The Griffin or the Agate

I have to admit that I gave up on this series a while back. Sixth book, seventh book, I really don't remember which one, but I'd just had enough. The first book had come highly recommended and I enjoyed it as the Two Rivers youngsters set off with the Aes Sedai Moraine to change the world. But as the series moved along it began to fall into all too familiar patterns. Rand needed some special item, so he's go get it while trying not to go insane. Characters, including interesting ones like Perrin and Mat, would vanish for entire books at a time while the reader slogged through subplots like the Game of Houses or drippy romances. I also came away thinking that Jordan had problems writing fully realized female characters. Most seemed to be given one aspect - Berelain is a seductress, Nynaeve has a bad temper (and is also incredibly annoying - how is it that someone hasn't helped her off a cliff yet), and so on. So when the tenth book of the series, Crossroads of Twilight, showed up in my mailbox, I was sure I'd be lost for a while in the goings-on.
     I was, but it didn't take too long to pick up on the threads. Rand is off attempting to cleanse the taint of evil from the male version of magic. Perrin is chasing a tribe of Aiel with his army, trying to rescue his captured wife(does that seem as selfish to you as it does to me?). Mat Cauthon, having kidnapped the invading Seanchan Daughter of the Nine Moons, looks to escape with a traveling carnival while he tries to forge a relationship with his prisoner. Egwene, Amyrlin of some of the Aes Sedai, dithers outside of Tar Valon, trying to make a decision whether or not to wage war on her sisters.
     Sounds interesting, no? All those juicy plots bouncing around? It would have been a hell of a lot more interesting if Jordan had actually moved any of them along. Look, I'm the editor here. It's my job to trim the fat from a piece if it's extraneous. If that had been done with Crossroads of Twilight it would have checked in at about a hundred pages. It's not the writing. Jordan is very skilled and it's not like there are long, lagging stretches. But does the reader need a description of EVERY DAMN AES SEDAI that wanders into text? We're not talking about a handful here, gang, we're talking dozens. Maybe hundreds, each one given a standard Jordan flaw - pouty, fidgety, insolent, whatever. Forget the Aes Sedai. Let's talk about Perrin. He walks through his camp, examines some tracks, takes a look at the enemy encampment, then leads an expedition to get food into a city beset by the undead. He doesn't stick around to help, at least not in this book. From a plot standpoint, he doesn't make much forward progress. That gobbles up a sixth of the book. I'm not saying it's not well-written; I'm not saying that he isn't setting the stage for future events. I am saying that too much of Crossroad of Twilight is fluff, Egwene's internal dialogs and other Aes Sedai machinations. It's not that what Jordan has written is so bad - it's just that I expected more. Perhaps it's my fault. Maybe I'm too fussy. But that's why they pay me the big bucks over here.   §

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