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Message: <blockquote data-quote="NewJeffCT" data-source="post: 6168637" data-attributes="member: 10784">Many years ago - some time in the early 90s, I'd guess - I started reading the Wheel of Time.  I really enjoyed The Eye of the World, and the subsequent books were good as well.  I'd never read such a massive series of books, and it was fantasy as well.  And, I liked the main characters - Rand, Mat, Perrin, as well as Nynaeve and Egwene.However, after books 4 or 5 or so, the next few books seems to really start dragging with seemingly minor plot lines hanging on for a book to a book and a half.  Some time around 1997 or 1998, I picked up A Song of Ice & Fire and was stunned by A Game of Thrones and the maturity level of the writing and the great plot twists in it, as I'd already gotten bored with a lot of the cliche story lines in much of fantasy literature.  So, I read the first three books of A Song of Ice & Fire and once 2001 hit, my life changed quite a bit - new job with crazy hours, marriage, fatherhood, and then another new job happened over the next several years.  Heck, I didn't even read A Feast for Crows when it came out - my limited reading was reading Dr. Seuss and other kiddie books to my daughter.  No time for anything for me.  Then, I heard that Jordan had passed away and I lamented that I'd never be able to see an end to that series.But, finally, I got back into reading around when my daughter was old enough to read Harry Potter, and then Martin finally put out A Dance with Dragons and I re-read the entire Ice & Fire series again (the Red Wedding was still gut wrenching the second time through 10 years later...) and then again.After my 3rd time through Ice & Fire, I needed new fantasy, which is when I had read the Brandon Sanderson had picked up the series from Jordan, with the blessings of Jordan's widow and with Jordan's notes.  So, I started the series again from book 1 and found myself enjoying the books from a more adult perspective this time around.  I plowed through Winter's Heart and Crossroads of Twilight (still a chore to get through) and Knife of Dreams (much better), and am now starting The Gathering Storm.  I think it will be a satisfying ending, but I have almost 3 whole books to finish it up.  Seems like a lot to wrap up in only 3 books, but it's obviously been done.If people get the chance, I'd also recommend the audiobooks - Michael Kramer (doing the male POV chapters) and Kate Reading (the female POV chapters) do a very good job overall on the audiobooks.  I like having a woman doing a woman's POV, which was a switch from the mainly single narrator audiobooks I've listened to before (the excellent Jim Dale doing the Harry Potter series, and the also excellent Roy Dotrice doing A Song of Ice & Fire)</blockquote>

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