I am getting a little tired of all the "last two books are the worst in the series" and "CoT is actually the best in the series" and "readers who do not think so are shallow and less refined than yours truly" and no opposition. The only sensible response came from DoMa who presented a mature, in-depth, level-headed assessment of the pro-s and con-s without trying to pat himself on the back in the process for being oh so smart and insightful unlike those other WoT readers.

It is time for a reality check. The Wheel of Time is a fantasy series meant for and successful at mass appeal. Fantasy is a mass appeal genre meant to please readers (like myself) who enjoy epic scale, large battle scenes, explosions, RPG elements (X is stronger than Y in the Power, Weave X better counters Y attacks than Weave Y), creepy, deformed, despicable yet somehow cool villains and good triumphing over evil after some struggle and high stakes wagers.

If you exclusively want and enjoy deep characterization, intricate plot, subtlety, analysis provoking mysteries, etc. then epic fantasy series are not the place to look for them and certainly not the place to complain about the lack thereof. You do not go to a Michael Bay movie looking for Oscar material. You do not read or watch "The Road" looking for a good laugh. You do not watch Saw and complain that it's gross, etc. Doing any of the above is childish and worse.

With the above in mind you do not bash an author for bringing life, action and speed to a previously slowed down, almost ground to a halt fantasy series.

I tremendously enjoyed both tGS and ToM and am enthusiastically looking forward to AMoL and I applaud Sanderson's change of tone. I was deeply disappointed with CoT and justifiably so. It was completely out of place compared to any other book in the series and I would strongly recommend skimming it to any fellow reader I care about who is into WoT.

I enjoy WoT primarily for three things - the One Power system of superhuman abilities and its rules and exceptions (nod to Sidious), the ta'veren explanation of why the main good guys are virtually unbeatable - instead of shying away from it Jordan dives into the issue head first and I applaud that, and thirdly - Rand. Any book that provides plenty of the above is close to the top of my list.

White Tower politics - don't care, it's given more attention than it needs.

Egwene's integrity of character - don't care, she's a poster child for quick maturing under the pressure of circumstances and that's enough said about her.

Adeleas and Vandene murder mystery - don't care, totally unnecessary drag for three books, close to 0 payoff.

Aram storyline - massively bloated (7 books) with the only meaningful takeout being Perrin's thought towards the end of ToM - I failed you my friend, but I need to move on. Did not need 7 (9 if we count the ToM sentence) books to get there.

The list goes on and on, but here's the point: Jordan is, in my book a stellar world builder and average storyteller. Excellent setup and concepts for a fantasy series but overweight storytelling. I do not enjoy subtlety where it does not belong. If you're going to trick Sammael with decoy attacks say so - no need to allude to springing traps, he won't know until it's too late and so forth for the enitrety of LoC only to reveal a straightforward plan of attack in the last chapter of aCoS. This is where I appreciate Sanderson - he actually states and shows what's going on instead of beating around the bush to bring subtlety and intrigue where it is not needed.

But the subtlety and bloated political intrigue is Jordan's way of having fun with the series and so does not warrant more than minor complaints. I ignored and skimmed it and focused on what I want out of the series - battles, OP action, Rand, tough decisions and with that focus I have thoroughly enjoyed every book in the series save for CoT.

With all the above in mind, is the timing of events wrong in Tom? Yes. Do I care? No.

Do words like "carbon" belong in WoT? No. Do I care, hold it against Sanderson and let it diminish my enjoyment of WoT? No.

Is Cannolli a highly intelligent, meticulous and insightful reader, more so than myself? Yes. Is he immature and annoying about it (or pretending to be in order to spark posts such as this?) Yes.