Rating: 
Summary: Bridge across water...
Review: As many others I was disappointed that RJ did not progress the storyline farther then he did in this book. Too many interesting details and conversations are begun and hinted at but not written for us to read, instead we are still reading about trees and the smoothing of clothing. I was pleased with the advancement of Mat and Perrin and would have liked to have read more on Rand since he has been virtually a small character in books 9 & 10. Books 9 & 10 remind me somewhat of The Two Towers in that they are connectors from the beginning of the series when everything is new and dramatic to the end with the final battle. They contain necessary information for those who like details but I would not choose to put other activities on hold to read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Painful Read
Review: I have to preface this review with the comment that I am a fan of the WoT series. That said, anyone interested in reading this would be better off saving their money and purchasing this as a paperback or get it from the library. It is the weakest of the 10 books thus far in the series. So, what are the problems? First, a general lack of editing is in evidence. The book is brimming with ponderous descriptions of items and actions. Trivialities bogs down the pacing. Did anyone read this before it was published and talk to Jordan? He's become another Tom Clancy, publishing massive, long-winded tomes that serve better as doorstops. Second, the plot has taken a hiatus in CoT. Characters make some decisions--I'm sorry! I spoiled the book for you and told you what happened. I can't think of another time that I have encountered a book (or something in any other medium-except a Fellini film) containing more indecision. All I can think after reading it is that Jordan and his pubisher know that they have a guaranteed NYT bestseller, so they are milking this for all it's worth. I originally heard that there would be five, then eight, then ten volumes in the series. Now, with #10 getting us halfway to Tarmon Gaidin, it looks like we only have to suffer through TEN more to find out what happened. Jordan's walking a fine line now. I know of many that have been alienated by the crass exploitation of his fans by stringing out this series. People are getting bored and they are opting out. Other authors (Raymond Feist comes to mind) where able to write several satisfying series in a universe almost as interesting as Jordan's and each series had a beginning, a middle and an end. There is some merit to CoT. The decisions made are important, and the relationship of Mat and Tuon is quite interesting (though it almost serves as bookends to the novel). Aside from that, another reviewer's comment that it is "half of a novel" is very accurate. Pared down by a good editor, that exactly what CoT is: a fragment. In a few years, I guess, we will get the rest of the story.
Rating:
Summary: Mediocre at best
Review: (No spoilers) Let me start to say that I once was an RJ fanatic and loved the series. I have read most of the books 3+ times. Lord of Chaos in my eyes was the best book, and I believe it has been downhill from there. This book "is bad". Before I started, I read a review (I think on dragonmount) about how this book was completely different from the last 3, and how lots of things happened this book. It also mentioned how this book seemed to finalize some plotlines and was awesome. Looking back, I'm not sure the reviewer read the same book as I. I can summarize this whole book as saying it follows the trend of the last 3 books. NOTHING HAPPENS. There is maybe 1 out of 680 pages of the book where something happened (yeah the last page). The whole book takes place during the day that Rand cleans the taint, and the following week or so. Let me just say that it really isn't an eventful week. About the only positive thing about this book is that RJ mixes the chapters up a lot better than the prior books 3 books. I was never truely "bored" reading the book (yes I read every freakin page without skimming), but I can't say I found it overly interesting. He definitely has taken describing every freakin button on every person's coat to the extreme. Honestly, if you a reading reviews for the book, and are DEBATING buying it, don't bother reading it. But if you read every shred of Wheel of Time material, well you probably won't be influenced by this review anyway. Also if you haven't read the other 9 books, don't consider starting with this, start from book 1. My advice if you read the book is to keep your expectations in check, so you won't be disappointed. After reading the dragonmount review, I was very very disappointed. Oh well, 3 months until the next George RR Martin book comes out!
Rating: 
Summary: worst installment of the series
Review: After a strong showing in book 9 of the Wheel of Time series, Jordon has written a book full of meaningless dialogue and lengthy descriptions of landscapes that do little to further the plot. Important characters are once again pushed aside, including Nynaeve, and Rand doesn't appear until late in the book. After the ending of book nine and the cleansing of the Source, the readers deserve more than a passing mention of both these characters and the consequences of their actions. By far the worst installment of the series, Crossroads of Twilight is the book that convinced me Jordon has lost most of his story-telling ability. Crossroads is both a waste of time and money.
Rating:
Summary: Bogging down in the details
Review: Robert Jordan my be losing control of his creation. He has introduced too many minor plot lines and twists that are now bogging down the story to the point where nothing happens. The plot doesn't move forward in this book, in fact, it barely catches up to the end of the last book. Most of the book is concerned with details that really should have been taken care of in the prologe. The problem with that is the prologue was already 1/7 of the book. Robert Jordan really needs to decide where he's going with the story and trim a little of the fat. As it is he's heading into a disturbing patter of every other book being good. Four years is a long time to wait for any sort of plot movement.
Rating:
Summary: Wow, talk about a big letdown
Review: I remember back in the day with Eye of the World. That book got me into Fantasy. Now years later, Crossroads of Twilight makes me want to stop reading fantasy. This is by far the most convoluted book I have ever read. The descriptions are long, dialogues between characters few, and action non-existent. I mean what happened to Mr. Jordan. He reminds of another Mr. Jordan who should have retired when he was ahead(Micheal Jordan for anyone who doesn't get he allusion. I won't spoil the book by going into details, but let's just say this might be a book worth renting from the library and skimming, but most definitely not worth buying and reading carefully.
I think you time is better spent read George R. R. Martin or Robin Hobb then this drivel. What really irks me is the build up for this book yet it didn't even come close to my expectations.
In the words of Smithers from the simpsons, "BOOURRNNSSS"
Rating:
Summary: Uggh!
Review: This book is absolutely the worst I have ever read. You might as well make the "cha-ching" sound with page you turn, because all Jordan is doing now is cashing his royalty checks. He ought to be embarrassed about allowing this book to be published. I know I was embarrassed for him when I read it (at least, when I read as much as I could stand). If you do insist on reading this book for some reason, do yourself a favor and just read the first sentence of each paragraph. You will still get the whole "story," but you will spare yourself from reading massive amounts of pointless detail. Uggh!
Rating:
Summary: Someone stop him, please!!!!
Review: Anyone want to buy my copy of this book? Seriously. The book is like 650 pages long and I don't really know that anything at all happens. The first 300 pages just update you on what everyone else was doing while Rand was cleansing Saidan in Winter's Heart. Hey great, I was wondering what Mat was thinking as that was happening. . Nothing at all is resolved in this book. Maybe nothing will ever be resolved. Essentially the series is now taking place in real time like an episode of 24. The early books covered several weeks or months. A character would leave say Camelyn on his/her way to Ebou Dar at the end of a chapter. At the beginning of the next chapter said character would arrive in Ebou Dar and the plot would take off again. Now the character departs Camelyn and we're treated to a minute by minute depiction of the journey. How the scenery looks, what sort of food is being eaten, is the food greasy, how's the weather? It's mind boggling. And what's up with the characters, especially the Aes Sedai? There have to be dozens of them by now. I have no idea who any of them are. Apparently we're supposed to remember that some were identified as being bad in previous books. Okay, let's think about this. This is book ten which means there are probably a minimum of 6,000 pages of text written in the series thus far. Some of these minor characters pop up for a chapter three books ago and then resurface now and we're supposed to remember them? As if. I even lose track of the Big Three sometimes, especially when they now seem to go whole books without appearing. And there's not an original thought. Perrin is only capable of thinking 'Faile Faile, without Faile I'm nothing.' Mat can't believe he's going to marry the Daughter of the Nine Moons and Rand, well wait Rand doesn't even really make an appearance. WHAT? Jordan is a genius however. He wrote 4 or 5 good books and hooked people in. Now we have to buy these damn things as soon as they come out just to see what's happening. I started reading years ago when I was in high school. I had to wait until I could check the book out from the library or the soft cover came out. Now I'm through grad school and gainfully employed and thus can afford to buy the hardcover the day it's released. More money for Mr. Jordan. Genius. I guess the real complaint is that I just need to get a life. This story is never going to end and I should stop worrying about it. Even the Neverending Story, (you know the movie) must have ended at some point because I'm pretty sure that had a sequel. Well enough of my rant. If you've read the other books you'll buy and read this one just because that's what you do. If you've never read one of these books wait another 15-20 years when we're up to book 17 (tentative title Tuesday, 8:00am - 9:00am) and some things might have been resolved. In the meantime I'll content myself with waiting for book 11 when important issues such as Mat choosing a cloak to wear when the carnival finally packs up and gets moving or Rand selects a new breakfast cereal are resolved. Sheesh.
Rating:
Summary: get to the point rj. (some small 'spoilers' sort of)
Review: Very disapointing. The story arcs that it continues, and the new ones it sets up, are vaguely entertaining - however none of them get _anywhere_! RJ rambles on, and on, and on. What was the point of this book? Well you got me. Perrin's captured woman? Well, still captured, oh boy, I don't care about her anymore and Perrin is getting pretty old and boring as well. Matt and his daughter of the nine moons? Well we get some amazingly small amount of info about that despite a reasonable number of pages on the subject; and again nothing has changed in that story arc. Rand? We get almost nothing useful about him. So what do we get out of this story? An amazingly amount of white tower divide politics, and lots and lots of new story arcs being set up before we can possibibly come to any kind of actual conculsion. With the exception of a few small parts I actively disliked this book because you can get the sense early on that _nothing_ is going to happen in this book. No action, minimal character development, some kind of poor writing in many respects, and lots of white tower politics and other boring story arcs. Blah Blah Blah. Truthfully some of the new story arcs appear interesting, but you know what? I DON'T CARE! We already have a story for gods sake, can we possibly make some actual progress on in? Damn RJ!
I can think of a few reasons this might be the case and only one of them is vaguely hopeful. 1.) RJ has just lost sight of the goal of the story. And has, for whatever reason, decided he likes his little story world and wants to explore all the facets of it by setting up yet more and more interlacing story arcs. 2.) RJ wants more cash, and as such needs to write more books. And hence we get a 700 page book where nothing happens, and it happens in a real boring way. 3.) RJ already has the story all planned out and there is going to be some stunningly beautiful pulling together of all the story arcs in a increasinly sharp pace that will blow us all away. Which of course means he had to set up all the story arcs first, and we are stuck with a 700 page book where nothing happens. So 3 is obviously what I'm hopping for. But this book [was incredibly bad], I mean these story arcs could have been set up with some more action, something good happening to characters, something bad happening to them, anything. But that isn't the way it was written. Anyway you should check this one out of the library and read it at some point before the next one shows up, since I'm sure you want to know what happens. But I really hope RJ gets his writing together for the next and finally finishs this series up. I'm starting to feel embarassed for the guy. RJ if you are reading this you really had best finish this thing up soon man, you are starting to piss of lots of your readers. (At least all the ones I know)
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother
Review: I used to love the WOT series and recommended it to all my friends, but I can't recommend this book at all. Basically, nothing happens, the plot isn't advanced at all. You can basically skip this book and read the next one and not miss a beat, so why pay the money and suffer the tedium.
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