After reading the previous novel, Winter’s Heart, I found myself starting to get a little burnt out on The Wheel of Time. It just felt like nothing especially interesting had happened in a long time, and while the story was stagnating, Robert Jordan seemed to be taking every opportunity he could to have the women getting naked together and the men complaining about how hard it is to understand women. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed the books because they were comfortable and familiar and I was invested in the characters, but it was starting to feel somewhat aimless.
Fortunately, this novel felt a little more interesting – even if the ending of the previous novel, and its implications, were barley explored. There was a lot of Aes Sedai focus, and a look at the ongoing struggles between the two factions. The end of it made me roll my eyes a little (primarily because it felt kind of repetitive), but I still look forward to seeing what comes of it and the political nuance of the Aes Sedai is easily the most interesting thing in the whole series for me. It feels true to life, and in kind of a sad way.
Speaking of interesting politics, I also quite enjoyed Elayne’s portion of the story. The consolidation of her power is equally difficult and believable and with her pregnancy in the mixture as well, it all felt like her story was moving forward quite nicely. Perrin also ends up becoming even more of a monster than he was, and Mat spends time with the woman he believes he’s destined to marry, but their storylines aren’t quite so interesting to me.
I think it says a lot that I find Wheel of Time reviews especially hard to write – for a longer book like this, I should have lots of points to discuss, but there’s often not a huge amount that happens, and events of one book often aren’t hugely distinct from events of another. I’m kind of pleased that I’m getting closer to the end, but it does also speak to the quality of the books that I am still going and want to find out what happens. Crossroads of Twilight, at very least, feels like it is moving the plot towards that conclusion, and I appreciate it for that.
Rating: 7.1/10
