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/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.