This book actually starts before the events at the end of the last book took place. So it's going back in time a little bit. It mainly deals with what everyone else was doing while Rand and Nynaeve were cleansing Saidin. Mat is struggling to get out of Ebou Dar. A task made more complicated by his kidnapping of the Seanchan heir to the throne. Egwene is still leading her army to the White Tower to take back the Aes Sedai seat of power. And Elayne is still trying to gain her own seat of power on the throne of Andor.
Nynaeve isn't really in this book, which was disappointing to me. And Rand really wasn't in it that much either. Perrin was, but he was deadset on one task and didn't have a lot of growth or development to his character. Mat was really the one redeeming character of the book. He's always interesting and has a lot of adventure even when he isn't doing something. He's also probably the most relatable character, at least to me. And he travels with interesting companions.
For being one of the shortest books in the series (but still well over six hundred pages) you would think maybe the pace would be faster in this book. But it's not. There's still a lot of detail, and the characters don't do anything of any importance in this book. But there's a lot of backstory and world building done and that counts for something. Even Jordan's bad writing is still better compared to some fantasy authors out there. So while I'm whining now I still ultimately enjoy the series. I just wish his editor had held the reins a bit better on him. And the time line, because it did go back in time a bit was confusing. It's the only book at this point to really do that.
Well, we're moving into the end of the series, or at least the home stretch. It should be interesting (hopefully) from here on out.
Crossroads of Twilight
Copyright 2003
700 pages
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