Sorry 'bout that; I don't put Jordan and Tolkien on the same level at all, as you know. It was more like the "comparing a broadsword to a paring knife" analogy Joel Rosenberg once used (good example of a fun read with something to say well said, but probably little or no literary value).

Perhaps that is the real acid test, rightly or wrongly. Look at how Moby Dicks fortunes have waxed and waned. Sir Walter Scott was so widely regarded in his day that Twain mocked his overblown prose for the hell of it, but Twains work has stood the test of time among both critics and the general public, while Scotts has not. Amusingly, I DID preview this post, and now I'm looking at a QotM from "Ivanhoe". Synchronicity Day is now Synchronicity Week....

Fair enough, maybe I can grab at least the first book next week, assuming I can find financing for what books cost here. You can probably guess my opinion of Goodkind, but if not: As unbearable as I found reading Ayn Rands (poor) philosophy disguised as fiction, why would I sully myself with a groupies version? I don't know any more about Butcher than I've read in QotMs, but that reminds me of Rosenbergs Guardians of the Flame series; fun, pithy and perhaps with something worth saying, but not high art. To borrow and warp your food analogy, cheeseburger reading: Neither junk foods tasty yet empty calories nor a gourmet repasts exquisitely crafted mix of spices and the best cuts, but an enjoyable and nourishing meal on which an unrefined palate can subsist indefinitely if it doesn't mind carrying a lot of dead weight.