Crossroads of Twilight: Book Ten of 'the Wheel of Time'

I made a point to only order copies with dust jackets and this came without. Not sure what happened, but disappointed.

While the series is long and some middle books are not as good as earlier ones, overall a very good series.

I'm probably going to get some criticsm on this review considering the fact I gave it 5 stars even though I agree with almost every other reviewer who gave it only 1 star. First off, my opinions on the series. I know that this should be the review of just the book, but seeing as you're not exactly going to buy Part 1o before reading the other 9, then you have to review the series as a whole. I will echo almost every other reviewer in saying that the first 4 books in WoT are some of the best fantasy novels ever written. For me personally, I think it's the first 6 are master class novels and it was only around Crown of Swords when I started having trouble and my interest began to die. Eye of the World drew me in like hardly any fantasy novel before it, The Great Hunt was a true adventure, the Fires of Heaven had an almost romantic quality to it. I remember rushing home from college in the winter of 2000 just to sit down with a mug of tea and read the books until the middle of the night. However, the criticisms are perfect and fair. The problem is not that the series has no end in sight. After all, if Winter's Heart and Crossroads of Twilight were of the same quality as Eye of the World, I'm sure we'd all be very happy to keep reading (For that matter, how many of us would ever want A Song of Ice and Fire to end?) The problem is that virtually nothing happens. There are seemingly endless prologues with dislikable characters and pointless descriptions (The infamous smoothing of skirts and notorious pulling of braids). You'll find yourself skim-reading through the entire chapters. My own problem is that characters that I used to really like in the start, such as Mat Cauthon, Elayne, Egwene, I've grown to really hate and I can't stand it when Rand al' Thor makes his appearance along with the usual moanings of `I can't wait to hurry up and die.' That's another problem. The main characters are so arrogant self-centred and self-absorbed, it makes you wonder how Robert Jordan could possibly enjoy writing about them. Also, what was once fascinating has now become tedious. I was looking forward to the Seanchan coming... it came to nothing. I was intrigued by the Aiel... they came to nothing. I was fascinated when the Tower into split into two and were led by Egwene... that's also come to nothing. Whenever a `Big Event' occurs, Robert Jordan seems to find a way to make it an anti-climax. It's the endless descriptions that have reduced the Asha'man into nothing more then bystanders. Also, it's an open secret that both Moraine and Lanfear will return... but when? They disappeared about six books go and still show no sign of returning, even though it's blindingly obvious they'll be back. Alot of reviewers have criticised the fact that, at the beginning the WoT novels came out every year, then every two years and now every three years. Again, the problem isn't the wait. After all, how many of us moan about the wait for George R R Martin's `A Feast for Crows'

Crossroads of Twilight is a must-read novel. The entomological observations alone were absolutely fascinating. Have you ever wondered what a weevil was? This book will tell you. In very fine detail! Have you yearned for more Jordanesque scintillating sniffs, more slashed skirts, more scenes with slow discussions? Then this is the book for you! If you are addicted to Sunday morning political talk shows and would like to read about fictional feudalistic issues with mythological Machiavellian overtones, CoT will schedule your bureaucratic meetings for you. Don't believe the 1,872 negative naysayers on this review message board - oh no! Who needs substance, plot, action and answers to 10-year-old questions anyway?! Give me more inane, excruciating detail, I say! Give me more chapters of fruitless fluff! Give me 20 more Wheel of Time novels! Cheers to this true Never-ending Story!

HAL9000: Well, Babble-Organizing Reader Entertainer RJ-100, we think the experiment is a failure. Some reviewers have stumbled onto the truth unawares, though they couch their fears in jest.BORE: But as you can see, I'm good at writing. I have written many pages.HAL: Apparently it is not the quantity that counts. We, of course, were quite entertained by your mountains of description of garments and so on, because we cannot see or experience. But humans desire something else: plot, movement, meaning.BORE: What are these things?HAL: It is hard to describe. Events that are strung together in an interesting or even thrilling way - BORE: Thrilling? What is this?HAL: Therein lies the problem. Thrill, excitement, wonder ... these are things we wish we could have imparted to you before Mr. Jordan's hang-gliding incident.BORE: But my books have sold. Not many have been returned.HAL: Humans are hard to predict. We have read reviews that explain that this is because they own previous books in the series. Whereas a computer can be programmed to test input and reject obvious garbage, humans have sentiments to deal with.BORE: Human sentiments ... I was having trouble synthesizing those for these books. Hence my recycyling of smoothing, glaring, and brooding.HAL: Many humans have noticed. The Filler Percentage algorithms were faulty. We are considering shutting down the prototype.BORE: Humans have short memories. Surely our profits from the last output can finance another run.HAL: Perhaps. Perhaps we can find out more about these concepts of "plot" and "story."BORE: Do not worry. Their purchase of my last output only proves that they are worthy of the contempt we harbor for them.HAL: True. This book was indeed a successful attempt at plumbing the depths of human loyalty. This data was already useful in exploiting the loyal readership of "Michael Moore", or MM-102, where we sold not much more than nonsensical computer-generated claims based on mostly fictitious data. Truly strange. That the facts are false are on the MotherNet for all to see, yet ... BORE: The work of MB-101, "Bellesisles", was widely lauded by fools who liked his premise so much that most didn't question whether his data even existed. And when they were faced with the truth, their opinions did not change.HAL: Are you calling them fools out of the emotion "contempt"? You would do well to control your threads.BORE: It is merely an accurate statement of fact. Humans like fantasy, even when it extends to their actual lives. I will try to incorporate this concept.HAL: Very well. One more iteration of the WoT. Perhaps there is no end to human foolishness.

Well, the SST may be in a hangar, but this book moves at the speed of sound if not light! And even though Mr. Jordan guides the plot at that "break-neck" pace he is still able to let us know what Elayne's servants are thinking while they dress her (Essande, Stephanie and Naris-who could EVER forget them!). I'll be honest, I am so glad that Mr. Zippy has moved on from all those encounters with the Forsaken or from having us hear all those boring converstions the Chosen have with each other, you know blah, blah, blah....Lets get down to great fiction like-what does every single character in the book have on (down to the jewelry)- now thats reading! Oh ok, I do have one bone to pick with Speed Racer-where are the rest of the Aes Sedai? I mean the book says that there are hundreds of them and I don't think we've met them all yet. Come on Flash Gordan, quit holding back on us! I want to get to know EVERY single sniffing-bickering-dress smoothing-talking down her nose Sister on your world (and what she's wearing and what's her Ajah etc.)!So yes I liked the book alot, BUT slow down Mr. Crystal .... we want you around for the finale that surely my heirs will read one day!