#12 The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (books 1-3)

I read the first book and I really liked it.  then I saw.. wait.. how damn many 700 - 800 page books are in this damn series?? about a dozen or so?  F that.  I need to make some progress here.  I can't commit a whole year to Robert freaking Jordan.  Wait.. what's that you say?? He DIED and someone else kept writing MORE books?  Youvegottabefreakinkiddingme..  ugh.  Some day RJ, some day...
That being said, these books are REALLY good!!

The Eye of the World is where it all begins.  Classic feel of the naive small town kids that will eventually end up reshaping the world. Rand AlThor is a shepherd. Matt is a joker. Perrin is a shy blacksmith. Egwene is Rand's girlfriend. Nynaeve is the young Wisdom (wise woman) of the village. Powerful Sorceress Moraine, of the Aes Sedai order, and her brooding Warder Lan show up just before the evil Trollocks start prowling near the village - all looking for the boy from the prophecy.
They escape and Rand inherits his father's magical sword. They are chased by a horde of baddies, but Moraine - though mistrusted by the kids - shows her power and fends them off. They meet Min, a girl of their own age that can sometimes see peoples futures. They meet the Princess Elayne - who can do magic herslef and has a crush on the hero Rand.  The meet an intellectual Oiger Loyal - who just might be my favorite character. They meet an old Bard, Thom, who travels with them to protect them as much from Moraine as the Trollocks. They find out that Lan is actually the heir to a kingdom - that lies in ruin and is overrun with enemies and exterminated of all humanity. Mat gets a cursed dagger.  Perrin learns how to talk to wolves. They all make some pretty powerful enemies and some pretty dangerous friends.
It is a HUGE setup with lots of threads that the ta'vern (people who have strong influence on the lives of those around them) are sure to knot up severely before all is said and done.

The Great Hunt went rather quick for its almost 700 pages.  All of the main characters are back and some cool new ones too. It is a classic quest.  Bad guys were broken out of the dungeon and stole a treasure. The Horn of Valere - which can summon long dead heroes to fight for you. There is a conventional overland chase that maintains a level of suspense while introducing you to the countryside and the history of the world. There are three separate travel segments thru magical mirror-worlds also.  Jordan really gets some great fantasy elements going.  There is a betrayal by one who was assumed to be a good guy (gal). Two heroes captured, two escape, and naturally are later rescued. Two parts where different characters are tempted by visions of their possible futures. An increasing of the innate powers of several heroes. And it all ends in an epic battle that still leaves many questions about what is next to come. And this is only book two!  

I do really like Jordan's casual equality of men and women. One of the most feared organizations in the land is all women.  The Aes Sedai are FAR more powerful that any male group because they have magic. Men so not have access to magic because it makes them insane. The MAIN main character is a male, but the women have their own story lines and really move the plot.
The Aes Sedai remind me a lot of the Bene Gesserit order from Frank Herbert's Dune.

p139 "Oh, very well. The best of mean are not buch better than housebroken." Nyaneve paused, and added half to herself, "But then, the best of them are worth the trouble of housebreaking." ... "Housebreak him?" [Egwene] muttered. "If her hasn't learned manners by this time I'll skin him alive."
"Sometimes that's what it takes." Niura said, walking quickly. "Men are never more than half-civilized until there wedded."   

p627 "but you had better do the best you can to make sure the rest of us aren't noticed either. If we are, you will surely be seen, and if that's not enough to hold you, I promise you i'll make you curse the first kiss your mother ever gave your father. Do we understand each other?"

The Dragon Reborn is a little slower than the first two installments, but no less good. Rand is starting to loose it and walks off to both keep the others safe from himself and to track down the magical sword he keeps dreaming of.  Perrin is trying to not go wolf crazy and is scared of what happens in his dreams too. The ladies take Mat to Tar Valon to cure him of the dagger sickness.
Egwene learns how to travel and fight in the dream world with the help of a powerful magic ring. The citizens of at least two major cities all start having the same bad dreams when their governments are taken over by disguised Forsaken. ..there is just a whole lot of dreaming going on.
Nynaeve, Egwene and Elayne have to face down numerous enemies in Tar Valon and in the wider world. It is clear that they are powerful, but are still really inexperienced. They do get Mat healed up and he proves that he, too, is a badass fighter. Still weak from being recently cured by the Aes Sedai, he kicks the crap out of two Warders-in-training with a quarterstaff. He does have help by a.. side effect?.. of the healing process giving him super duper luck. He wins at everything.
He hooks back up with good old Thom Merrilin again and they go to rescue the ladies when they find that there is a price on their heads. Jordan should just stop pretending that Thom is written out of the story.  I won't believe him gone now until we SEE him die. Even then, maybe not..

Over all, I am really liking this series. the books are long, but they read quick.  I'm totally hooked.

p57 " I knew an old Illaner woman, once," she said slowly. "When she was young, her mother arranged a marriage for her with a man she had never even met... she said she spent the first five years raging against him, and the next five scheming to make his life miserable without his knowing who was to blame.  It was only years later, she said, when hi died, that she realized he had really been the love of his life... Just because fate has chosen something different for you instead of you choosing it for yourself doesn't mean it has to be bad."

p214 "A man is the easiest animal to put on a leash, and the hardest to keep leashed."

p236 The owl blinked at her, and she jumped. "Ah yes, Verin said.. he keeps down mice.  They chew paper"   ** I NEVER PUT THAT TOGETHER BEFORE.  THIS IS WHY WIZARDS HAVE FAMILIARS!! **

p653 For a heartbeat that took centuries he hung, wavering, balanced on the brink of being scoured away like sand before a flash flood.