I finished Winter's Heart Sunday night and turned to the 10th book of the Wheel of Time, Crossroads of Twilight. This is the book that, a decade ago, I read part way through and then decided I would wait until the series was finished before I read them again.
You see, there was real movement at the end of Winter's Heart. Main character Rand had finally cleaned the male half of the world's magic from the "taint" that had driven men mad for millennia. That opened the way for the serious business of preparing for the final battle against the Dark One.
Except it didn't. Instead, Crossroads of Twilight opens with a 100 (!!) page prologue, followed by a bunch of characters slowly moving around the world. Even the biggest Jordan supporter in the world could see that the series have finally come off the rails. I think the author (Jim Rigney) felt that as well, because he started to tie up loose ends and preparing for the finale with the next book. As I've noted before, he didn't get there, but the series has been completed.
All of this doesn't make the current volume all that enticing to read. It even opens with favorite character Mat on the run with the women who he knows will become his wife, even if she is 1) a prisoner and 2) a princess of an invading empire. Even that couldn't hold my interest yesterday.
I'm hoping that the energy left over from Winter's Heart, the fact that the final volumes are in sight and a desire to read something that isn't part of a 10,000-page-plus novel will get me through this. I'm still on schedule to finish the series by the end of January. I will do it. I will! I will!
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