Sorry in advance for the TLDR post. I'm making my second attempt at this series. The first was when the books first came out. I forget when I stopped. It was either "Lord of Chaos" or "The Fires of Heaven." I think I was so habituated to the classic trilogy format that I felt like the series was never going to end. (I think it was a Forsaken being resurrected that made me set it down.) This time I'm working through the audiobooks. (Currently nearing the end of "The Shadow Rising", the last of the Rosamund Pike-narrated volumes.) Knowing what to expect, the more deliberate pacing is not bothering me. But I still find the series incredibly FRUSTRATING. Jordan's world-building on the macro scale (magic system, history, geography, metaphysics, and politics) and micro-scale (adding detail to a scene to make it real) and some truly interesting concepts keep me coming back for more. But, dear Creator, do the juvenile relationships and sex stereotypes between men and women make me want to put it down again. Faile is the worst. When Faile pulled the "if you don't know why I'm upset, then I'm not going to tell you" card and manipulated Loial into taking her into the Ways to return to the Two Rivers, I started skipping her chapters. (Not that Perrin deliberately hurting her to make her stay behind was that much better.) So far it feels like Jordan's view of relationships between men and women is that they are contests of manipulation and, under absolutely no circumstances, should partners have open and honest conversations with one another, or even like one another. The series is SO good...and SO bad.

I'm just listening to the part in "The Shadow Rising" where she manipulates Loial into taking her to the Two Rivers. Wow. Cold. These books are so FRUSTRATING. Jordan's worldbuilding and the way he brings scenes to life with little details draw me in, then the cringe juvenile character drama crashes me out.