I am both irritated by how escapist it is, with it's over-reliance on overwrought descriptions and details, and I've always struggled with a feeling that this series just doesn't matter and it was wasting its' readers time and many trees besides.

I'm honestly not sure what to think of "Wheel of Time". To me, it hovers somewhere near the "Twilight Saga" level of average-ness. "WoT", in all it's immensity, simply "is", because there are so many books. It would be like taking "Star Trek" as an entire series and trying to rate it - certain episodes are extremely good, others are horrible and many of the movies are fit only for throwing in the trash.

Now, I think the problem with many of the fans of "WoT" is that they can't easily perceive exactly why this series is so annoying to so many people. Everyone seems to have multiple friends who started out reading this, and then dropped it, so it really seems to be a reflection more on the type of reader that wants this type of story versus having the story good on its' own merits. There are quite honestly books in this series which are so horribly boring and wretched that fans themselves have to implore less-convinced readers to continue on because "it gets better in the next book!". I'm not sure if that is damning praise or good advertising.

I'm just not sure where it stands overall, but then again, I've always had an ambiguous relationship to the series. I was a fan of channeling and the channelers for quite a long time, but I wasn't as intrigued by the worldbuilding overall. I could recite lists of Amyrlin Seats, their Ajahs and other boring minutiae but as soon as blademasters started prancing around or Ogier's ears started twitching, I would get annoyed.

Perhaps the thing that Prof. Adams doesn't understand that this story is more about things about RJ's views of men, women and fantasy worlds and his love for those same things, and less about writing high literature/well-wrought fantasy? I will say that what probably gives this series its' popularity. I find that reading these stories tends to be less about how "good" they are, and more about being able to form connections with other people that are quite deep. As an Egwene "fan", for example, I'm surprised by how acute the reaction I get from other readers in real life can be. These aren't mild reactions, but real dislike, often from the gut. Maybe this is what triggers so much dislike in certain readers - there are certain elements of RJ's world you just might not believe in, and to have an entire imaginary universe hinge on these elements might just be too maddening for some.