Sometimes, the worst things happen to the best people
Crossroads of Twilight continues Robert Jordan’s sprawling epic but this time, it does so parallel to the previous book rather than immediately following it. So while we know Rand has done some spring cleaning, nobody else does yet.
This book follows the ancillary characters more than the big man, though. Perrin and Mat get a lot of face time, but the queen of this book is Egwene and her struggles with the rebel Hall and the seige of Tar Valon.
And that siege is going as well as can be expected. Mostly. There is no real fighting done, since not even Elaida wants Sister fighting Sister again (well, maybe a little, but not enough to push the issue.) And while Egwene and her Hall are coming up with new information and trying to think of new ways to end the war, Elaida is fighting her own battles within the White Tower. In the end, Egwene’s pride costs her a little (lot) and she finds herself in an unfortunate turn of events.
Perrin, meanwhile, is still doggedly (wolfishly?) obsessed with retrieving his wife from the Shaido and slowly starts to become unhinged in the process. He resorts to ugly methods and ultimately is willing to make a deal with the proverbial devil in the Seanchan as long as he gets what he’s after.
Mat is in the process of both fleeing those Seanchan and trying to woo their leader in Tuon, whom he was told he would marry a long time ago. He also learns of the sul’dam and the major flaw in Seanchan thinking, that they can learn to channel themselves. This poses a conundrum for Tuon, since she herself is a sul’dam.
Elaine also plays a decent part in this book, but mostly just sitting around Caemlyn trying to secure her rightful place as queen. She’s finding allies, but also finding more enemies as she goes.
This book wraps up with Egwene and her series of unfortunate events and is overall a solid book, if a slow one. The later books in the series before Jordan dies really feel bloated at times, although most of what is written turns out to be relatively important to the story as a whole. The next book, A Knife of Dreams, is the final book written solely by Robert Jordan himself before he passes away and begins again the progress of the march towards Tarmon Gaidon.
Justin enjoys most games. He is currently learning the ins and outs of competitive modern Magic while enjoying all sorts of other gaming mediums, assuming he can find the spare time.