and based on those, which are half Wurts of course, I disagree. Mara and in the second book Kevin are the only characters to get significant development, and they're credible enough - apart from my issues with Kevin's blatant use as a vessel to convey modern western ideas about Tsuranuanni society, that I wrote about elsewhere in this thread - but not really that noteworthy, and Mara is at times a little Mary Sue-ish. The other characters are every bit as bad as Jordan's supporting cast in terms of being one-dimensional and having their ability and intelligence depend on the necessities of the plot. Perhaps, like I said, it's unfair to judge Magician through Empire but, like you, I recall rating the latter higher back when I first read them.

As for writing in general, I find that hard to compare, I guess I'm not that good at literary analysis or paying attention to style. Jordan has some obvious weaknesses - the bosom obsession becomes ridiculous at a certain point - that Feist doesn't have, that's true.