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

The Wheel of Time is a PBS Great American Read Selection!

Now in development for TV!

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.

Fleeing from Ebou Dar with the kidnapped Daughter of the Nine Moons, whom he is fated to marry, Mat Cauthon learns that he can neither keep her nor let her go, not in safety for either of them, for both the Shadow and the might of the Seanchan Empire are in deadly pursuit. 

Perrin Aybara seeks to free his wife, Faile, a captive of the Shaido, but his only hope may be an alliance with the enemy. Can he remain true to his friend Rand and to himself? For his love of Faile, Perrin is willing to sell his soul. 

At Tar Valon, Egwene al'Vere, the young Amyrlin of the rebel Aes Sedai, lays siege to the heart of Aes Sedai power, but she must win quickly, with as little bloodshed as possible, for unless the Aes Sedai are reunited, only the male Asha'man will remain to defend the world against the Dark One, and nothing can hold the Asha'man themselves back from total power except the Aes Sedai and a unified White Tower.

In Andor, Elayne Trakland fights for the Lion Throne that is hers by right, but enemies and Darkfriends surround her, plotting her destruction. If she fails, Andor may fall to the Shadow, and the Dragon Reborn with it.Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn himself, has cleansed the Dark One's taint from the male half of the True Source, and everything has changed. Yet nothing has, for only men who can channel believe that saidin is clean again, and a man who can channel is still hated and feared-even one prophesied to save the world. 

Now, Rand must gamble again, with himself at stake, and he cannot be sure which of his allies are really enemies.

TV series update: "Sony will produce along with Red Eagle Entertainment and Radar Pictures. Rafe Judkins is attached to write and executive produce. Judkins previously worked on shows such as ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Netflix series Hemlock Grove, and the NBC series Chuck. Red Eagle partners Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon will executive produce along with Radar’s Ted Field and Mike Weber. Darren Lemke will also executive produce, with Jordan’s widow Harriet McDougal serving as consulting producer." (Variety)

The Wheel of Time New Spring: The Novel 

The Eye of the World

The Great Hunt

The Dragon Reborn

The Shadow Rising

The Fires of Heaven

Lord of Chaos

A Crown of Swords

The Path of Daggers

Winter's Heart

Crossroads of Twilight

Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

The Gathering Storm

Towers of Midnight

A Memory of Light 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)

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.

BORING

this was a pointless slow boring book. I really wish I didn't bother with it

nothing happens

I've read this book twice, this was my first time listing to the audiobook. It's horribly boring. There are chapters, that I find myself asking why is this important, why is this included, and what happened to the tempo of the first 11 books. I think I didn't notice how bad it was reading the book because I'd take longer breaks, but listing to it really brings out the lack of progress in the storyline. Stuff does happen, but it's painfully drawn out.

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.

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.

Reading this book is a chore.

Great series, this book seems focus on events mostly before the events of the previous book’s climax and spends a lot of time from the perspective of characters that are minor and new. I took my first real break reading this series during this book and i debated skipping parts of this book which was another first for me on the series.

I hope it gets better because I’m losing interest

Skip this book....seriously...skip it

Literally nothing happened in this book. no story line development, no battle, no anything. you could skip this book entirely and have missed nothing more than people sitting around and talking about things that don't pertain to anything.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Slowest yet

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

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

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

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.

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.

OK

I love this series but this is the slowest book and it is mostly set up rather tham pay off. Audiobook makes it much easier to get through though. Thankfully it picks up pace in the following books.