Are these indicative of the series?

[Quiver he/him]

I began the Wheel of Time recently, but I've kind of had a mixed response to it. I really didn't like Eye of the World, and While I liked the ending of The Great Hunt, getting to that took me a while. Surprisingly, I REALLY liked The Dragon Reborn, which I suspect is related to Rand taking a backseat and Mat not being a complete idiot.

Still, those are BIG books, and they only get bigger. So, I was wondering if anyone can give opinions on the post-TDR wheel spinning. Are they worth investing in, or is a Sword of Truth slide downwards.

[el_warko he/him]

IMO, continues strongly to book 6/7, drops off REAL badly 8-10, finishes very strongly.

[king of nowhere]

everyone has different opinions. but if you haven't dropped the books already after 3000 pages, you won't probably stop now.

In my opinion the first two books are weaker than the rest, as jordan was still practicing. After that, the quality of the writing is constant. Some people however are put off because after book 6 there is less action and the books become less plot driven and more character driven. As a person who enjoy good characters, I didn't mind. The last three books are considewred the best by many. I personally prefer sanderson's style, but anyway those books are more packed with action, since they are the ones where long standing conflicts get resolved.

 

Also, since you mentioned the sword of truth:  in that series, every book is pretty much a free sstanding episode. In the wheel of time that can roughly be applied to the first three books, but then it just become one very big book split into volumes. you can pick up a random book from the sword of truth and read it without reading the others and you'll still understnad what's going on. You can't do that with the wheel of time after book 3.

[11thorderknight]

If you liked the first three in increasing order, you'll LOVE the next three. The focus of the story rapidly expands, and each of the next three end with progressively bigger resolutions/cliffhangers. Rand's and Perrin's characters are very well developed in Shadow Rising, and the Mat scenes of Fires of Heaven are some of the best writing I've ever read. Lord of Chaos, as a whole, is probably the best book of the entire series, and will blow you away. 

 

After that, 7 through 10 are basically one big book, and honestly, it's very subplot driven - a bunch of side characters arcs are advanced but nothing monumental happens. Some stuff goes down at the end of book 10 that ought to be important....but 11 feels like more of the same. 12 is where Brandon steps in, and he really steps up - 12 and 13 were awesome. The final book, Memory of Light, is controversial....for me personally, it was a big let-down, and I attribute that to the fact that Brandon was forced to end the series in a rushed manner. (I know, calling a 14 book epic "rushed" is a little strange, but it felt that way). I also believe, strongly, that had Robert Jordan lived to finish the series, it would have ended differently - I just can't believe that he would have sat in front of his computer with the final manuscript and been happy with it, regardless of what his notes said. Alas, he didn't have the opportunity to change his mind, and Brandon wasn't in a position to make radical changes to the plotline, so....it is what it is.

 

If I were you, I would definitely keep reading at least through the next several books; you've invested a lot of time already, and you're right on the cusp of the best part of the series!

[Quiver he/him]

Thanks for the advice. I'm probably going to buy The Shadow Rising at least. I've been thinking of how to put this politely, but do the characters ever act as dumb as they do in the first trilogy?

As much as I loved Mats sections in TDR, I spent most of the second half of Eye of the World horrified that he was actually dumb enough to steal the knife, and Rand never pieced it together. I spent a day ranting about how off that seemed.

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

The female characters don't. They tug their braids and sniff at eachother the entire dang time. But whatever, you get used to it.

Everyone else though mostly start making changes for the better. But it does happen slowly, which makes sense because people don't just completely change over the course of 3 months or even a year. It takes a lot of time and pressure.

And if you liked Mat by the end of 3 (I agree he was pretty horrible in the first two books) then you'll love him very soon. Eventually his chapters were what kept me going for a while, just reading through everyone else to get to his POV. Trust me, you'll be rooting so hard for Matrim Cauthon by the end of book 6, and it just keeps getting better.

Everyone say books 7-11 get real slow, just depends on your view of "slow". Subplots, politics, and character development instead of just random battle scenes? I prefer the former, so I didn't really mind at all.

I say keep reading, you'll be surprised at where some things go. It's definitely worth the experience.
JOURNEY BEFORE DESTINATION

[DocHoliday he/him]

LoL I just ranted an another post about this.

Please read it.

Books 4, 5, +6 are some of the best in my opinion, though the series slows a bit after that.

In short it becomes more character driven, rather than plot driven (oppose the DO).

Lots of action. Lots more POV: this is how I feel about THIS new development.