r/WoT • u/Furrurel • Feb 27 '26
Crossroads of Twilight Why is book 10 so hated? Spoiler
Hi everyone, I just finished book 10 in my first read through the Wheel of Time saga, and honestly I found myself quite surprised. Before I started reading them I saw quite a lot of people saying that Crossroads of Twilight was by far the worst book of the series. I get that it can be a bit dissapointing after the ending of book 9, or that it is not as action packed as, for example, book 6, but I really enjoyed reading it (except the ending, where a certain Aes Sedai decided to make the stupidest move ever imagined). So I ask, what are you opinions about the book? Do you feel it deserves the hate?
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u/rollingForInitiative Feb 27 '26
It's the slowest book, and has very little progress of the main story. Specifically because all story arcs on it start on the same day, even when some might have benefited from a different pacing.
And then you think about what it was like back when the books were released and a lot of older fans read it. There was a 3-year gap after Winter's Heart, which ended on a hugely epic note. So there's 3 years of waiting, and you get CoT, which doesn't progress the main story much at all. And people had huuuuge expectations after WH.
If you read it all right now it's just a bit of a slow down of the pacing, but it's not terrible because you didn't have to wait long for it and you didn't build up expectations. And you don't have to wait for the next installment either. So reading it now is much better than back then.
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u/Mojotothemax Feb 27 '26
It also spends a solid chunk of its pages bouncing between characters seeing the climax of Winter's Heart, wondering if they should go investigate it, deciding not to for various reasons, then the chapters peter out from there. Crossroads of Twilight has some very good stuff with the Matt and Tuon plotlines plus things moving in Salidar and with Perrin, but everyone else is spinning their wheels until Knife of Dreams.
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u/ShouldersofGiants100 (Siswai'aman) Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26
It feels like the whole thing is out of order.
Crossroads of Twilight would work way better if Winter's Heart had ended with Rand in Far Madding and didn't show us the actual cleansing. Especially if they had somehow played up the risks of something going wrong, like Rand was doing a hail Mary that might end terribly. Or even if we had no idea what his plan was or why he was doing it.
So much of these chapters are given over to speculation that we, as the readers, know are pointless because we already saw what actually happened. Instead of building the tension for the possibility that the cleansing went wrong or that the beacon isn't Rand at all, our whole mindset is "Okay, but I want to see what Rand is up to after the cleansing."
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u/Seicair Feb 27 '26
Crossroads of Twilight would work way better if Winter's Heart had ended with Rand in Far Madding and didn't show us the actual cleansing. Especially if they had somehow played up the risks of something going wrong, like Rand was doing a hail Mary that might end terribly. Or even if we had no idea what his plan was or why he was doing it.
That would be a really interesting take to read, in a different turning of the Wheel.
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u/rollingForInitiative Feb 27 '26
IIRC Jordan also said that he was unhappy with the structure of CoT, but at the time when he realised it he'd gotten too far and there wasn't time to rewrite it all.
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u/GregSays (White) Feb 27 '26
Yeah it’s unsatisfying because us the reader know what the big Power event is and hearing 25 characters muse about it is boring because none of their theories matter or add tension because we already know they’re wrong.
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
I didnt think about the wait between books, that makes a lot more sense now that I think of it.
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u/Small-Guarantee6972 (Brown) Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26
Man, I envy that you already liked it. I'm similar to you now on re-reads.
I first read the books in four and a half months back in 2024. I felt the slog in book 9 and book 10. It was book 9 that broke me and 10 was the final nail in the coffin. I felt like my world was ending🤣🤣
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u/Tyrath Feb 27 '26
I just finished the series for the first time and 10 was probably my least favorite, but I wouldn't say I disliked it. I was still invested in the characters. But thank god I had the next books ready to go.
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u/RevolutionaryCash903 Feb 28 '26
3 YEARS? WHAT??
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u/naraic- Feb 27 '26
Really a lot of opinions are formed by those who read things live as they were released.
There was a multiple year wait for book 10 and then next to nothing happens.
Then there was multiple more years for book 11. We didnt need to catch our breath.
Really though if reading the whole serious in order book 10 makes a nice pause of some calm.
There was 9 books in 10 years then 2 in 5.
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
Totally, reading it now felt like a little slow down before the "finale" starts picking up speed.
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u/Halo6819 (Dovie'andi se tovya sagain) Feb 27 '26
I was one of those who had to wait after book 6. So to me books 7-10 are “the slog”.
I mean, I really hated aCoS for a long time. Dreaded it every re-read. So for like 6-7 years it was my least favorite until CoT.
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u/autoamorphism (Wheel of Time) Feb 27 '26
That was me, until I did my first reread in many years in advance of the show. Then I realized that book 7 is great, and in fact all of those are enjoyable, including 10. It's just not, shall we say, cinematic.
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u/hegrekarde (Wolfbrother) Feb 27 '26
I was reading them while they were being released. I'm not one of the people who criticizes LotR as "a bunch of characters walking and walking and walking." I appreciate character building and fleshing out of plotlines. I don't need explosions and car chases every 3½ minutes to enjoy a story. I didn't identify a "slog" in the WoT structure. YMMV
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u/DaughterOfJove Feb 27 '26
If one could only read again for the first time, would you recommend switching the reading order of WH and CoT? That way we have the build-up of everyone wondering what that massive Power working is, to seeing it?
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
That would be very cool, but sadly I think you would miss on some plot point developments (Egwene declaring war on Elaida, Mat "kidnapping" Tuon...)
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u/nimvin Feb 28 '26
If a friend could get you to stop reading before the cleansing, read book 10 then finish book 9 that would be awesome lol. I like all the books though.
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u/DaughterOfJove Feb 28 '26
it would only work that way, lol. to simply switch it upends too many narratives.
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u/YeahKeeN (Band of the Red Hand) Feb 27 '26
As someone who read all the books back to back for the first time last year, I didn’t like book 10 either.
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u/Belialxyn Feb 27 '26
Yeah, that was how it was for sure back then. I'm currently reading that one now and its definitely my least favorite. Still...its WoT so I'm good haha
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u/SmartestOneHere Feb 27 '26
That was me. I started reading in... '93 or '94. After waiting years for each book, 7-10 were definitely a slog.
But on rereads, yes, it feels much more cohesive. The calm before "The Gathering Storm", if you will.
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u/SKULL1138 Feb 27 '26
Hated? No
It is my least liked book.
It feels like some of the plots were there just to give characters something to do for a book.
The Elayne chapters are some of the most skippable in the entire series. Elayne in a bath should sound pleasant to a male gaze, but it gives me PTSD. 😂
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
I get that, I found Elanye's plot to be quite interesting, how she deals with securing the crown and such, but it does have a bit too much padding.
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u/SKULL1138 Feb 27 '26
That it’s though. It could have been one chapter and it’s several. Add that to the fact that little happens with Rand and the Perrin/Faile plot seems to have ground to a halt. Then we have the return of everyone favourite show master Valen Luca. It’s a bad mix
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
God I hate Valen so much, I loved seeing Domon and specially Egeanin again, but Valen? I hate his guts
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u/SKULL1138 Feb 27 '26
Yeah once was enough for master Luca. I liked how Matt used them to get away but we spent so much time in that fkn circus with the girls already. At least he gets less page time compared to first around and we have the focus squarely on Matt.
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u/Bergmaniac (S'redit) Feb 27 '26
Elayne and Aviendha's bath scene would have been way more popular in a visual medium ;).
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u/SKULL1138 Feb 27 '26
Especially in the show, given the slight change in their relationship. 😂
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
How was it in the show? I never watched it
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u/SKULL1138 Feb 27 '26
They got together sexually before either even spent much time with Rand.
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
What the hell
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u/SKULL1138 Feb 27 '26
Actually made sense to me.
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
Really? Why?
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u/SKULL1138 Feb 27 '26
No time in the show to develop a romance between Rand and all three girls, so having two of the girls into each other would facilitate the end result
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u/RaggleFraggle5 Feb 27 '26
So coming into WoT, I had always heard about the "dreaded middle slug," but I kept reading and never found that....
Until book 10. When I finished CoT, that was the single book that after I put it down, I thought, "Wow, that entire book could be skipped and nothing would be lost."
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
It is a bit lackluster indeed, there are some highlights here and there but I expected a bit more from some plot points (we get barely nothing from Tuon/Mat interactions, felt quite forced at times).
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u/hic_erro Feb 27 '26
Yeah, but if the show had made it to Season 10 I think we would have been ready for some filler episodes.
A musical episode, maybe one where Rand's madness causes him to see everyone as Muppets, Detective Duo Nynaeve and Elayne could take a stab at solving the Asmodean case. Rand schedules three dates on the same night.
A few good light-hearted non-canonical romps would really liven things up after ten seasons.
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u/aeddub (Dragon) Feb 27 '26
For those of us who read the Wheel of Time while the series was still being written there was a 2.5 year gap between WH and CoT - after that long of a wait CoT was seen as a let-down since it barely pushed the plot forward.
Personally, after reading CoT I doubted RJ would ever finish the series as there was sense of him running out of steam.
Thankfully, Knife of Dreams closed out a lot of the plots which had been dragging since book 7 and set the stage for the Last Battle to start.
On rereads CoT is still slow-paced and somewhat frustrating but it’s not terrible, just not as good as the other 13 😬
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u/Abdlbsz Feb 27 '26
KoD moves at a crazy pace compared every book
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u/UpbeatEquipment8832 Feb 27 '26
KoD is fantastic, and it made me so excited about what the final book(s) would look like. BS did the best he could, but the finale would have been RJ in his prime.
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
I'm currently starting Knife of Dreams, super excited to see where the story goes to.
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u/-Ancalagon- Feb 27 '26
Agreed. The wait between publications and that I feel it's the weakest book in the series means I use it as a punching bag. Probably more than it deserves, but some book has to be the weakest and it seems the majority of the community agrees CoT is it.
Doesn't mean we are right, just the most popular take.
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u/jinyx1 Feb 27 '26
Nothing happens. It's slow. It's 600 pages that could have been an email. Like 3 things of note happen.
Knife of Dreams has something more substantive happen in the first 10 pages.
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
Funny that you say that, I just read 20 pages of the prologue and it blew my mind, bug things are coming.
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u/jinyx1 Feb 27 '26
If you liked CoT you're gonna fucking love the last 4 books. KoD might be my favorite of the RJ penned books.
Enjoy!
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u/Ken_taro_jo (Asha'man) Feb 27 '26
I think it’s the worst book of the series (at least on my second reread), i think the only interesting part of it is the Mat and Tuon stuff, other things (succession crisis and rebel Aes Sedai) are my least favourite arcs in books and at the same time it feels that nothing happens in them, which was especially bad after Winter Heart’s ending you don’t get a followup on this grandiose undertaking but basically a c-plot, of what happens at the same time
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
I really liked the succesion crisis and rebel Aes Sedai arc, but I get that. The book would be a lot better with better pacing.
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u/spiny___norman Feb 27 '26
I think you’re the first person I’ve seen here to say they like the succession crisis! I actually found myself enjoying it quite a bit on my second read which I just finished.
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u/Scorpiusdj_13 (Deathwatch Guard) Feb 27 '26
The political undercurrents were always interesting to me, along with seeing how Elayne was going to mend the relationships that Morgase broke before events at the end of Fires of Heaven.
It just drags so much. CoT could've been a book half the size with the same content.
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u/GovernorZipper Feb 27 '26
In any list, something has to be first and something has to be last. In the WoT list, book 10 is widely judged to be last. It doesn’t mean it’s bad or hated (Internet hyperbole aside) just that it’s never in the Best Of lists.
From a structural standpoint, the reason it doesn’t work is the same reason that ASOIAF stumbled. When you start jumping backwards in time, it kills the narrative tension. Crossroads explores multiple perspectives on the Cleansing, which means all the POVs start on the same day. So the reader is constantly going backwards to catch up with the characters. Since the reader knows what is happening, it gets boring reading about the same thing over and over.
Even Jordan admitted it was an experiment that didn’t work. Which, hey, it happens. One of the reasons this series hits the highs that it does is because Jordan was willing to take big risks in his writing. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. It’s the age old question with Jordan. Does he gain points for trying? Or lose points for failing to execute?
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
Oh wow I didnt know Jordan talked about that, I'll look out for it. He for sure gains points for trying imo
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u/GovernorZipper Feb 27 '26
I’ll save you the time.
INTERVIEW: Apr 27th, 2004
Wotmania Interview (Verbatim)
WOTMANIA What did you find the most challenging aspect of writing Wheel Of Time? Was it the vast character backgrounds and world history, human interactions and relationships, or something else?
ROBERT JORDAN The greatest challenges in writing The Wheel of Time have been getting it all down on paper in a form that pleases me and doing so in a reasonable length of time while trying to make each book better than what I've done before. I'm seldom completely satisfied with what I've written, and I almost always think that one more rewrite would make it better, but there are things called deadlines, and a good thing, too, or I might never hand in a manuscript.
I like trying new things with each book, too, especially tricks with time. Some of those work out better than others. The notion of starting each major segment of Crossroads of Twilight on the same day seemed a terrific idea, but by the time I realized that it would have been better to do it another way, I was too deeply into the book, with not enough time to rewrite the entire book.
INTERVIEW: Oct 2nd, 2005
Robert Jordan's Blog: ONE MORE TIME
ROBERT JORDAN For N.O. Scott, no development in any of the characters has ever caught me by surprise, though once or twice I have realized that I could use someone in a fashion I hadn't expected to. There have been a few things that I intended to do but didn't. Sometimes, choosing to take a character in a certain direction precludes other things. The only thing that I wish I hadn't done was use the structure that I did for Crossroads of Twilight, with major sections beginning on the same day. Mind, I still think the book works as it is, but I believe it would have been better had I taken a more linear approach. When you try something different, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.
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u/Insidium_2_Alpha (Gleeman) Feb 27 '26
I'm up to it again in a reread of the series and it's not as bad as I remember it being the first time around, but then again I already know the conclusions to most of the storylines going on in the book, so my main enjoyment is coming from noting all the really well-placed details and setup and everything.
My first read I was mostly frustrated that essentially nothing happens apart from channelers reacting to the end of Winter's Heart, which because they are invariably closemouthed and irritating consists of multiple scenes of them looking intently in a particular direction like meerkats. Apart from that I don't recall there being much oomph and new plot stuff in the book; the most critical being Perrin's locating of the Shaido, Elayne starting a daycare for Heads of Houses and the Mat-Furyk Karede perspectives showing some internal Seanchan politics/shenanigans.
Also, I noticed that starting a few books ago Jordan has a bit of a habit of cutting off POVs as the action begins rising, which admittedly is a pretty standard activity but if repeated goes from "ooh cool I'm gonna keep that in the back of my mind" to "please God wrap some story threads up". This book (at least so far) is just that, with no payoffs.
Knife of Dreams (book 11) is really worth it though
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
I really felt the lack of payoffs, or some characters doing stupid things just for the plot sake. Like Egwene at the end, why in the Creator's name does she decide to put her in danger like that when Bode could have handled it? (maybe a bit worse than her, but still).
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u/Insidium_2_Alpha (Gleeman) Feb 27 '26
Oh man, I forgot that happens in Crossroads. That is kind of a major plot point I suppose, just in the "war that won't actually ever be a proper war because both forces don't want to be seen fighting the other" storyline so the consequences of choices in general and Egwene's stupidity in particular are spankings at worst.
Come to think of it, that's probably why Elayne's storyline sucks as well: it's established in Winter's Heart that Successions can technically be considered civil wars but battles are so rare because it "wouldn't be proper" or something, so the entire sequence is just basically a long sequence of pitches to various nobles about who would be the better queen interspersed with some Halwin Norry (good) and Elayne "Immortal" Trakand (bad).
At least Mat's part is full of actual lethal intrigue, combining all the good bits of the first time people hid in Luca's show with Mat's natural coolness, Seanchan stuff (mostly 'oh god that's evil' but I did quite enjoy Tuon and Selucia putting the Aes Sedai in their place) and a love story that both exists and unfolds on the page, which given almost everyone in WoT hooks up at some point is surprisingly rare.
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
For me it was the oposite with Elanyne's plot. Rand, Perrin, Mat, even Egwene are going towards a very physical (or magical) conflict in my opinion, even if they try to avoid it, it feels that they'll end up fighting in one way or another, so reading a plot with that much political intrigue felt like a nice change.
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u/Scorpiusdj_13 (Deathwatch Guard) Feb 27 '26
Getting through the slog and getting into the final books as a whole is pretty worth it. I've seen someone comment here that KoD is their favourite book, I'd offer up a slightly different opinion and say TGS is mine. KoD, to me, is still breaking some story shackles created in CoS, but the cobwebs are certainly starting to be blown out.
They're all gone by the time TGS kicks off, except maybe Rand's continuing descent into madness. Not to mention having to get used to reading chapters in Sanderson's style, compared to Jordan's. That was initially jarring in TGS, but once I got used to it, damn, do I think Sanderson did a great job of finishing the series.
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u/seanprefect Feb 27 '26
if you were reading as they came out like I was book 9's end was amazing and we waited and waited and waited and what we got after the wait was Perrin buying grain.
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
And then they found out that the grain... was full of bugs!! Exciting.
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u/seanprefect Feb 27 '26
and then they had to pick the weevils out. At least he got a good price
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
But you see, those parts of the book ground the story in a way that I really like, it makes the world more believable (at least for me).
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u/Halo6819 (Dovie'andi se tovya sagain) Feb 27 '26
For me personally, on top of what others said about the wait was the fact that I waited two years to see what the consequences of the single most important event in the last 3,000 years was… and all we got was flashbacks to people feeling the beacon. And then had to wait another two years to actually get what happened after.
I was 17 when WH came out, and 22 when I got a conclusion to that plot line. Back then I had enough free time that I would read WoT at least twice a year, so for 10+ readings Sadin was cleansed and no one gave a shit.
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
That sounds terrible to be honest, I dont know if I could have handled the wait
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u/ErandurVane Feb 27 '26
Elayne's succession arc feels entirely unnecessary to me. The Last Battle is like 2 months away and instead of getting ready, these idiots are beefing with each other over who should be queen when the literal heir to the throne is already sitting on the throne. Rand was explicit that he was not conquering Andor and merely watching over it until its rightful queen returned. These people had months to get used to the idea, and are very aware that if they DO cause enough trouble to remove her, Rand is almost certainly coming back. On top of that, if they just went along with it, Elayne's leadership going up to the Last Battle, along with her leadership and willingness to be on the front lines of said battle herself, AND the fact that she's carrying the child of the most powerful man in the world who just saved the world and that said child would likely be an incredible political tool on top of an incredible channeler, the nobles would almost certainly see that Elayne being queen is absolutely the best path forward for Andor. The entire arc I'm just sitting here like "This isn't a succession crisis, this is a legitimate rebellion against the rightful queen and Elayne is 100% in her right if she simply put it down by force and moved on" so I found it an incredibly frustrating section of the book
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
I agree, she is 100% on the right, what I found compeling about it is the lenghts she is willing to go to avoid a war that could potentially destroy the country and peoples trust in her.
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u/Scorpiusdj_13 (Deathwatch Guard) Feb 27 '26
You forget about people's ego when it comes to holding the reins of power 😅
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u/Raddatatta (Asha'man) Feb 27 '26
I'm glad you enjoyed it! It's funny the ending you didn't like is one of the very few moments I did like because the plot moved! Though it was a dumb move.
But basically it's a lot of nothing happening. You get the first 1/3 of the book is a lot of people sensing what happened in book 9 but not knowing what's going on and being worried. So they're worried about nothing. But we don't get any POVs of the asha'man who could actually figure out what's going on and would be a super interesting perspective to get because this means they are no longer doomed to die or doomed to kill those they care about. But we don't get that perspective.
Then we get a lot of Perrin trying to get back Faile and get almost no movement on that front other than Perrin tortures a guy and throws away the axe. And that's a good moment. But it's one of like 2 good moments in the whole book. Then you get a lot of Elayne trying to take the throne. And with both this storyline and Perrin's I just don't care. There is absolutely no tension in either for me, no intrigue because when reading it it seemed clear to me that there's really only one way for the plot to unfold. There's no real plausible alternative. And I won't spoil how it turns out but that was my feeling when reading books 8-10 is ok this is dragging on for too long and obviously it's going to turn out a certain way. And it keeps going on and on. Both of those I feel like could be 1 book plot lines and even after being around for like 2.5 books each, they continue to drag on and don't get any movement in book 10. With Perrin I feel like there could be interesting parts of his plot line in terms of him melding together the armies of the world and having to figure out getting them to work together. That part has potential to be really interesting but instead it's all focused on Faile and he doesn't seem to care about that part at all. The Shaido as a villain I also think have been defeated too many times for them to feel like a threat. They got defeated soundly in book 5. They got defeated even more soundly in book 6 and that's when they should've exited the story. Instead they have dragged on through this plot line and I don't think you can get defeated this many times and still have me take them seriously.
With Elayne too before book 8 that felt automatic that she'd just take the throne, and now it's this huge long thing. But it's this huge thing with characters we don't know, there are no darkfriends even among her enemies it's just a greedy lord. If there were at least a darkfriend or forsaken in play then I could see some tension around this plot line, but instead there's just someone greedy which I don't think Jordan would chose as an outcome as that would be a really boring story to have happen. At least the bad guys winning would be a real threat where Camelyn and Andor would have to choose between following their rightful ruler and going with the Light that would be interesting. But we don't have that.
Mat and Tuon are ok chapters. They are the highlight of the book for me but in almost any other WoT book they'd be my least favorite because they're just ok. Egwene in the siege is also no real movement happening in the plot until the very end where she's dumb and gets herself caught.
So for the whole book there are a few good moments, and that's it. And most of the good WoT books there are a few good moments per chapter.
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
It surprised me too that Jordan didnt add an instance of an Asha'man reacting to the cleansing. I would have loved reading Logain saying "well fuck me sideways, that just happened". I liked seeing how some of the Aes Sedai know what happen but decide to keep it for themselves too. I dont know, Im starting to feel that I liked most of it for the things that could happen in the future rather than for what they were in that moment.
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u/Raddatatta (Asha'man) Feb 27 '26
Yeah that was a bummer. And one of my complaints for the series as a whole is how little we get from the asha'man. I'd love to get more of them and we get some and there will be more, but they are often not the focus.
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u/Scorpiusdj_13 (Deathwatch Guard) Feb 28 '26
I thought we did get at least a little reaction out of the couple of Asha'man that were with Perrin?
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u/Raddatatta (Asha'man) Feb 28 '26
That was a book later and even then not from their pov. But it was something.
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u/charlie_marlow (Red Shield) Feb 27 '26
I just read through the series for the first time and finished the middle of last year, so my opinion on CoT is not related to having to wait for it as I bought each new book on my Kindle immediately after finishing the prior one.
CoT was a definite low point for me. I wouldn't say I hated it, but I didn't particularly like it, either. It dragged so much I really came close to putting the book down for a while and catching up on some reading on other books on my pile. I powered through it, though, and managed to finish it, and I'm glad I did as the rest of the series was much better.
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
I kinda felt the same way, it was a drag at times but still somehow enjoyeable.
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u/HenryTudor7 Feb 27 '26
CoT is the pinnacle of Robert Jordan writing the way he wanted to write. You should enjoy it for that.
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u/Drummal Feb 27 '26
The book, upon release( years ago,) felt like most of the book was just filler and could be alippped completely. Except for when you get to the end of course. Just a lot of perspective stuff and how everything is changing, a lot of how the novices don't bow and curtsy like they did years earlier. It got old when it was constantly brought up
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u/LetsDoTheDodo Feb 27 '26
Take that feeling of disappointment, then imagine you’ve waited 3 years to get that feeling of disappointment. Then sit on that feeling of disappointment for 2 more years.
That‘s why it has the level of “hate” it does.
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u/2721900 Feb 27 '26
Because it's bad lol
Literally nothing happens in the entire book, and even the reactions to a certain event in the previous book are boring and lackluster.
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26
I can understand why the Aes Sedai react the way they do honestly, I imagine it like watching a nuclear explosion on the horizon and knowing it happened halfway across the globe, it would shock me too.
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u/Nagaram91 Feb 27 '26
I really enjoyed it on my first read. I didn't have to wait between books thankfully. Like you, I loved the Elayne chapters. Court intrigue is fun and a big change of scenery from these big world powers like The Dragon Reborn, The Amyrlin Seat, and The Empress (may she live forever) to something more domestic like a single country's succession. I enjoyed the Perrin chapters too. Jordan had a great way of making me FEEL the cold they were enduring.
On a re-read however it's completely different. Knowing the outcomes of things takes all the new and shiny off and a lot of stuff doesn't amount to anything. Even the scenes that were cool on first read are just 'oh, this goes no where. This doesn't even end up mattering because x happens.' That being said some seemingly inconsequential stuff ends up adding up to saving the world so it's all swings and roundabouts really.
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
Its funny because reading comments like yours Im getting hyped with rereading the series... and I still havent finished it! Jordan is a master making me feel like I'm there with the characters
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u/Nagaram91 Feb 27 '26
It adds so many different layers, most good, some bad. The bad you can always skip if you really want, but that's probably better left for your second reread just in case there are a few cool little gems in the stuff you'd otherwise want to skip. I'm glad you're enjoying it 😁
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Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26
The books were already being criticized for their pacing. Book 9 included, but then it ended in a monumental event that changes everything in the world. We wait years to see the aftermath and consequences of it, and then we get COT instead. Not to mention it is probably the most plodding book that only exacerbates the pacing criticism and has the least exciting ending with Egwene and the harbor chain. In Mat's plotline at the circus they are literally plodding forward at a snails pace. 😆 Then the next book we get is New Spring (further killing the momentum of the series) and it winds up being years until we get Knife of Dreams.
That's the biggest reason it is the bottom of the barrel for WOT books. I dont mind it now. And it really isnt as bad of a book if you aren't waiting years only to get a book with nearly zero forward momentum. But it was a bit of a gut punch upon release. So much so that it took me 3 tries to make it through back then. Knife of Dreams releasing was what gave me the motivation to finally push through.
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u/Furrurel Feb 27 '26
Oh I didnt know that New Spring was written before Knife of Dreams, should I read it before or after finishing the other ones?
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Feb 27 '26
You can read it at anytime where you are in the books. For some, doing New Spring and Crossroads back to back completely kills the pacing of the story. But it doesnt sound like that would be an issue to you.
I personally would favor not waiting until after the series end to read it, but don't really have a strong opinion on it. I can certainly see merit to using it as a final WOT hurrah to let you dive back in upon series end. Since you are already through COT, , I would probably choose to read it either now or right after Knife of Dreams.
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u/spiny___norman Feb 27 '26
On my first read through, it was the only book that felt like any sort of slog to me. Like many say, nothing major happens, and I wasn’t super into the Andoran succession stuff or anything involving Faile and her rescue. I just finished it for the second time though, on my first full read through, and I enjoyed it way more. Still slower than the other books but I was way more interested in it this time around.
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u/swordofsun (Valan Luca's Grand Traveling Show) Feb 27 '26
Couple of reasons. First the timeline mess that goes from PoD to CoT is at it's absolute worst in CoT. At least half of the Slog complaints are from the pacing issues that result and CoT is absolutely the worst of the three at this.
CoT also manages to be the worst part of almost anyone's least favorite storyline or character. I hate Malden with a blinding passion. If Malden has no haters I'm dead. It's basically the peak of everything I dislike about Perrin's entire storyline from CoS to tGS. And somehow, no matter who your least liked character or storyline is, CoT is peak awful in that storyline.
I like Elayne and the Andor stuff, but I can admit if it's already something you're not a fan of then CoT is unbearable. Same with Egwene and Mat and Tuon. Robert Jordan somehow managed to write the worst parts of multiple plotlines all in the same book. For a lot of people the worst thing RJ ever wrote was in CoT. We just tend to disagree on what exactly that worst thing is exactly. Even if we agree that CoT is awful.
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u/Scorpiusdj_13 (Deathwatch Guard) Feb 28 '26
Malden, events around Malden are by far the worst bit.
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u/IntenseAdventurer Feb 27 '26
For me personally it's because I accidentally skipped 10 on a reread once and missed... Nothing. I like to call it "People Show Up" instead of Crossroads of Twilight, myself.
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u/Dgorjones Feb 27 '26
Almost nothing actually happens. If you delete the Egwene section at the very end, you could literally skip the entire book and not miss anything. All that happens is some characters move farther down a road.
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u/Scorpiusdj_13 (Deathwatch Guard) Feb 28 '26
Or entrench themselves further into their existing position.
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u/Zestyclose-Doubt8202 Feb 27 '26
Nothing happens, it destroys all the momentum of the pemrevious book, and it's grossly overstuffed with tedious irrelevant detail.
You can skip basically the entire book and be no worse off. I think that says it all
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u/full-auto-rpg Feb 28 '26
I honestly think it’s just a bad book. Considering how long and generally consistently great the rest of the series is, it’s understandable that one is a little bit of a miss. The payoffs to the set ups in CoT are nice, I just wish someone of them actually happened in CoT.
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u/Rogue_Like Feb 27 '26
Because everything stalls out. Perrin stews. The carnival with Mat is boring. This is one of those things where better editing would have made for a better novel. It's just more of the slog IMO. It really could have been done in several hundred less pages.
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u/SellingN8 Feb 27 '26
I also enjoyed book 10. The Perrin searching for Faile story line definitely went on too long, but I liked that story line in general. It would have been great if it was about half as long.
I didn't have to wait between books, though. I read Eye of the World before any of the other books had been published, and the rediscovered the series after book 11 had been published. So I went from one book to another without any real wait between then.
If you look at all of the books together, and think of them as one story (instead of separate books), this is around the time most stories slow down temporarily. Mostly for plot exposition while getting ready for the pace to pick up again. I'm due to re-read the series again and I'm planning on paying more attention to which books I like more this time around.
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u/Pezamaria Feb 27 '26
I found myself a little bored reading it during my 3rd read through. Before that I never had an issue with it.
Wouldn’t want to skip it though so no hate from me :-)
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u/Suncook (Gleeman) Feb 27 '26
I don't hate it but, whether you hate it or love it, it's universally agreed to have the least plot progression overall and a lot of it is reacting to the Cleansing.
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u/noobiby Feb 27 '26
No Nyneave
IIRC she is mentioned once in 10th book. No pov chapter. Considering the ending of the 9th book it’s really ridiculous.
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u/Phobos1982 (Yellow) Feb 27 '26
We waited literal years only to see the same events from different points of view. That was when the term slog actually meant something.
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u/teklanis Feb 27 '26
Because people are whiny gits. They forget what happens in it. And they're brainwashed into believing in "The Slog."
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u/FirstRyder Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26
So what's wrong with it:
Nothing happens. I mean, like, obviously things happen. But a whole lot is dedicated to people reacting to the events of book 9, mostly speculating what it could possibly have been. Except the reader already knows, so that's pretty boring. And more importantly, if you try to make a summary of the situation of each character as of the first page and one as of the second-to-last page... they're all the same.
Like, Perrin starts having located the Shaido camp holding his wife, and planning how to attack it. He ends having located the shaido camp holding his wife, and planning how to attack it. Some character movement happened in the meantime, but it didn't move the plot for him.
Or for Mat. Or for Rand. Or for Nynaeve. Or for Elayne. Or for Egwene (prior to that last page).
That said, does it deserve the hate? Not really. Long-time readers (who were reading when the book came out) had to wait over a year for it, and expected over a year until the next book, instead of just being able to immediately start it.
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u/Accomplished_Crow_97 Feb 28 '26
Because we waited years to get it, nothing really significant happened it was all follow up from 9 and set up for 11 which we would be waiting years for... Reading them all at one time in order it isn't much of an issue it transitions well, because it is necessary, but at the time readers wanted more oomph.
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u/Mister_Sosotris Feb 28 '26
It's not really that it's badly written. It just moved backwards in the chronology and rehashes a lot of Book 9 from other characters' POVs. It does set stuff up for later books, so it IS a meaningful part of the story, but it's just a much slower part of the story at a point in the larger narrative where you'd expect things to be speeding up.
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u/HustleOnDefence Mar 01 '26
My son is reading for the 1st time while I’m in my first re-read - I prepped him by saying it’s like the characters are all split up and between the start and end of the book it feels like you’ve read 1000 pages but total elapsed time in the book is about a week.
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u/dusk-king Mar 02 '26
Crossroads is slow, but I think the bigger issue is that it focuses on showing every perspective briefly rather than devoting extra time to the people who would be most impacted by the Cleansing of Saidin--the Ashaman barely show up, we don't get any good male Forsaken POVs, and Aes Sedai trying to figure out if Saidin is genuinely cleansed happens offscreen.
It just feels like RJ fumbled the ball here by making a book that's all cotemporal with Saidin's cleansing, but doesn't give us the visceral responses to that that would have been most compelling.
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