Crossroads of Twilight

Much of it runs parallel in time to the previous volume, so it shows characters reacting to an event readers already witnessed rather than moving the story forward. Combined with a slow pace, this gives it the lowest reputation and ratings in the series for many readers.

Jordan chose to depict how scattered characters experienced the climax of Winter's Heart during the same timeframe, rather than picking up after it. The overlapping structure is the single choice most blamed for the book's reception.

Most readers advise against skipping it, since it quietly sets up resolutions that arrive in the following books. It rewards patience more than excitement, and it closes out the slower middle of the series.

Yes. Crossroads of Twilight is generally regarded as the last book of the slog, the slower mid-series stretch beginning around book seven. The pace picks up sharply in the next volume.

It echoes an in-world prophetic verse about mankind arriving at a crossroads where all that is, was, and will be balances on the point of a sword. The image fits a book poised between the war's long buildup and its coming climax.

Yes. The prologue, titled 'Glimmers of the Pattern,' was sold as an e-book several months before the hardcover, continuing the early-release pattern from the previous book.