Rating: 
Summary: A little bit dissapointing...
Review: This book is quite nice, but I had higher expectations... There are few new facts. The artwork is really bad :(, Jordan should have asked Larry Elmore (Dragonlance Artwork) for the pictures...
Rating: 
Summary: it can't get much worse
Review: As a WOT fan, I have always been used to the high standards that Mr. Jordan has kept up throughout his series. I was sadly disappointed by this book. The sheer lack of proper punctuation and spelling shows this book was thrown together hastily and in a ramshackle manner. Artwork is not impressive at all and colors are not consistent with the WOT book's descriptions. Your hard-earned money should be spent on something else. You are better off to figure it out yourself, leaving in the true element, fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: terrible, just awful.
Review: I feel sorry for anyone that spent their hard earned money on this book. I first browsed through it on the day it was release (yes, that is how excited I was to get my hands on it) and words can not express my disappointment. The artwork is terrible and the text is neither fresh nor revealing. I decided to come back at a later date to look at the book again (just in case my disappointment was just part of a letdown from waiting so long for it to be published). Alas, the book really is awful and is a sorry representation of such a fine series. If Tor or Mr. Jordan were hoping to use the book as a marketing tool to entice new readers to start the WoT series I am afraid they have failed miserabley. I own the entire series in hard cover- first editions but, I choose to act as if this particular book was never published. I expected more from Mr. Jordan. I hope his next book - "A Path of Daggers" is not as disappointing as this one was.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is pretty good but sort of dissapointing.
Review: I got this book as a Christmas gift so the high price didn't bother me.So one major complaint is not valid in my case.The pictures are of varying quality,from a deadly Aiel to a gruesome and insulting Lan.(He dosen't even look human!) There were many typos and mistakes(E.G Mayene's banner,the color of Moiraine's and Lanfear's eyes)and it didn't satisfy my thirst for new information.Of course I still liked it,it is all the information cumulated in one book.But it seemed slapped togather at the last moment to make a quick buck.I hope "A Path of Daggers" will be up to your usual standard,Mr.Jordan,becuase this book was not.
Rating: 
Summary: An essential book for any Wheel of Time fan!
Review: I loved it! The background really brought everything to a new understand for me.
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this compendium of trash.
Review:
I know we're really not supposed to address points raised by other reviews, but I can't help myself. Rhuarc from Brooklyn, you said "got a question that's not answered? Join a newsgroup!" And "Wanna see real art? Look it up on the 'net!" All of which begs the question, if you found this book so lacking that you would have to use outside sources, how the hell could you possibly give it a nine? If the book is so devoid of useful information that you'd need to join a discussion group, and the pictures are so lackluster that you recommend looking up the fan-art on the net, what's the point of buying the book?!?!? This book is on the expensive side. For close to fifty dollars, I was hoping for a handsome volume of attractive and well executed pictures, reasonably anatomically correct, and more or less faithful to the descriptions given over and over again in the series and some lovely maps. None of which is here. I was hoping for in-depth facts regarding the culture of the various nations of RJ's world. What they bother to provide is shallow and silly. There are far more expansive and comprehensive archives of information available on the 'net. As far as I can tell, with respects to new information, all there was were some rather inane little factoids about the Forsaken, some poorly imagined descriptions of the Age of Legends and some information regarding the Seanchan and a little blurb about Shara. But it all reads like a children's story, and not all in keeping with tone of the series. Moreover, I really don't think that for that scant bit of simplistic information, the book was worth paying in excess of forty dollars. Rhuarc, you're right. There are far better resources available on the 'net, both in terms of quanitity and quality, created and compiled by folks that care about and enjoy the series. And more importantly, they are _free_. The message further down from the reviewer in New York is correct. We cannot reward such sloppy and insubstantial work with our money. We should hold RJ's feet to the fire and make him deliver quality in exchange for our patience and our money. As for the reviewer who was grateful to Tor for making the effort (ha! looks like no effort was involved at all) to publish this guide, I'll bet they're a thousand times more grateful to see that people will shell out their hard earned money for anything remotely related to WOT.
Well, I guess I've been up on this soapbox long enough. All I can say, you people must be starved for quality if you think this "guide" is anything close to what this series so richly deserves.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book to fill in the gaps
Review: Have you read the books yet? If you haven't then this book is useless to you But if you've read most of the series so far then this is the book for you. Ever wondered what the Age of Legends were like or what the flags of the nations looked like? Have you ever wanted to know more about the Bore or the Aiel, well its all in here for you.
It serves as a reference book an fill in many of the details that were fleetingly mentioned in the book, but not elaborated on. If you love the series and want to know more about customs etc of the World of the wheel of time then I strongly recommend it.
And yes, the pictures do suck. Lan's face is bigger than Moraine's body, but the content is excellent. Remember the old saying? "Don't judge a book by its cover (or its pictures in this case)."
Ususally I'd just give Robert Jordan a rating of 10 on all his wheel of time books, but b/c of the pictures, the book deserves a 9.5.
Rating:
Summary: A history lesson
Review: For those of you who did not like this book because of typos, and rehashed information, you do not truely understand what it is. It is a history book, written for the people of world of The Wheel of Time. Of course some information will be inacurate for the 'author' of the book doesn't know everything. He is just using his sources to the best of his ability. it has ever been thus in Jordan's books. Each character can only know the information he has access to. Now as for the information in the book. It gives us a clearer veiw of the characters, their personal history, and the world they came from. we now have a better understanding, of historical events, that were only hinted at in the novels. The only drawback to this book, is the artwork. inaccuracies aside. It was very bad drawing. In most cases you could put just about any name under the drawings, and it would not have made a difference. All in all, a good book. Not up to the series, but what is.
Rating:
Summary: An informative and entertaining dive into Jordan's world.
Review: This book answered all of the questions gnawing at me concerning The World of the Wheel. A pleasure to read, and the pictures are fantastic. If you plan to read the series, or have already read it, this book is essential!
Rating:
Summary: Not all that bad, but way below expectations.
Review: I suppose this book is not all that bad, but as I am a WOT lover(finsished reading the 7 books for the 2nd time) I cannot but compare and expect nothing less superb than the WOT itself. Stop throwing us crums and let us dive into the cake....BOOK 8!
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