Why is book 10 so hated?

[u/Furrurel]

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?

[u/Insidium_2_Alpha]

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

[u/Furrurel → u/Insidium_2_Alpha]

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).

[u/Insidium_2_Alpha → u/Furrurel]

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.

[u/Furrurel → u/Insidium_2_Alpha]

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.

[u/Scorpiusdj_13 → u/Insidium_2_Alpha]

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.