What was your favorite books in wot and least favorite

[Shinobi]

Mine favorite was either Knife Of Dreams or The Great Hunt and my least favorite was Path Of Daggers

[Draven]

The Shadow Rising is definitely my favourite, dude. The Great Hunt is my second favourite having the best ending in the series. And the worst I've read is Lord of Chaos and Winter's Heart (talk about drag...) with only the endings to compensate. I've only read the summary of Crossroads, but I still felt the drag, though.

[Gandaal]

Warning major spoilers ahead!!

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Best (best to worst):

1. Great Hunt - Well written, great structure. You could really see Rand turning into the hero you would expect the champion of the world to be (what the hell happened?).

2. Eye of the World - Great start to the series even if the basis for the final confrontation doesn't actually make any sense based on what's happen afterwards.

3. The Shadow Rising - This book is dominated in my mind by the Rand/Aviendha interplay which I loved every second of. It also fleshed out the Aiel who are by far the most interesting tribe/ culture in the series.

 

Average to poor books that have a saving grace or two (best to worst):

1. Knife of Dreams - Seems to swing from greatest to absolutely mind numbing boredom (read Egwene and Mat to Elayne)

2. A Crown of Swords - I know a lot of people didn't like this book but I enjoyed it. However not a great deal happened during this book (Rand conquered Illian at the very end, whoop di doo) so I can't put it amongst the very best

3. The Dragon Reborn - I used to hate this book. I see it as basically destroying Rands character. He went from being a growing leader in the Great Hunt to being a self absorbed, fairly cynical, fatalistic guy with a questionable level of sanity overnight. It annoyed the hell out of me because Rand was my favourite character at that point. However after recently re-reading it I've since realised it has plenty of saving graces, the biggest of which was putting Mat onto the road to become the great character he became. Whatever some people say Mat has not always been the same and in my opinion he's had more character development than any other character in the series. And it started here with "the Dragon Reborn".

 

Worst (worst to best):

1. Path of Daggers - Terrible terrible book. Confusing and pointless. No Mat and Rand acts like a crazy man.

2. Crossroads of Twilight - Perrin obsesses about Faile. Lots of mind numbing Elayne. Zero Rand. Lots of mind numbing rebel politics. Doesn't go forward because it covers the same time period as the previous book in the series. The only saving grace was the Mat/Tuon relationship which was a fun read and I'll admit that I ended up skipping chapters just to read the Mat chapters first.

3. Winter's Heart - Perrin obsesses about Faile. Lots of mind numbing Elayne. Rand goes to Far Madding for no apparent reason. Mat once again saves the day but is less interesting then he is in other books. The final chapters save the day and was one of the more interesting events in the series and you felt that maybe, just maybe, the series was moving forward. How wrong I was. Maybe that’s why Crossroads was so bad. The end of Winter’s Heart got my expectations up.

4. Lord of Chaos - Rand does nothing of real interest that changes much. Sets up a few important things (such as the Asha'men.. even if it is a bit laughable that Taim could take the Asha'men from 10 farmers and former soldiers who may or may not be able to channel to the force that destroyed Dumai Wells at the end of the book in the best battle of the series to date) but mainly a lot of talking and thinking about inconsequential things. A great ending saved an otherwise poor book.

5. The Fires of Heaven - The Elayne and Nynaeve show. They pretty much dominated the whole book for reasons unknown. The saving graces was the pay off of the Aviendha/Rand relationship, Mat slipping up in front of Lan and Asmodean, and Asmodean himself who was a very interesting character despite the short time he was around in the series.

[RobertAlexWillis]

In my personal order, best to worst:

 

1. The Shadow Rising: Rand is at his best in this one, I think, and Mat is becoming the man we know and love, and we get to know the Aiel, and Perrin is doing something useful ... yep, its great stuff.

 

2. The Great Hunt

 

3. Knife of Dreams: I really liked the latest installment ... of course, after Crossroads of Twilight, the statement "Hunger is the best sauce" may apply ...

 

4. The Eye of the World

 

5. The Dragon Reborn

 

6. Lord of Chaos

 

7. The Fires of Heaven

 

8. Winter's Heart (despite having my favorite single scene, when Rand finally tells all the girls he loves them, and Nynaeve and Lan are there ... classic)

 

9. A Crown of Swords

 

10. The Path of Daggers

 

11. Bloody Crossroads of Flaming Twilight *snore*

[rochaid]

best to worst: (in my opinion)

 

1; Lord of Chaos (that ending, magical)

2; Fires of heaven (so much action)

3; The Shadow Rising (loved it)

4; The Great Hunt

5; The Dragon Reborn

6; The Eye of the World

7; Knife of Dreams (gives me hope for aMoL)

8; A Crown of Swords

9; A path of daggers

10; Winter's heart (loved with the choedan kal though)

11; To quote robert; "Bloody Crossroads of Flaming Twilight *snore*". such a boring book.

 

CoT was the only book i actually didn't like.

[Kadere]

Doing a straight list is hard because most of them are on an equal level of greatness with me, so I'll do something like Gandaal did.

 

BEST BOOKS

 

1. Fires of Heaven- I absolutely loved this book. We finally get to see the Forsaken working together, Rand is back in business after running away in TDR and then traveling in TSR, the Moiriane vs. Lanfear scene is my hands down favorite scene of the whole series. The Rahvin battle is pretty sweet. Rand FINALLY has sex. And the story moves because we don't waste time on Perrin setting up The Two Rivers. This ones really got the politics down, and I loved every page of it.

 

2. The Shadow Rising- Mat is spectacular in this book. This is where his character becomes greater then all the rest. The scenes in Finnland are scenes I can read over and over and over again without having to read the rest of the books. The Battle of the Two Rivers is pretty sweet, I love the fall of the White Tower. To me this is where the story really begins in earnest, and the climax is fantastic.

 

3. The Great Hunt- The sheer adrenilen feeling of this book is better then basically any other. It's a quest book that's pace is never slowed because we spend the whole time with only a few characters. The ending is sweet. Lanfear is introduced. Padan Fain is freaky. I just loved it. The first time I read this book I KNEW beyond a doubt that I HAD to finish the series.

 

4. Lord of Chaos- Dumai's Wells. Is there anything more I have to say? Ok, how about Min and Rand back together, the creation of the Asha'man, Mazrim Taim, healing of Logain, Sammael and Graendal, the rebirth of Osan'gar and Aran'gar, and most importantly for me: Demandred.

 

5. The Eye of the World- It starts it all, it sucks you into this awesome world and you feel right at home. The characters are on this chase, and then in the scariest place imaginable they all get seperated and somehow that just makes you want to turn the pages even faster. The final climax with Aginor and Belathamel is awesome. This book just basically rules.

 

6. Knife of Dreams- Some people aren't as impressed with this book as I was, and that's fine. I loved it. Finally we get resolution to questions we've had for what seems like ever. Perrin destroys the Shaido, Mat finally marries Tuon and hears from Moiraine, Rand is harder then ever, loses his hand, kiddnaps Semirhage, Elayne takes the crown, Egwene undermines Elida, Galad is FINALLY back. And the end of this book still makes the hairs on the back of neck stand.

 

DESCENT BUT NOT AS EXTRODINARY

 

7. A Crown of Swords- I love this book if I'm being perfectly honest. I think the battle with Sammael is off the hook, I love seeing Nyneave and Lan get together, I love Moridin showing up everywhere, Mat facing the Gholam (I still cheer everytime he tells the Gholam that he can't have Elyane), the return of Shiaine, Padan Fain's fight with Rand (that whole scene's intense). Yet despite all the awesomeness of this book, it still feels slower then those before it.

 

8. The Dragon Reborn- I really didn't like this one the first time I read it, it was too slow and I felt cheated not getting to read Rand, but on later rereads I've realized this book rocks! The awesome fight scenes between Rand and Bel'al and Ishamael aside, you still get Perrin's wolf dreams, Egwene's entering Tel'aran'rhiod, balefire, the introduction of Mat's PoV, the sweet prolouge of Carridin's meeting with Shadar Haran, and Faile (who I love).

 

9. Winter's Heart- The only reason this book is so far down here is because it's slower then most of the others. Besides that, I LOVE this book. The end was mind-blowing for me, I never thought that could have been done, plus all the Forsaken is just awesome. And then of course you have Mat meeting Tuon. I just love that.

 

10. Path of Daggers- Only down here for pacing, I still think all the stuff in this book is awesome. I love the battle with the Seanchan, Perrin's anger, The Prophet's insanity, Elayne finally making back to Andor, Egwene marching on the White Tower, Aran'gar, Osan'gar's attack. Oh this book was good, just needed some tweaks.

 

11. Crossroads of Twilight- Again pacing. I loved this book, lots of cool little things happen in it, but the problem is they're all little things. I loved seeing Gawyn return, Perrin chop off the guy's hand, Logain's decision to go to Rand, Mat decideing he'll never kill another woman, Tuon Tuon Tuon!, Faile's pretty sweet, Egwene getting ambushed, Mesaana's torture scene. I loved this book, but first it needed to mix up the characters a bit more. Reading 4 or 5 chapters of one character and then finishing that character there was not the way to go. Still I enjoyed it.

[DemandredFO]

I agree completely with what Kadere said except for one tiny detail, I wish Perrin had tossed Faile off one of the bridges in the ways. Her death would've solved all of the pacing issues for me. I can't wait for AMoL

[Leopoled Boothe]

Let me just start by stating that I have only read books 1-7 and about 1/3 of book 8. But based on what I've seen so far my favorite would have to be:

 

"The Shadow Rising" I found the idea of characters actually venturing into the fabled Aiel Waste very exciting plus in this book we finally get to know the Aiel and see what they are all about. I also loved the story arc about Perrin returning to the Two River cumulating with his marriage to Faile. Unfortunatly Faile did not turn out to be everything I had hoped she would be but still it made for a touching story at the time.

 

Least Favorite: "The Dragon Reborn" all in all this was a very good book but not quite up to par with the others. What I like about this book was that while the first to books mainly focused on Rand, this book gave us a chance to get to know some of the other main characters particularly Mat, Perin and the Wonder Girls (thats Nyneave, Egwene, Elayne and Min). However, the story line seemed to serve as little more than a device for getting everyone to Tear, a progression which was excessivly drawn out. Although Rand's final battels were fairly exciting the first occued between Rand and Be'lal a forsaken of whom we knew almost nothing. This lack of knowlege about Be'lal derived the fight of much of the emotional impact that it could have had if RJ had included a few Be'lal POV's earlier in the book that let of get to know his personality, motivations and the nature of his scheming. The second battle occued between Rand and a forsaken who we knew a little too well; we knew him to the point of redundance. Honestly, the first time I read tDR I had to ask myself "ok, is every book going to end with Rand fighting Ba'alzamon/Ishamael?" One of the things that made tSR a little sweeter for me was the fact that Ishamael did not show up at the end.

 

In rank order from best to worst

 

1. The Shadow Rising

2. The Great Hunt

-Great Character development for Rand and

Loial. Also some great wonder girls moments

particularly when Nynaeve frees Egwene from the

Seanchan. And last but not least Hurin, I love

the little guy, RJ needs to bring him back.

 

3. The Fires of Heaven

-In a word, "Asmo-f*#king-dean. Nuff Said.

 

4. Lord of Chaos

-Contrary to popular opinion I thought this was

a great book that was full of exciting

moments. Nyneave heals what cannot be healed

(I nearly crapped my pants when she actually

healed Logain). Egwene is raised to Amyrlin

(did not see that comming). Not to mention

Dumai's Wells and the introduction of

Asha'man. Plus, I have to admit that it

really tugged at my heart stings when Nyneave

heald Suian and Leane.

 

5. Eye fo the World

-Agian I know this is contrary to popular

opinion but the first time through it

seemed a bit like the run of the mill,

generic fantasy adventure quest. While later

books have put tEotW into perspective, the

first time through I enjoyed it but wasn't

overly impressed.

 

6. Crown of Swords

-The ultimate case of good but not great.

 

7. Path of Daggers

-Boooooooring.

 

8. The Dragon Reborn

-My least favorite for all the reasons stated

above but I have a good feeling that it will

be replaced by "Path of Daggers" once I

finish it.

 

I look forward to completing the series. I've heard alot of good things about "Winter's Heart" and "Knife of Dreams." I've heard that "Crossroads of Twilight" is another snore fest but I'm hoping I'll be one of those rare individuals who actually enjoys it (they are out there).