Crossroads of Twilight: Book Ten of "The Wheel of Time" Robert Jordan

[rotntoe]

Hello, this is my first post here. Concerning this series, everything was great at the beginning. Lot's of excitement, the little group from the little settlement had many adventures. Now that they have more or less split up and doing their own thing. The dynamics (maybe the wrong word) between the principle character, at the moment, and the storyline is just so drawn out.

It might be when the main women of the story, start overly analyzing every word and nuance. Could just be my perception, being a male. The reason I do not especially like to read female authors. Not downing them, just not my cup of tea.

Or was Robert Jordan at the time just running out of material and had to put out a certain amount of material.

As it is sometimes I just loathe to pick my kindle back up to finish. He does have me anxious to how it all ends though. So I will stick it out.

Guess I am just spoiled from the Malazan Empire. Epic one there, with both great male and female characters. No bullshit, get your throat slit there for that.

TLDR

Does the story pick up steam, or just goes oatmeal mushy to the big climax?
and.... I just overcooked my bread.

[jayjay]

It picks up steam, but that's not any great feat by Jordan. The eleventh book was the last one Jordan wrote before he died, and Brandon Sanderson picks the burden up with the 12th, 13th and 14th books (the 14th is yet to be released (supposed to be released Jan 2013)) from Jordan's notes. Sanderson's REALLY good...I read the 12th and 13th books and have no complaints about his continuance of Jordan's epic.

[rotntoe]

Thanks for the reply. I did not know he died. Good to know it picks up in a bit. I will finish the series in honor to him at the least.

[Merestil Haye]

Originally Posted by rotntoe

It might be when the main women of the story, start overly analyzing every word and nuance. Could just be my perception, being a male. The reason I do not especially like to read female authors. Not downing them, just not my cup of tea.

The first third of the book consists of the same event, viewed through the eyes of multiple female characters, every one of which jumps to the wrong conclusion from a cold standing start.

Or was Robert Jordan at the time just running out of material and had to put out a certain amount of material.

If anything, the opposite. RJ was writing stuff that the editor was not looking at with an objective eye, and neither was she trying to get him to dial back.

The second half of the book does pick up a bit, but to realise that you have to look at CoT from the perspective of later books.

Another issue is the timeline of the books. You may not realise it, but the first two books cover just over half a year - from spring to late autumn of the same year (998NE). TDR starts early in the following year, which ends just before the end of Lords of Chaos - the last chapter of LoC is the fifteenth day of 1000NE.

Books seven, eight, nine and ten cover the winter of 1000NE - we're just barely into spring by the end of CoT.

The other issue is that RJ's final illness was somewhat drawn out, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he was suffering from it while writing CoT, let alone Knife of Dreams. As Jayjay says, once Brandon Sanderson takes over, things pick up the pace.

Guess I am just spoiled from the Malazan Empire. Epic one there, with both great male and female characters. No bullshit, get your throat slit there for that.

Oh, there's plenty of waffle in that. But Steven Erikson doesn't take twenty pages to describe a main female character dressing.

[Doyle]

I quit after the fourth book. I remember reading 100 pages in the 3rd or 4th book and realized absolutely nothing happened. Maybe one day, I'll try it again.

[hatesfreedom]

I stopped reading about book 4-5 as well. The only real thing I remember about it anymore was that all the main female characters were the type of people you would never ever in a thousand years want to talk to, or associate with, or anything. Because they aren't real people, they're something much more worse.