Crossroads of Twilight - my take... (spoilers)

[garyh]

I know there have been a few threads on Robert Jordan's newest book, The Crossroads of Twilight, already, but I felt the need to share my thoughts and figured I'd start a fresh discussion as well.

So, where shall I start? How about here...

NOTHING. HAPPENS. AT. ALL.

First off, we spend half the book with all the various groups staring at the thrilling climax of book nine, Winter's Heart. Of course, NONE of them actually realize what's going on, and only one group even attempts to find out (wrong though they turn out to be).

Second off, the little bit time moves, no one does anything important.

Rand - in the book for all of THIRTY pages, main character though he is.

Mat - mildly interesting fleeing and flirting with Tuon, but mostly enjoyable because Rand and Mat are my favorite characters, and Mat at least APPEARS in the book.

Perrin - Stupid Perrin keeps looking for stupid Faile. Don't care for either of them in the first place, and he still doesn't move to actually rescue her yet. He does finally ditch his axe, which would be an interesting character development - if I still cared about him.

Elayne/Aviendha/Birgitte - Elayne takes a bath. Still isn't Queen.

Egwene - manages to be dumb all book and top it all off by being even dumber at the end and getting captured for no apparent reason. No resolution or progress toward resolving the Tower split.

Alviarin - only worth mentioning because of the nifty appearance by Shaidar Haran, who looks more and more like the Dark One's avatar.

Cleansing the Taint - not actually addressed besides everyone being agog from afar at the process for the first half of the book. No one but Rand and crew know still, and no effects are seen yet.

So, the important developments in this book are:

1 - Rand and Perrin are trying to make alliances with the Seanchan, and Mat's half-married to their princess. See a trend?

2 - Egwene is dumb.

3 - er.... well... um... yeah...

Note, however, the loving attention to each and every dress that makes an appearance on-screen.

A final annoyance - there are far too many chapters like this:

BEGIN CHAPTER

"Bob thought about the exciting action sequence everyone was looking forward to seeing, which he did between on screen appearances. I wonder, he thought, if Jane knows about...

'Hi Bob,' said Jane as she walked into the room. She wore a blah blah blah dress with yadda yadda yadda and a cloak of boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring.

'Hi Jane' replied Bob.

'Bob, I must tell you this important secret that we must not share with the reader now...'

END CHAPTER

So, any other thoughts on the book?

 

[Eternalknight]

You know, I gave up reading the books ages ago, because of the same things you pointed out. What strikes me as funny is why people who complain keep reading them nontheless. This is not directed at you presonally; just a general remark

 

[garyh]

You know, I gave up reading the books ages ago, because of the same things you pointed out. What strikes me as funny is why people who complain keep reading them nontheless. This is not directed at you presonally; just a general remark

No offense taken.

Personally, I figure that I'm in for so many books already, I can't give up now. I still think it's a great world and - at the core - an interesting story. RJ's gotten too bogged down in minor characters and side plots. He needs to just get back to focusing on the Big Three of Rand, Mat and Perrin, and tying up loose ends, instead of constantly creating more characters and side stories.

 

[Eternalknight]

No offense taken.

Personally, I figure that I'm in for so many books already, I can't give up now. I still think it's a great world and - at the core - an interesting story. RJ's gotten too bogged down in minor characters and side plots. He to just get back to focusing on the Big Three of Rand, Mat and Perrin, and tying up loose ends, instead of constantly creating more characters and side stories.

Agreed. I haven't read the last 3 books though, so I can't comment. But I do love the world

 

[RyanL]

You know, I gave up reading the books ages ago, because of the same things you pointed out. What strikes me as funny is why people who complain keep reading them nontheless. This is not directed at you presonally; just a general remark

Because when it was good, it was really good, much like crack cocaine. Book 4 was the high. Book 10 was the rotting teeth and male prostitution. I want my 20 bucks back, Jordan!

-Ryan

 

[garyh]

Because when it was good, it was really good, much like crack cocaine. Book 4 was the high. Book 10 was the rotting teeth and male prostitution. I want my 20 bucks back, Jordan!

-Ryan

This may sound masochistic, but I was so infuriated with CoT that I decided to reread The Eye of the World to remind myself of the magic the series had. I may just go ahead and reread the whole series. The only parts I've reread before are Rand's trip in the wayback machine in Rhuidean and the battle at Dumai's Wells. I was waiting for the series to finish before I reread them all, but I'm afraid the paper in my first few books might have biodegraded by the time Jordan finishes book 27, Egwene's Divided Riding Skirt.

 

[Femerus the Gnecro]

Speaking of masochism, before winter's heart came out, I reread path of daggers again so that I could remember what had happened before.

Then it got worse.

Boredom set in after I graduated college and I reread the entire series. Twice. That's including Winter's Heart.

On the upside, I now have a very, very good grasp of the world, sufficient, I think, to run a rockin' WoT game.

Still haven't read CoT yet though.

-F

 

[garyh]

Well, you haven't missed much in CoT, Femerus. If you're interested in running a Play by Post WoT game, bop on over to "Talking the Talk" - I'm sure we could find some other folks to play there.

 

[Storminator]

No offense taken.

Personally, I figure that I'm in for so many books already, I can't give up now.

I used to think that. BUt after Winter's Heart I decided I didn't care any more. Thankfully I didn't give this one a chance.

PS

 

[jdavis]

I posted this in two or three different threads now and It deserves repeating, check out the font size change between Fires of Heaven and Crossroads of Twilight. Why does it feel like this was half a book? Well it was by comparison to what we used to get. He used to give us 50 or so chapters in 700 to 800 pages, now he gives us 30 chapters in 700 to 800 pages with a much larger font. I supported what he was doing and didn't go too hard on all the padding till I read Crossroads Of Twilight, What a crock, it took over 2 years to write that? The man is turning what would be one good big book into two smaller crap books and they are charging more money per book to boot. Crown of Swords and Path of Daggers should of been one book, and Winters Heart and Crossroads of Twilight should of been one book. He's doubled his money by putting out half books with huge fonts and ton's of padding, not to mention he is taking twice as long to write them. I saw a interview on the web where he talks about how he writes huge 700 page books and stilll has to edit out a lot of stuff, then I looked at the insane font size change and the dropping of 20 chapters a book and it made me sick. I don't care if he writes 20 books or 50 books but I wish he would write some good books, the last 4 were half hearted attempts, this last one was just pure filler, maybe he had a house payment due or something.



I posted a long post on font size. (last post in thread)

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=647409#post647409

other thread

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38434

other other thread

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=648705#post648705