>And there's Jordan's Wheel of Time, which has also come up. This is what >happens when you take a four-book series and stretch it out to three times >that length. With sniffling and much adjusting of necklines. In an act of extreme masochism, I just finished the latest book and, once again, VIRTUALLY NOTHING HAPPENED. What's interesting is going to Amazon and reading the five star reviews. Almost uniformly they either assert that it's a masterful "build up" of Great Things to Come (tm) and/or that everyone who complained is a whiner and a lousy reader who has been spoilt by our culture of instant gratification. I particularly love the reviews that contend that it's all about character development. I think of authors like Gene Wolfe who could fit twenty times as much character development into fifty pages. Okay... deep breaths. _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail