he probably could have finished it in 3 books if he'd wanted to. 7 at the outside.

3 to 7 books is an awfully big range. 3 is a bit ridiculous, but I do agree that RJ could have executed this series wonderfully in 7-8 books and, if he had, we might be watching "Wheel of Time" on HBO instead of Game of Thrones (though I think HBO is doing a generally tremendous job with that series).

What do I dislike most? Well, if I only get one choice, it would have to be the 2000 or so pages spent on the Faile's Shaido captivity. Jordan might have finished the series himself if he hadn't gone down that road. You can argue about whether this plotline was "pointless," but it sure could have been dealt with a LOT faster. A close second and third would be the whole Bowl of Winds and Valan Luca's Circus plotlines.

Aside from the plotlines mentioned above, the only other thing that really annoys me is the whole gender issue. As a guy, I find it incredibly annoying and tedious that virtually every woman seems to have absolutely zero respect for men, which in turn leads to some absolutely ridiculous failures to cooperate, share information, etc. I'm not sure if that's what other posters are referring to as "sexism" or not.

I hope this makes the aMoL Glossary.

I also still feel angry about the way Stephen King ruined his Dark Tower series. First 4 books were just so great. Fifth was ok-ish but missing direction. The last two just really godawful and then that bloody letter to his readers, grrrrr...

It's painfully obvious that King just had no idea how to actually finish the Dark Tower. I don't think he even planned an ending when he started with Gunslinger. That, and his writing as a whole took a slide after the car accident.

But back to the WoT discussion, Crossroads was uber-stinky. By far the slowest, dullest point of the series.

The first time I saw the ebook cover for KoD I said, out loud mind you, "OMG, there is Rand Al'Thor! Finally someone has captured the Rand Al'Thor in my head! Finally!"

I agree. KoD ebook cover was a very good Rand depiction. I also really liked the "younger" Rand on the TDR ebook cover. However, the Rands on the TEotW and WH ebook covers... not so much. TEothW ebook Rand looks like he has brown hair. WH ebook Rand looks a bit too anime-ish.

This has been covered in another thread, but Sweet's covers are just horrific. First, there's the inaccuracies. Is the elf-looking dude supposed to be Loial on the cover of TGH? And for ToM, the Tower of Genji is made of stone and mortar? But I don't mind the inaccuracies so much as the fact that the people look so unbelievably freakin' fake and cartoonish from about Book 4 on. (Oddly, the people don't look too bad in the first 3 books). Basically, the people look like crappy fan art, and this dude is getting paid how much money per cover?

True story: If I'm taking one of these books out in public, like on a plane, I actually remove the dust jacket because anybody who doesn't know WoT would take one look and think "cheesy," "dungeons and dragons," or just plain "nerd."

All the griping aside, I'll always associate the hardcover illustrations with the series because that's how I bought them.

Edit: I just realized I made a pun. This has been "covered"... Ha!

Beidomon, do you not see that your comment above flies in the face of what Luckers previously requested?

Sorry, I didn't read to the bottom of the thread before posting. Certainly not trying to incite a flame war. I hereby retract my previous comments that Crossroads stunk, and Knife of Dreams was only marginally better.

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, Knife of Dreams is the 3rd most unpopular book in the series, ranked only higher than Path of Daggers (2nd) and Crossroads (1st). I tend to agree with that ranking. KoD was just Ok. It was obviously better than the stinker it followed, so maybe that's why some people "like" it. Kind of like the average chick in the bar who hangs out with... never mind, you know where I'm going with that.

Tell me it gets better.

 

Tell me it's all worth it!

Yes, it does get better. Things start happening again towards the end of the next book, Knife of Dreams, and then its off to the races!

But, no, it was not worth it. Save yourself the brain damage, and stop plodding through Crossroads. I promise you, you're not going to be any more confused if you just procede directly to Knife of Dreams. The dialogue in Crossroads (and that's all there is) is unnecessary to your understanding/enjoyment of later plot developments. I'm sure the WoTards can connect some obscure plotline to something that was said in Crossroads, but who really cares? If I could balefire a book, this would be it.

If I had to pick just one, it's TSR Chapter 26 "The Dedicated."

A close second is TGH Chapter 37 "What Might Be."

Both chapters really evoke the overall flavor of Wheel of Time better than any other individual chapter. In fact, if I could only use one chapter to best explain what the Wheel of Time is all about, I would probably select TGH Chapter 37.

I would also agree that LoC Chapter 55 "Dumai's Wells" and WH Chapter 35 "With the Choedan Kal" are great chapters.

Finally, I've got to also nominate the EotW Prologue.