It took me about as long to read this book as it took Robert Jordon to write it. It was agonizing, too much emphasis on clothes, on who thought what about someone else, how embarrassed they were etc. I found myself skipping paragraphs just to get to some meat in the story. Rand, Mat, Perrin and the Aiel are strong characters with the potential to kick some Seanchan or Darkspawn booty. Rand can travel anywhere in a nanosecond and so can the Ashamen and all the enlightened Aes Sedai, why don't they get together and collaborate, Rand seems to be playing things way too cagey, why doesn't Rand wipe out more of his enemies instead of mooning around wondering what Min thinks of him and battling crazy men in his head?

The Aes Sedai don't seem to co-operate at all and are busy spying on each other and mis-understanding what it is that anybody does. They are easily killed by any-one with a knife despite their abilities with the power.

Please Mr. Jordan, get it together, stop all the minutiae, details of a Taraboner's Sunday best or lack thereof is positively boring.
The details of past battles and adventures of reincarnated heroes is exciting, the progression of the plot to tie together all the Countries, Kings, Queens, and the myriad of Forsaken fiends and their minions need to be brought together.
I don't remember half of the plot lines anymore, but I know that I enjoyed books one through eight, and only parts of 9 and 10.
I could never recommend that you don't buy and read this book, as it would be next to impossible to understand the next one, but it was very exasperating for most of the time.

The Crossroads of Twilight (book 10) is positively the worst book in the series and this is a shame. The long and the short of it is, NOTHING happens! It appears to be a filler-in about what is happening in Randland as Rand is cleansing saidin, so occasionally, we have some “hopeful” dialogue which forces the reader forward in the hope that something – ANYTHING – will be of interest.

Perrin has lost his wits – all of them! He is a love sick cub filled with only one essence called Faile. Tedious! She has (thankfully) been kidnapped and is being her ambitious self with the Shaido as he is hunts for her. One can understand a man distraught over his wife’s kidnapping, but does it have to be so-o-o-o-o- drawn out, so heavy, so …. I liked Perrin in the early books ( before he married that over-ambitious Faile and then he lost all his personality), but now he is simply too pathetic for words!

Egwene is simply too good, too correct and too full of her own self importance to be of any real interest. I have my doubts that she will truly support Rand. She wants Rand under her thumbs and the man must do as she wants or else …

Elayne must have a palace filled with wardrobes for the amount of dresses described in this book go beyond thinking! The plot around the throne issue is now seriously thin and it makes for boring reading.

Thankfully there is always Mat to keep some of us still mildly entertained, but even the whole Mat-Tuon saga is slow.

Rand is by far the most interesting and likeable character in the series, yet for some bizarre reason, Jordan has kept him tucked away and we are given brief flashes of him, via the other characters and one brief encounter towards the end of the book. This lack of Rand does NOTHING to advance the plot but only serves to frustrate the reader.

Seriously, unless Jordan comes up with something scintillating in his twelfth book, (the last book in the WOT series) the series will have failed dismally. The first five books were a great read and kept the reader interested and then it all went to the Pit of Doom thereafter, almost as if Jordan had lost interest. Furthermore, perhaps Jordan needs to reconsider his editor. Someone needs to get the man back on track! Fast!

Perhaps, like the title, the whole WoT series is at a cross roads, and has been since the sixth book in the series. Jordan needs to decide whether to finish the series off, or continue. From the sixth book to this book, the tenth, the main plot has literally stopped, while numerous sub-plots have suddenly appeared which add nothing to the overally story. In fact, the sub-plots are actually destroying the storey, along with the endless detail which also serves to bog the main story down, and detract from the main plot.

In the Crossroads of Twilight, it is possible to not read entire pages or chapters, and still understand what's going on. In fact, if the reader chose not to read at least one of the novels between the sixth and Crossroads, he or she will still be able to follow the plot of the next novel. So what does this tell us?

For a start, credit the reader with a modicum of imagination. We don't need this endless detail of staring, stroking/smoothing clothes, braid tugging, pages devoted to decribing clothes, buckles, belts, studs, poise, type of walks etc etc. The reader can fill in the details for themselves, provided a basic decriptive framework is provided by the author.

Move the main plot forward. The fact that so little happens really just makes the reader lose interest, if the huge amount of wasted detail has not done so already.

This will be the last Robert Jordan book I shall buy. It was with great reluctance I bought this novel, and I bought it in the vain hope that the whole story might move forward. How disappointed I was. Jordan now needs to bring this whole WoT series to end, in just one more novel. Maybe, just maybe, he might bring a little respect back to his series.