That’s not what this novel is.
Crossroads of Twilight didn’t build off of the cleansing so much as catch everyone else up to that same point—often with moments of noticing that something really big is happening far away and wondering what it was, if it is an attack from the Forsaken, or if Rand might need help.
It was such a disappointment right up until the end where (spoilers for book 10 of a reread) Egwene is captured by the White Tower. There wasn’t much movement in the rebel almost-siege of the White Tower or in Elayne’s not-exactly-a-fight for the throne of Andor. There wasn’t much movement on Perrin’s it’ll-happen-any-book-now rescue of Faile or much of anything with Mat and Tuon. Crossroads of Twilight just treads water. Heck, this book has one of the dullest prologues of the series—though at least the White Tower section does show just how far the Tower has fallen and what Elaida’s influence has been since the Tower split, but that’s not a moment to hype the reader for the rest of the novel.
What makes all that even worse is that I just didn’t have it in me to spend more time thinking about Crossroads of Twilight without having a better Wheel of Time experience, so I didn’t wait to finish this write-up before I started (and finished) reading Knife of Dreams and man, what a palate cleanser that book is, and having that time to read Knife of Dreams puts in stark contrast just how bad Crossroads of Twilight is.
I found it interesting to read over my thoughts on the novel from back in 2009 and what I see is a significant decline in my patience with Crossroads of Twilight over time. I suggested then that I wasn’t nearly as bothered the first time I had read the book, but even fifteen years ago I wasn’t having it anymore.
Friends: I’m older now. I find myself returning to some of the books of my younger years (hence this and other rereads) as if they were old friends, and typically those have been positive experiences that reminded me why I loved those books and series in the first place, even if my experiences are different now that I’m older and in a different place in my life. What all of that does, however, is make the experience of rereading Crossroads of Twilight all the more disappointing.
It made me question everything right up to the point where I read Knife of Dreams again and realized that the problem isn’t that I’m not engaged with The Wheel of Time; the problem is that Crossroads of Twilight is a bad and fully unnecessary book.
Knife of Dreams is a different story and more on that when The Wheel of Time Reread continues. Thank you for sticking with me on this journey.
Joe Sherry - Senior Editor of Nerds of a Feather. Hugo and Ignyte Award Winner. Minnesotan.
