Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan (2003, Hardcover, Illustrated)

Where Jordan left off

When we last saw our heroes, well, they were scattered throughout Randland. Perrin’s multi-book search for Faile continues. Egwene is struggling to become feared, if not respected, as Amyrlin of the rebel Aes Sedai. Mat has kidnapped Tuon, whom he knows he is fated to marry, and is trying to escape Ebou Dar with his life and the lives of a handful of marath'damane. A now-pregnant Elayne is trying to secure the Lion Throne of Andor, and her first-sister Aveindha is clinging to her side trying to learn "wetlander" customs. Oh yeah, and some little bit of nonsense about Rand and Nynaeve cleansing the taint on saidin. That might be important. *sniff*

The prologue that never ends

Didn’t we go through this already? Oh yeah. Jordan decided that he really likes writing prologues that follow the POV of a hundred different characters before actually starting the first chapter. CoT suffers from a bulky prologue (almost 100 pages!) where we see nothing from "our heroes." Unless you count the several pages about Gawyn, Jordan uses this space to introduce a slew of new minor characters and subplots that do absolutely nothing to further existing storylines mentioned above. A hundred pages could’ve done an awful lot for those of use hoping for some actual furthering of the plot.

Yeah, yeah. Plot twists and multiple dimensions add depth. But too many dimensions is more harmful than helpful to the enjoyment of this already complex story.

The ending

Without giving it away, for those of you who choose to stick it out until the end, I need to make a comment. The last few pages of the last chapter are good. There’s a plan. There’s a change in the plan. There’s a twist you won’t see coming. Boom! Action! And just when it gets good… it’s the last page, and you see the Epilogue. And the Epilogue poses yet another GREAT possibility for the plot, but it’s over. It’s like getting to the climax of a movie and having the director yell, "Cut! That’s a wrap!" - just when the scene had been set.

What was missing

The action was missing. The first 600 pages of the book brought us chronologically to where Winter’s Heart ended. The last hundred pages might have jumped ahead a day or a month, we just can’t be sure. A whole lot of talk, but no real movement of the plot.

The Forsaken were missing. Some of the greatest scenes from the earlier books involved the Forsaken. The only one we see in CoT is Mesaana, and we still don’t know who she is in Tar Valon. No mention of what happened when Moghedien got caught in the blast from WH. No one notices that Dashiva/Osan’gar/Aginor is gone. No mention of Moridin/Ishamael or his mindtrapped charge, Cyndane/Lanfear. The identities of Demandred and Semhirage are still up in the air, no matter how much we fans may theorize. Where’s Graendal? Oh yeah, I guess we do get to see Halima/Aran’gar/Balthamel, as well. But none of the Aes Sedai have yet caught on to her game. If I missed a Forsaken or two here, it doesn’t matter. Jordan didn’t mention them anyway.

In summary

CoT was an exercise in how to fill about 700 pages with nothing. It was the literary equivalent to an entire season of Seinfeld reruns. But would I recommend it? Sadly, yes. If you’ve been sucked into the WoT world, you have to read it. You have to know where everyone is at. You’re going to get bored, frustrated, and so angry about being bored and frustrated that you may throw your hardcover across the room.

I bought this book for my 15 year old son. He had been reading the series and wanted to know what happened next. He said the story was better than he had expected. There were a lot of twists in the story. For example, one of the main characters friends was really working for the enemy. He thought this series was better than Tolkien's series in that it goes deeper into the characters backgrounds and shows who they actually are. Overall we are very happy with this purchase and we will keep our eyes out for the next book in the series.