So I went back and reread the entire 14 book series. I had not previously read some of the books towards the end of the series (they were still being written when I first picked up this series).

This story is unparallelled in how epic of a world has been created. Robert Jordan took so many characters, made so many subplots, story threads and subplots of subplots, it was almost impossible to keep the characters straight (and if I were to chart the progress of characters in the book, I could be nearly guaranteed to find that some characters names were just thrown around without respect to any backstory that was created for them.) But as I read it, I imagine him setting up a massive chess board with like a dozen 'players' or sides, and he was just laying down the pieces to set up amazing interactions down the line.

This read clearly as Robert Jordans life work. He literally died before he could complete it, and had acclaimed writer Sanderson come in to finish the series.

I have spent the last few days wondering how Brandon Sandersons interest in this series was influenced by his Mormon faith, and the strange relationship structure between Elayne, Aviendha, Min and Rand. Made me go "hmmmmmm."

I will say for those interested, its well worth a read, the series starts strong in the first 5-6 books, then slows down a lot to build out incredible detail of tertiary (or further out) subplots. The story progression slows to a crawl, where each book DOES contain some crucial main plot progression, but just at an excruciatingly slow pace towards the middle of the series. Once Jordan realized he wasn't going to be able to finish his Magnum Opus, the story again becomes riveting (by books 10 or 11). By the time Sanderson takes up the series - you are fully invested as you were when the series began, if not more so.

Exquisite work, well worth the 14,000 or whatever pages you end up reading - it takes a long time. Not even Tolstoy was able to write a story this long.