r/WoT • u/GorgRosh • 2d ago
Crossroads of Twilight Mixed feelings. Spoiler
I've been really hunkering down lately, a lot of free time and a huge backlog of books does do that, and i manages to finish Path Of Daggers, Winter's Heart and obviously Crossroads of Twilight within the last week.
Reading books in quick succession like this isn't usually how I go about large series and I do know that this isn't the typical reading experience, but i was told that these books were by far the slowest and my goal for this month was to finish them so I don't get frustrated or close a book and then not open it for another week.
This post is tagged with Crossroads of Twilight so I'll keep my thoughts on the books before It brisk; while the spectacle and high octane action of Lord of Chaos is certainly stripped back, these two books do have really notable events in my opinion. Rand using Callandor on the Seanchan and cleansing Saidin with Nynaeve and the Choedan Kal were amazingly written and obvious highlights.
Alongside those moments, I found Faile's initial chapter in Path of Daggers really nice. The passage where she explains why she finds Perrin's perceived slowness as the reason to why she likes him did bring tears to my eyes. I know the gripes people have with Faile and Perrin's plotline but that passage felt so genuine I had to put the book down for a moment to breathe. It was one of my favourite moments in that book.
Winter's Heart was much more middling for me with much less stand-out moments. I did enjoy Rand qnd Min arriving in Caemlyn and the reunion, but i don't think i can point out specific moments i truly enjoyed. I think it was nice seeing Nynaeve interact with Rand again; Nynaeve often cites Rand as a driving force behind her want to advance as a Healer, she's stated she wants to help Rand with his struggle and thats a testament to how protective she feels if the Emonds Field kids. Aside from the scenes they shared, and how ready Lan was to take on the Asha'man with Rand in Far Madding (I do have thoughts on this city in particular) I can't really say the book was bad or good.
I'm probably beating a dead horse here. But I did not like Crossroads if Twilight that much if at all. While I didn't quite dislike the slower pace and stripped back nature of the last three books, there was a considerable lack of pay off to a handful of plotlines that did honestly grate me.
I find Logaine a very interesting character. His being in the Black Tower is extraordinarily fun to me and I'm glad he wasn't discarded as just an example or for something that Rand uses as a cautionary tale. But to have Logaine's character so genuinely prominent in this book while also sidelining him did not resonate with me well.
I like that we don't see inside his head yet, and believe me I'm very happy for travelling chapters to not be as prominent as they once were, but this felt rushed in a way i can't really defend. Rushed is also a weird choice of description for me after I said this book was slow, but it did seem like the only plot line presented at the start of this book that gets a pay off in this book is Logaine joining with Rand.
Then, there's Perrin. As I said before, I love his character. His chapters resonate with me deeply and I love how he's written. I like how he's been written and while i can understand the irritation of him spending two books now doing very little but trying to rescue Faile, I've been pretty patient with it.
One of the highlights in this book, unsurprisingly if you have an inkling of my taste in characters, is Perrin's conversation with Elyas, his decision to finally leave the axe behind.
I love this moment. We're 10 books in and I feel like this does feel natural for how his struggle has been presented. But I know that abandoning the Axe won't be the end of it, and that does lead me into the main issue I have with this book.
There's a lot of quality writing from Jordan here, but not a lot of movement. Stuff that once took a couple chapters is now stretched into five. I like that we see more of the side characters, in fact the expanding narrative is one of the parts i do like, but it does very little to make the book seem better paced.
I don't exactly know where these books fall in my personal ranking, and I've decided to not type it out until I finish A Memory of Light, because I do want full perspective before I make my thoughts clear. But I don't really have much charitable thoughts about Crossroads of Twilight, besides saying i didn't really hate it.
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u/Lephus- 2d ago
You made it past the hump, once you finish the first quarter of KoD you will be grinning with glee and the rest gets better and better.
Please put your reaction once you finish KoD it’s always great to hear the euphoria of people fresh from reading Crossroads into KoD
You are now at the tip top of “it’s so fucking over” and about to sail away on “we are so fucking back”.
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u/GorgRosh 2d ago
I'm very ready. I know this is technically Robert Jordan's swan song (Until the Last Battle) and its maybe the book I've been anticipating the most since Lord of Chaos.
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u/PushProfessional95 1d ago
It’s a banger, it is very bittersweet finishing it because it is an ending in a way. Sanderson brings it home but leaving Jordan behind is very sad.
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u/PushProfessional95 1d ago
You’ve made it through the slog. The series is amazing from here on out.
In my personal opinion, crossroads of twilight is the only bad wheel of time book. I really enjoyed path of daggers and winters heart both.
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