[megaman22]

It's a big story... I'm into the fifth book now on my latest re-read. From my recollections, it doesn't really start to sprawl until the seventh book, when everybody is just farting around in Altara and Ghealdan and Amadacia for books on end. There's quite a lurch when Sanderson took over - the final two books seemed to ruthlessly sprint to the end.

I just hope that George RR Martin doesn't keel over before he finishes his next book, and we're left with the incomprehensible hack job of the HBO series as the resolution.

[bsder]

Um, the first book is "They finally left the village."

The Wheel of Time was stupidly verbose and slow from book one. I really have no idea how the books became so popular. I think it was because Jordan was willing to talk to people online back when that was a thing.

If you simply focused on Mat instead of Rand's Tsundere Haremfest, you would have a good story and it would be 3 books long, tops. (I'm leaving aside Sanderson's seeming inability to write Mat's character properly.)

[MereInterest]

I rather liked Sanderson's portrayal of Mat. He was actually shown to be a trickster, not just described as one. Up until Sanderson, the only character-defining actions taken by Mat are throwing a rock at a Whitecloak and stealing a dagger. Not at all the trickster described by others, but just a common fool.

[BookmarkSaver]

"If you simply told a different story, it would be a different length."

[aidenn0]

Books 4-6 is where it bogged down for me. I actually considered quitting reading the series after The Fires of Heaven, but I felt like it picked up again around book 7.

Yes it was sprawled out more by then, but at least the plot started to move forward again. I remember doing the math and for one of the PoV characters in book 5 (Rand maybe?) it was less than 48 hours for the entire book, much of which was him worrying internally about things mostly inconsequential to the plot.

[megaman22]

Book 4 might be the best book in the series. Perrin's return to the Two Rivers is one of my favorite episodes. And then the two Rand chapters in the Aiel ancestral history machine in Rhuidean... those were mind-blowing the first time I read them.

[psynapse]

I totally agree. That book was a cut above. The back-in-time view through the Ter'angreal was inspired.

I also really enjoyed the prior book, when Mat's luck runs hot leaving Tar Valon.

[zaphar]

I stopped reading at book 7. I refuse to pick them up again. I don't want to give money or energy to an author who can't finish. I refuse to start GoT for a similar reason.

I said to a friend when I stopped that he would die before he finished the series. I didn't think it would be as soon as it was but I happened to be right anyway.

Picking Sanderson to finish it was smart. He knows how be ruthless with a subplot

[newen]

Didn't he die while writing the final volume...

[zaphar]

I can't say. I have a lack of confidence that he could have kept it down to a final volume. It is of course impossible to say now. But his track record indicated that he was reluctant/incapable of finishing a subplot.

Did he intend to finish? Probably.

Was he capable of finishing? Previous work suggests not.

[saalweachter]

The final trilogy :-P