Rating: 
Summary: The artwork absolutely ruins this book
Review: I can't believe I bought this book. The artwork is SO bad, that I can't even open the book just to read it. Did they hire a 3-year-old to do the art? What was Robert Jordan thinking???
I've seen better looking artwork at the bottom of a toilet bowl!
This review was only meant to cover the pictures in the book and not the written word...
If you could get over the bad art, and you're a huge Jordan fan, you might like this book.
Rating: 
Summary: right thing wrong time
Review: Great marketing idea that has been done before on hugely successful fantasy series. Even more information to feed to the die hard fanatics of this is series of books. But the problem still remains that it is not furthering the series at all. It is in fact slowing it down, the author is rereleasing his earlier books and doing prequil books before finnishing the story at hand. I personally love this story but either Mr. Jordan is milking this for all its worth or he has a serious case of A.D.D.
Rating:
Summary: An Ok History Book
Review: This is a nice, big illustrated coffee-table book that gives background on Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time fantasy series.
It's not that bad. However, since the series is ongoing, it doesn't focus on characters or plot details, so it aint much help in clearing up questions about the series. The most revealing thing you'll get is the occasional picture of a main character. Instead, the book heavily focuses on providing a history of the fantasy world depicted in the series. In this regard, the book breaks new ground by covering the events before and after the Breaking of the World, pictures of the Seanchan creatures, and hints of what other lands (Sea Folk islands, Shara, Isle of the Madmen) are like. There is also a rather nice section on the Forsaken and Shadow creatures.The major flaw of the book is that the history can get pretty boring at times. There's a lot of unnecessary repetition and political history. The book doesn't just focus on the political background of kingdoms such as Andor and Illian, but on the long-forgotten kingdoms that preceded them as well. This attempt to make the land more complex just falls flat. Mantheron, once hailed as a mythic empire, is shown just to be one of dozens of tiny blobs on a map. Even more annoying, while the maps show dozens of lost kingdoms, Malkier is missing in action. Malkier was supposed to have been claimed by the Blight. Yet every map in the book dating back to the Breaking of the World shows the Blight as unchanged. Unless it was a tiny dot the size of Mayene you would think a kingdom that was supposed to intrude up into the Blight would show up. All in all, despite its flaws, the book is ok. If you're a die-hard Wheel of Time then go for it. But if you're just a casual fan, or are looking for answers to plot details about the series, then don't bother with it. At most, you can pick it up and glance at the pretty pictures while killing time in a bookstore or library.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good All Around
Review: Not bad really. The pictures were awful though! The artist must have never read the books at all! If you've read or seen the Wheel of Time Roleplaying book, the pictures are much better there.
Stuff on the Seanchan and Shara weren't bad, but most of the stuff thru the book was pretty vague, like Jordan didn't want to reveal anything. Which makes sense considering this book came out only when Jordan's 7th in the series was out. A lot has happened since then.
But basically, everything in the book you could get from the series, if you just read it carefully. It's a good companion book for extra history and details, but it could've been better with more maps, better pictures, and more history and details. Don't buy it unless you're a hardcore fan.
Rating: 
Summary: Good!
Review: For those who liked the Silmarillion best of all Tolkein's works- who really enjoy history and geography, even if it's fictional, this is an excellent work. Jordan provides the history, culture, philosophy, xenology, and geography to his world, with many extra bonuses that you won't find (yet) in any of the novels. For a series that has dragged on way too long, with some 7,000 pages, it is really hard to keep track of who is doing what, and who is who. This very encompassing work gives you the background you need to remember whenever that new Jordan novel comes out. And it is amazing to discover secret tidbits that you can't find anywhere else, like a large continent to the South of the main two, populated by madmen, where the anarchy and lasse faire attitudes towards the One Power rain supreme. You got to check out this book to find out more about this place, and many others.
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