[Brys]

Yes - WoT could have been completed in 5 books without difficulty by a more competent writer. I usually enjoy description in novels - but Jordan is just so terrible at it, not to mention its complete irrelevance, that it makes from some truly painful reading in some of the later books (particularly Crossroads of Twilight). If it was important to the atmosphere, then fine - but I haven't read one descriptive passage in WoT which was very well written and added much to the atmosphere. I don't skip words - I judge authors by what they write, not by how I read. Reading a synopsis is a good idea for book 10 though - in fact, on the book-a-minute site, it's almost as informative as the book.