Wheel of Time series: finished.
Let's start with the rants, because it's easier to remember things you disliked.
First, overly long prologues. In most cases the prologue was more than 10% of the book's length. Seriously, chapter breaks are good things. Use them.
Next, TOO MANY CHARACTERS. "Seven Aes Sedai rode up. First was Blahga of the Green Ajah, then Blabba of the Blue, then Blakka of the Yellow... Blahga's warders Billy Joe, Joe Billy, and Reynaldo... they gave their horses to the stableboy Goober and the other stableboy Doober. Goober and Doober removed the saddles from Blahga's horse Windfarter, then from Blabba's horse Sunpisser..." Characters show up indeed.
I didn't really see the misogyny that other people claim is present in Jordan's writings. His female characters aren't as interesting as the males, but he certainly doesn't seem to hate them.
What Jordan did right was create a fully breathing world. There are rules to the magic and how things work, and he doesn't deviate from them.
My favorite character from the series was, perhaps surprisingly, Asmodean. He provided an interesting look at the kind of person who was drawn to the Great Lord's power. Despite the conditions of the situation he was put into, I felt he really was on Rand's side after a while. My second favorite character was Tuon, because she is a manipulative bitch.
The three boys are really well-done characters also, and the story dragged when one of them wasn't involved.
Unresolved issues: SPOILARZ AHEAD
Verin: Whose side is she on? At times she seems to scream Black Ajah, but at other times she does things that directly oppose them. She almost seems to be some kind of third party, but... there isn't really a third party in the conflict (that we know of). Unless she's an Eelfinn.
Ta'veren: When the boys are introduced as ta'veren, everyone nods and accepts that as a perfectly natural occurance (other than Tuon). If ta'veren are so common that they're a household word, shouldn't there be more somewhere? Logain is kind of ta'veren-like, but I think they explicitly state that he's not. Noal (who apparently is Jain Farstrider) also may be, due to the comment he makes when first meeting Mat ("We both seem to have the Dark One's own luck."). But he doesn't seem to be drawing any unnatural things his way currently. So why aren't there any more?
Mazraim Taim: Well, he's not really unresolved. The comment he makes at the end of Book 11 pretty much guarantees he's a Darkfriend.
Rand's eyesight problem: This was only touched on briefly. But is he somehow tapping into the True Power and acquiring
saa?
Anyway, good series overall, and I continue to find the last sentence of About the Author amusing every time I read it.
