This was a fantastic book.  The whole thing was packed with great action, unexpected plot twists, and moving scenes of valor and love.  I got choked up at a few points in the book when main characters died or something really lovely happened.  I also really liked the ending, and especially the subtle ways the final sequence with Rand plays out.

The series overall was grand, and I think too expansive in many ways.  The levels upon levels of complexity that were there seemed needless.  There were so many different alternate universes, ways to move between them, and things that were there that it seemed like he would just invent something because he needed a tool that fit the specific instance, but didn’t go much beyond that.  Despite the multiplicity of everything there was a nice stacking to it all.  The snakes and foxes was the furthest I think any of it was pushed, with some of the testing universes also pushing the envelope.  The characters did develop well over time, but seemed to be a little too at ease with everything that was happening.  He had stated that they should show a bit more reluctance than other books of the genre, but I’d say the reluctance didn’t show through as much as it should have.  This is especially true towards the end of the series.

This series is the second best I’ve read, only second to A Song of Ice and Fire.  I’d highly recommend reading all of these, but you will need to set aside a huge chunk of time to accomplish such a massive task.