Janet

I thought this book was Classically, Epic-ly great when I read it in the 70's. YUCK! Couldn't even get through the first half on a long road trip with plenty of time to get through the over-the-hump of introduction. Philosophy 101 it isn't. Not even Philosophy for Dummies. More like -- there are no people in the world, only rules and regulations that take 99,000 pages to explain & justify.... I think I may have remembered it more fondly if I hadn't read other books addressing philosophical questions that were more interesting, more character-filled. Not available on audio - M A Foster's Gameplayers of Zan, which reminds me to mention M K Wren's Wolfe/Phoenix trilogy, Available on audio - Heinlein's Time Enough for Love or The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Okay, not strictly philosophy, but characters & ideas. Not just ideas!!

If only I had read the reviews first!! I figured even an abridged Dick Francis would be fun, and maybe it would have been IF the whole book had been abridged. The recording stopped way before the end of the book, practically right in the middle. If it had been cassettes, I would have said I lost the second cassette. I enjoyed the book when I read it with my eyes -- with my ears it was a major disappointment! Don't waste your time & money!

I am a huge fan of Alan Dean Foster's books. Of course there are some I like more than others, but my only hesitation here was whether I would like Ben Browder as a narrator. I do. I was worried that I would be distracted from the story by his familiar voice. I wasn't. Browder's performance enhanced Dean's story.

I really enjoyed this "back story" of the Arthurian legend. Less political/ethnic slant than so many retellings that try to make the legend "relevant." The people give the story heart and make the story relevant, just the way the people have always made the legend relevant.

I like the reader, but I have never heard N'ton pronounced as she does. The pronunciation grates, but it's not bad enough to take away a star!

By the way, she sounds a bit like Joanne Woodward.

I hated this book.
I found the main character to be so obnoxious I couldn't appreciate even the amusing parts of this book.
I like quirky people, but I'm truly glad I've never met anyone as dysfunctional as this protagonist. (& I've hung out with some really weird people!)
However, reading other reviews, a lot of people were able to find something in this book I didn't.
Thank goodness, none of my lit professors ever required this book. I'd have flunked the course.

After 4 tries to finish this book I have to say that the only narration I've heard that was worse ...
couldn't think of one. Either the director or the narrator has a horrible sense of timing. There have been narrators I'd avoid but would listen to for favorite books. There is no book I'm so desperate to hear that I'd endure this reader again.

Timothy & Judd, other reviewers, are right. I enjoy Jordan's prose, but Crossroads is too convoluted. The interesting characters from the first couple books in the series are lost in a miasma of spear bearers dancing about in subplots that do nothing to advance the stories. Maybe Jordan's trying to build a cast of thousands for the final confrontation between Rand and the Dark One. Maybe he's forgotten that there's a finale coming. Or what it is. Whatever, if he doesn't stop meandering I may not attend The Breaking of the World.