Well, after nearly 20 years I have finally finished the series. I am - like Rand - glad it has come to an end.

I like the fact not everything has been neatly wrapped up. There are many questions left unanswered as to what will happen in the future. Which is how things are in the real world.

The endless battle scenes became very tiresome. In the end I just read the first section to ascertain whether it was going well or badly for the light. I didn't need to read about the pressing of pikemen, the charge of calvary etc etc again and again.

And like several people have already stated the casual killing of Fain was unbelievably poor. He should have been killed much sooner, as he had no part to play in the last battle. It felt like it was: The tying up a loose end, nothing more.

Egwene's death was well handled, but it felt a bit contrived that she just thought of something and took out nearly all the enemy channelers.

Perrin's story was also a bit of a letdown. It was as though RJ and BS knew that he wouldn't play a major part in the last battle. So over the last few books - after three to four books of "woh me, my Faile, I must find her at all costs." - the Slayer storyline has been given greater prominence.

Then we have Androl - a character who I have liked greatly - introduced in the last book but one(?) and he was given more screen time than Logain. Surely, he ended up fulfilling the Logain role. It was like they had backed themselves into a tight corner with Logain and had to create another character to fulfil his original brief.

Morgase is another prime example of a character given prominence and a reasonable amount of airtime in the middle part of the series. And what was her pay off? She was given a few sentences in one - yes one! - paragraph of the final book.

The second half of the series has undoubtedly, in my opinion, has been a big letdown. We have gone from the depressing tedium, lethargy and utter rubbish of COT to the frantic sprint of AMOL. A pace somewhere between the two for the final few books would have served the series better? But I am thankful for BS for finishing the series. It is an end, even if it is not the one some of us wanted. But, IMO, probably a better one than RJ would have delivered. I imagine the LB itself would have been spread over three books at least. Much sniffing, skirt rearranging and hard stares - spread over a couple of pages - for the AS would have been detailed prior ro each weave cast in battle.