Crossroads of Twilight

Book Ten of The Wheel of Time

By: Robert Jordan

Narrated by: Kate Reading, Michael Kramer

Length: 26 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Now an original series starring Rosamund Pike as Moiraine!

Since its debut in 1990, The Wheel of Time® by Robert Jordan has captivated millions of readers and listeners around the globe with its scope, originality, and compelling characters.

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

The seals of Shayol Ghul are weak now, and the Dark One reaches out. The Shadow is rising to cover humankind.

In Tar Valon, Min sees portents of hideous doom. Will the White Tower itself be broken?

In the Two Rivers, the Whitecloaks ride in pursuit of a man with golden eyes, and in pursuit of the Dragon Reborn.

In Cantorin, among the Sea Folk, High Lady Suroth plans the return of the Seanchan armies to the mainland.

In the Stone of Tear, the Lord Dragon considers his next move. It will be something no one expects, not the Black Ajah, not Tairen nobles, not Aes Sedai, not Egwene or Elayne or Nynaeve.

Against the Shadow rising stands the Dragon Reborn....

The Wheel of Time®
New Spring: The Novel
#1 The Eye of the World
#2 The Great Hunt
#3 The Dragon Reborn
#4 The Shadow Rising
#5 The Fires of Heaven
#6 Lord of Chaos
#7 A Crown of Swords
#8 The Path of Daggers
#9 Winter's Heart
#10 Crossroads of Twilight
#11 Knife of Dreams

By Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
#12 The Gathering Storm
#13 Towers of Midnight
#14 A Memory of Light

By Robert Jordan
Warrior of the Altaii

By Robert Jordan and Teresa Patterson
The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time

By Robert Jordan, Harriet McDougal, Alan Romanczuk, and Maria Simons
The Wheel of Time Companion

By Robert Jordan and Amy Romanczuk
Patterns of the Wheel: Coloring Art Based on Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time

Listen to more books in The Wheel of Time series.

©2003 The Bandersnatch Group Inc. (P)2003 Audio Renaissance, a Division of Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC

Critic reviews

"Has all the breadth and depth that have made this fantasy author one of the acknowledged greats of the genre." (Publishers Weekly)

The Lowest Point of the Entire Series

Any additional comments?

Crossroads of Twilight is a long, tedious, uninteresting entry into what has become a tired and bloated fantasy series. This is a book filled with plot threads stretched well beyond their logical breaking point. Consisting of five plot lines involving the core characters, most of which have been dragged through no fewer than four of the preceding novels, this entry fails to capture any of the excitement and wonder that made the first third of this long, LONG series so incredible. Characters are morphed beyond recognition, put into ridiculous and illogical situations in, I suppose, an effort to up the ante for the promised epic conclusion. After ten books one would think that Rand, Matt, or Perrin would finally come to accept their roles in the slowly unfolding drama but we are yet again subjected to endless exposition detailing their illogical and nonsensical reluctance. This book is boring and tedious and at times, unforgivingly silly. Unless you’ve invested countless hours in this series and, like myself, are determined to see it through to the end, I would in no way suggest this novel as any kind of standalone read. I’m not even sure it would make any kind of sense unless you’ve trudged through the previous nine. If you are a fan of the series, I suggest getting the audiobook – the stellar narration of Michael Kramer and Kate Reading make this bitter pill go down a lot easier and I assure you that the series does get better – particularly when Brandon Sanderson takes over after Jordan’s untimely death.

Horrible

This is by far the worst book in this series. If you've read the others, then you're used to Jordan taking his time with plots and characters. However, this book reaches new heights of boredom. Basically, nothing happens. No subplots are resolved, the main plot is not advanced in the slightest, and too many of the main characters are only given a scant few pages.

This is largely the story of Egwene and Elayne, and hence, it is filled with page after page of squabbling women and the insignificant doings of characters you aren't given any reason to care about. This is not to say that these two characters are not interesting in their own right, but Jordan doesn't do anything interesting with them in this book. Neither character moves more than 500 yards throughout the entire book, and after slogging through hundreds of pages, you're not even rewarded with a climax.

Sadly, this book is a huge let-down after such an investment by Jordan's readers. You're left with the strong impression that the author has nothing new to say and is spinning his wheels at this point.

Low point in the series

While anyone reaching this far in the series will not stop having gotten this far, the action of this novel has been put on pause. To quote from wikipedia's plot summary:

"Perrin Aybara continues trying to...

"Mat Cauthon continues trying to...

"Elayne Trakand continues trying to...

"Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, rests after...

"Egwene leads the rebel Aes Sedai in maintaining..."

Literally no new action begins and no plot lines end. There are some interesting scenes, but Crossroads of Twilight merely rehashes and stretches a few chapters of Winter's Heart into an entire novel. Perhaps this review is colored by the powerful drama and high action of the other novels; Crossroads of Twilight is a novel of intrigues. Newcomers to the series should definitely not start here, and fans will not want to pass this by. Just be prepared for a different type of listen than the first nine novels.

Unexciting narrator

This is the first time I have heard of this series and I may have been very interested in listening, as I enjoy this genre, except that the narrator, Michael Kramer, has all the excitement in his voice of a dead fish, plus he speaks so quickly it is hard to hear what he is saying. Nice try and I will pass on this book.

Seriously?

I’m too invested to stop now, I’m sticking with the series to see how it ends and hoping some of the hundreds of unanswered questions will be answered. If I had been reading the series as they were released, I would have been absolutely livid after finishing this 10th book. Robert Jordan managed to fill an entire book with fluff and mind numbing descriptions. I could write a few sentences for people to read and they’d be able to skip this book entirely and not miss out on any plot developments. It blows my mind how little the plot moved. As usual Michael Kramer is amazing. Best reader in the game.

WOT fans will like it

Of course, since I have read the entire series, including the prequel, I liked this book. Many readers of this series are waiting for the climax, but this book merely sets the stage for it (and we may be way off stage as yet). Jordan is in no hurry and apparently needed to develop the parallel plots for the major characters (and I think this is why he released also a prequel to this series this year). I enjoy the detail and the manner in which Jordan develops his characters and plots, so I found this book very enjoyable. There is a lot happening to the characters in this book, but nothing much is resolved. What is wrong with that? If you have a relationship with this series, then this is an interesting book. Not the best book in the series, not the most exciting, but a good read. I prefer the audio version of this book to the printed version. The reader does a capable job on this book. Frankly, I think the printed book is difficult to complete. If you have not read the previous 9 books, then wait until you have and then I think you will find you'd rather listen to the audio book than read the print version.

Almost nothing happened!

The only (ONLY) part of this book that impacts the story line is Matt and Tuon's courtship. Aside from that, I was bored witless. I read somewhere that Jordan was influenced by War and Peace. I couldn't agree more. This book removes all doubt.

Why was this a separate book?

Jordan was either making a money grab or filling in time while working out how to start ending the series. This "book" if it can be called so does nothing to advance the story line and could quite easily have been abridged and added as a prologue to a book that actually has some substance in it. To be honest I nearly fell asleep during some of the chapters with Jordan droning on and on about some endless drivel that has no other consequence in the greater scheme of things.

I think the problem with Jordan is that he has created so many characters and sub-plots/story lines that he felt he needed to try and bring them all up to date so he could proceed with the main character, Rand. Dedicating a whole book to this is a really a poor way of doing it.

I hope book 11 gets the story back on track. I've enjoyed the series generally. The concept is good, but the execution fails in a number of places and that drags down the overall enjoyment.

Not so bad.. if you re-read the whole series

I was one of those that gave up on WoT after trying to read Crossroads. I never finished. Several years later, and I gave WoT another chance. I bought every RJ audiobook and listened to the over again. I have to admit, Crossroads made more sense, even though not a whole lot still happened. It is indeed a book that's purpose is simply to build up the rest of the overall story. That is probably the biggest problem with the book - it is SUPPOSE to create more questions and answer none. But being able to continue on to Knife of Dreams immediately after finishing Crossroads, I gained a deeper understanding for the purpose of the book. I still think its the worst of the series, but I think most people were so horrified with the book that when it ended, there was great disappointment. KoD and Crossroads should have been a single book, but if you read the series over again, I don't think you'll find Crossroads so bad.

Just Stringing out the Series

The longer this series continues the worse the books become. One gets the impression that Jordan is just trying to run the series out to an even dozen. However, at the rate he is resolving the stories sub-plots and his penchant for resurrecting characters previously killed off, it is hard to see this series finishing before reaching 20 books.

This book is an example of how much prose an author can waste on the construction of stand lamps, the tailoring of clothing or which insignificant character is standing next to whom and still get paid for it.

The end of the last book detailed one of the most significant plot twists in the book, that of Rand cleansing the male half of the source, and it was barley mentioned in this episode.

This book was nothing more than a 24 hour prelude the the next book. I am so glad I only wasted an audio book subscription selection and didn't plunk down $30 plus dollars on the hardcover edition.

Tediously slow....

The worst in the series so far. Little bits of excitement, but they are few and far between - and just too many random characters who I have no real intersest in...... The reviews say book 11 is better, so I will press on, but really this one was a waste of a credit.

The weakest entry in the Wheel of Time?

Probably my least favourite book in the series. The momentous events of the previous book are let down by a structure that sees the reader visiting each of the main characters exploring their own side-stories, but only up to the same point as the end of that last book.
The result is what feels like a collection of short stories that do not interact with each other and are themselves cut short when they get ‘up-to-date,’ even if that means they do not reach any kind of real moment or conclusion themselves.
It’s a long exploration of character and minor plot development - okay if you love the world of the Wheel of Time, but turgid if you want to see the main story progressing.
Reading the first and last chapters of each storyline would probably achieve as much as reading the whole book.
Kate Reading and Michael Kramer are excellent as always.

Don’t bother

Nothing actually happens in this entire book. Just skip to book 11 or give up on the series. I’m hoping book 11 is better (ratings look that way) but this was hugely disappointing.

Slowly getting there

Lots of nuance in this book. Slowly adding to stories of key characters and filling out the depth. Hopefully a bit more action in the next one!

A lull in an otherwise great series

Delving too deep into side stories? Adding too many characters to a cast that's already borderline impossible to follow? Feels like he was dragging his heels with the storyline in this book. Bring on the meat

No real ending

Mid way through the recording totally changes and is poor. The story is probably one of the least interesting and very drawn out.

Slowest yet

Clearly setting the story up for the closing books. A lot is aes sedai back story and dealings

Underwhelming

I read the reviews on this book and thought it was harsh. As all the other books have been brilliant. However this on just treads water. Nothing happens. Not reading it wont really make any difference in the next and final book I'm sure. Each both previous to this has been 5 star for me. However this is a real let down

Barely worth a review

Only 1-2 hours are worth listening in this audiobook.

I can't say you should skip it because there are a few good scenes here and there. I skipped a few chapters and read their summaries.

Why? Imagine a large "boom" and your ears ringing afterward. The last scene in the previous book was the "boom" and half of this book is ears ringing. The rest is mostly filler. Both halves have their good parts, but most of it is a Waste of Time.

Do this:
Buy the audiobook.
For every chapter, read its summary on encyclopedia-wot.
If the summary is interesting or you aren't bored yet, listen to it.
Repeat.

Take this from someone who thought the previous book was one of the best so far.

The weakest of the wheel of time so far

Very very very little story progression. In need of a good editor and a lot more content. I don't even feel like the characters are more rounded. Skip it and read up on the plot points in a wiki.