It is easy enough to tell when the inevitable drop-off in interest in sustaining a long, complex, convoluted, complicated and—again—very long fantasy series fell upon author Robert Jordan. The more difficult thing to determine is the why. And since that is such a difficult proposition as to leave this analysis wallowing helplessly in the muck and mire and pure speculation, let’s stay focused on the easy part, yes?
If you want to know precisely at what point in the Wheel of Time series Jordan’s interest began to wane, one need only look to the myriad lists that rank the various titles in the series from best to worst.
Almost without fail—and close enough to warrant the judgment of being “near-universal”—the bottom third of the titles will contain at various points among the bottom shelving, three titles: The Path of Daggers, Crossroads of Twilight, and Winter’s Heart. Most of these lists—oh, let’s be honest, every single one of them written by a person who has actually read all the books—will place Crossroads of Twilight at the very bottom, sitting in judgment as the least entertaining if not necessarily the “worst.” Situated right above that title will almost certainly be either The Path of Daggers or Winter’s Heart. Sometimes it’s the one and if not that, it will be the other. The point, however, is that these three books are almost certain to be lumped together as the most disappointing entries in the series. And now the kicker: they were all published one after the other starting with The Path of Daggers and ending with Crossroads of Twilight. In the middle, of course, came Winter’s Heart.
And that near-universality of opinion extends, mostly, to the slightly elevated appreciation of Winter’s Heart. While it is sometimes ranked lower in the hearts of readers than The Path of Daggers, that particular ranking order is clearly the exception. Almost every fan admits that Crossroads of Twilight represents the nadir: it is a book in which nothing important happens. Or, at least, that is the consensus hyperbole. The Path of Daggers suffers from the same problems with pacing and a general stasis in movement forward. And, yes, this problem also applies to Winter’s Heart, but in this case there is the one exception that keeps it from hitting rock bottom: it’s got a killer ending.
In truth, there really is not all that much which takes place between highlights of the Prologue and the ending which is substantially better than the other two novels occupying the bottom rung. Jordan, for whatever reason, had hit the wall in his marathon. Whether due to the health problems which would soon claim his life or just sheer boredom after so many years, he hit the wall. And when the writer loses interest, you can bet readers will follow suit. These three books just suddenly seem to stop. The story continues on, but at such a slower pace and with so few memorable moments that they have each earned the rough estimation of being a “slog” by one reviewer or another. But Winter’s Heart reveals the secret to escaping eternal damnation at the bottom of that slog which the other two books failed to realize.
Give your readers a satisfying ending and they will show some willingness to overlook the rough and rocky trip to get there.
