this book is - excess. Excess and exposition for the next book. Now, we all agree that is the worst book. If you think it's not, then there really is something wrong with you. Nothing happens. But, I wouldn't give up. Here's why: I like to look at the Wheel of Time as one big trilogy. Now, in a trilogy, we're all familiar with the notorious middle book. It's the book that is most of the time the worst in the trilogy. Well, that's how I'm looking at the Wheel of Time. Books 1-5 is Book 1, 6-10 is Book 2, and 11-15 will be Book 3. (Yes, that's how many I'm guessing there will be. Jordan says two more but he's been saying that since book six. 15 is a good number. It's a multiple of three, which fits in nicely with my trilogy analogy.) So, if you look at Jordan's last five books as one big middle book, then it makes more sense, doesn't it? It's a bridge between the first five and the last five. No one but Jordan knows what the ending will be, but I get the feeling it's going to be up to par with the beginning of the saga. Crossroads of Twilight ends with some major conflict on the horizon. In fact, it ends with several cliffhangers, something that hasn't been done in any of the former books. So try to keep a little perspective. I know for me that might be easier, since I started late enough in the series that I was able to read the first nine books all in one stretch. For those who have been reading since the beginning, that's ten years of mediocrity, and I feel your pain. But, I truly think it will be worth it in the long run. I don't know for sure, but I got a damn good feeling. I'm sure Jordan's got some surprises up his sleeve. He's definitely got vision - he showed us that in the first book of this little trilogy. And I don't think that that vision was lost, just submerged while he plodded through the middle book. The climax of the middle book was the cleansing of the taint. CoT was the falling action that comes after the climax. It ends with a definite sense of closure. Book 3 is on the way. And I'm ready.
Rating:
Summary: ZZZzzzzzzZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz
Review: Someone please wake me up...I started reading this a month ago and I am only 200 pages in. As a school teacher, I had a real problem with reading at night. I read quickly, but I am one of those unfortunate souls who is incapable of stopping reading once having begun. That, thanks to the 10th installment of The Wheel of Time series, has been cured...I'm snoring within 10 minutes of opening the book. What amazes me is considering the investment...here in Canada, these novels sell for $50 each. This means I have invested $500 into a set of novels that may possibly never end...It is time for Jordan to either knock a couple spokes out of the wheel of time, or add three more wheels, pop into 4X4, and make something happen. The wheel of time might keep turning, but I will be waiting for paper back tracks from now on. With this book in particular, however, Jordan has found the best cure for insomnia since sleeping pills.
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