Crossroads of Twilight is the infamous 10th book of The Wheel of Time and nearly universally considered the series weakest entry. Having finished it at the crack of dawn this morning, I can confirm that sentiment as one I share. However, this is not the slogfest of misery and boredom that should be replaced by a one paragraph Wiki summary, as others claim. While the first ⅔ are admittedly uneventful and dragging, the last third is phenomenal, even if it doesn’t end with a trademark massive and awesome finale. That being said, there is a massive structural issue I have with this book that severely limited its potential in my opinion. Not only its potential, but even Winter’s Heart as well (a book I previously said I love and hold as one of the best books in the series).

Here is the issue. A large part of CoT takes place simultaneously with the finale of WH. The finale of WH is one of the most awesome moments in the franchise, and we are denied a chance to see much of the immediate aftermath. There is so much time spent in CoT of characters musing over what could be happening during the WH finale and what they should do. While it was initially cool to see such a large event from the clueless outskirts, it became tired. We cannot invest in any drama surrounding what characters think is happening because we as the reader already know what happened. I was disappointed at how quickly we cut to Rand after this finale and it feels like there’s some important recovery we skip. I don’t mind that he is absent for most of this book because it makes sense he needs time to recover, but I believe we should have had a better grasp at how he needed to recover as a result. I am happy we finally get a scene of Rand meeting with Logaine, even though it’s just talking about things we already know. Elayne’s plot is at an all time low as Robert Jordan wastes countless pages about her taking a bath, getting frustrated at her pregnancy, and lack of seizing the Lion Throne. We get the smallest amount of progress possible as she just meets with some snotty lords of houses she is trying to gain favor of…that’s it.

This is often referred to as “The Perrin Book” or “The Shaido Book” despite that plot being surprisingly absent. We do get a bit, certainly more than the last couple of books, but this plot is still left unresolved. That was very disappointing, however we get some great strides in it and Perrin as a character that makes me actually look forward to his character and plotline. That is the first time I am saying that since Lord of Chaos! Another plotline I disliked for a while that saw massive improvement was the White Tower. The inner-conflict is fascinating now with how deep in it certain characters are, and now the forces of the Dark One are getting more involved. I will leave it at that for spoiler’s sake. Mat and Tuon get a lot of screentime and their relationship is naturally developing in the best possible way I hoped for. This book ends in a cliffhanger much like Path of Daggers which is a bit of a disappointment, but we do need to cool down after Winter Heart’s amazing finale. All the pieces are there for Knife of Dreams to be an all-time great piece of literature that will deliver payoff to so much stuff that crucially needs it. However, I am going to read the prequel novella New Spring first, as I am going in release order.

To conclude, Crossroads of Twilight is undeniably the weakest WoT book, but it boats a truly incredible final third and is a much-needed cooldown after WH. If WH and CoT were one book, and it cut in-between each other’s action, this could have easily been one of the best books in the franchise. At least it’s all uphill from here! I can’t be more excited, even if I tried.