I started reading the Wheel of Time series back in the 90s when I was in junior high or high school, and alongside Tolkien and the Shannara series and every other version of rural-boy-makes-good fantasy that I could find, it was one of my favorites. Of course, the story grew in the telling, and what was supposed to be a trilogy (in the old fantasy tradition) became a sprawling epic with 10+ volumes, each of which was three times longer than any normal book had a right to be. 
 At the same time, I was growing older, and though my love of fantasy narrowly survived a bachelor's degree in English, my tastes did mature, and Rand al'Thor and his adventures started to seem a bit juvenile, such that I barely noticed when Jordan passed in 2007. When Brandon Sanderson was tapped to finish the series, my reaction was basically two shrugs: one for not knowing who Sanderson was and another for not caring that much how the series was going to end. 
 And yet... and yet. I did, at some point, pick up some of the later volumes when I found them on clearance or in a used bookstore, because a part of me assumed that, given how much time I'd invested in the series over the years (and to be fair, I've read some of the volumes at least three times by now), I would some day read the new books and see how it all ended. 
 And in the meantime, I've read quite a few of Sanderson's books, and if they aren't my all-time favorites (they aren't), they're at least very good. So it came to pass that I was facing several long drives and decided I needed a book or two to read, and it happened that our local libraries had the books available for download. So I have finally begun to "read" the conclusion of this landmark fantasy series. 
 And I have to say, Sanderson seems to have done a very good job of bringing everything together and getting it on track. The common criticism of the series is that Jordan lost control of the sprawl: trying to follow so many different characters, we'd have an 800-page book where almost nothing happened as each story line crept forward incrementally. I'm pleased to see that Sanderson has largely overcome that fault, giving us a sense of forward momentum even as we touch on our cast of thousands. Rand's and Egwene's storylines stood out as the ones in which both the most happened and the characters were most forcefully drawn. Matt and Perrin get some screen time and some minor character development, but Rand and Egwene were the stars of the show, and that's not a bad thing. Rand got things done, but he also moved forward as a character, both developing the coldness he needs to fight and beginning to realize the humanity that still needs to underlie it; Egwene, despite imprisonment, takes control of her destiny and develops into the leader she needs to be. 
 Having read Sanderson, I can both see why he's a good fit for this but also the ways in which he seems to have consciously adopted some of the tropes (and perhaps occasionally given a sly wink to some of the ones Jordan himself overdid) of the original series in a way that helps make it feel like one continuous piece with what has come before. 
 I still feel like I've outgrown this series in a lot of ways, and this will never again be a series that I obsess over, but Sanderson has pulled me back in to care about some of these characters and their story, and I expect I'll see this through to the Last Battle.