[Suzerain of Sheol]

Well, to begin with (not going to say everything in one post) I've read all of the books Jordan released but haven't read Sanderson's (waiting until he finishes).

I think Jordan suffered from something a lot of fantasy authors do -- finding success and letting his series run away from him as he suddenly had the editorial freedom to do whatever he wanted in later books. The plotting of books 7 through 10 is just abysmal. Everything of importance could have been put in a single book with room to spare. There is no reason the series had to be over 6 books long.

The 1,000 Aes Sedai and other characters who are totally extraneous to the plot just started to seem like a joke to me after a while. If he could have maintained his focus, and kept Rand, Mat, and Perrin int he center of attention (and you know, the secondary characters, too, obviously, like Egwene, Elayne, et al)he could have done something incredible.

As it stands, I'll always remember him as an author who had a really good idea, then blew it in the interest of stringing his fans along and emptying their wallets.

From what I've heard, Sanderson gets things back on track, so I'm looking forward to reading the last three books when they're all finished. And, I will say that Knife of Dreams did a lot so set up an actual conclusion to the series, so I'll give RJ credit for that.

It's been so long since I read them, I'm not sure I have favorite characters anymore. I always liked Mat, though. And Taim. I've forgotten all the people I don't like, so I can't comment there.

And take my opinion with a grain of salt, I'm a very critical reader and, well, TvTropes ruined my life. But, I'd be happy to hear arguments why I'm wrong on this.