Crossroads of Twilight – Robert Jordan: Book Review

Warning: There will be spoilers; one cannot speak of Crossroads of Twilight without referencing the climax of Winter’s Heart.

The whole world has changed, and it is both the most amazing thing and most frustrating thing that has happened in The Wheel of Time. It isn’t just that people don’t believe that the One Power has been cleansed by Rand, it is that they will ignore all evidence to that end. Hell, even the Aes Sedai with bonded Asha’man seem unwilling to accept it; it is wildly frustrating. I mean, understandable, I suppose, but even after people have accepted the fact, you hear thoughts of “Ewwwwww, there’s a man channeling near me! Will I go crazy because of that?!”

As I mentioned in the previous review, much of Crossroads of Twilight occurs simultaneously with the final moments of Winter’s Heart. The odd thing is that it hardly seems to have the weight of it; people who can channel are just going about the mundane parts of their lives when all of a sudden “Someone is channeling all of the one power.” It is almost fascinating; in a book like this, it is so easy to get tunnel vision, to only pay attention to what is happening explicitly on the pages you read, without considering the background events. During the climax of Winter’s Heart, I never once asked “What is Perrin doing right now?“

That being said, you know what Perrin is doing; he is trying desperately to find Faile, and why would anyone question that? The important part, though, is what he does to rescue her, a move that has incredible long term repercussions. Given the prophecies that were shown in the very first book, though, it should never be thought that Robert Jordan was a short term thinker. Perrin is still a strong character, though he has many shortcomings–every event in Perrin’s life is something he learns from, though his stubbornness is tough to read at times.

Mat and Tuon’s interactions are some of the best in the series, and it is just a lot of fun to read. Mat seems, most of the time, to be off balance in general–but Tuon basically has him in a constant tumble. It is great to see him get countered at every corner, and Tuon is a fantastic character in general for that reason.

The siege of Tar Valon begins to move into something a lot more interesting; considering this plot line has been teased for several books, coupled with the static nature of the siege, make it just so glorious when things begin not just to inch forward, but to dive off a cliff towards a deep pool of awesome. It takes a lot of patience to get this far, and things are really starting to pay off.

I’ve mentioned it during the previous reviews, but things are really starting to move towards an ending. The whole tone shifts, gets darker; some of the scenes in this book and the next are actually quite disturbing, and purposefully so. If the Dark One is touching the earth, one expects things to go a bit off the rails–and things get right off the rails at points. You’ll know it when you read it.

This book does not defy expectations, but it definitely begins to fulfill them, and that is very rewarding.