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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: 2 stars
Summary: If I had skipped this book...
Review: ...I could very easily pick up the next book in WOT and have no trouble following what was going on -- except, of course, I'd have to break out a chart to keep up with the myriad characters Jordan has cluttering up his world. No, wait, myriad is not a strong enough word. Tolkien's Silmarillion had myriad characters; the WOT has become more overcrowded than a third-world slum.

I really think that Jordan has lost sight of the essential rule of storytelling -- to entertain the audience. Every scene in a story should contribute something to the writer's overall vision and to the reader's understanding of the story, but frankly, there's not much in this book that I cared to read about. There's nothing in book 10 that couldn't have been compressed down to about 3 chapters in another book. Jordan's style is well-polished, as always, but his editor must have been on vacation.

My advice to anyone who hasn't bought this book but is considering it: wait until the series is finished, then buy all of it at once. Read the books back-to-back, one after another, and the WOT reads a lot better and makes a lot more sense. Taken as individual novels, several of the books are weak (especially this one), but when read as a whole, the series has an impressive strength.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: as terrible as 9 was great
Review: Don't rush out to buy the hard cover ... you might even be able to skip this one altogether. ALMOST NO ACTION. For books 9 and 10 of the series it's as if he took one book, put all the action and intrigue into 9 and ALL the description of clothes, what the soup tasted like, etc. into 10. Sorry, I love the series, and I'm not harshing the author, but after the great read of 9 I was sorely disappointed by 10. Then, after a whole lot of nothing really, he leaves the book a cliffhanger ... that we can expect to wait 2 or 3 years to resolve? Wah.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: No end in sight
Review: More endless conversation, more nattering women.... Oh, and lots and lots of descriptions of dresses. Worst of all, no end in sight.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I've had enough!!!!
Review: I'll keep this short. Hundreds of pages of fluff. Lengthy unnecessary descriptions. Nothing happens. The plot isn't advanced. The book isn't worth buying even at a discount. For me the series is over. I'm never reading another.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: 700 pages...and NOTHING HAPPENED
Review: While I am not familiar with the "bridge" mentioned in an earlier review, I have certainly become familiar with the concept. I regret the money I spent on this book nearly as much as I regret the time spent reading it. Should the author ever return to the excellent skills he demonstrated in the first books in this series, I would recommend that anyone reading the series in a future generation simply skip this one - they will not miss a thing. If he does not get better soon, I would tell that future reader to skip them all.

If Mr. Jordan reads these reviews, bear in mind that I will not buy another book of yours again, unless I read it first at a library. I hope you decide to actually do something in the next installment - it might lead to my return as a purchaser.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Starting to Get Angry
Review: Robert Jordan remains one of the greatest writers of our time, and The Wheel of Time is definitely the top fantasy epic since The Lord of the Rings, but lets start wrapping things up Bobby! I was very frustrated by this book. You wait for new chapters of this series to come out and when they finally do, the storyline is moved forward just a tiny bit. 90 some pages of prologue and Jordan seems to be introducing new story lines instead of angling things toward the end. I'm not asking for the series to end in the next few books or anything, I love this story, but a great story like this needs an ending to be complete, and frankly, the latest books haven't been worth reading for sheer enjoyment purposes. Read this book only if you have read the others and are like me and want to get through to the end. Then hope Jordan picks up the pace in his next book and decides to finish this series before he dies.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A boring chapter in a good series
Review: This book disappointed me. Four years ago I practically fell in love with the wheel of time series. It was good fantasy that progressed at a perfect speed. Sadly, that nimbleness of motion is grinding to a screeching halt. Jordan is attempting an admirable thing, but I honestly feel that he is failing utterly. He is obviously trying to create a complex masterpiece, but most of his descriptions in this book are repeats of previous passages. Be prepared for a great deal of shawl twitching on the part of the Aes Sedai, as well as stare downs between women of all shapes and sizes.
If Jordan really wanted to write a truly complex tapestry, I would encourage him to read George RR Martin's current fantasy first. Inevitably, my greatest criticism is that nothing happens in the book. That is, nothing that could not be contained in a very well written prologue. It would be a fairly long prologue, but Jordan fans are used to length by now. What he does here, is spend 700 pages describing the events of winter's hearts, from every other characters position. Mostly everybody is confused about the pillar of the one power in the sky. People move around some, though they remain in the same predicament as they began in. There is one interesting development in the entire book, and it goes past very quickly.
Having read Winter's Heart right away when it came out, I found myself almost giddy thinking about how interesting the next book would be, because it would be the book that dealt with the male female relationships for the first time in a situation where men are free from the taint. That never occurs. Anything that you had hoped to have resolved, such as the prophecy about Thom pulling Moiraine out of the fire, never occurs. There are some interesting passages about Mat and Tuon, but nothing that merits 700 pages.
Many reviewers attempt to defend Jordan's lack of action, by saying that it is only one chapter in a very long book, and there are bound to be boring chapters, but it seems like overkill to be boring for 700 pages. Others say that it is a very complex book, full of characterization necessary for the future books. This isn't really true. Many of the details provided are about completely esoteric subjects, and most of the characterization is fairly repetitious. I was very surprised to see that that one reviewer said that this was a book for people who are looking for something serious to read, and that those who want a quick and easy read should go to Tolkien.
I also wanted to quickly address another reviewer, another guy who says this is slow, who compared it to a puzzle on an internet site. The puzzle that he described is the one known as zeno's paradox. It really bothers me to see the work of an ancient greek philosopher being subjugated to the realm of internet novelties.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Disappointment
Review: I read the first three books and then waited with baited breath for each new installment. Unfortunately each installment now takes longer and is more disappointing than the previous one. Crossroads of Twilight is thin on plot and thick on the filling. Robert Jordan appears to be stretching the story out to breaking point, probably in anticipation of the royalties from each book. Unfortunately it seems the less substance he puts into each book the more fans fall by the way side. I would borrow this book or buy it second hand because it is certainly not worth spending your hard earned money on. Lets hope Jordan learns the error of his ways and starts displaying the brilliance that had us all enthralled at the beginning of this epic.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Please, make it stop!
Review: Nothing happens! I eventually managed to read the entire book, but it was a frustrating ordeal. The author has seemingly lost control over the characters and the story. This book could have easily been cut in half or more but for the increadible amounts of agonizing detail stuffed into every moment. What was once the best series that fantasy had to offer has gone stale and flat.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: I waited two years for this?!?
Review: It's official. The magic is gone. There was once a time when I couldn't put down an Eye of the World volume. Now, I can't wait for them to end.

For those interested in purchasing Book 10 -- visit a bookstore and read the hardcover jacket. You'll get all of what happens in COT there, plus a couple mentions of things that don't.

Lemme see... Mat moves about 30 miles up the road from where we last saw him. Perrin chases the Shaido a bit, stops to replenish his food supply, and frets about Faile. Elayne meets with a couple teenagers to gain their support for her bid for the Lion Throne. Rand does nothing. Egwene plots about how to retake the White Tower, and then is ridiculously captured.

And that's it. Folks, it's getting ugly out there.


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