A pair of scissors or a razor blade would work better. So would the chapter summaries at the encyclopedia; much less ranting and cutesy familiarity involved.

There are some just plain bad books in the middle of the series, no doubt. If you have made it through CoT, you're almost through the worst. The next book, Knife of Dreams, is also awful. But then the last two are better. Not up to the standard of the first five books, but better.

KoD is also awfull ??? General opinion seems it's one of the best. It's a matter of taste, people. Please just grow up and stop saying "this one is good, this one is bad". You totally have the right to believe what you want, but please don't try to make it an absolute truth. It's YOUR opinion, and no more than that.

What is this "general opinion" you speak of? According to Amazon.com, which is a far greater sampling than a fansite message board

And, of course, 'but most people disagree with you' in your parent post is a fallacious argument in any case, since the grandparent comment was about quality, not popularity, and of course everyone's entitled to their own opinion about that.

Edit: As for mine, since I don't think I stated it in my earlier reply, I like most of COT, except for the infamous Shaido shenanigans; most of Perrin's chapters are unpleasant reading, though the torture bit is kind of fun. Egwene's chapters are par for her course, but the rest of it is at least decent – and in the case of Mat and Karede's chapters, excellent.

Knife of Dreams is the second-best book in the series. TGS is bad. TOM is decent.

I'll take the claims of 'not sexist' under advisement considering your signature, but COT is one of the shorter books in the series, and if you're halfway through it it shouldn't take more than another few hours of reading to finish. If it isn't your thing, go ahead and give it up. But yes, COT is important to the stories being told.

The character descriptions at http://encyclopaedia-wot.org/ generally include any physical descriptions at the top. Most characters seem to be white, though Domani have "copper"-colored skin and Saldaeans "tilted eyes", and some Tairens and the Sea Folk are brown-skinned, while some Seanchan, like Tuon, are black. Within the white population, Andor apparently has a number of blonds, many Taraboners have dark blond hair and brown eyes, the Cairhienin are short, with dark hair and eyes, and the Aiel have red hair and light eyes. There's probably more that I've forgotten.

As for the Forsaken, many are fairly ambiguous racially; Semirhage is clearly black, Graendal and Sammael white (as are Moridin and Cyndane), Lanfear was pale but I'm not sure whether in the European or Asian sense... the rest are probably white, but there's wiggle room.

Tuon was ludicrously out of character. As for Mat, 80% is not even close to all. He was a lot more familiar than he'd been in TGS, but Sanderson's touch was quite evident.

Sanderson said that the Ghenjei scene was written pretty much entirely by Jordan, and he said Jordan had contributed a lot to Mat's chapters in TOM. That's clear from reading them, but it's not to say that the other chapters were written entirely by Jordan without Sanderson's modification – which is also in evidence. And very likely the draft chapters of Jordan's needed modification, but it's perfectly fine to think it could have been better done.

What Might Be. It's really not even close.

Not really in any particular order:

1. Nynaeve al'Meara: "Men always seemed to think violence could solve anything. If she had had a stout stick, she would have thumped all three of them about the shoulders until they saw reason."
2. Mat Cauthon: But that lay ahead, and he banished those memories in the pleasure of this one. Tonight he danced the pattern dance with . . .
3. Tuon Athaem Kore Paendrag: Ta’veren. Ridiculous. These people and their endless superstitions! A small brown bird, surely a finch, flew out of a tall oak and circled widdershins three times above Toy’s head before flying on. She had found her omen. Stay close to Toy. Not that she had any intention of doing otherwise. She had given her word, playing the game as it had to be played, and she had never broken her word in her life.
4. Elayne sur Trakand Rie: Elayne stalked across the floor and slapped Egwene’s face. Egwene was so shocked she could only stare. “You go too far,” the golden-haired woman said sharply.
5. Moghedien: Moghedien had spent the night hiding under her bed, untouched and, because she was well hidden, without picking up one single stick of rubbish. She had even gotten a good night’s sleep once the first commotion died down.
6. Alviarin Freidhen: Alviarin seized Elaida’s shoulder, shook her. “Wake up, you fool woman!” she growled. Elaida’s eyes popped open to the dim light of a single lamp held by Alviarin, bending over her bed with a hand on her shoulder. Still only half-awake, she mumbled, “What did you say?” “I said, ‘Please wake up, Mother,’ ” Alviarin replied coolly.
7. Logain Ablar: Before Nynaeve could ask somebody to shield him again, Nisao planted herself in front of her. Short as Nisao was, she managed to loom. “Now what is all this nonsense about you Healing him?” “Is that what she says she did?” Logain actually managed to sound surprised.
8. Ishamael: “There is no path to victory,” Moridin said. “The only path is to follow the Great Lord and rule for a time before all things end. The others are fools. They look for grand rewards in the eternities, but there will be no eternities. Only the now, the last days.” He laughed again, and this time there was joy in it. True pleasure.
9. Lanfear: “Lews Therin? I love you, Lews Therin. I have always loved you, and I always will. You know that. You must!”
10. Asmodean: “I once saw a man hanging from a cliff,” he said slowly. “The brink was crumbling under his fingers, and the only thing near enough to grasp was a tuft of grass, a few long blades with roots barely clinging to the rock. The only chance he had of climbing back up on the cliff. So he grabbed it.” His abrupt chuckle held no mirth. “He had to know it would pull free.” “Did you save him?” Rand asked, but Asmodean did not answer. As Rand started for the doorway, the sounds of “The March of Death” began again behind him.

Nevertheless, Sanderson claims the entire Ghenjei sequence was written by Jordan.

Go back and look where you placed the stress symbols -- do you really pronounce Elaida's name that way? What you wrote out would be pronounced UH-lie-duh. And do you really pronounce Morgase as MOR-gahz?

Red hair and blue eyes are recessive traits. 3000 years of interbreeding with non-Aiel who joined them would certainly be enough to make them resemble the larger population. And height is to a great degree about nutrition... it's kind of unrealistic that people living in a wasteland would be that tall, but whatever Jordan wanted, I guess. As for channelers:

“Take a care, Seeker. Their safety comes at a price, and some of their laws are harsh. You know what they do with women who can channel?”

 

“Thank you for your concern, my Lord,” the man said calmly, “but few of our women ever begin channeling, and if one does, we will do as we always do and take her to Tar Valon.”

Well, we know that Ishamael did something to his mind 20 years ago, and possibly Graendal did one year ago, but his memory problems would seem to indicate Compulsion rather than voluntary association with the Dark. Remember that Jain caught Cowin Gemallen.

Dobraine's off with Logain somewhere possibly - Elayne remarked on how he was missing also (him being the most powerful noble in Cairhein/my favourite).

Do people pronounce Tear /tɪər/, like crying, or /tɛər/, like ripping? I seem to vacillate. I know the glossary uses the first form, but then there's the derivative "Tairen", which is presumably /tɛərɨn/. I know irregular forms are quite common in real life (Wales, Welsh; etc.), but they're not so common in fiction. So I guess good worldbuilding clashes with the impulse to regularize things.

I think I'm more in line with the glossary – though less so with the audiobooks, from what I've heard. I'm pretty sure this is proper IPA.

Amys /'ʌmiːs/

Birgitte /bɜr'gɪtɨ/

Cairhien /kaɪriːjɪn/

Ogier /oʊ'gɪər/

Morgase /'mɔərgɑːz/

ta'veren /tə'vɪrin/

Rhuidean /'ruːɪdiːɛn/

Taim /teɪm/ – there's no way I'm pronouncing this "Taɪjiːm"

Logain /'loʊgeɪn/

Elaida /'ʌlaɪdə/

Demandred /də'mændrɨd/

saidar /saɪ'dɑr/

saidin /saɪ'diːn/

Aiel /aɪ'iːjəl/

Aes Sedai /aɪz sɨ'daɪ/

Amyrlin /'ɑːmɜrlɪn/

Myrddraal /'mɜrdrɔːl/

Trollocs /'trɒlɨkz/

There are some others that I'm really out of line with the audiobooks, like Semirhage /sɛ'mɪərɑːʒ/ rather than what sounds like /'sɛmiː'rɑːg/ . I'll update this later.

It wasn't sa'angreal, just an angreal. It disappeared sometime during his kidnapping. Here's the history.

It's not out of the question that Taim is an Age of Legends Forsaken or something who was transmigrated into the body Bashere remembers, but I think it's really improbable that it would be Asmodean in that case. All indications are that he genuinely switched sides and then DIED THE FINAL DEATH.

Still, I don't think there's anything in-text that specifically rules it out; Shai'tan could well be lying. That said, RJ has said numerous times that "The Dark One couldn't bring back Asmodean".

WinespringBrother: Could the Dark One have brought back Asmodean if he wanted?

 

RJ: No.

No.

Ah, so she did. I suppose Tarna is the most likely answer then.

Quoting from the BBOBA:

The next nineteen years were not continuous warfare for Hawkwing, but the periods of respite were so short, never more than a year and seldom so much, that they might as well have been. Nations came against him and were defeated. By FY 963, except for the territory ruled by Tar Valon, Artur Hawkwing was undisputed master of every mile from the Spine of the World to the Aryth Ocean. With the exception of Moreina, where the High Governor of the Stone of Tear declared for Hawkwing and a rebellion by dissident nobles gave him most of the rest of the country, all of that land had been taken by conquest. In all that time he had not lost one battle.

I thought Tarna was somewhat unlikely because she just walked out of the building Nynaeve was standing beside a few minutes earlier, but she's possible. Moghedien's unlikely. It wasn't Aran'gar, since she was only introduced in LOC30. Maybe Areina? It seemed like the Nicola-Areina plotline was one Jordan was never sure what to do with.

Well, it helps characterize Taim. Not that it really takes us that long to realize he's a Bad Guy, but another POV adds to the story. As for Lews Therin, if you buy Construct Theory it is simply a suppressed realization of Rand's that Taim is blatantly untrustworthy that got mixed in with other things Rand's trying to suppress, like the memories of his last life that are becoming increasingly available to him, and the nearly constant low-grade homicidal rage he's experiencing.

Anyone else notice in TSR, when Egwene was in the waste, that Amys woke her and Egwene "noticed for the first time Nynaeve's blankets were empty"?

 

Should have been Moiraine. Nynaeve was en route to Tanchico.

Those might make no sense, but they're artistically much easier on the eyes than Sweet. Even the Vitruvian-globe thing.

Ishamael and Lanfear certainly knew. Aginor and Balthamel did as well, and Aran'gar seemed to show she remembered when she ran across Mat in Salidar. Asmodean, of course. It's possible but somewhat unlikely that Mesaana knew. The rest did not. Sammael did not see Mat in Ebou Dar, or at any rate is not shown doing it, though he later gives the gholam instructions specific enough to identify him.