Maintenance
This entry in the fantasy novel series collectively known as The Wheel of Time is not exactly highly considered. For the sake of comparison, place it at around the same level as The Last Jedi relative to that film’s placement within the Star Wars canon. A primary reason for this low standard is the common complaint that the novel seems to exist primarily for the purpose of maintaining the series structure. Originally introduced as a thirteen-part series, the feeling among many readers with the appearance of Crossroads is that it exists to a significance degree simply to fulfill that promise by drawing out the narrative. Its overarching theme, therefore, is one existing outside the narrative itself and working within the processes of the writing system: maintaining the integrity of the bigger plan.
Detailing
Another common complaint among readers lies in the that systemic processing of authorship. To wit: Jordan goes overboard on his penchant for detail. It is certainly no secret that the books comprising this series are overwhelmed at times by a focus on details. Imagery, dialogue, and tons of descriptive prose all serve together to create a story that requires little work on behalf of illustrators or filmmakers to bring the sumptuous feast to brilliantly realized visual realization. One can almost take any random page from any book in the series, hand it to a fine artist and receive back a breathtakingly complete portrait that vividly brings to life the words one has just read. In the case of this particular entry in the series, however, this focus on details seems at times to be its primary reason for existence. At the same time, however, many of the smaller details that one would not appreciate simply by reading a third-party chapter-by-chapter summary wind up becoming items that could cause some confusion if they remain unrealized by readers.
Can One Skip an Entire Entry in a Series?
Skipping one of the first four or five novels in The Wheel of Time is almost inconceivable even if one intends to fill in the gaps with even one of the very detailed summarizations produced by fans across the internet. The real question being asked here is whether it would be better for the series as a whole for a reader to try to force their way through a book commonly denoted as “lagging” and in which “nothing really happens” to move the larger plot forward than simply to give up. If one tries and fails to slog through an unpopular entry in a series, the result may be giving up entirely.
A great number of readers had trouble getting through this book’s predecessor, Winter’s Heart. Asking them to struggle back-to-back may be too much to ask. The almost universal acceptance that Crossroads moves at a glacial pace which arrives at no major turning point in the narrative can be viewed sincerely as a thematic attempt—intentional or not—to pursue the idea whether a broad-based multi-volume narrative can be enjoyed in its own right without necessarily engaging a singularly volume within that series, One thing is for sure: it is much easier to skip this book now than it was when the book was published.
