Top positive review
4.0 out of 5 starsBook Edition
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 1, 2023
Crossroads of Twilight did not need to be written. It adds nothing. You could literally skip this, go from Winter's Heart to Knife of Dreams and not miss a beat! I kept thinking 'something will surely happen in the final 100 pages', like the last 7 books in the series, but no. Here are the 'highlights' for you: 'Mat goes shopping with snippy women. Some character I do not remember betrays other characters I do not recall, and Mat has someone kill her. Mat, who has never allowed anyone to dominate him, is now letting a tiny bald woman dominate him, because . . . she 'stops his dice'. Egwene manipulates snippy women to agree they must work with men (but they assert that they must dominate the Asha-men). Rand rests from his monumental labors and does nothing. Perrin is still searching for Faile (you would think with his superpowers he'd be better at it, but no). Nynaeve yanks on her braid while watching Lan pretend to fight. The Forsaken . . . nothing. But we do get to find out what all 197 characters are wearing, how the wind blows, and how each character responds to every other character (hint: they all hate each other and respond with deceptive nods or persnickety comments).
Now a review of the book copy itself, not the story found within. I received my copy from a third party, and believed it to be a new (or unused) edition. This one has clearly seen use. Spine is bendy, as if it has been read many times, though it is still square. Cover had two stickers, you know, the kind you find in used book sales places.
WHEEL OF TIME series: First book is awesome, with a great introduction to the world and a tight story. Book two Hunt for the Horn, is also an excellent standalone tale. After that, great moments, epic fights (though books 3-5 are basically the same story, with Rand ultimately killing a Forsaken each time, though we later discover this hardly matters when the 'Dark One' can resurrect his servants at will).
But the women . . . you know what I'm talking about. It's like Jordan wanted to go to the opposite extreme from Tolkien, who had about 3 females in his world (though they were all strong and mostly likeable). Jordan has peopled his world with the most uppity man-hating females ever conceived! Min and Birgitte are the only ones I can stand. The rest you get the sense they would be happier if they were just lesbi's and there were no men in the world. It's like the idiot TV series Wheel of Time, where the females blame men for everything, even though it was men who sacrificed their lives to lock the Dark One away.
The only things keeping me reading are (1) Rand is fascinating to watch, his growing madness and way of handling everything, (2) Mat, because he is simply the best, and does not suffer fool women, and (3) the knowledge that Brandon Sanderson completed this series. I cannot wait to read his final 3 books, knowing they will be an improvement in every way.
