Crossroads of Twilight

Executive Summary: All of the “slow” books have been better on a reread. Sadly this one might have actually been a bit worse. It's not quite 1-star bad, but I'm happy to be out the other side.

Audiobook: Michael Kramer and Kate Reading saved me from possibly never completing this book for my reread. There is no way I'd have gotten through the text again so quickly. They do a fantastic job with the rather bland material they are given here.

Full Review
This is the book I was dreading when I decided to do a reread of this series with some friends of mine reading it for the first time. I debated skipping it and just reading a summary. I probably should have. Oh well. My recollection was that I enjoyed some parts in the beginning, and some in the end, but the middle just felt pointless.

That's probably a fair assessment, although I felt like those parts were far less than even my memory. I liked the parts with Mat. A lot in fact. However even his story has VERY little happen in it. I think I just really enjoy Mat, and so I didn't care that a lot wasn't happening.

Some of Egwene's was really good too, especially at the very end of this book. However much of it just felt petty and pointless. She probably had the most plot advancement of all the characters though.

Pretty much everything else felt completely unnecessary to the story. Rand, Perrin, and Elayne's stories didn't seem to advance at all.

I'm a big fan of epic fantasy, and enjoy long meandering detail as part of the “fullness” of the story, but this takes that to a whole other level sadly.

I think this book is probably worth skipping. Even if it's your first time with the series. Just find a good summary. It can't be more than a few paragraphs tops. Save yourself the time and move on to the last four books which are all excellent.