Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I found myself in two minds while reading New Spring. After waiting so long to reach the end of the series, it was annoying to find RJ has been working on a prequel instead!! At the same time, I liked reading about Moiraine and Siuan as Accepted and the testing for the shawl. Of course the final third of the book describing how Lan becomes Moiraine's warder is largely unchanged from the short story in Legends so that adds nothing new. There are flashes aplenty of the RJ we saw in the first 5 WOT books and I do wish he had spent more time on the Aiel war (yes, I know, the story has to start somewhere after all!) and perhaps some discussion between the Accepted on their preferred Ajah. I look forward to reading in the next two prequels of Siuan's ascent to the Amyrlin Seat and how the search for the Dragon shifts to the Two Rivers. Since the story clearly isn't moving forward very much, we may as well look back!!! Otherwise, my WOT cribs still apply. The clichéd mannerisms appear in full force and the same pathetic excuse for a map appears again, leaving the reader trying hard to precisely locate the action (the position of the Hook? East of the Erinin and Tar Valon of course, but beyond that, keep guessing). But that is OK. Since RJ is on his own trip and unconcerned about his readers, I now read his books through the County Library and decline to buy them. He has every right to write the way he likes, and I have the choice to buy, or not.