Crossroads of Twilight

by Robert Jordan

Other authorsEllisa Mitchell (Illustrator), Matthew C. Nielsen (Illustrator), Carol Russo (Cover designer), Darryl K. Sweet (Cover artist)
Hardcover, 2003-01

Status

Available

Call number

PS3560.O7617 C75

Publication

Tor Fantasy (New York, 2003). 1st edition, 1st printing. 624 pages. $29.95.

Description

Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML:Fleeing from Ebou Dar, Mat Cauthon learns that he can neither keep his betrothed nor let her go. Perrin Aybara seeks to free his wife, Faile, a captive of the Shaido, but his only hope may be an alliance with the enemy. At Tar Valon, Egwene al'Vere, the young Amyrlin of the rebel Aes Sedai, lays siege to the heart of Aes Sedai power, but she must win quickly. In Andor, Elayne Trakland fights for the Lion Throne that is hers by right, but enemies and Darkfriends plot her destruction. And Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn himself, is hated even while prophesied to save the world. In the tenth book of THE WHEEL OF TIME, the world and the characters stand at a crossroads, and the world approaches twilight, when the power of the Shadow grows stronger. From the Compact Disc edition..… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member rbtwinky
Nothing happened in this book! Mat starts running and wondering about Tuon; he ends running and wondering about Tuon. Perrin starts chasing after Faile; he ends chasing after Faile. Egwene starts worrying about how to enter Tar Valon; she ends worrying about how to enter Tar Valon. Elaine starts
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trying to secure the throne; she ends trying to secure the throne. NOTHING HAPPENED. Supposedly the book presented various characters facing a decision where they choose either the light or the dark, but it was apparent. If the next book doesn’t get pretty exciting, I’m going to be pretty upset with Mr. Jordan. I don’t understand how someone can write a 900-page book wherein NOTHING HAPPENS.
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LibraryThing member DWWilkin
After the disappointments of the several books preceding this one, it came as a surprise to see that Jordan was returning to his A Game. There are still many problems even though this book was better then many of the last few in the series. Rereading them, especially when you can not get to the
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conclusion gives you a pause to really evaluate what each book is.

Again because we do not get to the end of the story, more can be found to fault the telling of the story. (You would know we had because some way 'THE END' would appear.) New details in the travelogue that is the The Wheel of Time occurs. Alton Brown cruising around the US on Asphalt, or Mark Twain in Roughing It. We have Jordan having created a map with a great many lands, so why not ensure we as the audience know how diverse it is.

The problem therein is that we don't care. The Map has never had the detail it needed to find a great many of the places mentioned. Battles can not be followed because they are impractical and are just literary voyeurisms. The battles could have been summed even more quickly, Good guys show up, have smaller force, use power to win. If you try to look at it in military context, it will do you no good, as will understanding logistics which Jordan tries to give a nod to.

Big armies need big food. Even the many thousands of Shaido need food, but they don't, and again with the contradictions when the Forsaken sent the septs all over to be destroyed, now they seem to be getting back together? Oh, Jordan smacks his head wanting a V-8, in revisionist writing, this is even better five or ten years after I originally wrote the other scenes that I'll just change things.

Another exploration of Tell, don't show is revisited in ever bigger details which as the writing started to be denser again, or the fonts tighter, showed that the travelogue needed to be expanded.

Screen time is also getting shorter and shorter for characters as each is fighting for time on camera. Including Rand. The Protagonist, but the series is so large, that he is not as important as he was before. We have to remember as early as book three we were already pushing off the center stage.

But as Rand points out, he is the one who has to show up at the final climax chapter to fight, everyone else we have grown fond of, does not really need to be there. Thus we get into the exploration of why they are on screen so much. They need to be ready.

In the early books of the Travelogue we saw how big the world was, and as the characters criss-crossed it, they were learning. But now they are as wise as I in the space of 3 years of book time and twenty years of reading time.

These last books Jordan accelerates the time scale and he should not have. For what our leaders want to accomplish, they do need more time and seasoning. One William Pitt the Younger in a generation please. Not six, seven, eight... Who can keep track.

But is there anything else to read as good with as much depth. No. On to the next.
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LibraryThing member jpsnow
Nothing happened. It was approximately 684 pages too long. Rather than resolve any previous cliff hanger, he just created more. We're trapped between all of the previous books and the finish line in sight.
LibraryThing member mohi
Robert Jordan has truly lost grip on his story. Nothing, and I mean nothing, gets accomplished in this tome of a book. People talk endlessly and conspire, armies move in glacial fashion, and very little else.
LibraryThing member mattries37315
The tenth installment of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series, Crossroads of Twilight, has been maligned from readers since it's publication and with understandable reasons. The story arcs of Perrin, Mat, Elayne, and Egwene are given the emphasis throughout the book with only a touch of Rand
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near the closure of the book. The majority of the book's time period leads up to and during the climatic final chapter of Winter's Heart before finally advancing when Egwene's story arc begins. Though out the book, everything seems to be moving pieces into place for something big to happen but it never really materializes. In each of the last chapters for Perrin, Mat, and Egwene a dramatic turning in the plot happens but leaving the reader to wait until the next installment to find out what happens resulting in frustration.

Crossroads of Twilight is a mixture of positives and negatives, with the latter emphasized because of the two year wait and the fact that Prologue was almost a tenth of the book even though some of the bits within that were interest. However, even though this book can be frustrating at times (my came in about three-quarters of the way through waiting for something to happen) it is a necessity to read as The Wheel of Time draws to it conclusion.
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LibraryThing member chriskrycho
Jordan himself acknowledged that the way he tackled this book was a mistake. It was an interesting idea—to watch the events of book 9 from everyone else's perspective—but it just didn't work.

Also, the fact that in one chapter, he spent two thirds of the time describing the dresses of the women
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coming into the Hall of the Tower before actually getting to the reason the Hall was meeting? Terrible. Gladly, 11 and following are much, much better.
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LibraryThing member bookczuk
I feel like the Wheel of Time has finally fixed a broken axel and is back on track. Listening to this on audio is a bit odd. I have to double check with my husband* or my friend Maria (who both worked with Robert Jordan as his assistants and are now part of "Team Jordan", helping Brandon Sanderson
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finish up the series) because some of the pronunciations of names is so very wrong. (For instance, Tar valon has been consistently prnounced "Tar Vah lon", instead of "Tar vallon", which is reflective of Avalon.) Some mispronunciations they've corrected between books (ie Moghedien (moh-GHEH-dee-ehn) was pronounced incorrectly as Mo Guh deen for the first 6 books. But in this one, Birgitte's name, which has been correctly pronounced as "Brig e ta" switched midstream in this production by only one of the readers to "Beer-get-ta". But since Brigette Silverbow can knock back a mug of ale with the best of them, maybe that's what happened to the reader.

Another disadvantage to the CDs is you can't always see where you are adequately in the book. After listening to 3 CDs, I was feeling like I was finally getting into the meat of the story, only to find that those first 3 CDs were all prologue. Yikes!

Anyhow, the story is finally moving along again, though there still were some stalls in the plot line. It took about 2/3 of the book for every single plot-setting/story arc to react to the massive use of the power that was Rand and Nynaeve out there cleaning up the male have of the power. That got a little much -- everyone who could channel, stopping and staring off in that direction. My favorite character, Bela, that sturdy Two Rivers pony with her quick hooves is back. On to Knife of Dreams.

*(My husband began working for Robert Jordan just before this book began being written.)
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LibraryThing member nesum
By far the worst of the Wheel of Time novels, the plot slows to a snail's crawl in this one. All the events we were waiting on from the last novel have simply been postponed in this. However, this speed bump should be crossed to get to the much better Knife of Dreams.
LibraryThing member abdhakim
By the time I got my hand on this book, I forgotten most of the storyline and characters (high lords, lords, aes sedais, ashaman, the sea folk, aiel…the list goes on). I found the book to be too political without any satisfying scene and very exhausting to finish.
LibraryThing member whiskerkid
Climax. Well? It was small, but gave me the chills, and set the series up for number 11. A good read. Mat's story gets thicker than stew and gives the book flavor. Mat seems to do this to the whole series.
LibraryThing member cousin_gipthorn
Worst book of the series. Fortunately Jordan redeems himself with the two following books.
LibraryThing member BombaySensei
Very skip-able book in the series for the most part. Read the last chapter and you're fine.
LibraryThing member Pabkins
This is the worst book in this series. Absolutely nothing happens, it is a waste of the printed page! The plot does not move forward at all in any of the character plot lines. It is mostly just Elayne and her bitching about her pregnancy and blaming it on Rand. Who fucking jumped who people? I got
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50% of the way in and I just couldn't take it anymore, I give up. I'm reading the freaking chapter summaries for the second half - except the last chapter with Mat - I'll read his chapter because I love him. Oh and I'll read the last one in the book with Rand (the only time he appears in this one can you believe it?) I don't know what the heck Robert Jordan was doing when he wrote this book...its just so terrible. Thankfully, Brandon Sanderson takes over soon and salvages this series because it has been on a downward spiral since book six I think.
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LibraryThing member publiusdb
Of the series, this book was the most irritating. It's like Jordan was trying to get from point A to point B, and he didn't know how to do it. After the exciting end to #9, I felt like #10 dragged.
LibraryThing member harpua
Not one of the better in the series. Not awful, but there just didn't seem to be much happening at all. 800+ pages to read about everyone sitting around waiting for something to happen or discussing what they are about to do or reading how someone is dressed or acts. This is typical for these
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middle books in the series, but still a drudgery to read at times. Took me way to long to read because it just didn't hold my interest. But for the sake of the series, I forced my way through it. Hopefully the final few books pick up as the plot starts to pull together.
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LibraryThing member Stewartry
Bored. Bored, bored, bored. This book is a perfect example of one of the reasons people stopped reading this series. Jordan ended Winter's Heart with a lot of exciting things going on – and halfway through Crossroads of Twilight they're all pretty much where they left off. Mat is no closer to
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resolution in any aspect of his life – and in fact is emblematic of the whole series as he sits stuck, unable to go backward and all but unable to move forward, with most sideways directions pretty tangled up too.

Look at that book description! On Goodreads it's six paragraphs long. This, of course, is because the main characters are split off into six different groups …This book was everything that was wrong with the series.
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LibraryThing member darcy36
There were a few developments, but you didn't really feel that you had progressed much further in the story by the end of the book. Since there are only a few books left in the series, and a lot of action that still needs to take place, I expect the pace to pick up in the remaining books (I hope)!
LibraryThing member renbedell
I was aware that this book was the slowest book in the series, so I was mentally prepared. I honestly don't know if anything actually happened in this book. You probably could read the last 100 pages and get all the important information to continue the series. The last 100 pages were good though
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and makes me have higher hopes for the next book, as now I'm sure something is going to happen. Even though nothing happens, the book was still decent as it shows the relationships and the inner thoughts of all the characters.
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LibraryThing member twileteyes
I probably need to read the first part of the series first, instead of starting with #10.
LibraryThing member daduncomb
Author is dragging out the story. Spends too much time on character motivation and not enough on action. I want more scenes on the 3 Rivers boys!
LibraryThing member wealhtheowwylfing
Was there a plot to this one? I don't remember any.
LibraryThing member JeremyPreacher
I think this is in fact my least favorite book in the series. The Egwene stuff - fantastic, if a little slow. The Mat stuff - I love bits and hate bits; I like Tuon quite a bit when she's not being, you know, a slave-owner, but Mat's "Women! Can't live with 'em, can't kill 'em" exasperation got old
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a good couple of books ago. The Perrin bits - haaaate. Hate! Which sucks, because in The Shadow Rising he was easily my favorite character. But the whole thing is just oddly paced and unsatisfying, although certainly less so when the next couple of books are at hand.

Note: In general, I can't review this series with any objectivity. I've been reading it since I was eleven years old, and it's thoroughly embedded in my brain.
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LibraryThing member Vitaly1
...It just ended. A bunch of people did things, but nothing actually happened.
LibraryThing member mirikayla
Rating the series as a whole, because I can't remember them individually without reading them again. Originally read the early ones in 2007, then the whole series in 2009.
LibraryThing member LisaMorr
The tenth book of the Wheel of Time series is similar to A Crown of Swords in that there was an overlap between this book and the previous book. Rand and Nynaeve worked together at the end of Winter's Heart to cleanse saidar, and the impact of that effort was noticeable all over the world to anyone
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who could channel. This was another installment in the series where we spend a lot more time with Rand's friends then we do with him. Perrin gets closer to the Shaido who are holding Faile, Egwene get closer to Tar Valon, Elayne works to secure the throne in Caemlyn, Mat makes his escape from Ebu Dar. Ending on a cliffhanger, I'm looking forward to the next in the series, Knife of Dreams.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2003-01-07 (Tor Books)

Physical description

624 p.; 6.47 inches

ISBN

0312864590 / 9780312864590
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