[Suzerain of Sheol]

I suppose it depends if you count the spin-off novels for both series. Taking just the core books of each, WoT is probably longer, just by virtue of being 14 books long. Malazan has way more spin-offs, though.

On the myth thing, take an easy example: the death of Baldr, as we were discussing in the other thread. That story (particularly Hodr's part in it) had the potential to convey genuine emotion, but, what do we get? Odin conceiving a child with some random giantess to murder the poor guy in a callous dismissal of empathic, empathetic storytelling. As I said, though, that's not really what the whole myth thing was about. It's just not to my taste, 'tis all.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

I may need to read more of that myth methinks or are you talking about Hodr's birth there?

I think it's fair to assume that the stories were told with more emotion and colour by the people who were telling them when they were telling them. Unless the stories were meant to be read to begin with, rather than recorded for posterity what otherwise was an oral story, I imagine a lot of the impact would be drained out.

But then, what I've read of Nordic epic and myth doesn't lend itself to emotional and touching experiences. A man hits his wife once, and out of spite she refuses to lend him her hair to repair his broken bowstring causing his death and the loss of a major battle. The narrative didn't appear to be concerned with chastizing her for it, it was a matter of personal pride. Hrafnkel's Saga is interesting in that good and evil don't seem to play much of a role in anything, it's more pride, intelligence, and self examination.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

No, not Hodr's birth. The response of the Aesir to Hodr's "murder" of Baldr is for Odin to go find some random giantess, get her pregnant, have the child be born and matured to adulthood in one day, and then kill Hodr. It's plot devices like that that turn me off from mythology.

[Angel Spirit Girl]

I kind of like how fantasy and mythology have such interesting events in them. Although, if a god does something I think is in poor taste, I don't think much of them as a deity.

I'm going to go check out what those Malazan books are about.