Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but unsatisfying.
Review: This book, which reads like a stalling tactic on the part of Mr. Jordan's publishers, is too meager in fresh insights to warrant its' hefty price or even its' existence. The illustrations are largely unimaginative, and much of the contained information has been presented in much more effective settings. Despite this, a fan of the author does not come away wholly unsatisfied. Some of the details of the Age of Legends are juicy, especially the descriptions of the Forsaken. Unfortunately, the rest would already be familiar to anyone who would be remotely interested in this book. As a casual fan I hoped for a lot more from this volume.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent background info on the entire WOT series.
Review: This book provides a lot of background info on the entire WOT series. You do find out some of the material in the later books of the series, but it's a good companion to reading the books. I was a little disappointed with the artwork, though. When reading the novels, I formulated pictures of what the characters look like and none of these pictures did them any justice. The information presented in this book though is very comprehensive and doesn't interfere with what is read in any of the seven novels. If you're a real RJ Fan, this is a must read, even though the artwork could be redone.
Rating:
Summary: The artwork frightened me.
Review: Okay...When I first heard that this 'illustrated guide' was coming out, I got excited. Yet another way for me to satisfy my Jordan obsession. I eagerly stood by bookstores as they hauled in those pristine white editions (some bound in plastic!) and shivered as finally were set down on the shelves, waiting to be sold. Then I opened the book. Okay, I'm being a little hard on the artist. I understand that it is a little difficult to meet some of the grand expectations that WOT fans have. And I do admit that many of the background sketches/paintings were really nice. However, many of the character sketches were indeed 'amateurish' (as some other reviewer had noted). It is disturbing when you see your favorite character looking like some kind of horse or ogre (especially if your fav chars are not Bela or Loial). In short, if more care was given in selecting an artist, the WoT Illustrated Guide would be greatly improved.
Rating: 
Summary: Some say the book is terrible, but it served its purpose.
Review: Many choose to critisize this book saying the text is general, the typos are many, and the information is the same that you find in the series. As to the typos: it's a first edition! expect typos; that's why people buy first editions. Also, if the text got anymore specific, can you imagine how long this book would be? Some of the information is new and can't be found in the regular series, but most can. Of course! This book wasn't written to give us spoilers; it's a compilation of all the odd facts presented in the books and a useful reference. If a person buys it expecting otherwise they'll be disappointed, but for what it is, it's great! I will conceed that many of the pictures are inaccurate, but no more so than those of the book jackets, and as far as I'm concerned a few (not very many) do seem to be accurate. Overall, it is a good reference and did answer some questions I had about the series. I knew what I was buying beforehand, and it lived up to my expectations.
Rating:
Summary: The Book Was OK
Review: I know that to a lot of you this was a disappointment but I liked it. I will admit, most of the information was just the stuff from the books in the series, but I think it was good, because when I got confused about something in the WoT books I could just flip to a page in this book, instead of searching through the pages in the other books. The Artwork was not as good as I thought it should be (kind of like the artwork in The Dragonlover's guide to Pern) but I think the information was worth it. I thought that the section on the Sea Folk and The Seanchan and the Shara was very good, it had great information. This book was worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: Dissapointingly low quality
Review: I have read all of the books currently avaliable in the Wheel of Time and, although - sometimes - Jordan's writing is not brilliant, it is a whole lot better than this. The style of writing adopted for the book is rather simple, as if the people who were to read it would not have already read most of the series (unlikely, I think). The information about the Age of Legends was new and interesting, but almost everything after was just taken striaght from the books, with no new insights added. The artwork was of fairly naff quality, and apparently the aritist did not bother to read the books: Verin's hair is supposed to have grey streaks, amongst other things. All in all, this was of a very poor quality and - since they'll probably write another one at the end of the series - I'm extremly pleased I made my Dad pay for it!
Rating: 
Summary: A great disappointment
Review: I am a fan of Jordans, the Wheel of Time series is a rollicking good read. This is not. Fortunately I decided to look through it, before parting with my hard-earned. My overall impression is of a pot-boiler, cobbled together in a hurry, to cash in while we readers drum our figurative fingers, waiting for the next book from Jordan's busy pen. The text is sketchy, the graphics are decidedly amateurish, and the content is slim. My considered opinion is that this is a fanzine with pretensions of being a coffee table ornament. Don't buy it, borrow somebody else's.
Rating:
Summary: I've never read this book, but...
Review: I know that typographical errors are annoyingand you keep saying its not up to Jordan's level. Hello! Have ever read this series? He screws up all the time. I don't know how many times he's mixed up saidin and saidar. It's annoying, but you live with it because the series KICKS!!! The net is a far cheaper, better source so use it instead. As for pictures, no one envisions exactly the same thing, so you'll probably never be satisfied, I'm not.
Rating: 
Summary: Unknown facts.
Review: In general I liked the content of this book. Some things of interest I heard at a con: The typos did not exist in the original manuscript. They are mostly the work of bad copy-editing. Apparently R J did not have time to re-check the galleys (proofs). Also, there were originaly at least 5 short stories written for this book, including the one on line at TOR. They were all cut to keep the price down. The artist also claims to have done the drawings while sitting in R J's living room so they could be approved. I think something must have happened in the translation or in the color finishing to make them so bad after all that.
Rating:
Summary: Be careful about what you expect to get from this book...
Review: The content...
This book has really no new important information that hasn't been given already in the series. Unlike other reviewers, I expected and agreed with this focus. I wanted something that tied together all of the facts, some of which were spread over so much distance that they seemed almost trivial until placed together.
The artwork...
Pretty bad, but that could just be me. I imagined the various characters certain ways, and to have them drawn "officially" so different is disappointing. About the style however... well, I am no artist and can't really criticize that. I don't think that the artist was given enough of a description of various characters to create "true" pictures of them... there are too many inconsistencies.
The author...
Who wrote this anyway? I see two names on the cover, but only RJ is getting any blame. I doubt that he had the time to write all of this book. I think that it is mostly Patterson's work and RJ should be left alone. So should Patterson - the approach is not all that bad, and as for the typos and contradictions... well, they appear in the series too.
The conclusion...
All in all, a good book - about what I expected. Unfortunately, my lasting impression of this book is that it came too soon. There are books left in the series yet, which means another guide at the end. This book winds up being either a token gesture to the readers while Path of Daggers is written, or, with its high price, just a money grab.
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