It’s surprising how many people feel that way, that the last few books were deathly slow. But I guess reading them all in a row they just feel like very long build-up chapters. Also I really am always happy to read chapters involving Mat or Egwene’s POVs. And I’ve been known to skim through Perrin chapters in the past. I also did read a review saying “this is the best book since The Shadow Rising,” and yeah — saying that Sanderson clears up a lot of loose ends (including who killed Asmodean), and so forth. So anyway, suffice to say that I’m looking forward to it. Although listening to it on audiobook will be a tad annoying.

As for the WoT, I was so close to abandoning the series after the last few train wrecks on paper that he published. However, despite doing exactly what I thought he was going to do- die before finishing the series – the change in authors was actually fantastic for the series. I won’t say more and risk spoiling it but the new guy made me enjoy the WoT in a way I thought I never would be able to again. Also, the new guy basically removed all of Jordan’s annoying quirks – like the contention that men and women are completely incomprehensible to each other – and made what I could only describe as a token reference as a tip of the hat to Jordan’s ghost. I think you will enjoy it a lot if you can survive reading the last few books.