LetMeEatCake

Malazan is one half of my answer here. Though I did like it. I just expected to love it, especially early on. My disappointment was immense in going from thinking it was one of the best series I'd read to thinking it just barely was enjoyable enough for me to be glad I read it.

The series started off so strong for me. I loved the first four books, book five lost me with it meandering off entirely. Then book six won me back. Books 7-10 were an absolute struggle for me. I barely finished the last two books and have no interest in returning to the world with the side books that exist.

For my tastes, Erikson dialed up the philosophical and sadistic elements way too much in the latter half of the series. I think if books 1-4 and 6 were released as a stand alone set of five, with the rest not existing, it would have been one of my favorite book series of all time.

Also I'm still annoyed that the whole Silverfox plot just... completely disappeared. Such a monumentally important character and she just suddenly ceases to exist in the story.

I think the wordiness of WoT is the foundation for many of its strengths. The series shines IMO on (1) character and plot progression being organic and large in scope, without having clearly demarcated points where everything jumps forward a huge amount, (2) depth of world building and extent of characters, with an especially large cast that are decently fleshed out and (3) foreshadowing being carefully placed throughout the series as a nice treat for anyone that liked it enough to re-read it.

The volume of words helps to make all of those possible. In particular (3), as details can be hidden in just the volume of text that already exists without it jumping out at the reader.

None of that is to say you're wrong for disliking it explicitly for that! Sometimes we dislike things for the same reason someone else likes it, or vice versa. I just wanted to chime in with some contrary thoughts to maybe put that wordiness under a different perspective.

Last I saw he was projecting late 2024, if I remember right.

This is my answer to the topic question too. I read books 1 and 2 as they came out and I'd need to re-read everything from start to finish to properly get back into the series. I've been waiting for the release of book 5 to be close before I start that re-read. Assuming no further delays, I can start next summer.

Wheel of Time is by far my favorite book series.

Since the series takes place over so many books, character growth is fantastically more organic than typical. Characters change as people and grow (or shrink) in power and it just works so much better than in a shorter series. The foreshadowing the best done in any story I've experienced yet: there's so many little details hidden away, little winks or nods to people that know are just buried everywhere. It's the only book series that I liked more on a re-read than on my first read; I liked read #3 more than the one before it, and the 4th (and most recent) was my favorite yet...

It's not without it's flaws, many of which I (and most fans) will acknowledge. But damn if it's not my favorite by a mile.

I don't know what your "reading stamina" is but if you can handle a lot of books and a lot of words, it's not a bad series for newer readers. The early books take care to ease the reader into the setting and even fantasy books in general. Book 1 in particular is written to intentionally evocative of LOTR before letting the series fully become it's own thing shortly afterwards. Sanderson was heavily influenced by WoT as well, and Mistborn is the book that got him the job of finishing WoT after RJ's premature death.

I just finished The Blade Itself last week. I really liked it! Going to dive into the rest of the trilogy (and the other books after) soon.

Logen is a fun character. One thing I noticed that I feel Abercrombie does particularly well is the reading tone, style, and just general flow changes by a fair amount depending on who the POV character is. It made me think about it in other books and I concluded it's something I haven't given other authors enough credit for doing too... Abercrombie did a particularly good job at it.

It's almost certainly just a case of me not being far enough into the books yet, but I only really felt like Glotka and his surrounding details was particularly dark.

Think it might end up my favorite series of the year, at least.