Beyond that I was riveted. A little disappointed that it ended so quickly with that last trilogy, but when the author is dead... Not a lot you can do with that. I would have been happy with another six books! So many loose ends and possibilities left unanswered... boooo.
You could probably cut out a lot of the female story lines to make the whole series better. Elayne and Egwene about bored me to death sometimes. Doubly so in the Audible version since I didn't much like the narrator that read the female perspective sections.
Matrik was supposed to be loosely based on Matrim Cauthon, by far my favorite literary character to date. Perrin Aybara follows close behind. Hell, I liked damn near all of them (Elayne and Egwene should be deleted). Really, really enjoyed the characters in the books and that kept me quite interested, even if Jordan/Sanderson spend about 12 pages too long describing the Inn everyone just walked into.
Add to that some of the philosophical overtones that line up quite closely to my own worldview... It's a keeper.
Sportsmanship killed CF