[the smiling weirwood]

I never seemed to get to the cyclic history part of WoT that so intrigued me to begin with...

There is history, but it didn't seem cyclic or even very coherent. I managed to trudge through for the sake of my completism.

I totally agree with you that old guy! My thoughts on Erikson exactly.

I would like to see someone defend The Sword of Truth series and Goodkind. That would be amusing. I heard they're making a movie out of it.