I think BS did quite an amazing job of continuity in carrying the torch forward of Jordan's characters and world/tone. I was concerned a little after reading BS's writings about not trying to imitate Jordan's style, etc., but when reading, the reality turned out to be that his writing style blended smoothly.

The true test? Having read the series over and over again in print, I decided to revisit it this time in audiobook format, and listened to the entire series in order, through TGS. For those of you who haven't listened to audiobooks -- books being read aloud show flaws in a way that is often dismissible in print, particularly the dialog, character interactions, and characters' internal musings. In this format, I was amazed how smoothly Jordan's books flowed together, and then how nicely TGS fit right in, a perfectly matched piece.

My only complaints with TGS are in decisions to not picture certain events -- especially some that I was anticipating. My gut instinct is that these were editor's decisions, if only in part. There was a sense some things were rushed, compared to the later Jordan books where every little detail in plot was described. I suspect an executive decision of some kind was made that in order to get to the end, some clips would end up on the cutting-room floor. While I understand this outlook, I personally would have welcomed an extra couple scenes of Semirhage for example, and I think it was odd that the entire rooting out of the rebel aes sedai black ajah was skipped and only viewed in hindsight.