More waiting at the Crossroads.
Well, here's a review I wrote some time ago:
As is usually the case with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time cycle, the writing is good to excellent, and the intrigue and mystery is very involving. As is also usually the case, Jordan has this thing for corporal punishment and loves to play around with power and hierarchy to a degree that almost seems... well, forced.
What I've come to notice in many of these books is that Jordan likes to play games with power between groups and especially between people within groups and what happens when established barriers break down, resulting in a redistribution of power. There are numerous webs of interaction with this major theme, particularly with those who lose power to another greater force. He loves this theme and, if you're not paying attention, it's pretty interesting. If you are paying attention, it begins to wear on you because it's always the same. Of course, perhaps that's Jordan's point. Power is relative.
As for any resolution of anything, don't expect it in this book. If nothing else, Jordan will have fans frothing at the mouth (likely in frustration, not anticipation) because not even a single sub-plot is resolved in this book. He does, however, set up massive implications for his next book. The question one has to ask is, "Was this 600 pager necessary? Could Jordan have maintained the same level of intensity, detail, and intrigue without forcing readers to go through another book in which nothing really happens, but events are just set up for a 'happening?'" The answer is, "Yes."
We spend a lot of time with all of the principles in this book (well, with the exception of Lan and Nynaeve), but we don't really learn anything new about them. Jordan has established these characters well already and, when there's no further development necessary in a book/series of this sort, then action is required in order to maintain the story's integrity. We get very little action here and a lot of talking. The talking would have been fine if we saw more about these characters that we didn't already know, but, with the possible exception of Perrin (and that's a real stretch), we don't really learn anything new.
Another challenge with this book is a problem that will require most fans to re-read the entire series from start to finish once (well, if) Jordan finishes the cycle are the number of secondary and tertiary characters he introduces. There are so many different Aes Sedai, so many different rulers, so many different servants, so many different people to whom he dedicates a great deal of time and effort to, you would think that you could differentiate them from each other. Unfortunately, when you're waiting a year or two between books in which there is a cast of almost 100 characters, this becomes virtually impossible, especially when Jordan adds more and more characters to the mix. Because of Jordan's obsession with Power among people and groups and how that Power is manipulated, these characters are all very similar. Each is wondering how s/he ranks compared to this other character and how s/he can use that other character to get what s/he wants and how much they can trust, and so on, and so on. Again, this may well be the point Jordan's trying to convey (among others) but there are better ways of doing this.
Is this a good book? Yes. It still captures the breadth of the world and the various cultures he's created and the massive past that these people must contend with, not to mention the certain, yet simultaneously uncertain, future that looms like a mountain before them. Also, let's remember that what Jordan has done has revitalized genre fantasy in many ways. His books have had a tremendous influence on the genre. Even at his worse, Jordan's books are significantly more sophisticated that much of the standard fare out there.
Is it one of his better books in the cycle? No. Once again, this book reads like a filler. We are introduced to more and more mysteries without a single resolution. We are introduced to a few more characters (at least it seems that way) about whom we learn very little. We are reminded about threats, but receive no clarification. And we end with more questions than answers. Even within a series of books, there should be a central theme and plot (even a sub-plot) that ties the book together, within which there is some kind of resolution. Yes, the name of this is Crossroads of Twilight, and it's obvious that each character is facing a fork in their destiny. But there are no resolutions at all. In Tolkien's The Two Towers (more so the book than the recent movie), the sub-plot is dealing with Saruman and the Riders of Rohan. In Lucas's Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, it's determining why Darth Vader has an obsession with Luke and the resolution of Han and Leia's love affair. In Crossroads of Twilight (like the previous three books in the cycle), we really don't learn much of anything.
So, until the next novel, we fans will wait until... Well, until Tarmon Gaidon I suppose to learn something new. And that's a real shame.
As a fantasy novel, this is a B+. For Jordan, this is a D+.
