Depends on what you are looking for.
If you are looking for fast paced action, fights and battles and such, it’s a bit slow.
If you are looking for world building and plotting and intrigue, then it certainly delivers there.
The plotting and intrigue would be good. But I think that sort of stuff falls under the ‘faster pace’ stuff because that sort of plotting advances the plot (no pun intended). But this whole it’s taking us forever to get to the next big city thing… eesh.
I’ve liked the Baelon, Shadar Logoth, Camelyn parts… the getting from here to there have been rough for me.
It’s been the better part of two decades since I read them, I do remember there being bits of slog to get through here and there, but they were mostly enjoyable.
It’s been a while since I’ve read them as well, but they’re not fast paced. I don’t know if it’s all slower from here on out, but the last book I read basically nothing of importance happened in the 900 or whatever pages (I think it was Crossroads of Twilight).
You need to be into the world building and mythology of it. I think I’m going to pick the series back up and finish it this time, but I think I might struggle as well.
Sometimes it can take an entire chapter for a character to dismount a horse, or so it seems.
A few years ago I read the entire series from start to finish. Once my expectations were set, the pace was fine. Things are going to be slow, it’s going to take awhile to get anywhere, plot threads might wait thousands of pages to be revisited, characters are defined by their perseveration and rumination, and you’ll keep meeting new ones along the way. I tend to be fairly forgiving of faults in the author’s style, as long as I generally like the books, so I put up with it, and it’s part of the atmosphere of the story.
In all, I think it’s a worthwhile read, but also a cautionary tale of what can happen when a writer marries his editor, and so all parts of the story remain.
I’ve taken two runs at this series and basically stalled out in Book 7 both times. Too many plot lines, some rando introduced at the beginning, I don’t care about Morgase…bah! I wonder if I should just pick up Book 8 and go forward.
Yeah and thinking there are a lot of books to go, and Books 7-10 (or so) get so slow crawl paced that fans of the series call it “the slog” make me wary.
I’ve gotten to where Moraine, Nyaneave, and Lan break Perrin and Egewene out from the Whitecloaks… there are only 200 pages to go and Camelyn and Tar Valon and the Eye to go… so I guess more will happen in a bit…
Trust me, 200 pages leaves plenty of room for descriptions of clothing and of Nynaeve pulling on her braid.
In later books the near obsessive amount of description of dresses was just weird.
I gave up at 7, too, originally. Just do what I did and skip forward to the last 3. You won’t miss anything important, and the Sanderson books are excellent.
Skip to the last 4. Knife of Dreams, the last one Jordan wrote, is excellent.
As for someone reading EotW and not being super impressed, I think the general consensus is:
-Book 1 isn’t great… too Tolkeinesque, a weird flashback section in the middle that doesn’t work great, various things that RJ didn’t really have sorted out yet, somewhat baffling ending
-Books 2 and 3 are much better. Books 1-3 together basically form an extended prologue for the entire series
-Books 4-6 are where the series really comes into its own, and becomes what hooked so many people so thoroughly. Book 4 is many people’s favorite.
-Books 7-9 slow down and spread out. Lots of character development and internal monologue, less action. Some people like them just fine. Some people REALLY hate them. Reactions vary. It’s certainly not unusual to get to book 7-8 and kind of lose steam
-Book 10 is the WORST. Most of the book is just a reaction to the (awesome) climax of book 9
-Book 11 is GREAT, total return to form from RJ.
-Books 12-14 (the Sanderson books) are exciting and readable. A small minority is pretty scornful of them, viewing them as glorified fan fiction. Most people (including me) wish that RJ had gotten to finish the series (at least after reading book 11 we did) but books 12-14 are as good as we could realistically have hoped for, and have a number of wonderful moments.
Yeah, that’s what I heard. Book 1 is meh and you kind of just have to get through it. I figure I will try Book 2 and see how much farther I want to go (after all, these aren’t short works!)
Lots of new characters introduced. Lost and lots of new plot threads. It’s no wonder he ended up with a book that just ground to a halt (10).
This is when it lost me for like a decade.
“The Slog” is the main reason I’m waiting until the TV series is over before I even start on the book series. After reading this thread and hearing my friend Irish Storyteller bitch about the changes from book to show, I prefer to have no expectations.
I do wish cell phone cameras existed when Irish Storyteller went off on his epic 45-minute rant about Winter’s Heart. It was a thing of beauty to be treasured forever.
Are we certain the Robert Jordan himself isn’t a Ogier? (I finally have gotten to the point where they get out of The Ways)
The trailer for season two has dropped, and it starts on September 1. I watched this trailer, it’s been so long since I saw the show I don’t recognize a damn thing other than the characters. Did they have a fight like in a well or cistern where the bad guy kind of evaporated?
I would love to see an Eternal Champion series. God knows they could milk that for a decade.
My wife and I are going to re-watch the entire first season. This show is essentially doomed since they waited an ETERNITY to put out the next season. It has a season 3 coming, but I can’t see it going further.
Wasn’t that the end of the final episode?
If there was an Elric series, people would probably accuse them of ripping off The Witcher. 
First 3 episodes of season 2 are now available. The consensus opinion (with which I agree) is that it’s a pretty massive improvement over season 1, in just about every way.
Some highlights (book spoilers potentially abound):
-Pretty much everything about the Seanchan
-Elayne, just spot-on
-Lliandrin, a really interesting character rather than being a one-note villain
-Pretty much everything in the tower in general, particularly Nynaeve’s accepted test
Some interesting but understandable choices:
-Merging Verin and Vandean
-Merging Elyas and Hurin
-Rand meeting Selene out in the real world
Really, the only thing I’m pretty down on so far is the Moiraine/Lan conflict, which seems forced and pointless.
But, still, overall, big thumbs up, can’t wait for more.