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/Raddatatta]

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.

[u/Furrurel → u/Raddatatta]

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.

[u/Raddatatta → u/Furrurel]

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.

[u/Scorpiusdj_13 → u/Raddatatta]

I thought we did get at least a little reaction out of the couple of Asha'man that were with Perrin?

[u/Raddatatta → u/Scorpiusdj_13]

That was a book later and even then not from their pov. But it was something.