Revisiting the Wheel of Time: Crossroads of Twilight
[This is part of a series analyzing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time novels. Previous installments can be found under the tag. Comments on old posts are welcome, but please, no spoilers for books after this one.]
This is the book that killed me.
Prior to the publication of Crossroads of Twilight, I was willing (if not happy) to wait two or three years for each Wheel of Time book, slowly plodding my way toward the conclusion. After this one, I was done. I would not pick the series up again until the end was in sight — as indeed has been the case. All the way through this re-read, I’ve been bagging on CoT, dreading its arrival . . . but wondering, subconsciously, if maybe I had mis-remembered; maybe it was just the disappointment of having waited more than two years, or the disconnect caused by not re-reading previous books, and it wasn’t really as bad as I thought.
Reader, I did not mis-remember.
This book is, from beginning to end, the Catastrophic Failure Mode of Epic Fantasy Pacing. It is everything I’ve been critiquing since The Fires of Heaven, writ extra large, with underlining. Hell — to the best of my knowledge, it is the one book about which Jordan ever publicly admitted, “you know, maybe that wasn’t a good idea.” Given the flaws I’ve been pointing out along the way, that admission should tell you something.
Going into it, I wondered how I should approach analyzing this book. What could I say that I hadn’t already said before? I suppose this post could consist of me tearing out my hair and going “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH,” but that’s not too helpful. Instead I decided to approach this systematically: reading the book, I noted down the number of pages in each chapter, the point of view character(s), and, in no more than one sentence, what important events take place. What changes in the chapter? What new thing do the characters (or the readers) learn? What fresh problem starts, or old problem concludes? Having done that, I now have a wealth of evidence to back me up when I tell you:
NOTHING BLOODY HAPPENS IN THIS BOOK.
I subdivide the summary in the three instances where multiple characters have pov within a chapter. Page counts in those instances are approximate.
- Prologue (80 p) — Rodel Ituralde proposes a truce and alliance with various Domani and Taraboners against the Seanchan (12 p); Eamon Valda argues with Asunawa (4 p); Gabrelle Sedai learns that Logain is going to “recruit” for the Black Tower (7 p); Yukiri Sedai discusses the “odd” Tower Sitters with Seaine (15 p); Gawyn gets a messenger from Elaida (7 p); Davram Bashere finds out that somebody was snooping in his tent (10); Samitsu Sedai meets Loial and Karldin, Heals Dobraine after an assassination attempt, and hears of Logain’s arrival in Cairhien (24 p).
- Chapters
- (19 p, Mat pov) — He thinks back to their escape from Ebou Dar.
- (15 p, Mat pov) — Seanchan soldiers come to demand horses from Valan Luca, go away empty-handed.
- (24 p, Mat pov) — He talks to Tuon, learns about Tylin’s death, and notices Rand’s stunt from the end of Winter’s Heart.
- (15 p, Furyk Karede pov) — He talks to a Seeker about Tuon’s disappearance, and leaves to search for her.
- (22 p, Perrin pov) — He dreams about something evil, then receives reports from Balwer and Selande about Masema and the Aes Sedai visiting him.
- (14 p, Perrin pov) — He tracks the Darkhounds, and gets the Suroth letter to Masema from Berelain.
- (15 p, Perrin pov) — Masuri lectures everyone about Darkhounds, and Masema argues with Perrin.
- (19 p, Perrin pov) — He scouts the Shaido camp and notices Rand’s stunt.
- (29 p, Faile pov) — She notices Rand’s stunt and starts an alliance with Rolan, and her plans for escape are discovered.
- (17 p, Elayne pov) — She does PR for her campaign and notices Rand’s stunt.
- (18 p, Elayne pov) — She yells at Doilan Mellar.
- (17 p, Elayne pov) — She bargains with Zaida over Windfinders and Aes Sedai.
- (17 p, Elayne pov) — She accepts the support of four juvenile High Seats.
- (23 p, Elayne pov) — She receives reports from the First Maid and First Clerk about spies, and hears that Merilille ran away with (probably) Talaan.
- (31 p, multiple pov) — Elenia allies with Naean to escape Arymilla (16 p); Mellar meets with Lady Shiaine (15 p).
- (18 p, Egwene pov) — She tells Beonin to negotiate for Elaida’s surrender.
- (26 p, Egwene pov) — Her council speculates about Delana, and Egwene checks in on a new project to create cuendillar.
- (19 p, Egwene pov) — She reads and discusses reports with Siuan.
- (25 p, Egwene pov) — The Hall votes to send an embassy to the Black Tower, for linking.
- (20 p, Egwene pov) — She has prophetic dreams and finds out Anaiya has been murdered with saidin.
- (21 p, Alviarin pov) — She returns to the White Tower and finds out that she has been ousted as Keeper, then sees (but does not recognize) Mesaana’s face, and gets sent by Shaidar Haran to hunt the Black Ajah hunters.
- (7 p, Pevara pov) — Tarna Feir suggests the Red Ajah take Asha’man Warders, and sees the message Pevara received from Toveine in Cairhien.
- (17 p, Cadsuane pov) — She watches the Warders exercise and talks to Rand.
- (17 p, multiple pov) — Rand hears Loial’s report about the Waygates (10 p); Cadsuane sends Samitsu back to Cairhien (2 p); Rand sends Bashere, Logain, and Loial to negotiate a truce with the Seanchan (3 p); Elza tells her Warder he may have to kill some people (1 p).
- (11 p, Perrin pov) — He goes to So Habor and sees a Seanchan aerial scout.
- (14 p, Perrin pov) — He discovers strange evils and ghosts in So Habor.
- (17 p, Perrin pov) — He tortures a Shaido warrior, abandons his axes, and thinks about allying with the Seanchan.
- (26 p, Mat pov) — He courts Tuon.
- (22 p, Mat pov) — Renna stabs Egeanin, escapes, and is killed.
- (28 p, Egwene pov) — She turns the Tar Valon harbor chain into cuendillar and gets captured.
- Epilogue (2 p, Rand pov) — He learns the Seanchan want him to meet the Daughter of Nine Moons.
By my count, precisely two — TWO — things happen during the course of this book that alter the direction of the narrative. They both happen in the last four pages, and one of them basically happens offstage: Egwene gets captured, and Rand arranges a truce with the Seanchan.
Nothing. Else.
At the beginning of the book, Mat was running away from Ebou Dar and worrying about marrying Tuon. At the end of the book, Mat is running away from Ebou Dar and worrying about marrying Tuon. Perrin was trying to rescue Faile; he’s still trying to rescue Faile. Elayne was trying to secure the throne; she’s still trying to secure the throne. The character with the highest plot-to-pages ratio is freaking Alviarin, man.
This is partially, but not entirely, due to the choice that even Jordan admitted was a bad one: starting (almost) every character’s section on the same day, i.e. the one when Rand and Nynaeve cleansed saidin. If you look at that list up above, and where I mention the stunt, you’ll find that the first fifteen chapters all take place on the same goddamned day. We are literally on page three hundred ninety-one before it moves forward, with Egwene’s pov. I am running out of italics with which to express my horror, y’all. I could forgive it if that was an action-packed day for everybody . . . but oh my god, it is so far from that, it isn’t even funny.
Back when I posted about The Path of Daggers, I commented that it’s difficult, with a narrative as multi-stranded as this one, to make clear declarations about how I would have reorganized it. In this case, however, it’s easy. Three examples:
- Dump Mat’s first three chapters, excepting only the conversation with Tuon, which you graft into his later two chapters. Then find something else for him to do during this book. (I could name specifics here if I’d read Knife of Dreams, but I haven’t.)
- Condense the time-wasting crap I complained about from Elayne’s chapters in Winter’s Heart (the pointless stalling before the assassination attempt, the mechanics of setting up her meeting with the Borderlanders), and use the pages thus freed up to pack in the few bits of meat from this book (e.g. the High Seats). Then either give her a sabbatical from this book — she’s basically the only major pov character who hasn’t had one — or, as per Mat, find her something to do.
- Perrin is an interesting case. At the start of this book, twenty-two days have passed since Faile was kidnapped. In that time, he went leaping ahead with gateways, then realized he’d lost the trail of the Shaido and had to backtrack; we learn this through brief exposition. I would totally support eliding that bit if it were surrounded by Exciting! Action! on both sides — Faile’s been kidnapped! (elision) Rescue Faile! — but instead it’s Faile was kidnapped! Blah blah, (elision), blah, blah. [Rescue Faile! . . . one of these days.] I’d chuck, or at least massively condense, the pointless time-wasting with him and Berelain in Winter’s Heart, and replace it with the “leaping ahead with gateways” part of the elision, then end his part of that book with him figuring out his mistake. (Yay despair!) Then have this book pick up directly with him finding the Shaido, and have him do something about it before the end of the book. (Oh look, I found more italics.)
- Have the story begin on the day the taint was cleansed, sure. That’s what you use your prologue for: a bunch of rapid-fire scenes, no more than five pages each, showing where everybody was and what they were doing when the world changed. Then move on with your story.
In other words, take the tiny fragments of actual material and shove them into either Winter’s Heart or Knife of Dreams, and dump the rest of it as dead weight. Because that’s what it is. Several different kinds of dead weight, in fact. The stuff in So Habor is creepy, sure — but what does it add to the narrative? I’m guessing it’s a sign of the Dark One’s touch (along with, presumably, the failing of the wards on the Tower/Keepings on the rebel army’s supplies, Mat seeing things that aren’t there, people wondering if saidar is weakening, etc; I’m speculating there, but it seems likely that’s the cause). And you know, back in the early books, So Habor would have made a great scene. But at this point in the story, give us a couple of paragraphs where somebody tells Perrin what happened when they went to buy grain; don’t waste two entire chapters on it. In a related vein, half of the dead weight in this book and the last one is Jordan showing his math on Elayne getting the throne. Either he had what he thought was a compelling reason why he couldn’t let that happen before Book 11 (in which case he should have come up with actual challenges for her along the way), or he didn’t realize that at this late stage in the game, we’re willing to spot him the routine stuff.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have lost sight of the epic, except in the pathological sense of “wordy.” We briefly found it again, at the end of Winter’s Heart; it’s why that book gave me hope. But Crossroads of Twilight grinds it under once more. Almost nobody knows what Rand did, so all they can do is goggle and make wrong guesses; even the few who do know (like Cadsuane) doubt whether it’s true. Rand himself seems to go on vacation afterward — I think he gets less page-time, and certainly does less of interest, in this book than he did in The Dragon Reborn. For God’s sake, he doesn’t even show up until page 540.
The one other thing that seems vaguely epic — Egwene turning the harbor chain into cuendillar — falls flat because I have no goddamned clue why she did it. Seriously, can anybody explain this to me? If there’s a simple answer, I don’t even care that it constitutes a spoiler, because right now I’m staring at that and going “huh?” I cannot for the life of me figure out what advantage that’s supposed to gain for her side. Will it be too heavy to lift, thus forcing Tar Valon into an actual siege? (I thought cuendillar was lightweight.) Will its value cause people to mob the harbor, trying to run off with links of the chain? (As if they could.) Will this show of wonder cause the people in Tar Valon to freak out and surrender? (It seems unlikely.) I really, really don’t get it. So if you can explain it to me without giving away Egwene’s whole part in Knife of Dreams or later, please do.
It’s the same problem he’s had before, done all over again, this time in bold letters. Jordan hides stuff from the reader — including stuff the pov character knows — without good reason. What’s the point of Egwene’s plan? What message does Gawyn get from Elaida? Is Rand’s sooper-sekrit plan in Tear to make peace with the Seanchan, or something else? Why not tell us that Tuon asked for Mat to take her (god help me) shopping? Toveine’s message to Pevara and Loial’s warning about the Aes Sedai that came with him from Cairhien are both almost certainly about the Asha’man bonding Aes Sedai; we the reader already know this, so why not tell us? Augh! <beats head into desk, hoping for a concussion and subsequent memory loss regarding this book>
. . . it just goes nowhere. Even on a paragraph level, it’s too much description, not enough action. There are almost no runs of dialogue; each paragraph of speech is separated by one or two of description, or consists of a line of dialogue, several sentences of description, and then another line of dialogue to close the paragraph out. There’s no speed, no momentum. People say “nothing happened” in previous books, but it isn’t true; it’s just that the story kept going on tangents instead of proceeding toward a conclusion. Here it isn’t even tangenting. The entire book is treading water.
You want to know something funny? In the copy I read, the story is 680 pages long. Except that, like most books, it doesn’t actually start on page 1. In this case, it starts on page 15.
Which would make Crossroads of Twilight 666 pages long.
It really is the devil.
<sigh of relief> Okay. I made it over the hurdle. Everything after this, including New Spring, is stuff I haven’t read before. I was thinking of speeding up my pace — one month per book, rather than two — since once the plot gets moving again I’ll probably be eager to see it through to the end, but then I found out that apparently the final book has been pushed back to March, instead of November. I’ll probably still do New Spring next month, using it to make up for the total lack of interest in Crossroads of Twilight, but if I otherwise keep on at my current pace (and Tor doesn’t have any more delays), I’ll arrive at A Memory of Light right when it’s published. That seems fitting.
Ten books down. Four (and a half) to go.
I can make it.
