I remember getting up to Book 7 or 8 and then that was all I could take. The first book was maybe the best of the post-Tolkien Tolkiensque pastiches, though--it did grab me strongly. The depressing thing too is that Moiraine is a good version of the "strong female character". The early books also make such a major point of attending to gender as a central world-building concept that it really gets depressing when Jordan writes his female characters so badly as the series progresses.
Thanks for sharing! I've been toying with a re-read myself. As the books came out, I fell into a three-book re-read habit: When (say) book 8 was imminent, I would re-read 6 and 7 to prepare. Still, it'd be good to read the whole series while knowing the ultimate arcs for everyone involved. (FWIW, I was a mostly-lurker on rasfwrj back then, probably too invested in the cases for and against Taimandred...) However, I picked up Return of the King yesterday, and that re-read might come first.
I remember getting up to Book 7 or 8 and then that was all I could take. The first book was maybe the best of the post-Tolkien Tolkiensque pastiches, though--it did grab me strongly. The depressing thing too is that Moiraine is a good version of the "strong female character". The early books also make such a major point of attending to gender as a central world-building concept that it really gets depressing when Jordan writes his female characters so badly as the series progresses.
Thanks for sharing! I've been toying with a re-read myself. As the books came out, I fell into a three-book re-read habit: When (say) book 8 was imminent, I would re-read 6 and 7 to prepare. Still, it'd be good to read the whole series while knowing the ultimate arcs for everyone involved. (FWIW, I was a mostly-lurker on rasfwrj back then, probably too invested in the cases for and against Taimandred...) However, I picked up Return of the King yesterday, and that re-read might come first.